Mass Hysteria, Twitter and the Fate of West Side Story

Just because they tell you to sit down and shut up does not mean you have to

[My “day job” is as the founding editor of AwardsDaily.com, a website that follows the Oscar race. This is a crosspost from a piece written there]

It won’t be easy for West Side Story to withstand the blow it was dealt when anonymous accusations surfaced this week. Steven Spielberg’s hotly anticipated movie, scheduled to open just before Christmas, will now face intense scrutiny about the alleged behavior of its male lead six years ago. A girl’s painful confession on Twitter blew up, and though all her social media accounts have now been deleted there is no stopping this story. She says she still has panic attacks and PTSD over what she describes as an incident of sexual assault. Ansel Elgort maintains it was a consensual affair and has issued an apology for the way he ended it crudely and thoughtlessly, but no matter what happens next, his life and career will suffer incalculable damage. [Note: This post has been updated to reflect recent developments.]

The effect this will have on West Side Story is hard to assess at this point, and much will depend on whether any more clarity is ever forthcoming. All the artists involved in the film, from the cast to the designers to the writers to the director will need to deal with…