Powerful Hollywood women made it perfectly clear that Time's Up when they united to help everyday working women fight harassment and abuse. Last week, an all-women coalition of 300 prominent actors, agents, writers, producers, directors and entertainment executives released an open letter outlining their strategy to fight systemic sexual harassment in Hollywood and in blue-collar workplaces nationwide.
Part of that strategy includes wearing black during tonight's 2018 Golden Globe Awards to raise awareness. Some actresses are taking that effort a step further tonight by inviting activists to accompany them to the ceremony. According to The New York Times, Tarana Burke — founder of the #MeToo movement — will accompany actor Michelle Williams to the awards ceremony. Seven other activists in different fields will also be present with Hollywood stars in an effort to extend the focus on sexual harassment to women marginalized because of race, class, ethnicity or sexuality.
"This is something that I started out of necessity, as something I thought my community needed, and it's grown over the years," Burke said on the red carpet. "But I never could envision it growing like this. This moment is so powerful because we're seeing a collaboration between these two words that people don't usually put together, and would most likely have us pitted against each other. So it's really powerful to be on the red carpet tonight and for people like Michelle to be selfless enough to give up their time so we can talk about our causes."
Other activists who were invited as a plus-one by actors include:
– Rosa Clemente, an African-Latinx political commentator, community organizer, independent journalist and 2008 Green Party Vice-Presidential candidate (attending with Susan Sarandon).
– Marai Larasi, the executive director of Imkaan — a British network of organizations that work together to end violence against black and minority women (attending with Emma Watson).
– Ai-jen Poo, who organizes immigrant worker women and is the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (attending with Meryl Streep).
– Mónica Ramírez, who fights sexual violence against farmworkers and encourages Latina empowerment (attending with Laura Dern).
– Calina Lawrence, a Suquamish tribe member, singer and activist for Native American treaty and water rights (attending with Shailene Woodley).
– Saru Jayaraman, a workplace justice advocate for restaurant workers (attending with Amy Poehler).
– Billy Jean King, the tennis champion who founded the Women’s Tennis Association (attending with Emma Stone, who portrays King in the film "Battle of the Sexes."
E!'s red carpet coverage made a major effort to strike a balance between celebration and recognizing the importance of the Time's Up movement. A number of female and male actors and entertainers showed up in black to raise awareness, and instead of asking who they're wearing, hosts Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Rancic asked the stars why they decided to wear black and stand with the women of Time's Up.
