Seeing Allred (2018)

[instrumental intro plays]
[Aldred] From Hollywood,
it's The Dinah Show!
[cheers and applause]
And now, a lady with her own ideas
about what a woman is,
here's Dinah!
[cheers and applause]
[instrumental intro plays]
Now there's a list of what one husband
would want from his wife,
or any husband should want from his wife,
when he came home from work.
For instance, one,
have the house presentable.
Be attired in a negligee.
[laughter]
Provide 20 minutes of silence before being
presented with the problems of the day.
Four, be attired in a negligee .
[laughter]
Five, have a meal prepared
within an hour.
And six, be attired in a negligee.
[laughter]
Gloria Allred, are you...
-Hi, Gloria.
-Hi, Dinah.
-Where you from?
-I'm an attorney in Los Angeles.
Ah, welcome.
How would you feel if your husband
presented you with a list like that?
Well, Dinah, I think we have a uterus
and a brain, and they both work,
and I think it's very insulting to women.
[cheers and applause]
Listen.
Well...
Listen, I think you ought to be definite
about this.
Don't just tiptoe around it!
[laughter]
[blinds open]
[Allred] I live in a war zone everyday.
There is a war on women.
It's real.
It can be very ugly.
Women depend on me to be strong,
to be fearless,
and to assert and protect their rights.
[engine turns over]
And power only understands power.
["Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves"
plays]
One woman strikes fear
into the hearts of powerful men,
from Herman Cain to Tiger Woods.
Now there was a time
[man 2] A feminist crusader...
[woman] Media hound...
[man 3] And a lightning rod
for controversy.
She is easily the most famous
women's rights attorney in the country.
Great woman
[woman] Her zeal has put her at the center
of countless cases.
[Allred] She did not ask Mr. Trump
to view his anatomy
to prove that he is a naturally born man.
[Trump] I think Gloria would be
very, very, very impressed with me.
[laughs]
Sisters are doin' it for themselves
[woman] Joining us now
from Los Angeles this morning...
Joining us to tell us what's going on...
[man] Joining us now from Los Angeles
is civil rights attorney...
Please welcome to our show,
Gloria Allred.
Sisters are doin' it for themselves
I first met Gloria
on the television screen.
-Stop trying to perpetuate myths...
-Nobody...
...about battered women.
I thought of her
as humorless and striving...
I want to talk about all this
with civil rights attorney Gloria Allred.
I was a little bit afraid of her.
She's Gloria Allred.
I want you to finish.
-I want to play the juror.
-Don't talk over me.
Who else do you know
like Gloria Allred?
It is a disgrace that these homophobes
are allowed to discriminate!
I am taking this case on personally!
[indistinct chatter]
We all have our own
disadvantages and advantages.
I mean, for instance, I hate conflict.
I think that Gloria enjoys conflict.
You should be using these resources
to arrest these fathers!
The reason you demean us
is because secretly
you envy women and you fear them!
[shocked laughter]
Gloria's gone on TV and she's raised hell.
She's been very aggressive,
and it's no surprise
that some people don't like that.
Oh, save it for your next book,
you little snitch.
That's assault! That is assault!
I don't think Gloria's
in a popularity contest
because if she is,
well, she lost that one.
Every time some high profile case
breaks out,
you jump on television
and act like you God.
Sisters are doin' it for themselves
[Barkley] Why don't you just go back
to your office, wait on another case,
and shut the hell up?
I think I'm very well understood
by many people,
and misunderstood by those
who wish to misunderstand
because they have an agenda
that is different than mine.
Sisters are doin' it for themselves
I don't really care.
[phone rings]
[woman] Allred, Maroko & Goldberg,
how can I help you?
[man] The Bill Cosby sex abuse scandal
is growing.
[Allred] Two more women describe
being drugged
and sex-molested by Bill Cosby.
[announcer] The Howard Stern Show.
[Stern] You know what?
I never found Bill Cosby funny.
I don't know that he's ever
been convicted of rape.
-[Norris] He has.
-There've been allegations, sexual stuff.
- Yeah.
- Roofies and all this shit.
[Quivers] But he's like an icon
that you don't touch.
[indistinct chatter]
[camera shutters clicking]
[Levenson] For Gloria, the Bill Cosby case
is everything she's looking for.
Hollywood, a celebrity,
race, women's rights,
sexual abuse, power.
I mean, come on. I don't think
there's anything better for her.
Last month it was reported in the press
that over 20 women had come forward
to allege that Bill Cosby
had either drugged
or sexually assaulted them,
or committed both acts of misconduct
against them.
Unfortunately, with a rare exception,
I had to inform these women
that it was too late for them
to file a lawsuit against Mr. Cosby
because of the statute of limitations.
This statute of limitations
is an arbitrary time period
set by law...
...during which a victim
must file a lawsuit
or be forever barred from pursuing it.
The public deserves to know
if Mr. Cosby
is a saint or a sexual predator.
[Lasha] Mr. Cosby greeted me
and handed a cappuccino telling me
that he made me my favorite coffee.
[sniffles] And after I drink it,
I felt dizzy and lost consciousness.
I could not open my eyes.
I couldn't move or say anything.
I felt something warm on my lips,
and I blacked out.
I woke up
to him clapping his hands,
saying, "Daddy says, 'Wake up.'"
[camera shutters clicking]
[sniffles]
[man] Not to be insensitive
to the women sitting here,
but can you say
beyond the shadow of a doubt
that you are 100 percent confident
in the truth of their claims?
You can decide for yourself.
[camera shutters clicking]
Any pregnancies involved
in all this?
[Allred] Any pregnancies? We're...
We're not commenting on that,
but thank you.
[man] Were there any
law enforcement actions...
[indistinct chatter]
[woman] Is she not giving last names?
-Who's calling?
-Hey, Sara.
[Allred] At first I was reluctant
to get involved, only because there was
no legal option for many of these women,
but then I realized that they really do
need a voice, they deserve a voice.
Frankly...
...everybody was looking to me
and saying,
"Gloria, when you going to do something?"
[laughs]
[Rosenbaum] The district attorney
can't take these cases
because of the statute of limitations
impediment.
So, the only thing she can do
is provide her client
an opportunity to tell the story
of what happened ,
and turning it into a trial
on public opinion.
[Wilmore] How many people think
the women are lying?
Do you guys believe the women?
You think some of them are lying?
-Absolutely.
-Really?
Wherever you see Gloria Allred,
you know somebody's lying.
[laughter]
I didn't wanna...
I have to ask about your name
coming up in the news recently.
-No, no, we don't answer that.
-Okay.
I just wanted to ask
if you wanted to respondat all
about whether any of that was true.
There's no response.
And I think you need to get
on the phone with his...
-I will, yeah.
-...person immediately.
Okay.
[Frazier] Back here in Colorado,
Bill Cosby performed
and received two standing ovations
during his run in Denver this weekend,
but outside the venue
Gloria Allred was leading
the biggest protest to date
against the comedian.
Rape is not a joke!
Rape is not a joke!
It's important that there be consequences.
Rape is not a joke!
[Allred] And sometimes making someone
accountable is a form of justice...
Rape is not a joke!
...even if they can't have justice
in the conventional setting
of a court of law.
This is not a free speech area!
[woman] Is this personal?
Is it personal? I...
I don't know. Excuse me. All right.
[Allred] Today, three new women
who alleged that they were victims
of Bill Cosby
are here with me
to describe what they allege
that Mr. Cosby did to them
when they were young
and extremely vulnerable.
[camera shutters clicking]
And for those
who will choose not to believe
that I am speaking the truth
of what happened to me,
please know that I wish it were not true.
It's always personal to me
if a woman has been a victim
of injustice and has been hurt.
...alone with this secret.
It's always personal.
[Allred] My commitment to women
comes from my own life experience.
I thought that what happened to me
was just my bad luck.
I didn't realize
that some of what happened to me
happened to millions of other women.
I was born and grew up
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
So this was growing up ,
and in terms of segregation,
it was mainly by religion.
This was the Catholic neighborhood.
I lived in the Jewish neighborhood.
Wait a minute, are we at fifty--
-Yes.
-Well, here we are.
Looks different.
There it is.
5533 Springfield Avenue.
My mother came
to the United States from England
when she was in her twenties.
