Decades of Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Harvey Weinstein
October 5, 2017 11:27 AM   Subscribe

"An investigation by The New York Times [has] found previously undisclosed allegations against Mr. Weinstein stretching over nearly three decades, documented through interviews with current and former employees and film industry workers, as well as legal records, emails and internal documents from the businesses he has run, Miramax and the Weinstein Company."
posted by brundlefly (241 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't know why I'm not surprised, but I'm not. At this point, I just default to "Man in power? Probs a rapist."
posted by pelvicsorcery at 11:31 AM on October 5, 2017 [60 favorites]


Of course. At this point, I'm starting to wonder if it'd be easier to list powerful men who DON'T sexually harass women.

Is it that power corrupts, or that those who are inclined to respect others lack the rapaciousness to seek and attain that power in the first place?
posted by explosion at 11:33 AM on October 5, 2017 [13 favorites]


Not even surprised. Not one fucking bit. Men in power seem to love to take advantage of that power in ugly and abusive ways.

*sighs*
posted by Fizz at 11:33 AM on October 5, 2017 [5 favorites]


Rose McGowan doesn't comment, but it's worth reading this Buzzfeed interview with her from 2015.
posted by rewil at 11:34 AM on October 5, 2017 [18 favorites]


Devin Faraci, Harry Knowles, now Weinstein. There seems to be a pattern over the last year or so of these types of people being outed in the film industry. Maybe there's a silver lining to be found in that it's not just being swept under the rug anymore?
posted by brundlefly at 11:35 AM on October 5, 2017 [8 favorites]


It was pretty clear that Maebe's studio head boss in Arrested Development was based on Weinstein, and he was constantly hitting on her. It sure feels like this was another broken stair that everybody knew about and yet nobody did anything about.
posted by maxsparber at 11:47 AM on October 5, 2017 [14 favorites]


pelvicsorcery: "I don't know why I'm not surprised, but I'm not. At this point, I just default to "Man in power? Probs a rapist.""

Weinstein's been a known pig for a long time. It's been a dozen years since the story about him firing Samantha Morton from Brother's Grimm because: "You think Matt or Heath would want to [bleep] that?"
posted by octothorpe at 11:48 AM on October 5, 2017 [12 favorites]


I can find no reason for surprise because much like Bill Cosby, these allegations have been rumored about for decades. I'm hopeful shining the light on some of these long known abusers will help whatever cultural blind-spot we have for realizing them as they happen and dealing with them then instead of filing it into the part of our minds labeled "well, who really knows what goes on and they are involved in media I like, soooo..."
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 11:52 AM on October 5, 2017 [7 favorites]


Mr. Weinstein enforced a code of silence; employees of the Weinstein Company have contracts saying they will not criticize it or its leaders in a way that could harm its “business reputation” or “any employee’s personal reputation,” a recent document shows. And most of the women accepting payouts agreed to confidentiality clauses prohibiting them from speaking about the deals or the events that led to them.
...
In the wake of Ms. O’Connor’s 2015 memo, some Weinstein Company board members and executives, including Mr. Weinstein’s brother and longtime partner, Bob, 62, were alarmed about the allegations, according to several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In the end, though, board members were assured there was no need to investigate.
...
“It wasn’t a secret to the inner circle,” said Kathy DeClesis, Bob Weinstein’s assistant in the early 1990s.
Of course it wasn't a secret to them -- not with eight separate settlements from 1990 to 2015. And yet they did nothing.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 11:59 AM on October 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


“It wasn’t a secret to the inner circle,” said Kathy DeClesis, Bob Weinstein’s assistant in the early 1990s.

Yeah, especially as they're actively building in legal protections for the very abusive shit they know they're engaging in. Ugh. Now you know why I'm always posting about video-games. It's a way for me to escape this ugly society we're in. Sadly, gamergate bros are infecting that part of my life too. No where is safe. Fuck.
posted by Fizz at 12:05 PM on October 5, 2017 [10 favorites]


AGH! SERIOUSLY?

SO tired of finding out why we can't have nice things.

SO tired.
posted by Samizdata at 12:09 PM on October 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


It would be good to remember that some of those in that inner circle were also his victims and maybe the lion's share of the blame can stay on the abuser.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 12:15 PM on October 5, 2017 [13 favorites]


Rose McGowan doesn't comment, but it's worth reading this Buzzfeed interview with her from 2015.

Jesus, Robert Rodriguez doesn't come off looking so hot in that interview either.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:16 PM on October 5, 2017 [7 favorites]


Very curious to see when the Ronan Farrow/New Yorker article comes out: Harvey Weinstein Lawyers Battling N.Y. Times, New Yorker Over Potentially Explosive Stories.
posted by mogget at 12:18 PM on October 5, 2017 [4 favorites]


I wish this were surprising news. Listening to You Must Remember This has confirmed my instinct that Hollywood/the film industry is terrible to women, always has been.
posted by orrnyereg at 12:20 PM on October 5, 2017 [6 favorites]


Weinstein takes leave of absence:
In a statement to the Times, Weinstein wrote: “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go.” He also told the paper he was working with therapists and planning to take a leave of absence to “deal with this issue head on.”
posted by 1970s Antihero at 12:21 PM on October 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


"We're taking this very seriously" is the new "sending thoughts and prayers".
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 12:25 PM on October 5, 2017 [51 favorites]


"Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go."

Oh, fuck off.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 12:28 PM on October 5, 2017 [39 favorites]


If they were interested in taking it seriously, the investigation into O'Connor's allegations would have pivoted immediately to something like "what are our liabilities and who has the complete picture of the amount of money paid out because of this shit" after she her complaint was resolved through a settlement.
posted by Slackermagee at 12:29 PM on October 5, 2017


"She said she had “explained to him that due to the power difference between a major studio head like him and most others in the industry, whatever his motives, some of his words and behaviors can be perceived as inappropriate, even intimidating.”

Still working my way through this (completely unsurprising) article but... on my way into work today I was stewing on the current state of our national politics, as is usual, and I was suddenly overcome with how profoundly awful and stupid most of the people with power really are. One of those "most adults are just children with power" moments.

Obviously Weinstein's "I just didn't know and need to be taught how to be a better man" routine is total horeshit. But, my god, the stupidity and pointlessness of this all is starting to drive me crazy. Creepy asshole is given free pass by Hollywood to sexually assault women because he produces movies that make a lot of money. It's been an open secret for years but the cultural climate has changed enough and The New York Times has a new "bombshell" article so he hires a woman to fake teach him to not be who he is so she can put out some PR spin that will somehow absolve him of his past crimes. He'll stay filthy rich. The films and stars he's made famous will stay famous because...reasons. Because our national standards for what constitutes "quality" is pretty fucked at this point and it's somehow become unthinkable to not support awful things. As if the mostly bullshit (imho) films he's produced are integral pieces of our cultural identity.

So, the Times gets a big story that could've been written 2 decades ago and Weinstein and his company gets to turn guilt into a PR stunt. Of course those who have been abused out of their careers will never get back the time/money/opportunities they've lost.

Stupids not the right word. But it all feels so fucking stupid. I'm ranting.
posted by AtoBtoA at 12:29 PM on October 5, 2017 [28 favorites]


He "denies many of the allegations as patently false", and yet has reached at least eight known legal settlements.... running on the theory of if there's that much smoke there's definitely a pretty big fire, I am forced to conclude that the other allegations are certainly not "patently false", they're either currently in negotiation for settlements or he long-ago strong-armed (i.e., threatened/bullied) the women into silence.
posted by easily confused at 12:32 PM on October 5, 2017 [7 favorites]


Not just "a woman" but Lisa Bloom, daughter of Gloria Allred, both infamous for holding press conferences for women abused by famous men. I normally don't critique lawyers for taking jobs - defending the indefensible is part of what the career entails - but in this case I am making an exception and saying Fuck Her.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 12:34 PM on October 5, 2017 [9 favorites]


A longtime Democratic donor, he hosted a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton in his Manhattan home last year. He employed Malia Obama, the oldest daughter of former President Barack Obama, as an intern this year...

Well, shit. The Fox News/Breitbart crowd will have a field day with that.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:37 PM on October 5, 2017 [3 favorites]


Ashley Judd is a fucking badass. At the same time, it's awful that Judd is uniquely privileged / positioned to come out against Weinstein on the record: she's been successful enough in her acting career that she had the power to not work with Weinstein and she didn't have to take a payout to buy her legal silence under the threat of having her acting career torpedoed. But if this DOES torpedo Judd's acting career now, she's pivoted enough toward work as an activist and writer that she can likely weather the fallout.

And I can't wait to see Rose McGowan's book:
The actress-turned-filmmaker and passionate human rights activist is currently working on a book titled Brave in which she will recount her experiences living in a religious cult and later navigating a successful career in Hollywood. It is believed, and was previously reported by columnist Richard Johnson, that McGowan would detail her experiences with Weinstein in the book. It's currently scheduled for release on Feb. 27 from HarperOne.

It's enraging if Weinstein is the reason McGowan hasn't been in more movies; I really like her performances.
posted by nicebookrack at 12:39 PM on October 5, 2017 [21 favorites]


> In a statement to the Times, Weinstein wrote: “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go.” He also told the paper he was working with therapists and planning to take a leave of absence to “deal with this issue head on.”

Sexual harassment isn't like smoking or drinking, it shouldn't be that difficult to quit (or refrain from in the first place). But by all means, Mr. Weinstein, consult your (multiple!) therapists and do your best to "deal" with this very difficult "issue."
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:42 PM on October 5, 2017 [8 favorites]


rewil: Rose McGowan doesn't comment...

Just before the story broke yesterday, she tweeted
I want to buy the movie rights.

You can also see other subtweets on her timeline.
posted by larrybob at 12:47 PM on October 5, 2017 [8 favorites]


Please remember that in recent days he's been so dismissive to say "The story sounds so good I want to buy the movie rights," and "I don’t know anything about that." His statement today becomes even more transparent taking that into account.

The worst part? It's going to work. He'll come back just like Mel Gibson - rehab, a little time away, and then his famous unimpeachable friends will come out and say it's time to give him another chance. Many who express dismay and disgust today will line up to pay 15 or so dollars for his movies, excusing themselves because they don't want to harm the careers of the women he's hired or whatever else they can come up with to be able to just enjoy the flick.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 12:48 PM on October 5, 2017 [3 favorites]


Well, shit. The Fox News/Breitbart crowd will have a field day with that.

Oh so what? Firstly, I just don't think that's the right focus of the story, which should be Weinstein's crimes and the need for recompense for his victims. But, secondly, in the current US political climate, the idea that single vote will be changed as a result of exposing this piece of shit is entirely implausible, no matter who he's been pally with. Breitbart have literally accused one presidential candidate of treason while colluding with the campaign of another who actually did. In that context, this isn't a political story.
posted by howfar at 12:48 PM on October 5, 2017 [12 favorites]


👏BELIEVE👏WOMEN👏WHEN👏THEY👏SPEAK👏OUT👏!!!👏FUCK👏HARVEY👏WEINSTEIN👏!!!
posted by Fizz at 12:52 PM on October 5, 2017 [59 favorites]


It is a surprise to zero liberal/leftist women/femmes that there are men who pretend to be with us socially and politically to easier abuse us when the doors close. There is nothing surprising about his public face and Hillary Clinton will be the last to be shocked that men who seem good and progressive are monsters in private.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 12:55 PM on October 5, 2017 [46 favorites]


No matter what that statement says and how much he denies various allegations, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his actions were predatory and wrong. The "culture" of the 60's is a garbage excuse. Nothing justifies preying on women who worked for him, intimidating them and sexually harassing them.

He built a code of silence into employee contracts. He settled with various victims eight different times. in 25 years. He knew exactly what he was doing.
posted by zarq at 12:56 PM on October 5, 2017 [9 favorites]


For about 20 seconds I was reading this as Harvey Fierstein and was bewildered (yet still totally able to believe it, because 2017).
posted by Spathe Cadet at 12:58 PM on October 5, 2017 [36 favorites]


I'll say I'm not surprised, but it's because I thought this was known for years. I definitely remember hearing about it ages ago.
posted by lovecrafty at 12:59 PM on October 5, 2017 [4 favorites]


I thought this was one of those open secrets that everyone in the industry knows. Like the illegitimacy of the Golden Globes, Tom Cruise's Scientology-approved girlfriend trafficking, or Brian Singer's underage sex parties.
posted by FakeFreyja at 12:59 PM on October 5, 2017 [13 favorites]


If the past year with Weinstein and Anthony Weiner teach Democrats anything, it should be that so-called progressive men with power can be all too ready to join conservatives in sexually exploiting and abusing women in their sphere of control. Patriarchy is a hell of a drug.
posted by nicebookrack at 1:00 PM on October 5, 2017 [20 favorites]


Can we get a list of the Hollywood open secrets somewhere?!
posted by nicebookrack at 1:02 PM on October 5, 2017 [23 favorites]


or Brian Singer's underage sex parties.

