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Yesterday, I had the pleasure of interviewing Director Ivy Meeropol. Her new film is about E Jean Carroll’s trial against Trump for sexual abuse (which she won, bigtime) called Ask E Jean.
It was a fascinating conversation about the trial, but also how feminism has changed since the 1980’s, and also since #MeToo, immediately preceeding Ms. Carroll’s decision to take Trump to trial. The film opens with Carroll telling Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, after she asks her why are you doing this, Carroll says,
“Because he called me a liar, and I couldn’t let that stand.”
The jury convicted Trump for sexual abuse in a NYC Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, awarding Carroll $5 million, then subsequently $83 million for defamation. Here is an Opinion essay by Meeropol in today’s NY Times, and she explains what happened, as well as the difficulties in making the film. It’s not an easy time to make documentaries for a lot of reasons, but this film— about someone who stood up to Trump and won—encountered more difficulties… as one might imagine.
I attended the Trump v Carroll trial to live-draw it. Here is a Substack live I did with E Jean last year, during which I share some of my drawings. I was well aware of E Jean in NYC in the 1980’s, and met her in 2019.
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Ms. Carroll was an advice columnist for major magazines, and had her own television show in the 1990’s. All that was lost when she went after Trump. Throughout her work, she cheered women on, gave them strength and hope and helped them find their power. At the end of every show, she said to viewers,
“Remember: fate loves the fearless!”
Here is E Jean Carroll’s Substack, which I highly recommend. And go see the documentary, ASK E JEAN!
Thanks for being here, all. Keep faith, be loud and stick together!
Thank you Kiwi Rebel, Krista Martin, Musings on Interesting Times,