And my father, I think,
was born in the United States .
It's not really a hundred percent clear
because my father didn't like
to talk about himself.
He worked six days a week
as a door-to-door salesman.
We didn't have much money.
My father would put out just enough
every day on a table by the door
for my mother to go and get groceries
just for that day.
Sometimes I would go to movie,
and he would wait outside
and he would say,
"I don't really want to see that movie."
And I figured out later
it was because he didn't really
have enough money for both of us.
I met my best friend, Fern,
on my first day at the Philadelphia
High School for Girls,
an all-public, all-girls high school.
Hi, gorgeous.
Hi!
Oh, wonderful to see you!
[Caplan] She sat in front of me,
and could see that I was
having difficulty figuring out
the forms to fill out.
And she turned around and said,
"You look as if you're having a problem.
Can I help you?"
She was popular with boys,
very popular with boys.
She was kind and inclusive.
And bossy.
[Allred] When I was thinking
of going to college ,
I said to my father, "I don't know
how we're going to afford this."
And he said,
"Don't worry, I've been saving.
If you can get in, you'll be going."
At the University of Pennsylvania
in those days,
it was about 93 percent male
and seven percent female.
It was very easy to meet boys.
I met Peyton, I believe,
in about the first week of college.
He was a fraternity boy,
absolutely drop dead gorgeous.
Look, we've all been in college and been
attracted to the really cute guy
who's very smart and very funny ,
and that was my dad.
You know, he was always such a wit,
so I think that was the attraction.
[Allred] I remember thinking
I would have incredible children
with Peyton Bray.
Went to a Justice of the Peace somewhere
in Philadelphia, and that was it.
I was pregnant at 19,
gave birth to my daughter Lisa at age 20.
I had never cooked ,
and I'd never changed a diaper.
And I don't think I'd ever held a baby,
so this was all culture shock.
I used to iron in front of the television
and watch I Love Lucy .
Being a housewife is a big bore.
Cook the meals, do the dishes,
make the beds, dust the house!
-Cook the meals...
-[Allred] Lucille Ball as the character
who always wanted something
in addition to being married to Desi.
Hey, what do you know? It says here
that Danny Kaye is going to London
to give another command performance
for Queen Elizabeth.
I wonder what the Queen is cooking
for Phil tonight?
[laughter]
[Allred] Peyton went to boot camp.
At some point I found out
that he was in the hospital.
I went to visit him.
It turned out it was
for mental health reasons.
And it became increasingly serious.
[Bloom] He was bipolar,
so he'd be up and he'd be down.
When he was down,
he was very dark and very depressed
and would shut all of us out.
[Allred] Peyton was cooking one time.
Somehow it didn't turn out
the way he wanted it to.
I don't know if it burned or what.
He took the pan and he just threw it.
And that was very frightening to me.
And that happened more than once.
I recognized that I was not able to help.
That if I stayed, it could present
a risk of harm to my daughter.
So I left.
I moved back into my parents' home.
My neighbor's mom said to me,
"Gloria, why don't you try it again
with him?"
I said, "I can't."
And I didn't tell her why,
'cause I didn't tell anybody why.
I didn't tell my own parents why.
There wasn't the kind of discussion
about mental illness that we have today.
Ultimately many decades later,
he ended his life.
It's very heartbreaking.
I was just very, very fortunate
to have a wonderful child.
I did not get child support
for many years.
I knew that I was the one who's going
to have to support my daughter.
I had to be strong
and I had to move forward.
["I'll Take You There" plays]
I began to teach
at Benjamin Franklin High School.
It's an all-boys,
almost all African-American High School.
I was also commuting to NYU
for my Master's in English education.
I know a place
I had written my dissertation
on African-American novelists at Penn.
At NYU, one of my professors said,
"Now you talk about civil rights
for African-Americans.
What about your own rights?"
I said, "What do you mean?"
He said, "Well, women's rights."
[TV] One of these beauties'll be named
Ms. Universe.
[Allred] And I said,
"What rights don't women have?"
He said, "You'll find out."
Let me take you there
I'll take you there
Oh-oh
I was at an end in Philadelphia.
Ooh, Lord
All right, now, baby
So I took a five-year-old child,
and got on a plane,
and came to Los Angeles.
I thought, if I was going to be poor,
at least I'd be poor in the sunshine.
I'll take you there
Ain't nobody cryin'
When you're in your twenties,
you know, generally, you're optimistic.
At least I was.
[indistinct chatter]
You see, if Cosby had harmed a dog
and not a woman,
PETA would be sitting in front
of that man's house.
They'd be crucifying him right now.
[man] Some of the ladies would lean in
-to listen to the other lady.
-One dog.
And here we have 35 women.
Oh. You got it. Right.
And people are still, like, wondering?
Okay.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Allred] I'm here today
with two more women
who will allege that they were victims
of Bill Cosby.
Tonight Bill Cosby was scheduled
to perform in Bakersfield, California.
But that appearance
was quote, "postponed."
Mr. Cosby thinks
that this will soon be over
and that no more women will come forward.
He is very wrong.
[camera shutters clicking]
Linda and I had sat and talked about
how we were gonna present ourselves.
And that we would be strong women
who won't cry.
Every victim that Bill Cosby assaulted
who has been called a whore and a liar
has helped me to become a survivor.
Bill Cosby appears to think
that rape is a joke.
Well, let me tell you something, Bill.
I'm not laughing.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Maher] These are women who don't seem
to have a reason to lie about it.
-There's no money...
-Well, that's not necessarily true
because a lot of them seem to be
being represented by Gloria Allred,
-who you know is in league with the devil.
-Now.
-Yeah.
-[laughter]
No one has convicted him.
He has not been arrested.
And the bottom line is that's the law.
Innocent until proven guilty.
I'd like to know who Ms. Allred's clients
were 40 years ago.
What were their morals?
What was their behavior like?
Why did they approach Mr. Cosby?
What do they want to get
out of the relationship?
This is 40 years later,
and suddenly they're all coming out,
making these accusations.
Something seems wrong to me.
Thirty or 40 years ago when this happened,
you went home and you cried,
maybe you talked to your best friend,
or your mother, or your sister.
And then, generally, people told you,
"Don't don't say anything more about it."
[Wang] Here for the first time
and through these press conferences,
the woman owns the narrative
and is able to speak the truth
as she experienced it.
He had assured me that it was okay
to take the pills,
but obviously, it was not.
[Wang] Although critics might say,
"Oh, it's tawdry,
it's rude, it's embarrassing,"
it allows the public
to see what happens in the dark
and to see the abuse
that often occurs in secret.
-Did you see my little telephone book?
-Yeah.
I think it's a child's booster seat,
but I always use it, it's perfect.
-Yeah, it's great.
-Otherwise, I'm like down here.
[laughter]
And my clients are up there.
Based on all of her history
and what she had experienced herself,
there was no one else to contact.
She understands, she's experienced
something of what we are experiencing,
and she does it every day in her work.
[Allred] I was in my twenties,
I went on vacation in Mexico
with a girlfriend.
I met a doctor.
He invited me out for dinner that night.
So I said, "Yes."
And then, when I met him,
he said, "Well, first,
I have to go to the hospital
and check on my patients."
I said, "Okay." So I went with him.
And then he said, "Well, now
we have to go someplace else.
I have to check
on a few patients who are not
any longer in the hospital."
So I went with him,
and we open the door
and there's nobody in there.
And...
he pulled out a gun
and he raped me.
I was completely in shock.
I just can't even to this day
think about it.
It just was absolutely shocking,
completely unexpected.
And I still-- I can't even understand
why he would do that.
I had no thought of going to the police.
I thought, "Who's going to believe me
against the doctor?"
I didn't want to really
talk to anybody about it.
[woman] Wasn't it hard
not to talk about it?
It's not hard for me not to talk
to people about things.
[woman] Then how do you get close
to anybody?
Well, I mean,
there's a lot to discuss.
[chuckles]
[woman] Was that the worst thing
that ever happened to you?
[sighs]
No.
[woman] Then what is the worst thing
that ever happened to you?
After I found out that I was pregnant
as a result of the rape,
then I had to get an abortion.
So this is before Roe v. Wade.
Literally back-alley abortions.
And I almost died.
I had like a 106 fever,
something very high.