Did you NOT hear me say how tired I was of hearing why we can't have nice things?

DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!
posted by Samizdata at 1:03 PM on October 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


So I guess this is the time to remind everyone that Michael Bay made Megan Fox wash his Ferrari while he taped it as part of her audition process for Transformers? Also, all of this.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 1:07 PM on October 5, 2017 [17 favorites]


I'm pretty sure "men abusing their power over women" spans all those divides - political, racial, etc.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:07 PM on October 5, 2017 [7 favorites]


(I mean I knew the DEN story, about not this bit.)
posted by Samizdata at 1:09 PM on October 5, 2017


So I guess this is the time to remind everyone that Michael Bay made Megan Fox wash his Ferrari while he taped it as part of her audition process for Transformers? Also, all of this.

It's mentioned in your link, but I would like to highlight Megan Fox's first encounter with Michael Bay.
The first time I ever met him, I was 15, and I was an extra on Bad Boys 2. We were shooting this club scene, and they brought me in, and I was wearing a stars and stripes bikini and a red cowboy hat, and six-inch heels. And they took me to Mike and he approved it. And they said, ‘You know, Michael, she’s 15, so you can’t sit her at the bar and she can’t have a drink in her hand.’ So his solution to that problem was to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet. And that’s… At 15 and I was in tenth grade. So that’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works.
Also, one of the robots in TRANSFORMERS 3 refers to the now-absent Megan Fox character as a "bitch" for leaving.
posted by brundlefly at 1:15 PM on October 5, 2017 [45 favorites]


And that’s… At 15 and I was in tenth grade. So that’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works.

I have unending respect for how much Megan Fox has repeatedly spoken up about how disgusting Michael Bay is as a person. I’m also very grateful that she got adopted into the group of LA comedians/comic actors who continue to cast her in their projects after Bay tried to blackball her from blockbusters.

(She is HILARIOUS on New Girl.)
posted by a fiendish thingy at 1:24 PM on October 5, 2017 [46 favorites]


Yeah, I was gonna say. The more I hear from and learn about Megan Fox the more I like her. It's unfortunate her introduction to Hollywood was being treated like a piece of meat by Michael Bay.
posted by brundlefly at 1:28 PM on October 5, 2017 [9 favorites]




@RVAwonk: Harvey Weinstein hired the same lawyer who helped Hulk Hogan bring down Gawker; now says he plans to sue @nytimes.

Hollywood Reporter: Harvey Weinstein to Sue N.Y. Times, Says His Attorney
Harder is perhaps most famous as the lawyer who represented Hulk Hogan in the litigation that brought down Gawker. He's also represented Melania Trump in a defamation action against the parent company of The Daily Mail. That case settled earlier this year. Harder also sent a cease and desist letter last year on behalf of Roger Ailes to New York Magazine, and in his career, Harder has represented many popular stars in entertainment including Reese Witherspoon and Sandra Bullock.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:35 PM on October 5, 2017 [1 favorite]




For the uninitiated, this has been an open secret for years.
posted by joedan at 1:38 PM on October 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


How can he sue for defamation when he publicly "apologized"* for his behavior? "I'm very sorry for hurting people and I'm getting therapy, but you're all FAKE NEWS and I will SEE YOU IN COURT"

* sort of
posted by BungaDunga at 1:38 PM on October 5, 2017 [8 favorites]


So he's stepping away to learn and grow while his lawyers try to take down the New York Times. That certainly sounds like remorse.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 1:39 PM on October 5, 2017 [4 favorites]


For about 20 seconds I was reading this as Harvey Fierstein

I just realized with this article that I have been confusing Harvey Weinstein with Harvey Levin, the guy from TMZ. I was . . . very baffled.
posted by chainsofreedom at 1:39 PM on October 5, 2017


This is such a common event, and so cross-cultural, that it seems to be hard-wired. That's not at all an excuse, but men in power so often sexually exploit women. Women in power may do this at times, but it doesn't seem typical. I look at people like this and I see a tremendous resistance not just to evolution but to to evolving. FFS
posted by theora55 at 1:42 PM on October 5, 2017


Women in power may do this at times, but it doesn't seem typical.

It's almost as if men are completely unsuited to being in power. Not going to disagree.
posted by maxwelton at 1:46 PM on October 5, 2017 [10 favorites]


Some people pursue some jobs mainly for the opportunity to lurk on women or girls. Coach, scout leader, youth pastor, rock star, movie producer.
posted by Bee'sWing at 1:48 PM on October 5, 2017 [7 favorites]


I'm struggling with how to express this--so please bear with me. I'm slightly older than Rose McGowan and slightly younger than Ashley Judd. Ashley & I would have overlapped in high school, but we'd have just been the big kids in the neighborhood to Rose. We're all Gen Xers. And this is just the world we grew up in. This is who men in authority were: coaches, bosses, contest judges, friends' dads. The ones who did not leer or make inappropriate comments or insinuate something about favors were the exceptions, not the rules. We were not only never surprised to hear that another one had said or done something rape-y but also not encouraged to hear someone condemn it.

But hearing how the Millennials react to another revelation reminds me of how we reacted to stories of our Big Kids, our mothers, our grandmothers. Something a little like incredulity that they could not enroll in college math classes or get their own credit card, tempered with the knowledge that we could so the elimination of the background radiation stuff seemed like we could handle.

Not that you are not also encountering these leering men, these broken stair harassers, these mansplaining roadblocks to your success, but that you just don't think it's normal in the same way that we did. You're not surprised but your Not Surprised lacks a lot of the inevitability that ours did.

It's the only piece of hope I've found in months.
posted by crush at 1:50 PM on October 5, 2017 [98 favorites]


Fuck no does Weinstein put Obama a& Clinton in a tough spot unless the GOP AKA Trump's cronies are equally shamed for the big time dicks of 45's ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION

Weinstein was an "open secret;" Trump's trashpile is SINGING BIGOTED FILTH FROM THE ROOFTOPS
posted by nicebookrack at 1:52 PM on October 5, 2017 [9 favorites]


Hey, just to ruin more things, I had dinner with a film person friend last night, and Wes Anderson came up. There was a pause, and my friend sighed.

"Him too?" I asked.

"There are stories," he said.

"Jesus Christ, do you have to join a sex criminal fraternity before they let you make movies?" I asked.

He shrugged. Like, pretty much, as far as I can tell.

"Ban men" has lost a lot of its punch, but...ban men. Like, really. I'm done. It's everywhere, all the time, and I just want to set everything on fucking fire.
posted by schadenfrau at 2:11 PM on October 5, 2017 [49 favorites]


Wes Anderson lost his luster when he signed the Polanski petition.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:17 PM on October 5, 2017 [12 favorites]


A thing that struck me - a similarity between Megan Fox and Kesha (and many many others) - they've been sexualized by the men in charge, coerced into doing things, straight up assaulted, presented to the public by the men controlling their image, then the women are blamed for being slutty and a few years later they're blamed for the slowing of their careers because 'beauty isn't forever.' Both of them talented in their own rights but they've been put in this box by their abusers and then by the public and they are held to account to it forever. The harm never ends.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 2:23 PM on October 5, 2017 [45 favorites]


Reminder (I learned it this week) that director Luc Besson started dating his second wife Maïwenn when she was 15 and Besson was 32; Maïwenn gave birth to their daughter Shanna when she was 16.

I'm beginning to think that men aren't emotionally mature enough to make movies.
posted by nicebookrack at 2:52 PM on October 5, 2017 [31 favorites]


I've reached a point where when these known truths come to light, I just.....don't care about the opinions of anyone who is not an abuse survivor or anyone who is a man.
posted by colorblock sock at 3:17 PM on October 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


Not just "a woman" but Lisa Bloom, daughter of Gloria Allred, both infamous for holding press conferences for women abused by famous men. I normally don't critique lawyers for taking jobs - defending the indefensible is part of what the career entails - but in this case I am making an exception and saying Fuck Her.

I was very surprised and disappointed in Lisa Bloom for taking his case. This is so much the opposite of what she usually does.
posted by SisterHavana at 3:46 PM on October 5, 2017 [5 favorites]


I just watched Audrie and Daisy today, and if you ever wanted a) to be massively fucking angry and b) a terrifyingly clear example of how abusers get away with it with massive structural support, I thoroughly recommend you watch it. [it's fucking horrific though.]
posted by threetwentytwo at 3:48 PM on October 5, 2017


We just give them too much power and too much money. Men do not need so much. Really.

I am always reminded of the microcosm of sexual harassment that exists between a waitress in a restaurant and a male diner. I had so many men hit on me, harass me, ask me out on dates, get huffy with me that I wasn't interested, hang out after my shift ended, etc.. Why? I was a young woman who was friendly to them, who made eye contact and who they had a tiny amount of power over. Your waitress does not want to fuck you. Be polite, pay your bill and go home.

And then you just extrapolate from there. Women show up for the job, a man is in charge and he has the ability to test her limits, in all sorts of ways. He pushes the boundaries, finds no consequences and then pushes some more. Too much power. Too much money. Too much sense of endless entitlement.
posted by amanda at 4:13 PM on October 5, 2017 [26 favorites]


A Pajiba piece on Harvey's Girls, from 2010 which focuses on the actresses who have been the target of his, um, attentions.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:19 PM on October 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


I was very surprised and disappointed in Lisa Bloom for taking his case. This is so much the opposite of what she usually does.

Yes. Her statement doesn't help very much.
posted by frumiousb at 4:34 PM on October 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


From his statement:
"I am going to need a place to channel that anger so I've decided that I'm going to give
the NRA my full attention. I hope Wayne LaPierre will enjoy his retirement party. I'm
going to do it at the same place I had my Bar Mitzvah. I'm making a movie about our
President, perhaps we can make it a joint retirement party.
Translation: I'm a liberal, so I deserve a pass.

Screw you, Harvey.
posted by jenkinsEar at 4:44 PM on October 5, 2017 [16 favorites]


Has anything actually happened to any of these scumbags though? Roman Polanski? Woody Allen? Bill Cosby? Those are just the names I remember off the top of my head, a three second Google would bring up dozens more. IMDB shows that those three are still actively doing stuff - they certainly aren't in jail, near as I can tell. Now this fuck Weinstein coming at Ashley Judd?
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:21 PM on October 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


Hollywood moguls are such gross hypocrites, they pat themselves on the back for saying the right progressive things and donating to the right progressive politicians, while actively participating in and profiting from an industry thats exploititive, sexist, racist, and homophobic.

How can you claim to care about liberal values while denying job opportunities and pay parity to women and POC, and committing rampant sexual and racial harassment and discrimination? I feel like I’m saying this every single day, but you are not a progressive, a feminist, an ally, if you do not practice the values you preach. You are just another dude running his mouth off. From Joss Whedon to Harvey Weinstein to your friend who says they’re a feminist while refusing to do their fair share of the parenting and household maintenance. Full of shit, every single one, disguised in a cloak of righteousness because they know the right things to say.
posted by supercrayon at 5:46 PM on October 5, 2017 [20 favorites]


Has anything actually happened to any of these scumbags though?

No. Abuse of women by men is effectively legal. At best it's decriminalized. So they do it. Because they can, and they know they can, and it doesn't matter because we're not full, real people to them.
posted by schadenfrau at 5:52 PM on October 5, 2017 [6 favorites]


> Well, shit. The Fox News/Breitbart crowd will have a field day with that.

Which Side Exposed Weinstein and Which Side Exposed Ailes?
Notice that it's the "liberal media" that revealed this -- The New York Times published first, but The New Yorker is also said to be working on a story.

Now let's talk about Fox News. Who exposed Roger Ailes as a harasser? Or Bill O'Reilly? Or Eric Bolling? It wasn't Breitbart or Sinclair or the Daily Caller or The Weekly Standard or National Review. Weinstein got away with it for years, but the press on "his side" brought him down; Ailes et al. got away with it for years, and "their side" never investigated them, much less exposed them.
posted by tonycpsu at 5:56 PM on October 5, 2017 [33 favorites]


The $100,000 settlement was “not to be construed as an admission” by Mr. Weinstein
[ . . . ]
Mr. Weinstein enforced a code of silence; employees of the Weinstein Company have contracts saying they will not criticize it or its leader [ . . .] And most of the women accepting payouts agreed to confidentiality clauses prohibiting them from speaking about the deals or the events that led to them.
[ . . . ]
In the wake of Ms. O’Connor’s 2015 memo, some Weinstein Company board members and executives, including Mr. Weinstein’s brother and longtime partner, Bob, 62, were alarmed about the allegations, according to several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In the end, though, board members were assured there was no need to investigate.


I wonder if some congressperson could get a law going requiring management to report up to the board of directors each year how many settlements and how much money was spent related to sexual harassment allegations to the board of directors. Maybe "above a certain level" but not necessarily. Not even publicly, so as light a requirement on these capitalists as imaginable.

