FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP ASKING MATT DAMON ABOUT SEXUAL HARASSMENT

For some reason, people keep asking Matt Damon, of all people, for his thoughts on the current sexual abuse crisis engulfing Hollywood—despite the fact that he has already admitted to being complicit in Harvey Weinstein’s behavior and offered patronizing remarks about women who have suffered abuse. (Of course, by “for some reason,” I mean because he’s a prominent man in Hollywood who has four, count ‘em, four daughters and therefore now has some skin in the game.)

In an interview with ABC News’ Peter Travers which was was posted on Thursday—in which Travers, you guessed it, notes that Damon has four daughters!—Damon continued to sound off about sexual “misconduct” in Hollywood, largely focusing on how we shouldn’t put people like Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K. in the same box. Won’t somebody please think of the sexual assaulters! Anyway, here are some choice cuts. (Emphasis mine throughout.)

On finding the difference between criminal behavior and sexual assault because Louie was a good show and Louis C.K. learned his lesson probably:

I mean, look, as I said, all of that behavior needs to be confronted, but there is a continuum. And on this end of the continuum where you have rape and child molestation or whatever, you know, that’s prison. Right? And that’s what needs to happen. OK? And then we can talk about rehabilitation and everything else. That’s criminal behavior, and it needs to be dealt with that way. The other stuff is just kind of shameful and gross, and I just think … I don’t know Louis C.K.. I’ve never met him. I’m a fan of his, but I don’t imagine he’s going to do those things again. You know what I mean? I imagine the price that he’s paid at this point is so beyond anything that he — I just think that we have to kind of start delineating between what these behaviors are.

On Al Franken not being as bad as Harvey Weinstein because his intentions were good and also Weinstein didn’t take pictures:

MD: When you see Al Franken taking a picture putting his hands on that woman’s flak jacket and mugging for the camera, going like that, you know, that is just like a terrible joke, and it’s not funny. It’s wrong, and he shouldn’t have done that … But when you talk about Harvey and what he’s accused of, there are no pictures of that. He knew he was up to no good. There’s no witnesses. There’s no pictures. There’s no braggadocio … So they don’t belong in the same category.

This bullshit about how nobody knew what was going on even though Damon has talked about knowing about Gwyneth Paltrow being harassed by him because hey, Harvey is a womanizer, but I guess it doesn’t count because he didn’t know Weinstein was committing real crimes here:

[N]obody who made movies for him knew … Any human being would have put a stop to that, no matter who he was. They would’ve said absolutely no. You know what I mean? … I knew I wouldn’t want him married to anyone close to me. But that was the extent of what we knew, you know? And that wasn’t a surprise to anybody. So when you hear Harvey this, Harvey that — I mean, look at the guy. Of course he’s a womanizer … I mean, I don’t hang out with him.

I understand that it’s impossible to try to promote an upcoming film (Downsizing, in Damon’s case) and not wade into the topic of sexual assault in Hollywood right now. I get that. But having Matt Damon out here spitballing on the hierarchy of sexual assault is, once again, among the last contributions to the conversation we need right now. AND OH MY GOD WE GET IT, HE HAS DAUGHTERS.