‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ May Have Hinted at Charlie Rose’s Sexual Harassment Allegations 16 Years Ago
Zack Sharf
Charlie Rose‘s alleged history with sexual harassment was exposed in a report from The Washington Post in which eight women came forward and accused the talk show host and journalist of making unwanted sexual advances toward them. Surprisingly, a brief moment from Wes Anderson‘s 2001 comedy-drama “The Royal Tenenbaums” is going viral in the wake of the allegations made against Rose.
C. Mason Wells, who serves as the Director of Repertory Programming at the Quad Cinema in New York City, shared the following screenshot on Twitter just moments after the publication of The Washington Post article. The image shows a moment from “The Royal Tenenbaums” in which a Charlie Rose-lookalike named Peter Bradley (played by regular Anderson collaborator Larry Pine) is seen groping Margot Tenenbaum’s breast. The character, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, is 24 years old at the time of the incident.
Charlie Rose parody “Peter Bradley” in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, 16 years ago pic.twitter.com/ZbC8gzsiQk
— C. Mason Wells (@cmasonwells) November 20, 2017
“The Royal Tenenbaums” fans have long speculated the character of Peter Bradley is a parody of Charlie Rose. It’s a reference that isn’t too hard to figure out considering Bradley’s appearance and his show are very much in the Rose tradition.
Anderson includes one scene in which Royal (Gene Hackman) is watching a television interview between Bradley and Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), and the program bares the trademark black-background aesthetic of “Charlie Rose.” One of the DVD extras on the film was also a full episode of “The Peter Bradley Show,” a clear knockoff of Rose’s PBS series.
IndieWire reached out to Wes Anderson’s team about the scene, but a representative for the director declined to comment. The film opened in 2001, which was right in the middle of the eight allegations, which The Washington Post says occurred between the mid-1990s and 2011.
Rose has been suspended by PBS and Bloomberg, as well as from CBS, where he serves as co-anchor on “CBS This Morning” and is a correspondent for “60 Minutes.”