But basically a line item so at least internally the people who are supposed to be supervising can see if managers are using the company first as a dating service and second as a piggy bank to hide the first part. "We don't need to investigate, it's only 13 separate allegations that required six figure settlements . . . " seems like it'd be a tougher sell. A side effect is it'd be all in one place if someone wants to leak it to the press.

But I suppose it could actually normalize shit even more. Things might be so bad that a half dozen or dozen incidents and a million or two for one bad apple might seem not bad, once you compare it to other companies.
posted by mark k at 7:28 PM on October 5, 2017 [3 favorites]


I wonder if some congressperson could get a law going requiring management to report up to the board of directors each year how many settlements and how much money was spent related to sexual harassment allegations to the board of directors.

Oh yes, two topics our current congress is so strong on:
-- protecting the rights of women
-- corporate accountability
posted by mcduff at 7:33 PM on October 5, 2017 [5 favorites]


Sorry should have said "introduce a bill." The real point is to get some press.
posted by mark k at 7:36 PM on October 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


Iris Gambol: " Polanski petition"

1/2 the directors in Hollywood signed that damn thing. Don't click on that link unless you want to be really depressed.
posted by octothorpe at 8:02 PM on October 5, 2017 [3 favorites]


The only way to even begin to consider how to fix the world’s many ills at this point has to start with straight white men taking a fucking seat for the next millennium. Sit the fuck down; shut the fuck up. You’ve had all of human time so far and here we are. You forfeit the next thousand years.

That’s the only Step One that allows us to move on to Step Two up through Step A Million. And we’re never gonna get it.
posted by tzikeh at 10:08 PM on October 5, 2017 [11 favorites]


This sounds like a job for the Ladies' Assassination Squad.
posted by medusa at 10:54 PM on October 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


This is not a secret, it's been openly discussed since the 90s. I wonder what he really got caught doing that he's stepping down now?

The only way to even begin to consider how to fix the world’s many ills at this point has to start with straight white men taking a fucking seat for the next millennium.

It's not just old white straight men who habitually treat women like shit. It's most men. Even men I know and like have done things like string women in their 30s along in romantic relationships knowing they have a finite amount of time to have children they have no intention of giving them or expected female co-workers to organize the going away parties or divorced their working wife and "take the kids on the weekend to give her a break". I'm not some man hater, I quite like men, but trying to act like it's only the villian d'jour that treats women badly is something that men do for their own benefit. Not for ours.
posted by fshgrl at 11:19 PM on October 5, 2017 [13 favorites]


Weinstein is adapting one of Bloom's books into a miniseries, if that helps explain why she's doing this.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harvey-weinstein-lisa-bloom_us_59d68d12e4b0f6eed34f18ae (autoplay video)
posted by themanwho at 1:24 AM on October 6, 2017 [6 favorites]


Weinstein is adapting one of Bloom's books into a miniseries, if that helps explain why she's doing this.

Just about to post the same thing. (Twitter)
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 2:56 AM on October 6, 2017 [1 favorite]




Other than their mothers, I think the most consistent person I can recall women tearfully and emotionally thank for their success, under an award's show spotlight, is Harvey Weinstein. Then again, according to TWinbrook8's link to "Harvey's Girls," he had a penchant for white knighting beautiful young women into the business. It's a head-scratcher.
posted by amanda at 8:04 AM on October 6, 2017


I think it's possible the gushing thanks are sometimes performance encouraged by Harvey Weinstein.

This stuck out from the article : [Lauren O'Conner] also wrote a letter to Mr. Weinstein thanking him for the opportunity to learn about the entertainment industry.

Maybe that's just her getting one last jab in, but it also might have been part of the settlement. You'll also notice through the stories about him some actresses worked with him after it's pretty obvious he was abusing them - the thanks might be another coerced request required to keep from having their careers harmed by him.

Another part of the article, how Ashley Judd got out of the room with him : she quipped that if Mr. Weinstein wanted to touch her, she would first have to win an Oscar in one of his movies. She recalled feeling “panicky, trapped,” she said in the interview. “There’s a lot on the line, the cachet that came with Miramax.”

Then, of course, it's the same as every other serial sexual abuser - they get away with it for so long because of the protections they build around them and knowing who to abuse and who to not.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 8:24 AM on October 6, 2017 [1 favorite]


For about 20 seconds I was reading this as Harvey Fierstein and was bewildered (yet still totally able to believe it, because 2017).

Thank you. It's taken me this long since the news broke to realize that they're not the same person. My world is realigning itself now.
posted by dlugoczaj at 11:26 AM on October 6, 2017 [4 favorites]


Harvey Fierstein is a national treasure.
posted by zarq at 11:47 AM on October 6, 2017 [9 favorites]


I think it's possible the gushing thanks are sometimes performance encouraged by Harvey Weinstein.

Just to continue my own train of thought.... I know so many incredibly talented women. They are smart, strategic, empathetic go-getters. They should be running the world, some are getting there. But let me tell you, there's nothing more enlivening and thrilling than a male with his standing in male authority and power take you seriously and even champion you. Because when you have a man at your side, doors can open. And there's nothing more soul-crushing and disappointing than when that guy turns to you to see if you'd be interested...you know...in a more "intimate" relationship. Because now you have a goddamned problem on your hands. I would love for more straight white males to understand how this is. They just don't get it. What if your boss, your male boss right now, imagine it! What if he turned to you after you busted your ass on a super stressful project or pulled off a major win, what if he suggested that you celebrate by giving him a blowjob? Maybe this guy has gone out of his way to further your career or spoke up for your idea in a public way?

Maybe you've seen other under-his-wing guys before you mysteriously quit or get fired when things seemed to be going great for them? Suddenly, you've got a goddamned problem on your hands. And what are you supposed to do now? Take the hit and quit? Tell someone? Here's the nightmare scenario, honestly, you get up the guts to tell someone, prepared for a firestorm to erupt and....nothing happens. There's some serious closed-door conversations. Maybe there's some apologies. Maybe there's some paper to sign. And maybe you are offered a transfer so you don't lose your job but you don't have to work with the guy anymore. But after that transfer, your career just doesn't seem like it's on the arc it was before. And maybe you tell the next guy, "Hey, you can make a fuss but you're probably just better off forgetting about it."

Anyway, if you manage not to get propositioned? Maybe you are really damn thrilled and grateful and hopeful that you made it through and you have actual true merit as a human! And you have a future! Thanks Harvey Weinstein! For not breaking me! I'm so fortunate....
posted by amanda at 12:08 PM on October 6, 2017 [33 favorites]


National Treasure Alexandra Petri, WaPo: Harvey Weinstein and that ‘different time’ when hostile workplaces were totally okay
You have to understand that it was a different time.

The science on whether or not women were people was still very much up in the air. There was still considerable debate about whether a shower was the right place to conduct business. Should you take strangers back to your remote cabin and craft yourself a lamp from their epidermis? Maybe.

It was a different time, a remote period of which almost no records have survived. That is just how long ago it was, and we did not have writing or tools such as the video camera to record how it was to live then. All we have now to go by are the tales of the elders.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:52 PM on October 6, 2017 [21 favorites]


Looks like the Screen Junkies guy gets to join the "film guy who abused and sexually harassed female employees" club.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:25 PM on October 6, 2017 [4 favorites]


None of us can do anything about Harvey Weinstein.
But we can, and should, look around us and find these predators where they exist in our own lives.

Is there a creepy person at your work, in your family, in your circle of friends?
Have you covered someone else's known or alleged abuses or rapes?

Think about the circle around you and do what you can to stop the abuse you can stop.

In my world that involves:

Telling organizational leaders - verbally, not in writing - about men I have observed to prey on young women, or have very credibly heard have bad track records with rapes or assaults. I've made sure none of my orgs work with those men.

Among women, sharing names of men who assault my friends.

Reporting disgusting men to their bosses whenever possible.

Calling out predatory behaviour - in the moment if it's safe, and soon afterwards in private if it's not.

Let's all quit stepping gingerly over these fucking broken stairs to protect them, and instead speak up and knock them out of our lives.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 5:34 PM on October 6, 2017 [5 favorites]


More on-the-record Weinstein fuckery: TV Reporter Lauren Sivan Says Harvey Weinstein Masturbated In Front Of Her
Harvey Weinstein once trapped a woman in the hallway of a restaurant that was closed to the public and masturbated in front of her until he ejaculated, she says.

Jesus fuck he TRAPPED HER ALONE IN A KITCHEN TO SEXUALLY ASSAULT HER I hope this trash human blob dies in a prison fire
posted by nicebookrack at 8:40 PM on October 6, 2017 [4 favorites]


I seldom get a chance to recycle my comment from another post!
posted by Borborygmus at 4:32 AM on October 7, 2017


1/2 the directors in Hollywood signed that damn thing. Don't click on that link unless you want to be really depressed.

I don't follow Rose McGowan on Twitter but I do follow Asia Argento - who is friends with Rose - who did add her name to the Polanski petition. And it's been bothering me for days that she could on the one hand be full of fury because of Weinstein, and supportive of her friend, but on the other hand be supportive of Polanski in such a public way.

So I asked her about it on Twitter. In the very short conversation she said that she wasn't proud to have signed it, was ignorant of the case. She is doing a mea culpa.

I don't know if any of the other directors, actors, and producers have the courage to admit that they were wrong, but I do like Asia a hell of a lot more because she has.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 11:44 AM on October 7, 2017 [9 favorites]


NYTimes: Lisa Bloom, Lawyer Advising Harvey Weinstein, Resigns Amid Criticism From Board Members
The lawyer Lisa Bloom resigned on Saturday as an adviser to Harvey Weinstein, the high-powered film producer facing allegations of rampant sexual harassment, amid harsh criticism of her handling of his defense...

In making her announcement on Twitter, Ms. Bloom did not offer an explanation for her resignation...

“I have resigned as an advisor to Harvey Weinstein,” Ms. Bloom said on Twitter Saturday morning. “My understanding is that Mr. Weinstein and his board are moving toward an agreement.”
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 3:19 PM on October 7, 2017


Among women, sharing names of men who assault my friends.

Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allyne talk about the need for a "red pages" database.

I'm sure there are legal issues involved, but Jesus tap dancing Christ do we need this.
posted by schadenfrau at 3:30 PM on October 7, 2017 [10 favorites]


I have spent more time than is maybe healthy considering if any of my rapists were suddenly famous, would I out them or would I take the payout - and I wish i could say it was an easy choice, but it's just not. There is a part of me that says "You destroyed me, I deserve to just tap out of the money making part of capitalism." I still can't decide if it makes me a bad person.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 4:15 PM on October 7, 2017 [5 favorites]


As to not abuse the edit window - absolutely 100% not making any judgments about people who take the settlement. I worded that all badly. I mean - there is absolutely nothing for survivors to gain from speaking out and many of us do speak out and no one around us cares or listens - so if fame and money were involved, I'd lean towards just taking it and retiring to a patch of land in the middle of the country with a long dirt road leading to the front door. I'm personally conflicted because I know all the arguments for being open and damn the consequences, but the world has to be in a place where the personal cost isn't so high for telling the truth.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 4:21 PM on October 7, 2017 [4 favorites]


1/2 the directors in Hollywood signed that damn thing. Don't click on that link unless you want to be really depressed.

The number of women who signed that thing...yikes.
posted by SisterHavana at 4:45 PM on October 7, 2017


Harvey Weinstein sacked in wake of sexual harassment scandal [The Guardian]
Harvey Weinstein has been fired from the Weinstein Company after new information emerged regarding his conduct, the company’s board of directors has said. Weinstein was on a voluntarily leave of absence after a slew of sexual harassment allegations emerged last week in a New York Times expose. The board on Friday endorsed that decision at the time but went further on Sunday, removing Weinstein from the company he co-founded. The board's statement read in full:
“In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days, the directors of the Weinstein Company – Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar – have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with the Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately,”
posted by Fizz at 4:59 PM on October 8, 2017 [4 favorites]


I have a friend who is an American independent film maker. Being of Southeast Asian descent, and being well versed in making movies, he still works and has many friends in the industry in his native country. He related a story how a producer he knows was hosting Weinstein for some kind of event in Southeast Asia.

"Harvey said he wanted to 'meet the actresses'."
"So your friend let Harvey 'meet' the actresses?"
"Well, they were 'actresses'."
"Oh."
posted by P.o.B. at 5:21 PM on October 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


So, this likely happened because his brother felt the time was right to get control of the company, yeah? There's enough cultural push, enough people nosing around, he's known officially for a bit but unofficially probably much, much longer. If that's true it's wild that the impetus for this far too late verified reveal had nothing at all to do with protecting his victims, but rather good old fashioned jealousy and capitalism.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 5:51 PM on October 8, 2017 [6 favorites]


Reading news of his firing, I feel a perplexing mix of righteous vindication and bloodlust. It's taking all of my strength not to take to social media this evening and name every single man who has ever harassed or assaulted me.
posted by minervous at 5:55 PM on October 8, 2017 [10 favorites]


‘Harvey Weinstein’s Media Enablers’? The New York Times Is One of Them "The paper had a story on mogul’s sexual misconduct back in 2004 — but gutted it under pressure"
posted by indubitable at 7:38 PM on October 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


Well, shit. The Fox News/Breitbart crowd will have a field day with that.

