Sean Penn isn’t backing down from his position that the #MeToo Movement is deeply problematic. In the wake of his novel’s defense of Louis CK and Charlie Rose, the star appeared on the “Today” show this week to take about his new show, “The First,” with his co-star, Natascha McElhone and Natalie Moraeles. Asked if the show drew any inspiration from #MeToo, Sean criticized the movement and suggested many of those who have accused men of sexual misconduct were not being truthful. “I’d like to think that none of it was influenced by what they call the movement of #MeToo,” he said, according to Vulture. “I think it’s influenced by the things that are developing in terms of the empowerment of women who’ve been acknowledging each other and being acknowledged by men. This is a movement that was largely shouldered by a kind of receptacle of the salacious.” When the meaning of his “receptacle of the salacious” comment was questioned, Sean explained: “Well, we don’t know what’s a fact in many of the cases. Salacious is as soon as you call something a movement that is really a series of many individual accusers, victims, accusations, some of which are unfounded. The spirit of much of what has been the #MeToo movement is to divide men and women.”
