I was recently reading an article in Entertainment Weekly about how silent film comic Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was charged with the rape and manslaughter of fashion designer Virginia Rappe. He was eventually acquitted but his career was wrecked. His scandal was the first of many in the twenties that led to the establishment of the Motion Picture Production Code. Article author Maureen Lee Lenker wisely noted the multiple trials as the point when the illusion was shattered that Hollywood was "an idealized dream factory…exposing what the press portrayed as Hollywood's lurid depravity.

We're certainly going through another exposé of what's lied beneath the shiny surface of celebrity and entertainment with the recent spate of #MeToo career takedowns and criminal charges. Bill Cosby seems to be the "Fatty" Arbuckle of this go-round, kick-starting conversations about sexual assault and harassment that led to women sharing uncomfortable stories they kept bottled up too long. The wake of Cosby saw public shame and career decimation come to the likes of Louis CK, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Les Moonves, Mario Batali and, unfortunately, many, many more.

These figures were largely cast aside by their bosses (NBC, CBS and SONY, to name a few). Widely employing a no tolerance policy is the safe way to go. If there's enough evidence and testimony to incriminate one of your employees, a nationally-known brand such as NBC is probably doing the right thing distancing themselves.

Can you watch Best Picture winner Shakespeare in Love, knowing that Harvey Weinstein is accused of multiple counts of rape? Can you watch Glengarry Glen Ross with Kevin Spacey, knowing the accounts of sexual assault that surround him now? Also, after Spacey's charge, many other stories of his on-set behavior came to light, but the civil and criminal charges have been dropped? There's a lot going on there when you're just trying to watch Baby Driver.

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What, you want an answer? Art is personal and separating the art and the artist should also be personal. Any blanket statement that covers how we should behave when an actor/writer/musician/etc. we love gets into legal or moral hot water discounts a lot. In a nutshell, I can do it, but I'd be a dummy to think I know enough to encourage you to do the same.

I grew up a Harrison Ford guy. Still am. But one actor's body of work slowly grew to a size and high quality consistency to match Ford as I simultaneously grew into a bigger and bigger movie fan – Mel Gibson. His run of '90s hits and award winners impressed the hell out of me and even in questionable movies, his performances were outstanding. Think of Signs, an entertaining sci-fi movie that may drum up too many frustrating questions. In the middle of it, there's a scene where Gibson gets one final moment with his wife, pinned against a tree by a car, before she dies. It's a scene flooded with feeling and you have to wonder where Gibson draws the unbridled, scary emotion to pull off that pain so authentically.

It's troubling to be a fan once you know of Gibson's demons – alcoholism, anger, racism, homophobia. To support his comeback would seemingly be in support of the emotional and physical abuse of his wife and the verbal assault he's spewed on police officers (etc.).

Or, is it just a movie and who cares what he's done personally? That's a totally separate thing.

Or, if it's his success in this industry that lead him to a life of privilege, allowing him to behave callously, then enabling his art sounds like a bad idea?

Or, when he's apologized in the past, should we listen? Not accepting an apology would be giving permission for more bad behavior.

And, of course, none of this means that Braveheart is suddenly a bad movie.

This was my struggle! For me, I go with Black Widow. Yes, the great Natasha Romanoff of The Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes. In Endgame, she was confronted with watching her friend Clint Barton go rogue and become more REvenger than Avenger, killing criminals in quick and unceremonious fashion. Embarrassed by what he's become, Clint feels he's beyond redemption, saying he doesn't want his life saved, "You know what I've done. You know what I've become." Natasha's response: "I don't judge people on their worst mistakes."

But even with this caveat to my fandom, I'm still talking about the person. Quick side note, and I know people who do this, if you're sitting around your house bad-talking celebrities as if you can't with them anymore, there might be something else you need to be doing. From celebrity break-ups that don't go well to drunken nights on the town…these people aren't your friends.

So, even judging someone on their worst mistakes is altering my perception of the person. A person I don't really know. With that, I can separately evaluate the work.

And it has to be a case-by-case basis. There are some crimes so despicable, I don't want any part of the person. I made the call. You make your own call, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If it's the scope of the crime, then that's your thing. Brian Williams seemed to have easily survived lying, yet Bryan Singer's film, Bohemian Rhapsody, won four Oscars after much more serious accusations (misconduct with a minor). Multiple sexual harassment claims can even get you voted President, so again, make your own call, but prepare for it not to be popular. That's why it's best kept personal.

Now, about O.J….well, that's a separate article…

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