March 5, 2017

Kenneth Lonergan Pens Op-Ed Defending Casey Affleck in College Newspaper

After winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay last week, “Manchester by the Sea” writer/director Kenneth Lonergan is now at work on a miniseries adaptation of “Howards End.” If you don’t want to wait that long to read something by the acclaimed scribe, there’s always the op-ed he just wrote for the Wesleyan Argus condemning an earlier piece about himself and “Manchester” star Casey Affleck.

READ MORE: Casey Affleck Addresses Sexual Harassment Allegations After Oscar Win

Affleck, who was accused of sexual harassment in 2010, denied the allegations and later settled a civil lawsuit out of court. The recent Argus article written by one Connor Aberle argued that Lonergan (who attended Wesleyan before transferring to NYU) has become “complicit” in Affleck’s alleged actions and that the university itself, which had been promoting Lonergan’s success, likewise shares in the blame for “the success of a perpetrator of sexual violence.”

Lonergan didn’t take kindly to that, writing that the article was “such a tangle of illogic, misinformation and flat-out slander that only the author’s presumed youth can possibly excuse his deeply offensive display of ignorance, and warped PC-fueled sense of indignation.”

READ MORE: Kenneth Lonergan on the Quiet Extremes of ‘Manchester by the Sea’: Awards Spotlight

“Somebody as interested in actual as opposed to merely vocalized social justice as Mr Aberle presumably is, should unwind his tangled, immoral chain of reasoning and start over at the fundamental precept that an allegation is not an indictment,” continues the filmmaker. “Nor can it be treated as such by any ethical person living in a democratic society supposedly based on the rule of law.” Read the entire scathing op-ed here.

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Source: IndieWire film