They are still going on about it, including things like "Everyone wants to tout [late night hosts] as being brave... If you want to brave in Hollywood, talk about Harvey Weinstein.", as if nobody on the left is talking about it and nothing is being done. They're also implying NYT is two-faced (for... not supporting Weinstein, I guess?) and this is dividing the left.

Interesting how quick they are to praise the women who spoke out. That's not their normal treatment. Well, frankly, it's not most people's treatment of women reporting abuse, so maybe give Fox a pass on that. I am frankly surprised how quickly this went from first major reporting to ouster. It must have been very bad and very obvious for a very long time. Have the last few Miramax movies bombed?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 4:50 AM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


EXCLUSIVE: JUDI DENCH, WHO HAD HARVEY WEINSTEIN 'TATTOO' ON HER BUTT, SAYS SEXUAL HARASSMENT REPORTS ARE 'HORRIFYING' [Newsweek]
“In 2011, Dench joked that she had a tattoo dedicated to Weinstein on her buttocks to commemorate him making her a Hollywood star. “It was thanks to Harvey, whose name I have had tattooed on my bum ever since,” Dench quipped while accepting an award from the British Film Institute in London. In a 2014 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor said the tattoo was an elaborate joke and was, in fact, applied with makeup.

Weinstein told the story of how Dench showed him a tattoo on her posterior, reading “JD loves HW,” in a 2013 interview on U.K. talk show The Graham Norton Show.

"She took me to the Four Seasons restaurant. She said: 'I've got a surprise. You're a guy who has everything. I don't know what to get you,’” Weinstein recalled.

Weinstein said that in front of fellow diners, including Carly Simon and the late directors Nora Ephron and Mike Nichols, Dench "unbuckles her pants, and on her bum was 'JD loves HW'...a tattoo. She said, 'I put your name on my ass.'””
So we're living in the Upside Down, right?
posted by Fizz at 10:46 AM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


I am so glad that tattoo wasn't real. It seemed very un-Denchlike but as a "cheeky" bit of humour, maybe just like her. And good on her for her statements.
posted by amanda at 10:51 AM on October 9, 2017 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I'm realizing that Newsweek story is sensational in all the worst ways. And I feel a bit bad about having posted it.
posted by Fizz at 10:58 AM on October 9, 2017


Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker:
In the course of a ten-month investigation, I was told by thirteen women that, between the nineteen-nineties and 2015, Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them, allegations that corroborate and overlap with the Times’s revelations, and also include far more serious claims.

Three women––among them Argento and a former aspiring actress named Lucia Evans—told me that Weinstein raped them, allegations that include Weinstein forcibly performing or receiving oral sex and forcing vaginal sex. Four women said that they experienced unwanted touching that could be classified as an assault. In an audio recording captured during a New York Police Department sting operation in 2015 and made public here for the first time, Weinstein admits to groping a Filipina-Italian model named Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, describing it as behavior he is “used to.” Four of the women I interviewed cited encounters in which Weinstein exposed himself or masturbated in front of them.
The story includes detailed accounts of the assaults.
posted by maudlin at 8:04 AM on October 10, 2017 [10 favorites]


I want to repeat that The New Yorker piece, which is exceptionally done, goes far more into graphic descriptions and indepth tellings of the trauma that follows. Please take care of yourself.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 8:55 AM on October 10, 2017 [5 favorites]


After reading the horrifying details in Farrow's piece, I'm overwhelmed by anger. Anger that we have live in a society that lets monsters like Weinstein escape the consequences of their actions for decades. Anger that so many powerful people came to Weinstein's aid to keep these stories off the front pages until now. Anger that he was able to enlist women to help him victimize other women. Anger that he was able to build entire layers of institutional superstructure around himself to intimidate, punish, and silence anyone who might have designs on playing David to his Goliath.

But mostly: anger that so many of these aspects of the story are a repeat of what we've seen with other serial predators. Not just in Hollywood, but any industry where someone can amass so much power, status, and/or wealth that they can end the career of anyone who tries to stop them. These awful men become wealth-generating machines for anyone who is willing to look the other way. They develop a talent for grooming consiglieres and assistants who can help them satisfy their predatory urges. Those subordinates in turn make sure that anyone in Weinstein's orbit is either in on the racket, or can be punished if they try to blow the whistle.

Bill Cosby. Jimmy Savile. Jerry Sandusky. Roger Ailes. Bill O'Reilly. None of them could have victimized as many as they did without enlisting the help of others, using their status and power to bully subordinates and turn them into accomplices.

This is a profoundly sad story, but the fact that it keeps happening over and over again leaves me filled with anger. These men never end up paying the price for their abuse, and I don't know that they ever will in a society where wealth and power can protect them.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:24 AM on October 10, 2017 [2 favorites]


A piece I reread often is Did You Know About Jian. It discusses the bystanders who become enablers by assuming everyone knows about a predator so if you're caught in his trap, you want to be there. It's an insidious human reaction and one we've already seen on display from some of our most respected celebrities this week.

Related, here's a twitter thread On Good Men.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 9:31 AM on October 10, 2017 [15 favorites]


Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Others Say Weinstein Harassed Them [Jodie Kantor and Rachel Abrams, NYT]
posted by melissasaurus at 10:10 AM on October 10, 2017


Goddammit I wish the furies were real.
posted by schadenfrau at 10:47 AM on October 10, 2017 [6 favorites]


I can't imagine the bravery it takes for these women to come forward with tales of sexual harassment in Hollywood. It's almost surreal when it happens to you. And I say that as someone who was once in a meeting with a film executive who offered me a job and then, while we screened a film together, mentioned he had an ear fetish and proceeded to play with my ear the whole time. One of the most upsetting things about it was that we weren't alone. Four people were in that room, all of us pretending this was normal. It was disgusting and made me feel trapped and gross, but you know what? I laughed it off and took the job. This industry is too tolerant of slimeball behavior and the culture has to change.
posted by roger ackroyd at 1:14 PM on October 10, 2017 [7 favorites]


Here's the BS response from the Manhattan DA's office [screencap in tweet]. They claim they couldn't prove "intent" sufficient to charge him, even with the recording.

Melissa Gira Grant puts this in context [twitter links]:
In 2015, 326 prostitution-related arrests in Manhattan landed in Vance's office.

Here's all the DA's use to prove criminal intent in these cases: one signed form completed by the arresting officer. (August 2015 example)

To prosecute a woman for prostitution in 2015? For DA's, one handwritten form saying she wore a minidress is enough.

But Weinstein, in 2015, on a wire admitting to a pattern of unwanted groping, and a woman's testimony, that isn't enough for Vance?
posted by melissasaurus at 1:23 PM on October 10, 2017 [17 favorites]


The always excellent Anne Helen Petersen, writing for Buzzfeed, on gossip as an important and sadly necessary tool for women to protect themselves.
posted by Aubergine at 1:30 PM on October 10, 2017 [6 favorites]


After a few stops and starts, I finally made it through the Farrow piece. I wanted to pull out this story which is from right in the middle. A woman who is a total badass but has been repeatedly abused in her life –
Instead of going to the show that night, Gutierrez went to the nearest N.Y.P.D. precinct station and reported the assault. Weinstein telephoned her later that evening, annoyed that she had failed to appear at the show. She picked up the call while sitting with investigators from the Special Victims Division, who listened in on the call and devised a plan: Gutierrez would agree to see the show the following day and then meet with Weinstein. She would wear a wire and attempt to extract a confession or incriminating statement.

The next day, Gutierrez met Weinstein at the bar of the Tribeca Grand Hotel. A team of undercover officers helped guide her through the interaction. On the recording, which I have heard in full, Weinstein lists actresses whose careers he has helped and offers Gutierrez the services of a dialect coach. Then he presses her to join him in his hotel room while he showers. Gutierrez says no repeatedly; Weinstein persists, and after a while she accedes to his demand to go upstairs. But, standing in the hallway outside his room, she refuses to go farther. In an increasingly tense exchange, he presses her to enter. Gutierrez says, “I don’t want to,” “I want to leave,” and “I want to go downstairs.” She asks him directly why he groped her breasts the day before.

“Oh, please, I’m sorry, just come on in,” Weinstein says. “I’m used to that. Come on. Please.”
“You’re used to that?” Gutierrez asks, sounding incredulous.
“Yes,” Weinstein says. He later adds, “I won’t do it again.”

After almost two minutes of back-and-forth in the hallway, Weinstein finally agrees to let her leave.

According to a law-enforcement source, Weinstein, if charged, would have most likely faced a count of sexual abuse in the third degree, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of three months in jail. But, as the police investigation proceeded and the allegation was widely reported, details about Gutierrez’s past began to appear in the tabloids. In 2010, as a young contestant in a beauty pageant associated with the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Gutierrez had attended one of his infamous Bunga Bunga parties. She claimed that she had been unaware of the nature of the party before arriving, and eventually became a witness in a bribery case against Berlusconi, which is still ongoing. Gossip outlets also reported that Gutierrez, as a teen-ager, had made an allegation of sexual assault against an older Italian businessman but later declined to coöperate with prosecutors.

Two sources close to the police investigation said that they had no reason to doubt Gutierrez’s account of the incident. One of them, a police source, said that the department had collected more than enough evidence to prosecute Weinstein. But the other source said that Gutierrez’s statements about her past complicated the case for the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr. After two weeks of investigation, the District Attorney’s office decided not to file charges. The D.A.’s office declined to comment on this story but pointed me to its statement at the time: “This case was taken seriously from the outset, with a thorough investigation conducted by our Sex Crimes Unit. After analyzing the available evidence, including multiple interviews with both parties, a criminal charge is not supported.”

“We had the evidence,” the police source involved in the operation told me. “It’s a case that made me angrier than I thought possible, and I have been on the force a long time.”
Now. Who else? Who else is getting covered up today? Let's put their names to the light.
posted by amanda at 2:51 PM on October 10, 2017 [11 favorites]


Louis CK is trending on my twitter right now.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 3:24 PM on October 10, 2017 [3 favorites]


God, that tape excerpt in the New Yorker piece... At once intimidating and frightening, imagining what it was like to be alone in the hallway with him, but at the same time so pathetic and whiney. Pleading not to embarrass him at this hotel where they know him, he's famous, come on, it's just five minutes... Ugh. It makes my stomach turn.
posted by lovecrafty at 3:25 PM on October 10, 2017 [3 favorites]




Terry Crews tweeted that he was also sexually assaulted (I'm sorry, I don't know what's the best word to use) by a Hollywood exec, though an unnamed one, not Weinstein. Here are his unedited tweets posted yesterday shortly after noon; I hope this is okay.
This whole thing with Harvey Weinstein is giving me PTSD. Why? Because this kind of thing happened to ME. (1/Cont.)

My wife n I were at a Hollywood function last year n a high level Hollywood executive came over 2 me and groped my privates. (2/cont.)

Jumping back I said What are you doing?! My wife saw everything n we looked at him like he was crazy. He just grinned like a jerk. (3/cont.)

I was going to kick his ass right then— but I thought twice about how the whole thing would appear. (4/cont.)

“240 lbs. Black Man stomps out Hollywood Honcho” would be the headline the next day. (5/cont.)

Only I probably wouldn’t have been able to read it because I WOULD HAVE BEEN IN JAIL. So we left. (6/cont.)

That night and the next day I talked to everyone I knew that worked with him about what happened. (7/cont.)

He called me the next day with an apology but never really explained why he did what he did. (8/cont.)

I decided not 2 take it further becuz I didn’t want 2b ostracized— par 4 the course when the predator has power n influence. (9/cont.)

I let it go. And I understand why many women who this happens to let it go. (10/cont.)

Who’s going 2 believe you? ( few) What r the repercussions?(many) Do u want 2 work again? (Yes) R you prepared 2b ostracized?(No)(11/cont.)

I love what I do. But it’s a shame and the height of disappointment when someone tries to takes advantage of that. (12/cont.)

He knows who he is. But sumtimes Uhav2 wait & compare notes w/ others who’ve been victimized in order 2gain a position of strength. (13cont)

I understand and empathize with those who have remained silent. But Harvey Weinstein is not the only perpetrator. (14/cont.)

Hollywood is not the only business where this happens, and to the casualties of this behavior— you are not alone. (15/cont.)