And I-- I was hemorrhaging and...
went to the hospital
and they packed me in ice.
That was the worst.
That and a nurse saying,
"This will teach you a lesson."
I've known you over the years.
In spite of our political opposition,
we've had friendly debate.
I didn't know you'd gone through all this.
Why did you talk about all of that,
why did you get so personal?
I take what I believe was
an extremely negative experience
and I try to turn it into a positive.
It helps me to understand others .
And I I have represented many women
who have been survivors
of violence against them, of rape,
of child sexual abuse.
Thank you so much for taking the time!
Yes, and I think it's long overdue
that the law be changed in Nevada
to protect victims.
[laughs]
One of the things I try to do
is help people to understand
how to evolve from being a victim,
to becoming a survivor,
to becoming a fighter for change.
-Hi! Good to see you!
-Good to see you, too!
I tell you, when we talked earlier
and Ben and I just-- our balloon burst.
And we're looking at each other like,
"How are we supposed to do this
if Gloria is not sitting there with us?"
I mean, honestly, we were broken.
-But we decided to make it happen
-I know!
It's so great.
[Levenson]
A lot of Gloria Allred's clients
will never have cases against Bill Cosby.
It's just been too long
in the statute of limitations .
So she went to her people and said,
"Look, this is something we can do."
-Assemblyman Gardner.
-Here.
Assemblyman Jones.
"Even though in the Bill Cosby case
it's too late for you,
we can change the laws so that if women
are victimized in the future,
they won't have that limitation."
Thank you very much for allowing me
to testify today in support of AB212,
which would eliminate
the statute of limitations
for criminal prosecution of rape
in Nevada.
[Rosenbaum] The legal system
has very strong preferences
in favor of statue of limitations. Why?
Because legally, they're great.
They limit the number of cases
that can be brought
into an already clogging system.
They're legal reasons, not moral reasons.
There's no moral reason
why the truth should ever be time-barred.
My story began in 1989,
when I trusted a man
I would never believe would put a drug
in my drink without my knowledge,
so that he could use my body
for his sick, disgusting pleasure.
We're increasingly understanding better
how people process that kind of abuse.
And how it may take years
for people to really understand
what happened to them
and to be able to talk about it.
The law actually
is quite a conservative tool,
and so the only way to really
help vulnerable people in particular
is to push the law to its limits
and to be creative
in the way that you do your advocacy.
[Allred] My work is my life. It isn't...
just what I do, it's who I am.
It's my identity.
Fighting injustice,
that's not a nine-to-five job.
It's not a sacrifice.
It's the commitment that I made
many, many years ago.
[man] It began with police and rioters
clashing on a hot Wednesday night,
but within a matter of hours,
it was completely out of hand.
[Allred] It was about a year
after the Watts Riots,
or Watts Rebellion,
depending on your point of view.
And so, they needed teachers in Watts.
I said,"Are there any jobs available?"
And they said, "How soon can you come?"
[Bloom] She became active
in the teachers union.
She took me out on protest marches.
People would scream, "How could you take
your daughter out in the picket line?
What kind of person are you?"
Both I and Gloria were born
into a pre-feminist era.
We probably
both were rebelling secretly,
hoping no one would notice.
[laughs]
At New York Magazine,
my male colleagues would say,
"You write like a man,"
and I would say, "Thank you."
[laughs]
You know, all the things you do
when you think
you're just striving to be
the lucky exception.
We benefited from other women
telling the truth
about what was happening to them,
and realizing that,
"Hey, wait a minute, you know,
we are not crazy, the system is crazy."
[Allred] This was a whole new world
opening up to me.
A lot of people were afraid
to be called a "feminist".
They thought that was somehow
a bad word.
I wasn't afraid, 'cause I don't--
you know, I think that's a good thing,
to be a feminist.
[Caplan] Through those years,
she taught school in California,
she met Bill Allred,
who was a very successful businessman
who believed in her.
He loved her very much.
He wanted her to go to law school
because she had become a union organizer,
and I think he recognized
that she just-- she had this power.
We had Constitutional Law together,
the three of us,
and abortion came in in that context.
The Supreme Court today ruled
that abortion
is completely a private matter
to be decided by mother and doctor
in the first three months
of pregnancy.
[Maroko] Professor Ogren was quite
conservative and a devout Catholic ,
and Gloria, all 80 or 90 pounds of her,
with her short, little haircut,
she was relentless
at challenging Professor Ogren,
raising her hand when, you know,
and demanding to be called upon.
It was like, "Who is this little person?"
I mean, that's how I met her.
You know, Gloria's personality
was very outgoing.
She had that kind of sense of going out,
and getting business,
and interacting with people.
Michael and I are a little more reserved.
For us, I mean, I think I could-- I could
have survived these last 40 years
with 100 business cards,
I'd probably still have ten.
She was very confident
that we would be successful,
even though, in all candor,
I don't think we had a clue as to what
kind of law we were going to practice
or what would be
the basis of our business
and what business would come in.
We really didn't know.
-What do we want?
-ERA!
-When do we want it?
-Now!
-What do we want?
-ERA!
-When do we want it?
-Now!
[Allred] After I started practicing law,
I started going to meetings
in support the Equal Rights Amendment.
And then I decided
it was time to volunteer
some time
to the National Organization for Women.
The history books tell us
women were given the right to vote,
and that's not so,
because women fought hard for that right.
[Allred] Jerry Brown
had just been elected governor.
They said to me,
"He has promised to appoint
more women judges,
and he's not keeping his promise.
So we want to do a news conference,
and we want you to do that, Gloria."
And I said, "Well, why me?
I wouldn't know what to say,
I wouldn't know where to go.
Why would anybody come?"
The governor promised some time ago
to meet
with the National Organization for Women.
They said,
"Don't worry about any of that."
[Reporter] The governor
apparently got an earful.
After an hour and a half,
the governor and some of the women
came out for a breather.
We feel we've had an opportunity today
by meeting with him
to make him aware
of some more specific problems
that perhaps he was not
as aware of before.
On the other hand, many of us feel
that not enough has been done
in the area of appointments of women.
We only have 30 percent
of all of our appointments,
and women are 50.8 percent
of the California population,
so we have a long way to go.
[Allred] And it resulted
in a lot of attention,
and the governor appointed
some more women judges.
And then, after that, the press started
coming to me about other issues.
Throughout the years,
women'scontributions
have not been commemorated
on Memorial Day.
[Allred] Sometimes press would come
and they would want an interview
on certain subjects having
to do with women's rights.
There were very few people
that I could identify
as women's rights lawyers at the time.
Actually, I don't think I knew any.
"Okay, well, I don't know
who to refer them to,
so I guess I'll just try to learn
about the subject.
Then I'll do it."
I thought to myself,
"What should I be like?"
And I decided
that I should be strong,
that I should show no fear.
I started appearing on talk shows.
Let me just say this.
Let's think about who the real victims
of denial of federal funds
for abortions are.
At that time, that was the only way
that we could even discuss women's rights.
Gloria has a point, she...
I just think that it's so important
to these children
the Equal Rights Amendment be passed
so these women can be paid
what they deserve finally.
[Allred] Often, my opponent on those shows
was Mary Schmitz.
-Oh, excuse me. You, yes?
-I'm Mary Schmitz.
And I'd just like to say
on that issue again
that this has become really a fraud
for women because...
Oh! Mary Schmitz.
And we actually knew the Schmitzes,
and they--
they were actually
very nice people, but...
very hard right, anti-women's rights,
anti-choice.
Why can't we teach these children
and bring some religion
back into their lives,
that sex without marriage
is not the accepted way of life.
The military has always had regulations
opposing homosexuality.
They have these for a reason.
You want to send your best abroad.
This lady over here is sort of sitting
in shock at what you're saying.
I think she wants to turn the clock back
at least 500 years.
And I think this is the 20th century,
we're going to bring everyone
in line with the 20th century.
[cheers and applause]
[Bloom] For my mom to take the stance
that she took,
she took a huge amount of heat for it.
Most people thought, you know,
she's really way out there on the fringe.
People really would look at her
like she was nuts.
I would go to Back to School night,
and she'd look at the books
we were reading,
and they were all written by white men,
mostly dead white men.
She'd say why aren't
we reading anything by women?
Why aren't we reading
anything about women?
