Gold Statue of Harvey Weinstein ‘Casting Couch’ Appears in Hollywood Ahead of Oscars

Street artist Plastic Jesus’s annual pre-Oscars installment takes aim at the “casting couch”

Harvey Weinstein statue
Plastic Jesus

A gold statue of Harvey Weinstein sitting atop his “casting couch” has been placed on Hollywood Boulevard ahead of the Oscars on Sunday night.

The statue depicts a life-sized version of the disgraced producer in pajama bottoms and a bathroom, holding a tiny Oscar statuette in his lap. It is the work of street artist Plastic Jesus and Joshua “Ginger” Monroe, the man behind the naked statues of Donald Trump erected around the country during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The statue is Plastic Jesus’s annual pre-Oscars installment in Hollywood, often critiquing the awards show or Hollywood more broadly.

Previous installments have included a version of the Oscars statuette injecting heroine following the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, a female version of the statuette as a stripper and a depiction of Kanye West in a crucified pose.

For his 2018 installment, the artist was inspired by the last year’s torrent of sexual assault, harassment and rape allegations against dozens of powerful men in Hollywood, including Oscars mainstay Harvey Weinstein.

“There’s so much about Hollywood that’s great and celebrated in the Oscars, but there’s also this underbelly of darkness within the industry that we often sweep under the carpet or ignore,” the street artist told the Associated Press.

“For many, many people, aspiring actors and actresses, that would have been their dream to be close to Harvey.”

Hollywood was also struck by a “Three Billboards”-style protest earlier this week, when street artist Sabo hijacked advertisements along Hollywood Boulevard to call out alleged pedophilia and child abuse within the industry.

Comments