‘The Pick-Up Artist’: Another Hollywood perv pays the piper

Call him Harvey Junior.

James Toback’s name isn’t familiar to those outside the Hollywood ecosystem. The veteran writer/director still made his presence felt with films like “Bugsy,” “The Pick-Up Artist,” and “Tyson.” Toback got ensnared in the early days of Hollywood’s MeToo movement, established after producer Harvey Weinstein’s precipitous fall from grace.

We’ve spent the better part of a decade hearing liberals cry ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ series was coming to life before our eyes (but only during GOP administrations).

Now, six years later, Toback will officially pay the price for his alleged actions. A jury ordered the now 80-year-old filmmaker to pony up $1.68 billion to dozens of women who claim he sexually assaulted them. Forty women testified against him in all.

MeToo’s net spread wide in the late 2010s, snaring some who were later deemed innocent in the court of public opinion (like comic actor Aziz Ansari). Toback’s alleged crime spree spanned four decades.

Justice proved slow but relentless in the end …

Chocolate reign

The box office has been bittersweet for Hollywood up until “A Minecraft Movie” gave the industry a jolt. Now, just about any IP is fair game, including the popular card game “Magic: The Gathering.”

Yes, that’s just been greenlit. So has a brand known for its sugary sweetness.

We’ll soon see a movie based on the Hershey candy company. Just don’t expect Wonka-esque gags or bratty preteen girls named Veruca.

“Hershey” will tell the story of Milton Hershey, the key player behind the candy company. Finn Wittrock will play Mr. Hershey, while Alexandra Daddario co-stars as his wife, Kitty. Together, they did more than fuel endless dentist vacations. They also created the Hershey Industrial School, a place where underprivileged children could get free education and housing.

The McDonald’s Happy Meal tie-ins, at the very least, should be delicious …

Joel’s off-key endorsement

Who knows New York better than Billy Joel?

The piano man is one of the state’s most famous citizens, and he’s been playing to packed Madison Square Garden shows for years. And yet he just cut a massive check to a man who turned the Empire State into a pandemic house of horrors.

Disgraced New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) oversaw a ghastly COVID-19 regime. He steered vulnerable seniors into nursing homes, where the virus caught up with them and doctored critical death numbers.

A report released in March 2022 by the New York state comptroller later found that Cuomo’s New York State Department of Health “was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes” and it “understated the number of deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%” during some points of the pandemic.

That’s not mentioning the sexual improprieties that led to his 2021 resignation. (He still denies the allegations.)

Now, Cuomo wants to become the next Big Apple mayor. And sadly, Joel just wrote him a $50K check to help make that a reality.

Joel’s “New York State of Mind” includes a heaping helping of amnesia …

‘Handmaid’s’ fail

We’ve spent the better part of a decade hearing liberals cry “The Handmaid’s Tale” series was coming to life before our eyes (but only during GOP administrations).

Yawn.

That rhetoric helped sell plenty of plain red costumes, but reality never aligned with the fear and loathing. Maybe that explains why the show’s co-star Bradley Whitford made a scene in front of a Variety scribe.

We just aren’t paying attention to Hollywood scare tactics.

Whitford, who previously attacked actress Cheryl Hines for being married to a Trump supporter, raged about you-know-who during an interview tied to the series’ sixth and final Hulu season.

His Variety Q&A took place in a café, but the actor couldn’t stop from yelling while attacking all things Trump.

“Misogyny is at the reptilian brain stem of these right-wing Christian white nationalists. It’s punitive. And, man, I’m pissed at all the people I work for. Like, f***ing speak up.”

That’s what Whitford did in a crowded café. And then some. The Variety scribe, whose Trump derangement mirrors the unkempt star, shares how his voice rose high above the shop’s usual din.

Pipe down, sir.

Maybe Whitford can share a room with fellow TDS patient Rob Reiner.