Friday Reads

Obituary:  Bill Loud, a name that doesn't ring a lot of bells with people under the age of 50, but he was a pioneer in the reality TV field when he and his family were depicted in PBS's An American Family, has died.  It's hard to believe it has been nearly fifty years since the show aired, but Loud lived to the ripe old age of 97.

While the cameras were rolling, the documentary showed the deterioration of the marriage between him and his then-wife, Pat.

As a father figure, Mr. Loud, who ran a company that made parts for heavy equipment, sent what could seem like mixed messages. He was seen pressing his children to be more responsible and work harder, even as he complained that modern family life had robbed men of their independence.

“You’ve got to do everything with everybody all of the time,” he told a friend over drinks in one episode (there were always drinks). He added: “I object. I don’t think it’s right. I think somebody has sold society a bad bill of goods.”

Viewers saw Mrs. Loud drinking glasses of wine and complaining about what she described as her husband’s flagrant infidelity, the absence of sex in their marriage and what she viewed as his general detachment, gone as he often was on business trips.

The Louds were the quintessential dysfunctional family.

Pat and Bill did eventually get back together, but they never remarried.
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Another bigwig is about to fall thanks to allegations of sexual harassment.

But Moonves’s private actions belie his public statements. Six women who had professional dealings with him told me that, between the nineteen-eighties and the late aughts, Moonves sexually harassed them. Four described forcible touching or kissing during business meetings, in what they said appeared to be a practiced routine. Two told me that Moonves physically intimidated them or threatened to derail their careers. All said that he became cold or hostile after they rejected his advances, and that they believed their careers suffered as a result. “What happened to me was a sexual assault, and then I was fired for not participating,” the actress and writer Illeana Douglas told me. All the women said they still feared that speaking out would lead to retaliation from Moonves, who is known in the industry for his ability to make or break careers. “He has gotten away with it for decades,” the writer Janet Jones, who alleges that she had to shove Moonves off her after he forcibly kissed her at a work meeting, told me. “And it’s just not O.K.”

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