Why aren't we reading anything
by or about African Americans?
I was embarrassed, as kids often are.
I felt, you know,
"Mom, why do you have to do that?"
[Allred] So that's my point.
You just can't play nicey-nice
You know, you have to make a shock
into the psyche.
And I want to ask you,
do you think we've come a long way, baby?
-I can't hear you.
-No!
And do you think we still have
a long, long way to go?
Yes!
[Caplan] It was the days
of women's rights.
She came with Bill Allred
to our home to visit .
My husband, Allen, and Bill
got along really well.
And Gloria and I took a walk,
and she said, "Fern, you know,
you have a responsibility
to women who don't have what you have,
to fight for them.
And I remember saying very clearly to her,
"I am very busy teaching,
being a parent to two children,
a wife.
I don't have time to fight
for other people's rights."
And she said,
"You have the responsibility.
You have to to do it."
And we didn't-- we weren't in touch
for seven years after that.
[woman] What do you consider
to be your most outstanding feature?
Well, I suppose
I feel that it's my commitment,
my total commitment
to making social change.
See, I feel that if each one of us
made that sort of commitment
to other women,
to supporting other women,
that we would have social change
very quickly.
It's the most beautiful oven
I've ever seen.
She has a twist-and-turn waist
so you can pose her
to serve lemonade to Ken.
Twist Barbie
[Bloom] There was a Sav-On drug store
near our home,
and I pointed out to her
that there were signs in the toy aisle
that said "girls toys" and "boys toys."
Of course, all the money
is on the boys' side.
And all of the toy vacuum cleaners
and brooms are on the girls' side.
By the way, why anybody needs
a toy vacuum cleaner, I don't know.
We think that children should have
the freedom to explore,
to chose any toy.
[Bloom] I think she sued them
for sex discrimination,
but she also organized a protest
with a lot of moms and kids.
And we marched around and said,
"Why don't you just have toys?
Why does it have to be
girls toys and boys toys?"
The idea that a boy
might want to play with a doll
or girl would dress up as a firefighter,
you know, that was considered
fairly extremist
to say that kind of thing.
Let's accept your point
that too many fathers
just do not pay child support.
What would you do about it?
I think that the answer is
a payroll deduction for child support.
Let that amount be taken
right out of the father's check,
like health insurance, like union dues.
The system that's being proposed
just isn't going to work.
How good can this law be
if it's just one state?
Won't the fathers that are not
paying child support move?
I think if we pass this bill in California
as I hope and expect that we will,
it will set a model for the whole country.
Explosions of consciousness
tend to happen
more or less at the same time.
When we say to ourselves,
"Why does my blouse cost more
at the dry cleaner
than my husband's shirt?"
What Gloria Allred was able to do
was to at least begin to bring
women's concerns
into whole areas of law that weren't
written with women in mind,
that saw women as property
in the beginning.
[man] L'Orangerie restaurant
caters to an elegant clientele
and provides elegant service ,
which includes a menu with prices for men
and a menu with no prices for women.
Now enters Gloria Allred
who says that they are entitled
to equal services and privileges,
and that includes paying
for a man's dinner if a woman desires.
We contend that since women
are always asked to pay for their dates
in one way or another,
that it's only fair that they know
what the investment is
before they decide on a dividend.
[Goldberg] We sued ultimately, and we won.
And that was one of the first cases
that really got a lot of media attention.
[woman] She sued a department store
for charging women
more for alterations than men.
This case is a class action
on behalf of all females.
Before we knew it,
we became known as the law firm
that didthese types of cases.
The settlement of this case
marks the beginning
of a more enlightened treatment
of female prisoners and their babies.
They will no longer have to suffer
the degradation and humiliation
of giving birth in chains
[Goldberg] We had a woman who
claimed that she had been molested
by seven different Catholic priests.
We had her come in.
She seemed credible.
We started representing her.
Once we file the lawsuit,
all the priests
literally disappeared overnight.
They were like-- they were all gone.
That was the first case
where that kind of issue had come up.
It was almost 20 years before we got
some justice for this woman.
Gloria just wouldn't give up,
wouldn't give up, wouldn't give up.
I got sexually involved with Rita,
I admit my fault.
I failed to rescue her from other priests.
I am truly sorry.
When I went off to law school,
we had our weekly call,
and we're chit chatting
and I'm talking about school,
and I asked her what was
going with her,
and she said, "I'm locked
into the District Attorney's building
and I've been here overnight."
First of all,
why did you not lead with that?
Are you kidding?
What are you doing there?
[Allred] Ira Reiner was district attorney.
He didn't show up for a meeting
that he had promised to have
with me at a certain time .
If the Los Angeles County
District Attorney is not willing to sit
and hear from these mothers
what the problems are
in raising children without being able
to get their child support,
then he doesn't really care
about child support.
She's lying, she never had
an appointment--
never did.
Uh, if she keeps up this,
chances are she never will.
[Maroko] All the sudden, there's a thing.
Gloria Allred's in a sit-in.
I said, "Are you out of your mind?
Are you going to sit there all night
until he meets with you?
What happens if it's a week or two weeks?"
The next morning, they decided
they weren't gonna lock me in again.
They were gonna just throw me out.
You should be using these resources
to arrest these fathers
who are breaking the law.
Supporting their child is part
of their responsibilities.
Would you move in there, please?
We want our child support
for these children.
We want every law obeyed,
and we don't want
innocent mothers and children arrested.
We want those fathers arrested
who are not paying their child support.
Ira Reiner, where are you?
Why aren't you taking
a lawful responsibility?
Why are you in hiding?
There's certainly sometimes that Gloria,
you know, puts herself out there
in a way that, you know,
is sort of like, "Wow."
[Maroko] At least every third
or fourth hour, we say that. "Oy vey."
[Goldberg] If you're going to be
putting yourself out there,
advocating in this way,
you have to be prepared
for the fact that not everybody
is gonna agree with you.
[man] Gloria Allred became
the first woman member
of the Los Angeles Friars Club.
Their action shows leadership,
courage, and good will.
It will require working out problems
such as what to do about the steam room
and the famous all-male stag roast.
Oh, that's what I want
to talk to you about.
[Allred] Once I became
a member of the Friars Club,
I wanted to use the health club,
the steam room.
And I was told,
"Well, the men are in there naked,
so they don't want women in there. "
I'm interested in the bare facts
and the naked truth,
but I am not interested
in seeing male friars naked.
And I don't intend to go in there naked,
I intend to go in there in a bathing suit.
So I knocked on the door
of the steam room.
I said, "I'm coming in."
Men were in there, naked.
And I whipped out my tape measure
and I started singing Peggy Lee's
"Is That All There Is?"
Is That All There Is
At that point, I heard a lot of towels
being slapped around naked butts,
people running out of the steam room.
That ended the issue,
and women were allowed
to use the steam room.
Women like you, you feminists...
You know what she's trying to do?
Turn women into men!
[startled reaction from audience]
We don't think that our daughters
should have to trade sexual favors
in order to get a raise.
-Why not? We did.
-Well...
[laughter, scattered applause]
How do you think we'd get on this show?
[laughter]
I want to see you in my dressing room
after the show.
I know!
She talked about sexual harassment
when nobody wanted to talk about it.
Must a woman prove that she has been
psychologically injured
in order to sue for sexual harassment
in the workplace?
[Levenson] She kept pushing and fighting,
and now more people are talking about it,
but they associate Gloria
with the pushing and the fighting.
I have to ask you,
why to you put the women down?
The women are taken very well-cared
in America.
Women have the best life in the world
in America.
Why do you always have
to fight so much?
[cheering and applause]
[Levenson] People say, "She's loud,
she's got an ego,
she must just love the camera."
And then I just sort of pause and say,
"Haven't you met any men like that?"
Here's a feminist philosophy
I want you to listen to.
"Comparable work".
Come on, Gloria.
I mean, why shouldn't a nurse make as much
as a garbage collector?
Fine.
Let the nurse become a garbage collector
and ride that truck.
Because we need nurses. We don't want
nurses to leave the profession.
We need garbage collectors too.
They need to come and pick up this garbage
you're spewing right now.
[laughter]
I think Gloria handles being attacked
quite well. I think she expects it.
She sees it as a plus
for her overall agenda
of being out there
with her point of view.
