Alyssa Milano on ‘Charmed,’ Brad Kern Allegations, and Harassment

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http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/alys...nt-1202641523/

According to one writer who worked on “Charmed,” he would allegedly call a female executive “Tits McGee.” He allegedly told the female writers that they should write while nude because that would improve their writing.

It’s unacceptable. It’s unacceptable. It’s unacceptable. It’s totally unacceptable, because it’s not only sexual harassment, it’s bullying. That to me is like something that you would do if you were a bully in high school trying to shut someone up.

This is part of a bigger systemic issue, what I’ve been trying to be so vocal about. This is not just our industry. This happens everywhere and it’s awful, and it is the patriarchy, where the system was built to make people fear coming forward, or to make it acceptable that in a writers’ room, someone can do this to a woman. And it really upsets me.

I do think things are going to change. I do have hope that through this collective ache that we’re feeling in our industry will change the industry, and this collective ache that we’re feeling globally will change the world. I do have faith.

Speaking of “Charmed,” did you ever feel that the tone of the show changed? So much of it was about women who supported each other and were empowered and literally had powers. But did you ever feel that there was a sexist attitude creeping in to some of the scripts or the storytelling?

No. I don’t think that. I would have to go back and read the scripts, but I never felt that while I was shooting. I thought that there was always a push to have us dressed in a way that was showing skin, but that’s the way we were portrayed at that time. We were sexualized, and that was something that was happening all over the business. I don’t think that was unique to “Charmed” or Brad.

To me, one big question is, what are our unions are doing to protect women? The WGA, SAG, the DGA. What are unions doing? I mean, “Charmed” was what, 20 years ago? How can this can be going on with one particular person for 20 years and yet the behavior can still happen? And it takes an intense gender equality movement for things to change.

This is the activist in me. When are we going to put in place some kind of protocol where women and men can go to their union and file these complaints, and there is some kind of code of conduct? And things are investigated and there’s some sort of action that can be taken to, not only stop it, but to prevent it from happening in the future. There’s nothing in place that actually allows us to report [these problems] and figure out who is the poison and eliminate the poison.