Gloria Allred: Hunger Strike, The ERA and La Lohan
This summer we caught up with irrepressible, über-lawyer Gloria Allred. Whatever your opinion of Attorney Allred is, she always makes for a good listen. She is smart, successful and knows not just the ins and outs of representing her clients in court but how to best make their cases in the court of public opinion, via the media.
Gloria’s always been gracious with her time with us here at CYInterview.com. This interview marks her third visit with us.
In this go-round, Ms. Allred speaks about her hunger strike to draw attention for the need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the U. S. constitution, as well as giving some keen insights into the ongoing Lindsay Lohan saga.
Listen to the Gloria Allred CYInterview:
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Chris Yandek: Before we get into everything regarding Lindsay Lohan, it’s been three years. How’s the hunger strike going that you’re currently on?
Gloria Allred: “Well, it’s going fine. I’m on the third day of the hunger strike and I have begun a 90 meal solid food fast to draw attention to the need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would provide a constitutional guarantee of equal rights for women. The Equal Rights Amendment, ERA was first proposed by Alice Paul in 1923 and although it was previously introduced into Congress, passed by the United States Senate and House of Representatives and sent to the states in 1972 for ratification, a time limit was placed on the Amendment and ultimately it wasn’t ratified by enough states before the time limit expired in 1979 or within the time later extended by Congress to 1982.
35 states ratified and three more were needed. Now the ERA has been reintroduced into Congress, that’s House Joint Resolution 61, but it’s still in the process of gathering co-sponsors. So my 90 meal, 30 day hunger strike fast in which I’ll give up solid food will end on August 26, 2010, that’s Women’s Equality Day and that day marks the 90th anniversary of women’s winning the right to vote in the United States by the addition of the 19th Amendment, suffrage to the U.S. Constitution. Now we want to complete that by adding another Amendment to the Constitution, the Equal Rights Amendment and it’s very important that we have that guarantee of equality for women and that’s what we can get if we can win the passage of ERA.
So I’m urging everyone to call their member who represents them in the House of Representatives, their United States Senator and urge them to co-sponsor the bill that’s presently in the congress to sign on as a co-sponsor. If they will not support the Equal Rights Amendment then to explain why they will not and to let them know you’re not going to vote for them unless they are there to support equal rights for women.”
CY: Well, thank you very much Gloria. Equal Rights for women is very important and I appreciate hearing about a serious topic before we get into another thing, Lindsay Lohan of course. Three years ago, girls behaving badly, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton you said to me the following and we’re reflecting on Lindsay now obviously, but you said this, “They gotta go in and get some serious help and get rid of the habits that are dragging them down. They’ve gotta get clean, they’ve gotta get sober, they’ve gotta stay that way because rehab as a revolving door is not just gonna work for them in their lives.” Here we are three years later. Linsday is now in jail and looks to be getting out in the coming days and then will enter a 90 day rehab facility. Is this is still your position three years later that Lohan needs to go to rehab and take responsibility for her actions?
GA: “It’s not only my position, but it’s also the court’s position and that’s why that is part of the sentence and apparently she is going to be going into the rehab or at least that is what she is scheduled to do. Where it’s going to be is still to be revealed although some rumors say it’s going to be in Newport Beach. That, the reports also are that she will be in there for being treated for alcohol and opiate addiction or use or abuse and it’ll be very interesting to see if she goes in and if she does where she’s going to go and how long she’s going to stay and how effective the treatment will be. I certainly hope that it will be effective for her and that she can get started on a new chapter in her life.”
CY: In New York there is a Son of Sam Law that states people can’t profit from their criminal actions. There are rumors out there and I’m sure you’ve seen that Lohan could possibly make more money from her first interviews and other things when she gets out of jail than what she’s made from her acting career in recent years. Some people might look at this as a bad legal system, a setup that someone could profit from their criminal actions. Is there anything similar in the State of California like the Son of Sam Law that prevents people from profiting on their criminal cases?
GA: “I don’t believe that there is, but in a DUI violation of probation case which this is, certainly she can go out and do whatever she’s going to do after and I think that she would be able to sell an interview at a very substantial price. I think that it’s clear that those who want to feature her in a film and who have her under contract for the film are waiting for her and of course that will draw more attention to their film and to her if she’s in it because it’s one thing to be famous and it’s another thing to be infamous and a lot of people are going to want to see her in it. So I think that all of this actually will end up helping her and in terms of her marketability I think it will still be there for her.”
CY: Let’s look at the legal system as someone who’s an attorney who’s been out there for a long time. You could admit that the State of California has got a lot of financial problems right now. So I ask you, would you be in favor of some kind of Lindsay Lohan Law that prevents people from cashing in on their jail experiences out there? You know, should there be something like that?
GA: “You know, I don’t necessarily think so. I would be in favor of someone who commits a violent crime against a person. That would be something for me to think about whether they’re selling their story should or could be prohibited, but if it’s a nonviolent crime, I don’t necessarily think that we should restrict their ability to do an interview and to sell a story. There are questions of free speech anyway involved in this. So you know if you’ve harmed another person you know, I would feel more strongly about you not being able to profit from it. If you’ve harmed yourself, I see that as a different issue.”
CY: Could the state of California, let’s say that Ms. Lohan gets a few million dollars. Could the state of California go out there and file some kind of civil lawsuit against her if she was profiting obviously off her jail time experiences?
GA: “I don’t think so and I think it would be difficult to prove she was profiting off her jail time experiences as opposed to the fact she was just arrested and brought back into court. You know whether or not she was ever sent to jail, you know which part was due to the fact that she went to jail in which part of her increased marketability was due to just the fact that she got in trouble with the legal system.”
CY: Yeah. It’s just interesting Gloria as I say wrapping up on this subject, just a lot of people are outraged. It’s kind of like you go into jail for 15 days and then you get to walk out and you get to make a few million dollars perhaps. If you or me went into jail for the most part that’s probably not happening. You get what I mean?
GA: “Yeah, but it, I do think though it’s not probably been a very easy experience for her in jail especially in isolation even though she’s had visitors, just to be in the same room 23 hours a day, every day for however long she’s going to be there even if it’s just a couple of weeks. I’m sure that would be hard on any of us and especially with no communication that is no cell phone, no email, no being able to text as I’m sure she usually does and tweet as apparently she does. So that’s hard to be cut off from that kind of communication especially for young people who are so use to being able to have it literally at their finger tips every moment. So I mean I think she’s been punished and I hope it has a long-term impact on her for the good that she doesn’t do this again, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
CY: Gloria Allred, thank you so much for your time as always. Anything you want to add in the closing?
GA: “No. I just wish her the very best of luck and I know there’s an issue also as to whether or not she is being overly prescribed or is abusing prescription drugs so I hope that’s looked into to find the truth of the matter and I wish her the best.”
For more Gloria Allred, you might like:
https://www.cyinterview.com/2009/10/gloria-allred-l%E2%80%99affaire-polanski-%E2%80%93-the-polanski-affair/
https://www.cyinterview.com/2007/08/3-experts-on-lohan/
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