Hopefully, me coming forward with my story will deter a predator and encourage someone who feels hopeless. (16/end)
*loud exhale* I thank everyone who is walking -no- pushing us toward a brighter consent-conscious future. Terry Crews, those coming forward, the victims, survivors, and everyone here on Metafilter.
posted by one teak forest at 1:21 AM on October 11, 2017 [8 favorites]


Aha....

But TWC has been hemorrhaging money and staff since the box-office failure of 2015's The Hateful Eight, which was directed by Quentin Tarantino, ironically the same filmmaker who had cemented Miramax's place on the map with Pulp Fiction 21 years earlier. And this year, even before the publication of the Times article, the prospects for TWC's slate of Oscar hopefuls looked painfully bleak. - The Hollywood Reporter

That's the only reason this is coming to light now. Everybody knew, but they chose to benefit from his successful work instead.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 2:38 AM on October 11, 2017 [7 favorites]


That and a man has raised the issue (his brother). Women’s voices are barely heard (we can’t stand their voices, have so much trouble hearing the “pitch”) unless a man is there to amplify them, for his own ends. Bob Weinstein is probably surprised this has gone so well but then they both appear adept at smearing young actresses and models in the media.
posted by amanda at 6:40 AM on October 11, 2017 [6 favorites]


Terry Crews tweeted that he was also sexually assaulted (I'm sorry, I don't know what's the best word to use)

Groping is considered a form of sexual assault. That is the right term to use.
posted by zarq at 7:25 AM on October 11, 2017 [6 favorites]


Harvey Weinstein and I at The Hotel Du Cap by Zoë Brock. Nauseating.
Ben took the opportunity to apologize to me.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I want you to know that of all the girls he does this to you are the one I really felt bad about. You deserve better.”

This comment made me nauseous. It was an admission of his sycophantic enabling. I could see the guy felt truly remorseful. He was near tears. But I could also tell that he had no idea how messed up this ‘apology’ was. How many girls were there? Did this shit happen every day?
Ben is Ben Silverman. Per Ms. Brock, Silverman was Weinstein's assistant and enabler back then. It would appear he's gone from helping Harvey Weinstein molest and sexually assault young actresses and models to acting as Exec Producer on popular NBC, ABC and CW shows like Ugly Betty, 30 Rock and Jane the Virgin.
posted by zarq at 7:36 AM on October 11, 2017 [7 favorites]


Between this and the truly disgusting stuff coming out about a department chair at BU, my social media and news in general has been inescapably full of awful sexual assault on top of general inescapable political awfulness and I'm twisted into knots of anger and fear and hopelessness. On the one hand, it's amazing that this is a conversation we are having. On the other hand, why do we have to have this conversation over and over and over and over?
posted by ChuraChura at 8:23 AM on October 11, 2017 [2 favorites]


Seth MacFarlane Calls Out Harvey Weinstein Back In 2013 [YouTube]
'Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein,'
And then awkward laughter. I do not recall this joke but this video has been everywhere this morning.
posted by Fizz at 8:26 AM on October 11, 2017


Rose McGowan is incredibly clear on her twitter that the entire board knew the whole time. Bob Weinstein didn't put this in motion to save anyone, he did it to oust his brother. I wonder if he knew how far reaching of a bombshell it was going to be.

Rose is also clear that Ben Affleck knew.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 9:36 AM on October 11, 2017 [6 favorites]


Actress Hilarie Burton talks about that time Ben Affleck groped her when she was an MTV VJ.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 9:42 AM on October 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


The Zoë Brock piece shows what a well-oiled machine it all was— how she was carefully extracted from her group of acquaintances through the help of multiple accomplices (procurers?), taken to a second location that was mostly inaccessible from any form of transportation not provided by Weinstein himself, where the staff was all in on it and unlikely to help her, no way to communicate with anyone. Weird to see that Rufus Sewell was the one who warned her that Weinstein would try to rape her again the next morning after staging a scene of “apologizing”— on the one hand, Sewell helped her escape by telling her what would happen the next morning. On the other hand, he knew enough about the process to predict what would happen, meaning he had seen it multiple times before.

How the whole social circle sneered at her the next day, refusing to believe her when she said nothing had happened. How Weinstein sent her a “thanks for last night” bouquet to ensure that no one would believe her. How practiced it all was. How his work as a producer clearly extended into this lifelong project: trapping women and sexually assaulting them.

One really poignant part in her account is the moment where she tries to regroup and figure out how she can get out without being hurt or killed. It’s the impossible calculation so many women are forced to make in so many settings— can I say no without being punched? Raped? Murdered? Can I make an excuse instead of saying no? Do I have any allies? Is he drunk enough that I can get past him? Are the doors locked? If I get outside the doors will there be someone waiting to herd me back inside? If I let him massage me can I get out without anything else? If I offer to massage him can I get him down on his face and escape? How do I get back to the mainland if I can get out of the hotel? A person who I thought was my friend and a “good guy” just left me here with him based on a pre-arranged signal— who else is in on this?
posted by a fiendish thingy at 11:01 AM on October 11, 2017 [21 favorites]




And what about those women (like me) who were bullied into sex? They/we can't 'come out' like those who said no and were able to get away.

I try to look on the bright side (like crush - fantastic comment!) but I really just want drop rocks on their heads.
posted by mgrrl at 1:31 PM on October 11, 2017 [4 favorites]




^^i was wrong in my comment. I wrote it before I read the New Yorker interview with Asia Argento (and others).

I feel like it's easier to talk about the sexual harassment you've experienced if you feel proud - if you've fought, or walked out, or said no lots of times, or whatever. I should have known better but it's my internalised shame getting in the way I think.
posted by mgrrl at 4:53 PM on October 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


And for content Jia Tolentino's piece in the New Yorker gets it
posted by mgrrl at 4:56 PM on October 11, 2017 [6 favorites]


I just keep thinking over and over about how we react and what we think when we hear, "She slept her way to the top."

And how Weinstein (and infinite scores of men) use that notion to undercut their victims right from the get go! Before they even have a chance to be victims!

"She slept her way to the top."

Obviously, she doesn't deserve the success. It's not real. She didn't work. She allowed herself to be abused and then reaped undue rewards from it. Look at her.

"She was raped her way to the top."

"She was groped and assaulted her way to the top."

"She was masturbated at her way to the top."

And then we don't want them to take a payout! We want them to be noble. We want them to be the moral compass in such a gray, mysterious, who-knows-the-minds-of-men situation. Do the right thing.

"She morally and nobly and femininely died in obscurity."
posted by amanda at 6:11 PM on October 11, 2017 [19 favorites]


USC turned down Weinstein's donation of $5 million. On the same day that a high ranking university official in charge of fundraising had to step down after being accused by multiple women of sexual harassment. Which followed the interim dean of the medical school resigning over a sexual harassment case that USC paid off several years ago. Of course, he was himself replacing a dean with a well-publicized drug scandal, and - surprise! - multiple accusations of bullying and harassment.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 7:51 PM on October 11, 2017 [5 favorites]


The Zoe Brock piece is a terrifying horror movie.
posted by nicebookrack at 10:14 PM on October 11, 2017 [3 favorites]


And now Rose McGowan's Twitter has been shut down for "breaking the terms of service". So there's that. Who in the hell over there is in Weinstein's pocket? Jesus.
posted by Rush-That-Speaks at 1:41 AM on October 12, 2017 [14 favorites]


I'm Not Even Supposed to Be Here Today!, I immediately thought of that piece about Ghomeshi too. But then, so many recent revelations about celebrities have made me think of it lately.

zarq: Ben is Ben Silverman. Per Ms. Brock, Silverman was Weinstein's assistant and enabler back then. It would appear he's gone from helping Harvey Weinstein molest and sexually assault young actresses and models to acting as Exec Producer on popular NBC, ABC and CW shows like Ugly Betty, 30 Rock and Jane the Virgin.

There are a lot of TV shows and movies that will be hard to enjoy as more revelations come out, but perhaps from now on I just need to assume that there's been some kind of abuse of power in the creation of most entertainment requiring a team effort.

And this made me think about the Catholic Church and its layers of enabling, covering up abuse, shuffling abusers around. Even if your own bishop didn't abuse someone, he knew about or enabled others to abuse, and was rewarded for staying silent. The rot is throughout the system. It belongs to the system.

This is not much different than the acknowledgment of the role of colonialism in the roots of one's country. Like other structures, the entertainment industry is built on the silent, unacknowledged suffering of a disenfranchised minority whom the colonizers view as objects for their use and pleasure.

I only hope that with more of the systemic rot being brought to light--and although it's important that individuals be prosecuted, they can't be seen as monstrous outliers, separate from the system that enabled them--the system itself will be examined and overhauled. By women and their allies. I have to hope it.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:24 AM on October 12, 2017 [8 favorites]


Who in the hell over there is in Weinstein's pocket? Jesus.

I don't think it's anybody in Weinstein's pocket per se. It's just that both Twitter's and Facebook's abuse/support teams have been fully captured by alt-right ideologies (freeze peach above all, as long as you don't challenge the hegemonic culture). I'm not sure whether it's a founder effect or deliberate infiltration over time, but at this point I just assume everybody working there is either a goosestepping piece of shit of their own volition or else so fully constrained by rules and guidelines that were written by the goosestepping pieces of shit that it's impossible to tell the difference.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:06 PM on October 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


Kate Beckinsale posted a statement on Instagram:
"I was called to meet Harvey Weinstein at the Savoy Hotel when I was 17. I assumed it would be in a conference room which was very common.When I arrived ,reception told me to go to his room . He opened the door in his bathrobe . I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older ,unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him .After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left ,uneasy but unscathed.A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting .I realized he couldn't remember if he had assaulted me or not .I had what I thought were boundaries - I said no to him professionally many times over the years-some of which ended up with him screaming at me calling me a cunt and making threats, some of which made him laughingly tell people oh "Kate lives to say no to me ." It speaks to the status quo in this business that I was aware that standing up for myself and saying no to things,while it did allow me to feel uncompromised in myself,undoubtedly harmed my career and was never something I felt supported by anyone other than my family.I would like to applaud the women who have come forward , and to pledge that we can from this create a new paradigm where producers,managers,executives and assistants and everyone who has in the past shrugged and said " well, that's just Harvey /Mr X/insert name here " will realize that we in numbers can affect real change.For every moment like this there have been thousands where a vulnerable person has confided outrageous unprofessional behavior and found they have no recourse, due to an atmosphere of fear that it seems almost everyone has been living in .I had a male friend who, based on my experience,warned a young actress who said she was going to dinner with Harvey to be careful. He received a phone call the next day saying he would never work in another Miramax film ;the girl was already sleeping with Harvey and had told him that my friend had warned her off.Let's stop allowing our young women to be sexual cannon fodder,and let's remember that Harvey is an emblem of a system that is sick,and that we have work to do."
Someone on twitter said "is this why we only ever see her in vampire movies???"
posted by a fiendish thingy at 12:38 PM on October 12, 2017 [17 favorites]


Claire Forlani also posted a statement on Twitter. It's an image and I'm not going to transcribe the whole thing, but this part was really interesting to me:
"I remember when Thandie Newton spoke out about a director that I had also had a disgusting experience with and I felt scared even reading what she said publicly about him, thinking damn she’s going to get crucified for that. Yet I was in awe of her bravery and balls, she was a female crusader, modern suffragette and I loved her for it. But I also knew I didn’t have those balls, too scared of the repercussions.

This was because when you did react to a man or tell a man to shove it, there were always repercussions, I was punished when I was brave. So I learnt to let it go and carry on."
She also said that Ronan Farrow asked to speak to him for his article, but multiple men close to her warned her not to speak out.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 12:44 PM on October 12, 2017 [9 favorites]


More from Rose McGowan [condensed from several tweets]:
@jeffbezos I told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof. I had already sold a script I wrote to your studio, it was in development. When I heard a Weinstein bailout was in the works. I forcefully begged studio head to do the right thing. I was ignored. Deal was done. Amazon won a dirty Oscar. I called my attorney & said I want to get my script back, but before I could, #2 @amazonstudios called to say my show was dead. I am calling on you to stop funding rapists, alleged pedos and sexual harassers. I love @amazon but there is rot in Hollywood
She didn't state the Amazon studio head's name, but this article from August 2017 is unsurprising, given this history:
Amazon Studios head reportedly investigated over claim he made sexual remarks to 'The Man in the High Castle' producer
posted by melissasaurus at 1:22 PM on October 12, 2017 [8 favorites]


Rose McGowan suspended from Twitter after accusing Ben Affleck of lying about Harvey Weinstein -- “TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK."