This whole subject
of gays legalizing marriage
and children being adopted by gays
is positively disgusting.
-[man] Yeah!
-[applause]
Until 1961, sodomy was outlawed,
homosexual sodomy,
in all 50 states.
That's not an archaic law.
That's our society saying no to sodomy.
Let's dispel this myth
of the wonderful traditional family.
That was the family in which women
had to obey their husbands,
in which women had no property rights.
We don't necessarily want
the traditional family,
which didn't even allow
interracial marriages,
which sir, were a crime
even up to 30 years ago in this country.
And just because it was a crime
didn't make it right.
It meant it was prejudice!
[cheers and applause]
[Allred] Thank you for coming today.
I'm attorney Gloria Allred.
Tomorrow, Bill Cosby
will perform his far-from-finished tour
in Atlanta, Georgia.
He is performing, despite the fact
that more than 40 women
have publicly accused him
of drugging and sexually assaulting them.
In the early 1990s,
during the last season of The Cosby Show,
I guest-starred as Mrs. Minifield.
After he had won my complete trust
and admiration,
he drugged and raped me.
-Well, I guess I'm off.
-Yes, in more ways than one.
[laughter]
[Bernard] His last words to me were,
"As far as I'm concerned, Bernard,
you're dead."
[crying]
[woman] So, how do you feel?
I feel good.
I feel changed.
I feel like I've purged.
Gloria's representing me and I don't know
how many others pro bono,
so she's not getting any money
for anything that she's doing.
And she's just giving.
She's like, "Auntie."
You know, I call her "Auntie Gloria"
sometimes.
I keep telling her,
"You're so sweet and kind."
She says, "I can't let them know
how really nice I am, you know,
because then they won't
be afraid of me," which is true.
It's amazing to me when I read
the comments of people who hate her,
you know, because she's out there
busting people's balls, you know.
And she's a true hardcore feminist.
She's righteous.
And what this whole Cosby experience
has taught me
that women are still so devalued.
We believe the women!
We believe the women!
Their voices are so devalued.
I've come to the protest in Atlanta today
to support those who are protesting
Bill Cosby's far-from-finished
concert tour,
and to deliver a message to Bill Cosby.
Women are now empowered
and they will never be silent again.
-Is that right?
-Yes!
-I'm not crying.
-Oh, what's this?
Oh, no, no. I'm just tired.
-Oh.
-I'm not crying at all.
-Just wet eyes, wet eyes.
-Oh, no, no.
I-- no.
-Allred does not cry.
-No.
Court documents were unsealed
in which Cosby admitted under oath
that he obtained Quaaludes to give women
before having sex with them.
"Yes... I give her quaaludes.
We then have sex."
[man] Crews cleaned off the star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
after someone wrote
the word "rapist" on it.
[Goldberg] It looks bad, Bill.
If this is to be tried
in the court of public opinion,
I got to say, all of the information
that's out there
kind of points to guilt.
How many of you believe
you were drugged by Bill Cosby?
[Allred] I do think there was a shift
in public opinion
as more and more women came out
and told their story.
The numbers became startling.
You know, there were press saying to me,
"What's your end-game, Gloria?"
I really had no answer to that.
I didn't have an endgame.
Speaking out for women in and of itself
is an empowering experience.
There doesn't have to be an end to that.
[woman] Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby
arm-in-arm with his legal team
as he arrives for his arraignment
in Pennsylvania Wednesday.
[man] Mr. Cosby, anything to say?
[Allred] I was in bed in my pajamas.
And the phone rang and it was CNN .
[woman] Prosecutors filed the case
before the end
of the statue of limitations
in Pennsylvania.
Now Andrea Constand
may be the only accuser
to meet Bill Cosby in criminal court.
[Allred] I ran to the television.
I watched it.
And then I did the interview
in my pajamas.
I'm very proud of Andrea,
I don't represent her ,
but I know that her attorney
and she have shown
quite a bit of courage.
Took a shower, I got dressed,
wrote something very quickly.
So this is a copy of the arrest warrant,
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
versus William Henry Cosby.
For many of my 29 clients,
seeing him criminally charged
and having to face a trial
is the best Christmas present
that they have ever received.
We're happy
that the wheels of justice are turning,
and the courtroom door is now open.
There will be a day in court
for Mr. Cosby.
We'll all be watching.
[Lange] O.J., you there?
You're listening to me, I know .
You're thinking about your kids right now,
aren't you?
-[O.J.] Oh...
-[Lange] They're thinking about you.
[Walters] The police were attempting
to arrest Simpson
for the murders of his former wife,
Nicole Brown Simpson,
and her friend, Ron Goldman.
It was a grisly crime scene.
[Brown] The very first time
I walked into that office,
Marcia Clark's office,
I had to stop at the doorway.
And I looked,
and I just kept staring.
It was the crime scene photos.
It was my sister with her throat cut.
Finally, she looked
to where I was looking,
and she goes,
"Oh, my God.
It's just like furniture to me."
I just thought, "Am I going to be able
to make it through this?"
These are the people
that are supposed to be helping us
and being there for us.
[Rosenbaum] In a criminal case,
the district attorney
represents the state.
The district attorney
does not represent the victim.
It's confusing. People believe,
"Well, I'm the one that's been victimized,
so surely that's my lawyer."
That's not your lawyer.
You don't have one.
If you're the victim
or you're the victim's family,
you are merely there as an observer.
His whole team of people
would be out there in the media,
doing their interviews every single night.
Somebody from his team
was always speaking.
-The victim's sister?
-We don't want to give her a chance...
Someone told me, they said,
"You know what?
The one person that can really help you
is Gloria Allred.
[woman] Gloria Allred
represents the Brown family,
which has custody of Sydney and Justin.
As grandparents, they've tried
to shield the children
from any exposure to the trial.
TVs were turned off,
except in my father's bedroom.
He says,
"I want to know what's going on,
and I want to keep track
of what's happening."
What's your assessment
on the defense success so far?
Well, I think the defense
is doing extraordinary well
in showing that these officers
jumped the gun.
There were no trials
that had cameras in them
until about the late 1980s,
so I probably didn't encounter Gloria
until TVs came into the courtroom.
[Allred] Of course,
everyone in the courtroom
has been instructed to engage
in appropriate courtroom conduct,
so they're trying very much
to hold their emotions inside.
[Van Susteren] Gloria, she's smart.
She saw that she could use the TV.
She could use the camera
to really fight for her clients.
We believe the family of the murder victim
should also have the right to be present
during the judge's inquiry.
You take a high-profile case
that's actually in trial,
Gloria becomes running interference,
almost like a PR position
for the benefit of the family
Most people could not even be open
to the possibility
he might've committed these murders
because he looked
like a very affable, nice guy.
But when they learned of his shameful
past, heard the 911 calls...
You're making my point, Gloria,
about how prejudicial it is.
Let me finish.
[Dershowitz]
Some on the defense resented it.
And who thought of her as a "buttinsky."
Uh...
"Why is she involved in this case?
She's representing the family,
they have no standing."
That's certainly not my position.
I think most reasonable lawyers understand
that there are two sides.
The way they spun everything around,
they turned her into this
party animal,
drug addict.
These ladies would go out
two, three, four nights a week
and stay out till 5:00 in the morning.
It was like, "Gloria, you need
to understand who she is."
She was a mom.
She had two young children.
She loved life, she loved her family.
Please join us in this candlelight vigil
by saying a prayer,
not only for Nicole and for Ron,
but for all victims
of domestic violence everywhere.
[Brown] If it wouldn't have been
for Gloria,
Nicole would have never been
a human being.
She would have always been just
that person on the gurney, and just...
nobody.
[woman] So can you talk
about William Allred?
You never talk about him.
It seems like--
I don't really want to talk about him.
It's been said that you felt
very betrayed by him,
but you've never really said why.
And I never will.
[woman] We're wondering if that was
a hard time for you?
I've had challenges that were greater
than that one.
[woman] Wait. Judge, could you please tell
your client she's being non-responsive?
I know. Okay, start again.
[laughter]
All right, here's the answer.
I've had many challenges
in my personal life.
And I've met those challenges,
and continue to take care of my clients.
[woman] Gloria...
[Allred] It was about a 19 year marriage.
Well, I kept the name
because people knew me by that time.
