![\"A](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-19-at-10.44.17-PM-e1508478410524-175x300.png\")
<\/a>A still from Karen Salkin’s new video. Just click on the link in the paragraph right above.<\/p><\/div>\n
There are many reasons we stay mum, but first and foremost is the fear that our careers will be over before they\u2019ve begun.\u00a0 And, sadly, that fear is exactly what the abusers count on.\u00a0 And, until the recent social media craze, we really had no one to tell!!!\u00a0 We could<\/em> tell our friends, families, agents, and managers, but we weren\u2019t able to get our stories out to the masses.\u00a0 (For a similar situation, but in sports<\/em> rather than show<\/em> business<\/em>, please read this, to maybe understand the serious bind we ladies were in prior to recent years, by learning of the extreme torture perpetrated on the one woman who was brave, and perhaps stupid, enough to tell on Peyton Manning: itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/footballkarens-rant-peyton-manning-scandal<\/a>.)<\/p>\n I, unfortunately, have had many run-ins over the years, mostly when I was a pretty young thing, especially when I was doing my television series, Karen\u2019s Restaurant Revue<\/em>. Every pig in the world came after me then. Some still do! I have no idea why these barbarians think they are allowed to ask me if my breasts are real!!! (They are<\/em>, by the way. Why would I have my breasts done but keep my nose???) And it\u2019s not just men in the biz. There are shameless sleazebags in every field.<\/p>\n Karen Salkin on The Tonight Show all those years ago. That was one place where all the personnel were classy and no one bothered her!<\/p><\/div>\n Of course, if I told you about every sexual harassment episode I\u2019ve been through, you\u2019d be reading this one column for the next month, so I\u2019ll just give you a taste of a few of them here, including the most egregious case, which was absolutely horrible on so many levels! (And it involved an actual couch!)<\/p>\n First up, when I was on my second theatrical agent, he recommended a certain photographer.\u00a0 I trusted the agent because his young daughter was a working actress.\u00a0 After a few normal shots, the photog tried to talk me into taking off my top.\u00a0 Thank goodness even then I could not be swayed, and would never do anything like that, anyway.\u00a0 He promised the shots would be tasteful, and that my arms would cover my chest, and that they were necessary if I wanted to get work in film.\u00a0 I still declined, and he cut my photo session really short.\u00a0 I left there wanting to vomit, but with my integrity, and virtue, intact.<\/p>\n Another thing that happened when I was a very young starting-out actress was a very suspicious audition.\u00a0 I should have known something was up when it was on a Saturday, which never happened back then.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember all of those details, but they made believe it was for a legitimate movie, but it turned-out it was for soft core porn, and the people holding the auditions wanted to see us topless, of course.\u00a0 These people are all disgusting. I didn\u2019t comply, so no role for me. Thanks goodness!!!<\/p>\n Just to be on the safe side, I called my main agent to discuss the situation, and make sure the new guy knows that I have a boyfriend.\u00a0 So, we\u2019re at dinner, and the guy is doing \u201cdate talk,\u201d not \u201cbusiness talk.\u201d\u00a0 When it got uncomfortable, I gently said, \u201cI have a boyfriend.\u201d\u00a0 To which he repulsively answered, \u201cSo?\u00a0 I have a wife<\/em>!\u201d\u00a0 I almost choked on my oh-so-expensive shrimp dinner!\u00a0 How creepy!\u00a0 I never ate so fast after that, so we could get out of there, and my misery would be over. (I was torn between skipping dessert to get out of there sooner\u2014he was driving\u2014and ordering two<\/em> desserts, to punish his wallet for him being loathsome! Guess which I did?)<\/p>\n That same situation got worse a few years later when guess what producer hired me for a guest spot on a sitcom?\u00a0 The guy\u2019s wife!\u00a0 And I had to play\u2026the mother of their real-life baby!!!\u00a0 And he came around to watch me do that.\u00a0 So, unfortunately, some of the hits from these show biz slimebags don\u2019t just end with the declined pass.\u00a0 They can have further repercussions, and often for years to come.