WTF, Twitter? This is the bridge too far for you?
posted by filthy light thief at 1:49 PM on October 12, 2017 [4 favorites]


I keep asking why Amazon seems to love abusers so much. They put 7th Heaven back up as soon as the news cycle changed. They put The Cosby Show up the day of the hung jury. They are just shoveling money at Woody Allen. They are seemingly deeply involved with Weinstein. I might just have to cancel Amazon Prime when it comes up for renewal.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 2:02 PM on October 12, 2017 [6 favorites]


I'm terrified for Rose McGowan that in a year, five years, when the news cycle has moved on, Weinstein will creep back and sue her for ruinous amounts of money for speaking out now against Weinstein despite the payout she was made to take to contract her silence. Are you allowed to break a nondisclosure agreement if the New York Times breaks it for you first?

Suing his victims would be horrifically bad PR for Weinstein, but as vindictive and vicious as he's been proven to be, I can't dismiss the possibility that in the process of losing everything, Weinstein could try to hurt as many of his victims as possible in a pyrrhic revenge.
posted by nicebookrack at 2:23 PM on October 12, 2017 [6 favorites]




As more women speak out about being assaulted and harassed by Weinstein, a loose profile of his chosen targets is starting to emerge: young, thin, conventionally attractive, white or light-skinned cis women, early enough in their careers to have little power. How many older, POC etc women lost opportunities or were rejected in their Hollywood careers because Harvey Weinstein thought they weren't pretty enough to rape? How many of his victims aren't speaking up now because they're disadvantaged and rightly fear they risk more loss for speaking up? I feel ill just typing this.
posted by nicebookrack at 3:08 PM on October 12, 2017 [6 favorites]


#WomenBoycottTwitter starts at midnight EST tonight and goes for 24 hours. I don't tweet enough for anyone to notice, but I won't be checking until midnight on Friday night/ Saturday morning.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:05 PM on October 12, 2017 [5 favorites]


Count me in as another boycotter on Twitter. I don't tweet enough or have enough followers for it to be particularly meaningful, but I'm hopeful that the drop in traffic sends some kind of message to Jack and Biz that the current state of affairs on that hellsite is unacceptable.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:25 PM on October 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


Ben is Ben Silverman. Per Ms. Brock, Silverman was Weinstein's assistant and enabler back then.

Brock has since corrected her statement to note the assistant in question was not Ben Silverman but a man named Rick Schwartz:

UPDATED TO REFLECT CORRECT NAME OF WEINSTEIN’S ASSISTANT: RICK SCHWARTZ.
posted by mediareport at 5:27 AM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


TMZ claims that Weinstein's contract prohibits the company from firing him for sexual harassment as long as he pays out the settlements.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:40 AM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Harvey Weinstein Never Paid for the $100,000 Cecily Brown He Bought at Planned Parenthood’s Charity Auction. Planned Parenthood isn't returning Harvey Weinstein's money because he never made good on the donation.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:27 AM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


TMZ claims that Weinstein's contract prohibits the company from firing him for sexual harassment as long as he pays out the settlements.


Christ. How does agreeing ahead of time not to fire a sexual harasser, while you invite his victims into the wolves den, not make you as a company instantly and massively liable for massive damages as soon as the harasser strikes? You are creating the "hostile work environment" even if the employee picks up the tab for their own personal liability.

Also not to be snooty but adhering to traditional notions of "quality" in writing or editing really isn't a TMZ priority, is it?
posted by mark k at 11:15 PM on October 13, 2017 [7 favorites]


"The crisis in masculinity": Very interesting interview with Emma Thompson about Harvey Weinstein and "pestering" in the film industry.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:08 AM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Maybe this has been said, but I feel like there are a frightening number of men who don't speak up about sexual assault and harassment because they don't want to give up the freedom to do it, even if they haven't yet.
posted by AFABulous at 8:05 AM on October 14, 2017 [6 favorites]


Someone on here said, sometime in the last year, and I thought it was very astute that the next phase for "woke men" is learning how to graciously take a "No." Like, they are pro-woman and total feminists and super woke to women's issues and therefore women should just dive into bed with them. But if when you're told "no" you suddenly drop all your woman-supporting bona fides and harass, shame, grope or even rape a woman, well, you've totally missed the plot.

I would love for men as a culture to grapple with their sex drive. (Your boner is not an emergency!) In general, we seem to deal with it via the religious-shaming route or there's the 'Men! What do you expect?!' snarky, shoulder-shrugging approach. I think especially in American culture, men are unusually repressed in some ways and then totally given outlets that are terrifying in other ways (hello, strange-porn industry). You rely on women for everything and therefore blame them for everything. See also the threads on male loneliness and lack of affection or intimacy with other men.
posted by amanda at 9:18 AM on October 14, 2017 [6 favorites]


I appreciated Seth Meyers' non-wincing take on this. Male entitlement. Full stop.
posted by amanda at 10:22 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


I would love for men as a culture to grapple with their sex drive. (Your boner is not an emergency!)

There was a SHOCKING difference in my sex drive before and after starting testosterone and I suddenly understood a lot of things that men talk about. I had sexual thoughts about people I'd never noticed before. I'd get boners in totally random places, like laundromats. There's a reason they call transition "second puberty." I can't really direct my sex drive; the thoughts are pretty spontaneous and often intrusive. But I've never been seriously tempted to act on them and any suggestion that one "can't help it" is completely disingenuous. Every guy knows how to masturbate. If it were really about sex, everyone with a testosterone level over say, 800 ng/dl, would be a rapist. It's about power.
posted by AFABulous at 11:21 AM on October 14, 2017 [8 favorites]


Weinstein was apparently just kicked out of the Academy.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:28 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Sarah Polley: The Men You Meet Making Movies (SLNYT)
Director Sarah Polley on her meeting with Weinstein, as a then-19-year-old actor in a Miramax film. Not graphic, mainly because: In the taxi, the publicist looked at me and said: “I’m going in with you. And I’m not leaving your side.”
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:45 PM on October 14, 2017 [11 favorites]


That Polley piece is amazing.

On sets, I saw women constantly pressured to exploit their sexuality and then chastised as sluts for doing so. Women in technical jobs were almost nonexistent, and when they were there, they were constantly being tested to see if they really knew what they were doing. You felt alone, in a sea of men. I noticed my own tendency to want to be “one of the boys,” to distance myself from the humiliation of being a woman on a film set, where there were so few of us.

The humiliation of being a woman.
posted by amanda at 5:28 PM on October 14, 2017 [6 favorites]


Courtney Love Warned About Harvey Weinstein In This 2005 Red Carpet Interview

"Although I wasn't one of his victims, I was eternally banned by CAA for speaking out against"


If the industry is serious about dealing with the culture of sexual harassment, then there needs to be some accountability at CAA. And if journalists are serious about pursuing this, then they need to look into this. It seems unlikely that Love would be the only actress ever retaliated against by this company.
posted by homunculus at 7:58 PM on October 14, 2017 [5 favorites]


Alice Evans wonders if rejecting Weinstein hindered her own career, as well as her now-husband's prospects, in this Telegraph piece. (Summary at The Independent: In 2002, Evans was propositioned by Weinstein shortly after her partner, Ioan Gruffudd, had a screen test for a Miramax film; after she declined to join the producer in a bathroom, Weinstein said, "Let's hope it all works out for your boyfriend." Neither Evans nor Gruffudd would be considered for a Weinstein-involved project again.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:04 AM on October 15, 2017


Woody Allen has a sad about the whole thing which just reminded me that it's not really a coincidence that the author of the New Yorker piece is Ronan Farrow who is of course, Woody's estranged son.
posted by octothorpe at 11:10 AM on October 15, 2017 [8 favorites]




Sarah Polley: The Men You Meet Making Movies (SLNYT)
Director Sarah Polley on her meeting with Weinstein, as a then-19-year-old actor in a Miramax film. Not graphic, mainly because: In the taxi, the publicist looked at me and said: “I’m going in with you. And I’m not leaving your side.”


Thanks for linking to that story, Iris Gambol. God Bless that publicist, though it sounds like Sarah is a tough cookie, too.

As I read through all these news stories about sexual assault so closely intertwined with women's professional goals, I've been thinking about my own short career. I now realize it's no accident that I made it through grad school under the first female chair of my program, and then got a job working at a company founded by a female scientist. It wasn't a conscious choice to seek out strong women and their supporters - I was super clueless. Thank goodness for those strong people who respected me as a human being and sought me out.

It's just so demoralizing that stories like mine are considered lucky. I don't know if I'll ever be successful enough to pay it forward, as that seems to be what it takes :(. The BU professor only spoke out when she received tenure, and you basically have to be Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd in Hollywood...
posted by bluefly at 11:51 AM on October 16, 2017


Hollywood screenwriter Scott Rosenberg posted a statement of complicity, but also extreme scorn for all the people who are pretending they didn’t know:
“So, uh, yeah.
We need to talk about Harvey.
I was there, for a big part of it.
From, what, 1994 to the early 2000s?
Something like that.
Certainly The Golden Age.
The “PULP FICTION”, “SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE”, “CLERKS”, “SWINGERS”, “SCREAM”, “GOOD WILL HUNTING”, “ENGLISH PATIENT”, “LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL” years…
Harvey and Bob made my first two movies.
Then they signed me to an overall deal.
Then they bought that horror script of mine about the Ten Plagues.
For a lot of money.
Also bought that werewolf-biker script.
That no one else liked but was my personal favorite.
They were going to publish my novel.
They anointed me.
Made it so other studios thought I was the real deal.
They gave me my career.
I was barely 30.
I was sure I had struck gold.
They loved me, these two brothers, who had reinvented cinema.
And who were fun and tough and didn’t give an East Coast fuck about all the slick pricks out in L.A.
And those glory days in Tribeca?
The old cramped offices?
That wonderful gang of executives and assistants?
All the filmmakers who were doing repeat business?
The brothers wanted to create a “family of film”.
And they did just that…
We looked forward to having meetings there.
Meetings that would turn into plans that would turn into raucous nights out on the town.
Simply put: OG Miramax was a blast.
So, yeah, I was there.
And let me tell you one thing.
Let’s be perfectly clear about one thing:
Everybody-fucking-knew.
Not that he was raping.
No, that we never heard.
But we were aware of a certain pattern of overly-aggressive behavior that was rather dreadful.
We knew about the man’s hunger; his fervor; his appetite.
There was nothing secret about this voracious rapacity; like a gluttonous ogre out of the Brothers Grimm.
All couched in vague promises of potential movie roles.
(and, it should be noted: there were many who actually succumbed to his bulky charms. Willingly. Which surely must have only impelled him to cast his fetid net even wider).
But like I said: everybody-fucking-knew.
And to me, if Harvey’s behavior is the most reprehensible thing one can imagine, a not-so-distant second is the current flood of sanctimonious denial and condemnation that now crashes upon these shores of rectitude in gloppy tides of bullshit righteousness.
Because everybody-fucking-knew.
And do you know how I am sure this is true?
Because I was there.
And I saw you.
And I talked about it with you.
You, the big producers; you, the big directors; you, the big agents; you, the big financiers.
And you, the big rival studio chiefs; you, the big actors; you, the big actresses; you, the big models.
You, the big journalists; you, the big screenwriters; you, the big rock stars; you, the big restaurateurs; you, the big politicians.
I saw you.
All of you.
God help me, I was there with you.
Again, maybe we didn’t know the degree.
The magnitude of the awfulness.
Not the rapes.
Not the shoving against the wall.
Not the potted-plant fucking.
But we knew something.
We knew something was bubbling under.
Something odious.
Something rotten.
But…
And this is as pathetic as it is true:
What would you have had us do?
Who were we to tell?
The authorities?
What authorities?
The press?
Harvey owned the press.
The Internet?
There was no Internet or reasonable facsimile thereof.
Should we have called the police?
And said what?
Should we have reached out to some fantasy Attorney General Of Movieland?
That didn’t exist.
Not to mention, most of the victims chose not to speak out.
Aside from sharing the grimy details with a close girlfriend or confidante.
And if they discussed it with their representatives?
Agents and managers, who themselves feared The Wrath Of The Big Man?
The agents and managers would tell them to keep it to themselves.
Because who knew the repercussions?
That old saw “You’ll Never Work In This Town Again” came crawling back to putrid life like a re-animated cadaver in a late-night zombie flick.
But, yes, everyone knew someone who had been on the receiving end of lewd advances by him.
Or knew someone who knew someone.
A few actress friends of mine told me stories: of a ghastly hotel meeting; of a repugnant bathrobe-shucking; of a loathsome massage request.
And although they were rattled, they sort of laughed at his arrogance; how he had the temerity to think that simply the sight of his naked, doughy, carbuncled flesh was going to get them in the mood.
So I just believed it to be a grotesque display of power; a dude misreading the room and making a lame-if-vile pass.
It was much easier to believe that.
It was much easier for ALL of us to believe that.
Because…
And here’s where the slither meets the slime:
Harvey was showing us the best of times.
He was making our movies.
Throwing the biggest parties.
Taking us to The Golden Globes!
Introducing us to the most amazing people (Meetings with Vice President Gore! Clubbing with Quentin and Uma! Drinks with Salman Rushdie and Ralph Fiennes! Dinners with Mick Jagger and Warren-freaking-Beatty!).
The most epic Oscar weekends.
That seemed to last for weeks!
Sundance! Cannes! Toronto!
Telluride! Berlin! Venice!
Private jets! Stretch limousines! Springsteen shows!
Hell, Harvey once took me to St. Barth’s for Christmas.
For 12 days!
I was a broke-ass kid from Boston who had never even HEARD of St. Barth’s before he booked my travel.
He once got me tickets to the seven hottest Broadway shows in one week. So I could take a new girlfriend on a dazzling tour of theater.
He got me seats on the 40-yard-line to the Super Bowl, when the Patriots were playing the Packers in New Orleans.
Even got me a hotel room, which was impossible to get that weekend.
He gave and gave and gave and gave.
He had a monarch’s volcanic generosity when it came to those within his circle.
And a Mafia don’s fervent need for abject loyalty from his capos and soldiers.
But never mind us!
What about what he was doing for the culture?
Making stunningly splendid films at a time when everyone else was cranking-out simpering “INDEPENDENCE DAY” rip-offs.
It was glorious.
All of it.
So what if he was coming on a little strong to some young models who had moved mountains to get into one of his parties?
So what if he was exposing himself, in five-star hotel rooms, like a cartoon flasher out of “MAD MAGAZINE” (just swap robe for raincoat!)
Who were we to call foul?
Golden Geese don’t come along too often in one’s life.
Which goes back to my original point:
Everybody-fucking-knew.
But everybody was just having too good a time.
And doing remarkable work; making remarkable movies.
As the old joke goes:
We needed the eggs.
Okay, maybe we didn’t NEED them.
But we really, really, really, really LIKED them eggs.
So we were willing to overlook what the Golden Goose was up to, in the murky shadows behind the barn…
And for that, I am eternally sorry.
To all of the women that had to suffer this…
I am eternally sorry.
I’ve worked with Mira and Rosanna and Lysette.
I’ve known Rose and Ashley and Claire for years…
Their courage only hangs a lantern on my shame.
And I am eternally sorry to all those who suffered in silence all this time.
And have chosen to remain silent today.
I mostly lost touch with the brothers by the early 2000s.
For no specific reason.
Just that there were other jobs, other studios.
But a few months ago, Harvey called me, out of the blue.
To talk about the bygone days.
To talk about how great it would be to get some of the gang back together.
Make a movie.
He must have known then the noose was tightening.
There was a wistfulness to him that I had never heard before.
A melancholy.
It most assuredly had a walking-to-the-gallows feel.
When we hung up I wondered: “what was that all about?”
In a few short weeks I would know.
It was the condemned man simply wanting to comb some of the ruins of his old stomping grounds.
One last time.
So, yeah, I am sorry.
Sorry and ashamed.
Because, in the end, I was complicit.
I didn’t say shit.
I didn’t do shit.
Harvey was nothing but wonderful to me.
So I reaped the rewards and I kept my mouth shut.
And for that, once again, I am sorry.
But you should be sorry, too.
With all these victims speaking up…
To tell their tales.
Shouldn’t those who witnessed it from the sidelines do the same?
Instead of retreating to the cowardly, canopied confines of faux-outrage?
Doesn’t being a bystander bring with it the responsibility of telling the truth, however personally disgraceful it may be?
You know who are.
You know that you knew.
And do you know how I know that you knew?
Because I was there with you.
And because everybody-fucking-knew.”
posted by a fiendish thingy at 6:31 AM on October 17, 2017 [7 favorites]