I didn't want to change my name
to a name that nobody knew me by.
I remember thinking ,
"Gee, I wish I had a Gloria Allred
to take care of me."
Then I stopped for second and realized,
"Wait a minute, I'm Gloria Allred."
[Tapper] Gloria Allred is her name.
She represents women
with high profile claims
to having been wronged.
Actresses, ex-wives,mistresses.
In the end, he betrayed her,
and has humiliated her
in the eyes of her friends
who were aware of the relationship.
[woman] Actress Hunter Tylo won
a nearly five million dollarjudgment
in a pregnancy discrimination suit
against the producers of Melrose Place.
We think that women in this country
have a right to work,
even when they are pregnant,
as long as they can perform the job.
Hunter Tylo can perform,
she can be bold, beautiful,
she can be pregnant
and she can be on Melrose Place !
[cheering and applause]
The former girlfriend of Scott Peterson
says she will testify for the prosecution
during his murder trial.
Now, Amber Frey has hired an attorney,
Gloria Allred.
[Herskowitz] Gloria invented, essentially,
a new genre of law ,
namely representing victims,
primarily women.
[camera shutters clicking]
Our adversarial system requires
that everybody be represented.
And so, although I'm often
on the opposite side of Gloria Allred,
as a defense attorney,
I admire what she's doing.
[Levenson] If you're a woman,
and you have been
sexually harassed or assaulted
by a powerful man,
there are not many people you can go to
in the phone book.
You go to the person you see on camera.
[woman] She has won
a quarter of a billion dollars
just in sex harassment suits.
The problem for Gloria
is sometimes it backfires.
People just want to say
it's all about her,
she's just doing it for her own glory.
And I've always wondered
what that's about.
Is that because if you see a woman
who appears that secure,
you got to take her down a notch?
Karen from Boston asks...
"Is there anything you won't do
to push your ugly mug
in front of a camera?"
[laughter]
I have to think about that,
but I guess my answer would be "no."
[laughter]
Gloria Allred, anytime you see her,
you know something's going wrong.
Whatever she's bringing forth,
there ought to be
automatic doubt about it.
[Mankiewicz]
Why do you have to hire Gloria Allred
and have a press conference
other than looking for a pay day?
-Okay, everybody's got their copy, right?
-Yes.
-How's everybody feeling?
-I feel proud.
You feel proud? You should feel proud,
you should feel good.
[Wang] I've definitely experienced
kind of the blowback of adversaries
sometimes just automatically lump
her cases into, "Oh, it's Gloria Allred."
It's not worthy of attention
or that she's doing something
for her benefit
and not for the clients.
And the response to those people
is always, "Let's look at the facts,
let's look at why it matters
that we're filing this lawsuit."
Why it matters even for the public
to know about this lawsuit.
...victim of sexual assault
will be empowered...
[Wang] There's nothing shameful
about the fact
that Gloria held a press conference
about this issue,
and there's nothing shameful
about a woman
describing being sexually assaulted.
We are very proud
of our courageous clients
who came forward to assert their rights.
A very large part of our practice
is employment litigation.
Somebody was fired from their job,
they were sexually harassed,
they were discriminated against.
The vast majority of those people
are not celebrities
by any stretch of the imagination.
And that I would.
[Van Susteren] We know
about her high-profile cases.
What we don't know about
is the one that she quietly,
confidentially settles
to the great benefit of her client.
She does a great job,
whether you like it or not.
The question is,
how do her clients like it?
And apparently,
her clients are pretty happy.
[Dr. Drew] Tell me something about Gloria
Allred I don't know and nobody knows.
So, she is wicked good at skee-ball.
Uh-oh. All right, there she goes.
There she goes.
Whoo!
Okay.
Your mother has been through
two difficult marriages and divorces.
Would you like to fall in love again?
-Uh, no.
-Really?
No, I don't have time.
[Bloom] One thing we have
to learn as adults
is to accept our parents for who they are.
I used to sometimes say,
"Hey, maybe you should date that guy."
But she does not want to be
in a relationship
and she has not wanted it for many years.
Good evening. Thank you,
mother and daughter, by the way.
I want to make sure I say that.
Listen, if I never met Lisa Bloom
and they walked into a room together,
I would know that they were
mother and daughter.
It's like when you see
a family of singers
and their voices kind of sound the same,
they have the same tone.
We are calling today
for an independent investigation
into the culture of sexual harassment
at Fox News.
And I felt like my story was so...
[Bloom] My mother and I
have very similar personalities.
My mother will be very direct.
She just puts it out there.
I do the same thing.
-Okay, but you're just spitballing.
-And listening to his voice on the tape.
-[Lemon] He's making things up!
-This actually happened.
[Lemon] Both of them have been
advocates for victims rights,
but I think Gloria had to do it
in a much tougher time
than Lisa is having to do it now.
People may not realize just how tough
it was for women and for minorities.
You know, it used to be
sort of an all-boys club.
And so, it's interesting to watch
how they both deal with it
a generation apart.
And I know Lisa like I know you.
She represents women who have been abused,
sexual assault, and so on and so forth.
Why do you think she chose
to represent Weinstein?
I don't know, because I never asked her.
She has a general practice,
and she's an outstanding attorney,
and she makes her decisions
about who her clients are going to be
and who she accepts.
For people of her generation,
especially women of her generation,
to have gotten as far as she has,
to be successful as she has,
I have the utmost respect for her,
because without her,
I may not be able to sit in this chair
every night and do what I'm doing.
-Gloria, how are you?
-Hi!
[smooches]
-Love you.
-Oh, that's hilarious.
[laughs]
Guys, when you grab your sign
and your hat,
-you're gonna go right out here...
-Oh, my God.
Did you see the toilet seats
right here?
I worked at Jos Eber in the late '90s,
and they told me, they said,
"Dan, Gloria Allred's coming over,
she'd like to get her eyebrows
waxed with you."
I said, "Oh, God."
Fast forward I'm gonna say
eight or nine years ago.
Don't know how many times
we've done the parade.
I said, "Gloria, I just bought
a vintage car
and I'd like to get it
in the West Hollywood parade."
And she said,
"Dan, why don't you just drive me?"
I said, "Gloria, there's only one problem
with your entry in the parade."
She said, "What is that?"
I said, "Everything."
She said, "What do you mean?"
[laughter]
I said, "Gloria,
I see you drive by year after year,
and you're in the back and you're waving ,
and your banner's on the side.
The people driving you
are looking at their nails.
You have no music, no color,
no drag queens, no strippers,
no float, no balloons, none of the above."
She said, "What are you suggesting?"
"Drag queens, strippers, floats,
balloons, all of the above."
-And she said something I'll never forget.
-Uh-oh.
Because I was I was shocked
that these words came out of her mouth.
-Yes?
-She said...
[laughter]
"I'm afraid of what people would think."
Yeah.
I'm like, "Gloria, go with me on this one,
I'm telling you, they will get it.
It's our joke."
She says, "Okay." The next year comes,
"What do you need from me?"
I said, "I need a picture
of what you're wearing."
She rang my doorbell and I open the door,
and we're standing next to each other,
face to face,
absolutely identical,
and she said,
"I got to admit, that's funny."
[laughter]
[cheering]
It was phenomenal, the reaction,
because people knew it was our joke.
They know her pretty serious,
but they got to see a side of her,
that she allowed this to be fun.
When we're together in the car,
it's ours. We own it.
For years, every Valentine's Day ,
Gloria would have a news conference
at the Beverly Hills courthouse
because one of her former clients
and friend,
Robin Tyler,
went to get a marriage license
with her partner .
And she would have a news conference
just to show the clerk
turning down the marriage license.
This is not state law as we see it.
[Maroko] The first time she did that,
I said,
"What are you doing?
You'll make a fool of yourself.
Two men, two women getting married.
Marriage is between a man and a woman.
The law says that in California."
Every state said that.
"No, it shouldn't.
Why should it be that way?
The law should be changed."
We'll be back next year,
and hopefully by next year,
you can issue the marriage license
to them.
It took me years and years and years
to try to intellectualize the situation.
It's ironic that Michael
would bring that up because
in the California Supreme Court,
he wound up being the lawyer
that actually argued this case.
-One of the lawyers. Wasn't the main.
-But you argued it.
I argued it, yeah.
