Students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts have launched a petition calling for Bryan Singer’s name to be removed from the Division of Cinema and Media Studies. The call for action comes amid the ongoing sexual-harassment scandal emanating out of Hollywood, with the petition calling it “completely unacceptable that this prestigious department within our school still carries the name of Bryan Singer, a man accused multiple times of sexual harassment, assault, and pedophilia.”
Singer, who transferred to the USC School of Cinematic Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York, has directed such films as “The Usual Suspects,” “X-Men,” and “Valkyrie.” The university recently refused a donation from Harvey Weinstein following the many accusations of sexual misconduct that have been leveled against him.
Singer was accused of asking a 14-year-old extra and other minors to film a nude shower scene for his movie “Apt Pupil” in 1997; the ensuing lawsuit was dismissed, as were two filed against Singer for sexual assault in 2014. The latter two were both dismissed at the accusers’ request.
The petition, which currently has a little more than 400 signatures, specifically asks that the Bryan Singer Division of Cinema & Media Studies be renamed the SCA Division of Cinema & Media Studies. “Our university should promote education, respect, and consent, as well as prepare its students to be model members of the USC and entertainment communities,” continues the petition, “and this continued relationship with Mr. Singer publicly negates those values.”
Read IndieWire’s timeline on Singer’s rocky career here.
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