All the Other Harveys [Molly Ringwald, New Yorker]
posted by melissasaurus at 10:22 AM on October 17, 2017 [5 favorites]


Oh how I love Molly Ringwald. For so long we've wondered what happened to So&So actress, why they seemingly "disappeared" right when they were getting really interesting. The idea that Hollywood hates older women certainly checks out, but now we're seeing it was also something else - some of them were blacklisted out and some of them walked away, not willing to put up with the culture and abuse any longer. Imagine what art we could be looking at now if we instead blacklisted abusers.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 10:37 AM on October 17, 2017 [13 favorites]


I appreciate his point of view but Scott Rosenberg has a real failure of imagination when it comes to this:

What about what he was doing for the culture?
Making stunningly splendid films at a time when everyone else was cranking-out simpering “INDEPENDENCE DAY” rip-offs.
It was glorious.
All of it.


Sorry, you may be plenty happy with the stuff your boys club produced but I guaran-fucking-tee you it could have, would have been better without a hulking vampire culling your female talent. He gatekeepered you as much as he did the women. He may have been your Golden Goose but he also maintained a strict boys-only club and to play by his rules would mean offering up female talent for a blood-letting. Rosenberg, you're right on the edge of clarity, you need to go a little further, get under your own skin.

--

I recently read the amazing Off the Cliff by Becky Aikman about the making of Thelma & Louise. It was excellent. If you lived through that era of filmmaking, you must read this. There is a thread though, about Ridley Scott, that drove me crazy. He's one of the "good ones." AND he was totally privileged to "just make movies" and be totally unencumbered by caring about genre-busting or roles for women or how momentous the film was to exist let alone become part of the history of film. He was more concerned with the scenery and explosions than in understanding what he was doing. He's a good guy. I just want to reach back in time and slap him upside the head. OPEN YOUR EYES YOU PRIVILEGED WHITE EGO DOOF.

He was no feminist and his blinders did seemingly allow the women around him to flourish. Maybe if he'd been paying more attention, he'd have fucked it up. If you like to read stories about women doing excellent work while having a great time (like Scott Rosenberg but less St. Barths and destroying people's souls) then please read this. I will warn you, though, you get to the end and wonder how we've gone backwards. It was supposed to be the start of something not an anomaly.
posted by amanda at 10:47 AM on October 17, 2017 [9 favorites]


Also, this video of Sarandon and Davis talking on the 25th anniversary of the movie is interesting and it's always nice to hear professional women talk about what they do when they are allowed to practice their craft.
posted by amanda at 10:59 AM on October 17, 2017 [3 favorites]


(Just to be clear, I didn't post the Scott Rosenberg piece because I think his take is a particularly good one-- but rather because he describes the type of sick system where this behavior is accepted as a given. I also thought it was interesting to see him calling out the total complicity of every major player in the industry, including the ones who have put out statements about being SHOCKED and HORRIFIED.)
posted by a fiendish thingy at 11:03 AM on October 17, 2017 [4 favorites]


There is a thread though, about Ridley Scott, that drove me crazy. He's one of the "good ones." AND he was totally privileged to "just make movies" and be totally unencumbered by caring about genre-busting or roles for women or how momentous the film was to exist let alone become part of the history of film. He was more concerned with the scenery and explosions than in understanding what he was doing. He's a good guy. I just want to reach back in time and slap him upside the head. OPEN YOUR EYES YOU PRIVILEGED WHITE EGO DOOF.

I literally just before reading this comment was reading a post in my Facebook feed from a woman who'd finally just seen the original Blade Runner movie and was saying "holy crap that 'love scene' was kinda fucked up". So "Ridley Scott" and "Feminist" in the same sentence does not compute right now.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:04 AM on October 17, 2017


Just saw a photo meme on Facebook, with someone saying that "we should stop reframing rape victims to be 'sisters and mothers' and start reframing rapists as 'sons and brothers'."

YES HELLO THAT
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:21 AM on October 17, 2017 [15 favorites]


Yeah, my tone around the words "good guy" are hard to convey in text. He's a good guy in that all the other dudes who just go through life without thinking much beyond the end of their nose are "good guys" in that they aren't necessarily out there doing bad. They aren't actively pushing women out. They see women as equals, more or less if someone forces them to think about it, and have no problem with women. But neither do they bother to think about them or think their issues need elevating or would be any concern to themselves. They can just "do good" and be neutral and that's, in our society, a "very good man." A regular, privileged male.
posted by amanda at 11:24 AM on October 17, 2017




Goddamn, like I didn't have enough reason to miss her.
posted by schadenfrau at 5:36 PM on October 17, 2017 [8 favorites]


The Sarah Polley article is sheer brilliance.
For more from her on this plus other things, the recent Canadaland podcast interview is an excellent exploration of how we do and don't respond to abusive men ... and it lives up to its title, My Awkward Date with Sarah Polley.
posted by chapps at 9:52 PM on October 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


(Note: Canadaland has just entered its fundraising month, so there are some pop ups on the link asking for donations in exchange for beer. Because that's how we role up here.)
posted by chapps at 9:53 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also Polley supported her friend's production, A Better Man, which sounds amazing and I'm sad I couldn't attend the local screening. In it, a social worker goes back and interviews the man who was physically abusive to her, on camera, with his permission, and they talk. Trailer [TW--discussion of domestic violence. Polley's comments in the podcast refer to this film and its work toward healing.

The Polley interview and planning to see this film have been the best part of a miserable week for me.
posted by chapps at 9:59 PM on October 17, 2017


Ack! I should have named the director of A Better Man. It's co-directed and co-written by Attiya Khan and Lawrence Jackman. Khan is the friend Polley mentions in the interview.
posted by chapps at 10:01 PM on October 17, 2017


Another terrific NYT Op-Ed -- Lupita Nyong’o: Speaking Out About Harvey Weinstein

Nyong'o details Weinstein's pursuit techniques and her own thought processes and reactions. He initially targeted her while she was a Yale student, including an episode where Weinstein pulled her out of a screening room in his own house, where she'd been sitting with his children, and brought her to his bedroom for a "massage." Nyong'o performed a non-sexual back massage and got away, doubting herself and her impressions. Eventually, Weinstein's blunt:

Let’s cut to the chase. I have a private room upstairs where we can have the rest of our meal.” I was stunned. I told him I preferred to eat in the restaurant. He told me not to be so naïve. If I wanted to be an actress, then I had to be willing to do this sort of thing. He said he had dated Famous Actress X and Y and look where that had gotten them.

I was silent for a while before I mustered up the courage to politely decline his offer. “You have no idea what you are passing up,” he said. “With all due respect, I would not be able to sleep at night if I did what you are asking, so I must pass,” I replied.


The usual threat to her (at that point non-existent) film career follows. When she's successful post-graduation anyway, with 12 Years a Slave, Weinstein bustles over after the Toronto premiere with congratulations; when she wins an Academy Award, he offers a film role she will not accept:

He said if I did this one for him, he would do another one for me — basically guaranteeing backing a star-vehicle film for me. I ran out of ways of politely saying no and so did my agent. I was so exasperated by the end that I just kept quiet. Harvey finally accepted my position and expressed that he still wanted to work with me at some point. “Thank you, I hope so,” I lied.

(The entire essay is insightful, and so good! Nyong'o's post-Weinstein closing paragraphs are really strong, and optimistic, and too long to excerpt here.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:13 PM on October 19, 2017 [3 favorites]


I bet someone in Hollywood is already busy writing the script for a film based on Harvey W.:

"The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred."
posted by Kwadeng at 6:05 AM on October 20, 2017


I bet someone in Hollywood is already busy writing the script for a film based on Harvey W.

Nah, it's gonna be on Law and Order SVU first.

that is a serious prediction, by the way. I claim no inside knowledge, but I've watched enough to know how they work.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:31 AM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Oh yeah. Ripped from the headlines, I'm sure SVU will do a version of it in the next season. Their turnaround is pretty quick.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:36 AM on October 20, 2017


Nah, it's gonna be on Law and Order SVU first.

Pretty sure it's already been covered. And I would be surprised if they hadn't based the character on HW.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 5:32 PM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


The L.A. Times has a story, which probably merits a content warning for descriptions of sexual assault, about another Hollywood serial sexual assaulter, James Toback. The reporter talked to 38 women for this story, and he said on Twitter that 16 more women have contacted him with stories about Toback since it was published this morning.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:49 AM on October 22, 2017 [6 favorites]


Geoff Marcy, a pre-eminent astronomer at UC Berkeley, pioneered techniques for finding planets outside Earth’s solar system. He also, it seems, sexually harassed students without repercussion for decades...Unlike art, science has little mechanism to engage with that. They’re, you know, planets.Researchers might get banned from conferences or kicked out of professional societies. Marcy has left his job at UC Berkeley. But no one has suggested that his findings are compromised, and astronomy will continue to build on Marcy’s work—to reference his papers and build on his team’s findings. Citation networks will link to them. The way the system works, that accrues fame and influence back to Marcy, even if subsequent researchers might not want to.

Gliese 436b, 55 Cancri b, the worlds of Upsilon Andromedae, and the other planets Marcy’s teams found still orbit their suns no matter what Marcy did. But they are … problematic.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:56 PM on October 22, 2017


The L.A. Times has a story, which probably merits a content warning for descriptions of sexual assault, about another Hollywood serial sexual assaulter, James Toback. The reporter talked to 38 women for this story, and he said on Twitter that 16 more women have contacted him with stories about Toback since it was published this morning.