Now to that historic
Supreme Court decision
legalizing same-sex marriage
across the land,
and it's profound.
The five to four vote in many ways
reflecting the huge societal shift
of the last 20 years.
[Allred] I am so happy
they will no longer have to endure
the humiliation and the disrespect
that accompanies second-class personhood.
I thank God
that I have lived to see this day
and can share in the joy
that it brings to millions of Americans.
I've never seen you cry
at a press conference.
Yeah. I know. [laughing]
-We've been friends for a long time.
-That's a first. It's a first.
It's okay, it's okay.
-You know, it's been a long struggle.
-Okay.
[indistinct chatter]
The first item is SV813 by Senator Leyva.
Welcome to the committee, Senator.
When I learned late last year
that there was an expiration date
on justice
for rape victims in California,
I decided to do something about it.
As lawyers and as legislators,
we should ask who benefits
from a relatively short
statute of limitations
for rape and sexual assault
and who is hurt.
I am but one of the 50 plus women
who came forward against Bill Cosby
as victims of sexual assault and rape.
Where I once felt powerless,
today I feel empowered
to lend my support
for the Justice for Victims Act
carried by Senator Connie Leyva.
Thank you, Senator. Thank you.
[woman] Thank you.
Thank you all for your testimony.
Are there other witnesses
in support of the bill?
Seventeen, the number of years
it took me
to gather the courage to tell one person.
Twenty-five, the age I was
when I was sexually assaulted
while unconscious, non-consensual.
I'm 100 percent confident
that you guys will make
the right decision,
and you have a zero percent chance
that we're going away.
Thank you.
[laughter]
Hi, thank you.
I knew my rapist, but I didn't call him
that for over 30 years because...
[woman] These are...
You know, we do have committee rules.
And we had four witnesses,
and these are supposed to be add-ons.
-We need to know who you are...
-My name is--
...and what your position is.
All right. My name is Janice Baker Kinney.
-My position is in support of this bill.
-Thank you so much.
And I'm done?
If I could address the chairwoman...
You know, um...
I understand.
If the committee would like
to take testimony from everyone...
-We have rules.
-...we will.
We have rules
that I know we like to follow.
Yes, we do.
But these are people that have been
holding these scars...
...for years, and have been waiting
for this opportunity
to come forward,
-and I want to hear their stories.
-Okay.
-If we may. I appreciate it.
-Thank you.
[applause]
Hi, I'm Janice and I'm back.
It took 35 years
and this sisterhood of survivors
for me to be able to say to the world
out loud the words, "I was raped"
without feeling the humiliation,
the social stigma,
the guilt, and the shame.
I have not been able to speak about this
for 47 years.
It has been a year and a half
since I was finally able to go public,
and it has been the most empowering
experience of my life.
The path has chosen me at 73 years old.
I no longer have to ask,
"What do I want to be when I grow up?"
Now I know.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We do have a quorum.
-Hancock?
-Aye.
Hancock, aye. Glazer.
-Leno?
-Aye.
Leno, aye. Liu?
-Monning?
-Aye.
Monning, aye. Stone?
-Aye.
-Stone, aye.
[speaking indistinctly]
That bill has enough votes to pass.
Thank you.
[cheers and applause]
Yes!
Unbelievable.
-Rolling?
-Rolling.
-Okay.
-Yay!
The women's restroom.
This is where the revolution begins!
[cheering]
That's right. V for victory.
Okay, we need everybody.
One, two, three... girls!
-Congratulations.
-Thank you.
It is the nature of movements
that they come from truth-telling.
Women united can never be divided!
You know, a few people getting up
the courage to say
what happened to them that was unfair,
hearing, often to their surprise,
many other people saying,
"That happened to me too."
...will never be divided!
Women united will never be divided!
And If they unite
and do something about it,
they can change it.
I'm so happy.
I'm so happy.
[Steinem] The final stage of healing
is using what happens to you
to help other people.
That is healing in itself.
[woman] What is your greatest fear?
[Allred] I can't say
that I really have fears.
But I guess if I had to name one,
it would be
not living long enough to do
everything that I want to do.
It's exciting to be here
in my birthday month.
I just turned 75 this month.
I actually was a Hillary delegate
-eight years ago .
-[man] Wow.
It's the best birthday gift
I could ever have
to be here to cast my vote
for Hillary Clinton.
I'm one of the few people who's actually
won a battle against Trump .
It was the Miss Universe pageant,
which he owned.
There was a beautiful woman in it
named Jenna Talackova.
Someone notified the pageant
that she had been born with a penis.
Mr. Trump's pageant kicked her out
because they had a rule,
you had to be a naturally born woman.
We were successful,
but we're going to have to be united
and confront Donald Trump.
-Thank you. Good to see you.
-Takes one to know one.
[man] Hi, Senator.
You have no idea
how many people have said that.
"How are you, Senator?"
I love being mixed up with Senator Boxer
because I love Barbara Boxer.
-Hi, how are you?
-Hi.
-You going to the delegate party?
-Yes.
Come on.
-You get a personal helper.
-Well, thank you!
I'm excited to be back in my hometown.
A graduate of Philadelphia High School
for Girls.
-Me too!
-You're Girls' High too?
-Yes!
-All right! Girls' High forever!
[Tapper] We are about to see
something historic.
For the first time
in the 240 years
that this country has existed,
a woman will be at the top
of a major party ballot in November.
California, the state with lots of energy,
lots of enthusiasm,
casts for Hillary Clinton,
the next president of United States,
330 votes!
[cheering]
[Trump] I'm automatically attracted
to beautiful--
I just start kissing them.
It's like a magnet. Just kiss.
I don't even wait.
And when you're a star,
they let you do it.
-You can do anything
-Whatever you want.
Grab them by the pussy.
[laughter]
You can do anything.
This was locker room talk.
I'm not proud of it.
I apologize to my family,
I apologize to the American people
Just for the record though, are you saying
that what you said on that bus,
that you did not actually
grope women without consent?
I have great respect for women.
Nobody has more respect for women
than I do.
-Have you done those things?
-Women have respect for me.
I will tell you, no, I have not.
[telephones ringing]
[camera shutters clicking]
Today, another woman has courageously
come forward to accuse Donald Trump.
Summer Zervos was a candidate
on The Apprentice,
on Season 5.
She is now deeply disappointed in him.
The White House is not a locker room.
He then grabbed my shoulder and began
kissing me again very aggressively
and placed his hand on my breast.
I walked out.
He then turned me around and said...
"Let's lay down
and watch some telly-telly."
[woman] People are going to ask
whether she supports
any particular political party.
The question was, "Does she support
any political party?" Uh...
The answer is no, right? Is that right?
No, I'm a Republican.
[Trump] Every woman lied
when they came forward
to hurt my campaign.
-Total fabrication.
-[cheers and applause]
What incentive would nine women have
to come forward?
[Giuliani] At least one is represented
by Gloria Allred,
so we know her incentive, money.
"I was sitting with him on an airplane
and he went after me on the plane."
Yeah, I'm going to go after her.
Believe me,
she would not be my first choice,
that I can tell you.
[Bloom] Can I just say something
real quick?
The idea that we should be so flattered
by his octopus hands on women,
that that's a great sign of respect
because he find us attractive,
I just find that highly insulting.
[King] You have to say advantage Clinton
as we head into these final hours,
and this big national lead is why.
A better lead than President Obama had
at this point in 2012.
A bigger lead than George W. Bush had
at this point in 2004.
Ninety-six years
since we won the right to vote.
I know. Can you believe that?
That is insane.
-Which means...
-That is insane.
...that in the year 2020, if she wins,
there'll be a woman president
on the hundredth anniversary
-of suffrage.
-Mm. Yeah.
-Hi. Just any booth you like.
-Thank you.
Okay, cool.
The only place where women are truly equal
is right here in the ballot box.
Women are not equal under the law,
in employment, in marriage,
or in any other area yet.
[camera shutters clicking]
To finally reach this day...
...is a very, very special day.
Susan B. Anthony is on the scarf,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman,
and so many more.
These are names that...
...have been the mothers
of the women's rights movement.
And we are their daughters.
And we are their granddaughters.
Hi. We're gonna be
in that small conference room.
All right, come on in, Margie, okay.
Don't look at the back,
the back is sexist.