<\/p>\n As I\u2019m writing this, all different similar experiences from the early part of my career are coming back to me.\u00a0 But they\u2019re small potatoes compared to the big one I\u2019m about to tell you about.<\/p>\n This illustration looks sort-of like what I describe in my new YouTube video!<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s way too long, and difficult, to write about, so the best way to explain it is in one of my YouTube videos.\u00a0 I hope you\u2019ll watch it for a better understanding of what goes on behind closed doors in this industry on a daily basis. (And it\u2019s a juicy one!)<\/p>\n Before I give you the link, I do have one minuscule\u00a0Harvey Weinstein story.\u00a0 I actually met him once, on the day of the Oscars about a dozen years ago, at a friend\u2019s screening room.\u00a0 And\u2026I got a\u00a0gay<\/em>\u00a0vibe from him!\u00a0 I was shocked when I found-out he was married.\u00a0 I really did assume both wives were beards (because how could they bear to go near that repulso,) and was surprised once again when all the new allegations came out.\u00a0 Surprised only that they were from women<\/em>; I\u2019m not the least bit shocked that he\u2019s a perverted molester. (But I just realized something\u2014should I be insulted that he didn\u2019t hit on me??? He was a bit distracted that day, of course, and I was in a group of people in a space where I could not be alone, but still…)<\/p>\n One small side note: Harvey Weinstein is a pig. Period.\u00a0 And\u00a0absolutely guilty as hell.\u00a0 And should not be allowed back into his company, show business, or even his family.\u00a0 But I do<\/em> have a big bone to pick with one of his big accusers.\u00a0\u00a0Abused actress Rose McGowan is blaming everyone else for keeping mum, while she<\/em> took money for her silence!\u00a0 Lots<\/em> of money!\u00a0 Why didn’t she speak up rather than take a bribe to keep quiet???\u00a0 Just sayin’.<\/p>\n Okay, here\u2019s my horrible casting couch story, which is traumatic on so many levels.\u00a0 You\u2019ll understand when you hear the whole tale, and just who was involved:\u00a0www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OYKn2_EWaJM<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MY CASTING COUCH EXPERIENCES Since Harvey Weinstein\u2019s sexual harassment of young things in Hollywood is the big topic of the past few weeks, many people are wondering why abused females have kept quiet all these years.\u00a0 Well, as someone who has suffered similar show biz abuse, but from others, I\u2019m here to break it all<\/p>\n![\"Karen](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-19-at-10.28.46-AM-e1508454355812-300x258.png\")
<\/a>![\"quote-the-casting-couch-there-s-only-one-of-us-who-ever-made-it-to-stardom-without-it-and-claudette-colbert-63-73-49\"](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/quote-the-casting-couch-there-s-only-one-of-us-who-ever-made-it-to-stardom-without-it-and-claudette-colbert-63-73-49-300x141.jpg\")
<\/a>But a friend of mine was not so lucky.\u00a0 She was a sweet young thing who had just arrived in Los Angeles to be a singer.\u00a0 I introduced her to my agent, who sent her to the same photog.\u00a0 I warned her, but she still fell prey to his persuasion to go topless for some of the pix.\u00a0 She cried and was depressed and fearful for months.\u00a0 It was so sad to see her that way.<\/p>\n![\"please-do-not-disturb-backroom-casting-couch-auditions-in-progress-25913720\"](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/please-do-not-disturb-backroom-casting-couch-auditions-in-progress-25913720-e1508454437958-250x300.png\")
<\/a>When I was a few years older, and seeing Mr. X, we were with the same big theatrical agency for awhile. When he was out of town once, doing a play, I was visiting my main<\/em> agents at their offices, when one I had never met before saw me.\u00a0 He introduced himself, and said we should go to dinner that night to talk about my career.\u00a0 (By the way, I always chuckle over all the males who have thought they were tricking me into letting them take me to lunch over the years, especially when I was doing my aforementioned TV show.\u00a0 I love<\/em> going to lunch, and they were paying, and it\u2019s just an hour of my time, and it\u2019s always good popular restaurants, so just who was tricking whom?!)<\/p>\n![\"This](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Screen-Shot-2017-10-19-at-10.08.09-AM-e1508454257590-300x279.png\")
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