| Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek at the 90th Academy Awards. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) | In the nearly six months since reporting from the New York Times and the New Yorker about sexual harassment in Hollywood started an avalanche of conversation about sexual misconduct, it has been clear that there are two levels of costs when people are violated in the workplace or by people in their professions. First, there is the obvious damage that comes from being grabbed, flashed, offered a sexual quid pro quo or forced into sex acts. But the impact of this misconduct lingers: It can frighten people away from seeking professional opportunities, and harassers and abusers may have the ability to damage the careers and reputations of their victims. | | That’s what Annabella Sciorra believes happened to her. She told the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow that after former super-producer Harvey Weinstein raped her (Weinstein, through a representative, has denied “any allegations of non-consensual sex”), “From 1992, I didn’t work again until 1995. I just kept getting this pushback of ‘We heard you were difficult; we heard this or that.’ I think that that was the Harvey machine.” | | This week, though, Netflix announced that Sciorra has taken a role in the second season of “Luke Cage,” one of its Marvel superhero shows. She has also been cast in the second season of “G.L.O.W.,” Jenji Kohan’s raucous, smart comedy about a short-lived, all-female professional wrestling league. | | | I wouldn’t be surprised to see other showrunners and producers start to make similar announcements. Casting actresses who were marginalized or sidelined by the powerful men who are accused of sexually harassing them is an easy way for a production to get some good press — certainly, it’s easier than trying to adopt inclusion riders, which could influence far more than one casting decision. But if it means that the entertainment industry rediscovers women (and men) whose talents languished during the years when their abusers were able to cast them as difficult, overly demanding or simply not that talented, that could be good not only for the people whose careers get kick-started, but also for the industry as a whole. Not only is this an opportunity for the entertainment business to tap an underused vein of talent, it could be an overdue spur for Hollywood to start writing roles for women who are neither under 30, nor named Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren or Frances McDormand. | | The thing about harassment and discrimination is that they cut in two directions. Letting Sciorra’s talent go unused probably hurt Sciorra more than it hurt Hollywood. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt Hollywood, too. |  | | Opinion | What's your one best idea to end sexual harassment? | | | | |
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