So we'll keep just the front.
-I have a... huh?
-What do you supposed to do with that?
You knock her down
and she comes right back up.
You have to seal it.
-Yay!
-Yay!
-Ooh, yeah!
-Yeah!
Illinois! Illinois won!
-Oh, yes!
-Okay!
[man] Oh, these are all...
Boo!
Oh, that's right, no,
President Obama said, "Don't boo, vote.
48.9 to 48.2.
-Panhandle is all red. All red.
-That is very Republican.
-Panhandle is all red?
-Oh, that's bad. Bad.
-That is all Republican.
-Let's listen.
Now we look at the real races
and find out what happens
in these ones that we have no idea
what's going to happen.
Yeah. It could be very, very close in some
of those key battlegrounds states...
Okay.
-You all right?
-Mm-hmm.
-All right.
-I'm good.
Thank you for coming today.
I'm attorney Gloria Allred
and this is Summer Zervos.
Mr. Trump has been elected
president of the United States.
He is no longer just a star...
[moans] I'm sorry.
[crying]
He is now president-elect.
After he called me a liar,
I was threatened,
bullied,
and saw my business targeted.
All because I chose to speak out
and tell the truth.
And he has not yet taken back
his threat to sue me
and the others who came forward.
[camera shutters clicking]
[helicopter whirring]
[man] In cities across the United States,
protests by those intent
on voicing their disapproval
of the election of Donald Trump.
[upbeat music plays]
It is the Stephanie Miller Show
live from D.C.
on "Death of America" day.
Why, look who's here,
it's Gloria Allred, super-lawyer.
Good morning, honey.
Well, good morning,
and it's so great to be with you,
especially right now.
I cannot believe this is about to happen
in the United States of America.
You probably saw this out just
this morning in the New York Times.
Intercepted Russian communications,
part of the inquiry
into the Trump campaign.
I mean, we have a week in which
the president-elect has just settled
a fraud and racketeering suit,
been charged with sexual assault
by your client.
A defamation case by my client,
Summer Zervos,
based on his assertions that,
in fact, she lied,
that what she said was fiction.
Our whole plane from L.A.
was all people for the march.
Our cab driver said, "I haven't had
anybody here for the inauguration."
Everybody's coming as a protester.
-You know, it's a hard moment.
-Yeah.
-You know, I feel as though I want to cry.
-Yeah.
And I always say,
"First we cry, then we fight."
-That's what we'll do.
-Tomorrow we're marching.
-We're marching tomorrow.
-We are.
["Follow The Sun" plays]
Follow
Follow the sun
And which way the wind blows
When this day is done
Thank you so much for being here!
-This is really important!
-Thank you.
[Allred] Thank you for coming today.
I'm attorney Gloria Allred,
and today I'm here in Washington D.C.
for the Women's March on Washington.
I'm honored to be able to be here
with the accusers of President Trump,
who were courageous enough
to speak out about what they said
was their truth about Mr. Trump.
I'm marching today because
it is important to show others
that you can have the courage
to stand up to bullies
and to people who are in power.
And I am pleased with the opportunity
to stand shoulder to shoulder
with those who marched
for women's rights today.
Thank you.
-Gloria!
-All right!
[cheering]
No justice, no peace!
No justice, no peace!
Tomorrow is a new day for everyone
No justice, no peace!
No justice...
A brand new moon
And a brand new sun
Why are we all in D.C.?
We're here to honor
all those who are marching today,
who care about women's rights,
who care about respect and dignity
for women.
Nothing more, nothing less.
-Okay.
-Just with the baby.
-Yeah, with the baby.
-Yes.
-Oh, thank you so much.
-Thank you so much!
Barbara, you're from my district.
The thing about that,
I'm not Barbara.
-Oh!
-You look just like her!
[laughs]
Wonderful! Do your thing, girl!
Thank you for everything you do.
-We're gonna be okay.
-We're gonna do it.
-We sure are.
-Even through pain.
Thank you. That's right, that's right.
Thank you, honey, for everything.
[Allred] Of course,
I went to the Lincoln Memorial
and saw this huge protest
on the steps.
Love trumps hate! Love trumps hate!
[Allred] And...
I decided I wanted to support protesters.
We are the majority!We are the majority!
[Allred] But then,
I also saw very strong supporters,
very vocal supporters
of President Trump.
-You know...
-We are the majority!
We are the majority!
For four years, you're gonna be
very depressed, Gloria.
You're gonna be very depressed,
aren't you?
We are the majority!
You're gonna be giving eulogies
because of all your gay friends
committing suicide.
Love trumps hate!
You're a sore loser.
God's major courtroom
is gonna put you in hell, Gloria.
First of all, I want to thank you
for expressing your free speech,
which you and I both treasure.
Even though we disagree,
I want you to know
that you matter.
-Do you know God?
-Of course I do. Of course.
Do you serve God? That's the question.
What God do you know
that allows same-sex marriage, Gloria?
-Can I tell you something?
-Sure. Sure.
Love trumps hate! Love trumps hate!
The God that I know respects all of us.
-Really?
-Yes.
[cheering]
[Allred] Suddenly, spontaneously,
a number of women and some men
came and got closer to me
and tried to form a space to protect me.
And I could feel
their love and protection.
Gloria! Gloria! Gloria!
[cheering]
And then some around me asked me to speak.
Gloria! Gloria! Gloria!Gloria!
Gloria! Gloria!
Individuals who are gay and lesbian
and transgender
deserve equal rights!
[cheers and applause]
And women deserve
the constitutional right to choose
safe, affordable, legal,
and available abortion.
[cheers and applause]
This is a very important weekend.
This is our awakening
and this is our call to resist
anything that's unconstitutional.
[cheers and applause]
[man] Tell it, Gloria!
We together
are not going to be silenced,
because as Susan B. Anthony once said,
and if she were here on Earth,
I know she'd be so proud of you,
"Failure is impossible." Fight on!
[cheers and applause]
Gloria! Gloria! Gloria!
Gloria! Gloria! Gloria!
Follow
Follow the sun
The direction of the bird
[Steinem] There's nothing more important
than feeling that you
can make a difference in the world
and make it a little bit better.
And breathe
Breathe in the air
[Levenson] Gloria Steinem,
the philosopher,
creates the movement.
And then you have the soldier,
who's out there in front ,
and that's Gloria Allred.
[Kelly] Every day another one.
Sexual harassment, misconduct,
assault, even rape.
The numbers are growing so quickly,
it's hard to keep track
of all the men who have been accused
of predatory sexual behavior.
[Steinem] The offenders
have been across race,
they've been across political lines,
of all kinds, from right to left.
[Hayes] This moment, this #metoo moment,
what do you make of this moment?
It feels different.
It feels like there has--
-Does it?
-Something has shifted, yeah.
[cheering]
[Oprah] When other people
start speaking out,
it makes you feel like,
"Oh, now I can speak out too."
You've been part of the case against
Bill Cosby, then now, of course, this.
Do you think we are finally
at a tipping point?
[Allred] The fight has just begun.
["Gloria" plays]
[cheering]
[cheering]
Gloria
You're always on the run now
Running after somebody
You gotta get him somehow
I think you've got to slow down
Before you start to blow it
See, you guys are not the only ones
that God has commanded to repent!
God commands everyone to repent!
You really don't remember
Was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head
Calling, Gloria?
Gloria
Don't you think you're fallin'?
If everybody wants you
Why isn't anybody callin'?
You don't have to answer
Leave them hangin' on the line
Oh-oh-oh
Calling Gloria
Gloria
Gloria
I think they got your number
Gloria
I think they got the alias
Gloria
That you've been living under
Gloria
But you really don't remember
Was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head
Calling, Gloria?
A-ha-ha, a-ha-ha, Gloria
How's it gonna go down?
Will you meet him on the main line?
Or will you catch him on the rebound?
Will you marry for the money?
Take a lover in the afternoon?
Feel your innocence slipping away
Don't believe it's comin' back soon
And you really don't remember
Was it something that he said?
Are the voices in your head
Calling, Gloria?
Gloria
Gloria
I think they got your number
Gloria
I think they got the alias
Gloria
That you've been living under
Gloria
But you really don't remember
Was it something that they said?
Are the voices in your head
Calling, Gloria?
Gloria
Gloria
Gloria