If ever there was an open secret in Hollywood, this is it. When I first heard about a story of sexual abuse in Hollywood I thought the story was about him, not Weinstein. This has been going on for decades; I expect the number of women to come forward will continue to grow.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:31 AM on October 23, 2017


Linked from the vile Toback story is one about a well-known agent sexually abusing and harassing his young, male clients.
posted by amanda at 6:51 AM on October 23, 2017


I was just looking for a link about that. It's worth pointing out that Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard fired his agency after learning this. Finn is 14 years old.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:27 AM on October 23, 2017 [8 favorites]


If ever there was an open secret in Hollywood, this is it.

It's not even a secret. It was written about openly in Spy Magazine and Gawker, and was basically the subject of Toback's own film "The Pick-Up Artist."

I have a feeling there will be many, many, many more people to come forward on this, as he apparently relentlessly used his Hollywood credentials as a seduction technique, with "seduction" here meaning the PUA approach of relentlessly pursuing, lying to, and gaslighting women without concern for consent.
posted by maxsparber at 7:42 AM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


I can't find a direct link right now, but Finn's statement began with the phrase "As a father of literally no daughters because I'm literally in the eight grade..."

Bless that kid.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:46 AM on October 23, 2017 [20 favorites]


The kids from Stranger Things are universally awesome. I'm seeing them all kind of rally around each other all the time, and have a feeling this is going to keep all of them on an even keel, kind of how I think that Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint all sort of became a posse and helped each other along.

At the same time I am afraid what is lurking in Millie Bobbie Brown's future (hopefully not her PAST because lord love a duck she is only THIRTEEN), but hope that if anyone tries something that Finn and Gaten and Caleb are all gonna be ready to lay a smackdown.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:01 AM on October 23, 2017 [4 favorites]


Oh, and this small, quiet story of a celebrity being decent is starting to make the rounds too.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:04 AM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


Charlie Warzel, Infowarzel: Why The Pro Trump Media Is So Interested In "Shitty Media Men"
On Saturday afternoon Mike Cernovich teased his latest scoop on Twitter. He'd come into possession of what's known as the "shitty media men" list — a Google spreadsheet compiled by women working in media. Before its existence was widely known, it was an open document that anyone with the link could edit anonymously. The list included names, alleged misconduct, notes, and the media organization of the men in question (full disclosure: BuzzFeed, the organization that employs me, is featured on it a number of times). It was careful to note that everything compiled on the list was — at this point — “allegations and rumors.“ Its disclaimer: "Take everything with a grain of salt."

These simple facts aside, virtually everything else about the list is fraught, complicated territory. There've been some excellent pieces written about it from a number of angles and you can read a few of them here and here as well as some important thinking about the whisper networks women have built in general. Since this is a newsletter about the pro-Trump media, I am going to focus on why I think he is publishing/teasing publishing it and what its role is in the greater info war between the MSM and the pro-Trump media.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:19 AM on October 23, 2017


I have a feeling there will be many, many, many more people to come forward on this, as he apparently relentlessly used his Hollywood credentials as a seduction technique, with "seduction" here meaning the PUA approach of relentlessly pursuing, lying to, and gaslighting women without concern for consent.
The journalist who wrote the article just tweeted that since yesterday morning, he's heard from 193 additional women. So.... yeah.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:19 PM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, and all the rest of them knew the entire fucking time no matter how they spin it now. This is how men participate in rape culture, by calling it 'womanizing' or not wanting to 'pass on gossip' or whatever. They blame the women, think the man with the money is just being a typical man, and act so shocked and hurt when they "find out." Please, men, I'm begging you, stop giving "oh he's just like that" passes to your friends and stop believing them when they say "oh she went nuts!"
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 4:25 PM on October 23, 2017 [9 favorites]




When do we get to talk about Terry RIchardson? Any reporters looking to round up all those stories and seek new ones (of which there are hundreds)? If we're getting the massive serial abusers up out of here, lets not stop. This'd be a good time for any of Dr. Luke's victims to step up and support Kesha.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 5:02 PM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


Oh, hey, "Uncle Terry" has been banned by Conde Nast. It's a start!
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 6:37 PM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


Was going to FPP this, but it's been suggested (and I totes agree) that it would be better here.

We're All Mad Here: Weinstein, Women, and the Language of Lunacy
This is what we’re talking about when we talk about rape culture — not just the actions of lone sociopaths, but the social architecture that lets them get away with it, a routine of silencing, gaslighting, and selective ignorance that keeps the world at large from having to face realities they’d rather rationalize away. If everyone around you gets together to dismiss the inconvenient truth of your experience, it’s tempting to believe them, especially if you are very young.
posted by hanov3r at 9:50 AM on October 24, 2017 [3 favorites]


Jenny Listman: "When I was nineteen years old, Elie Wiesel grabbed my ass. If it is such a small thing that I shouldn’t be upset about it then how is it big enough to ruin a legacy?"
posted by larrybob at 10:26 AM on October 24, 2017 [2 favorites]


Why has it taken so long for magazines to distance themselves from Terry Richardson?

Why indeed? Like there aren't other talents in the world? The things we put up with so we don't have to hire or pay women.

This article from Jezebel (referenced in the article) is over 7 years old!
"Before I could say 'whoa, whoa, whoa!' dude was wearing only his tattoos and waggling the biggest dick I'd ever seen dangerously close to my unclothed person (granted, I hadn't seen very many yet)." In Peck's words, Richardson eventually "maneuvered" her over to a couch in his studio, where he "strongly suggested I touch his terrifying penis." When he ejaculated, one of his assistants gave Peck a towel.
I can only assume that he works for free.
posted by amanda at 12:30 PM on October 24, 2017 [1 favorite]


CW: Sexual Assault
The Daily News is reporting another victim of Weinstein. The article describes his sexually assault of a production assistant.
posted by zarq at 5:23 PM on October 24, 2017


Harvey Weinstein and the Economics of Consent: The blunt power of the gatekeeper is the ability to enforce not just artistic, but also financial, exile.
I’m telling this story because in the heat surrounding these brave admissions, it’s important to think about the economics of consent. Weinstein was a gatekeeper who could give actresses a career that would sustain their lives and the livelihood of their families. He could also give them fame, which is one of few ways for women to gain some semblance of power and voice inside a patriarchal world. They knew it. He knew it. Weinstein could also ensure that these women would never work again if they humiliated him. That’s not just artistic or emotional exile—that’s also economic exile.

It’s important, too, to keep in mind where this power imbalance comes from. In the U.S., women were only allowed to have credit cards in their own names as of 43 years ago. Men had a two-decade head start (the credit card was invented in 1950). In the 1960s a woman needed to bring a man along to cosign any credit application. It’s stunning how recently women were afforded no financial autonomy. This is, of course, connected to the fact that women didn’t have bodily autonomy either. A woman’s husband could beat her or have sex with her without her consent in this country with no real legal recourse until the 1970s.

For me, this all distills down to the following: The things that happen in hotel rooms and board rooms all over the world (and in every industry) between women seeking employment or trying to keep employment and men holding the power to grant it or take it away exist in a gray zone where words like “consent” cannot fully capture the complexity of the encounter. Because consent is a function of power. You have to have a modicum of power to give it. In many cases women do not have that power because their livelihood is in jeopardy and because they are the gender that is oppressed by a daily, invisible war waged against all that is feminine—women and humans who behave or dress or think or feel or look feminine.
posted by homunculus at 7:47 PM on October 24, 2017 [11 favorites]


(FWIW I think the Terry stuff came WAY too late and Conde Nast get no applause from me. But if we're getting them all out this month, lets dig in the stacks a little to get some of the long overdue ones gone)
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 8:30 PM on October 24, 2017 [3 favorites]


Anthony Rapp became the first victim of Kevin Spacey to go on record.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 7:04 PM on October 29, 2017 [5 favorites]


Whoa.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:15 PM on October 29, 2017


I can’t decide if I’m more shocked that it too so long, or that someone finally said something.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:34 PM on October 29, 2017


Looping back to the earlier Anne Helen Petersen piece on gossip, stories about Spacey's "aggressive" creeping on very young men have been showing up in blind items and gossip news for years. It's a heady mix of awfulness between the revelation that Spacey was also targeting young boys and the winkwinknudge tone of prior gossip that played stories of alleged sexual harassment and sexual assault like they were mere flirting.
posted by nicebookrack at 11:19 AM on October 30, 2017 [3 favorites]


And to hell with Spacey for conflating his story of "hey, yeah, I assaulted underage boys" with his story of "and, big surprise, I'M A BIG OLD GAY DUDE". Because that fuckstain has just given fresh hot ammo to every culture warrior who wants to talk about how all gays are pedos. I am attempting to set him on fire with my brain right now, in fact.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:24 PM on October 30, 2017 [4 favorites]


There's a Spacey FPP now.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:07 PM on October 30, 2017




New Accusers Expand Harvey Weinstein Sexual Assault Claims Back to ’70s (NYT, again; please know, these are specific rape accounts with details)
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:11 PM on October 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Suspiciously Timed Arrest Warrant Issued for Rose McGowan Over Felony Drug Charge for "traces of a substance that was later identified as a narcotic" found in her baggage after a flight IN JANUARY.
February was eight months ago, so it’s awfully suspicious that the news comes just two days after the New York Times reported that Harvey Weinstein offered McGowan $1 million in September to sign an nondisclosure agreement
FLAMES. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE
posted by nicebookrack at 9:39 PM on October 30, 2017 [6 favorites]






That headline is inaccurate. What Henstridge accuses him of is rape.

This article also seems to hint at a clique of rapey men, and one of them is the disgusting lawyer, Mark Singer. I mean...Ratner, Toback, Polanski and Singer so far. And I bet they all helped and protected each other.

They should all burn.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:11 AM on November 1, 2017 [4 favorites]


Here's hoping Dan Schneider is next.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 11:36 AM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


Dustin Hoffman - harassment and assault of 17yr old in 1985.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 11:57 AM on November 1, 2017


Diana Moskovitz, Deadspin: Againt Allegedly
To hear the keepers of the craft tell it, alleged is important because it signifies that the writer doesn’t know the exact, final truth. This is often true. They’ll argue that it’s important to show that what is said in cases is an allegation or an accusation and not a fact. They’ll assert that a source could be wrong, and that this hedge may prove important when, days later, reporters have to come back with different information and explain discrepancies. This is, they’ll say, America—the land of reasonable doubt, a very good legal concept we all can agree with. Report what you know, the saying goes. How can journalists be certain of anything if they weren’t witnesses to what happened? It is a sign, they’ll say, of scrupulousness, practically a sign of journalistic virtue.

Which is a load of shit.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:59 AM on November 1, 2017 [8 favorites]


A Comedian Called Out an Alleged Rapist—And Was Sued for $38 Million
Faced with the threat of quiet retaliation, and/or the knowledge that the vast majority of rapists reported to the cops end up walking free, speaking out can often seem like the best in a bad set of options. As this case demonstrates, however, that course of action is not without risks—particularly in a legal landscape that’s increasingly open to protecting men from false accusations (which are not a particularly common occurrence).
[...]
“I believe that victims of sexual assault should speak up if that’s what they wish to do, and the rest of us should listen to them, trust them, and do what we can speak out against rape culture,” Pierce wrote in an email. “Just make sure you use the word ‘alleged.’”
posted by nicebookrack at 10:49 AM on November 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


My first abuser is bisexual. He is married to a man who is the son of a retired Texas judge. Naming him would accomplish nothing and would likely harm me greatly. Maybe that makes me a coward, but I tried to speak up 30+ years ago and no one cared then. If people want to be mad about victims not saying the names, they should blame the culture.
posted by I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today! at 11:15 AM on November 2, 2017 [5 favorites]


It's a small detail but I was struck by how Ratner apparently told everyone that he and Olivia Munn had been in a relationship when the truth was that he nonconsensually flashed her (among other things). In college, it came out that someone who was determined not to get the message that I wasn't interested told a lot of people that we had been dating, and it made me so creeped out and angry even though what was really going on wasn't nearly this bad. I can only imagine how it made her feel.
posted by en forme de poire at 2:47 PM on November 2, 2017 [5 favorites]


Danny Masterson is another name that's been floating around in rumors as a creep for at least a few years. I don't know if I'm relieved or cynical that so far few/none of the names have come as a complete surprise.
posted by nicebookrack at 2:53 PM on November 2, 2017 [2 favorites]




Mod note: fyi there is also a Spacey thread
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:07 PM on November 2, 2017 [3 favorites]


Sorry, forgot to search the Vulture link before I posted it or I would have found it on the Spacey thread.
posted by larrybob at 6:16 PM on November 2, 2017 [1 favorite]




From Popbitch:

"I can confirm your story about Harvey Weinstein's employees being terrified of eating around him. He actually fired a good friend of mine and her team once in Cannes for eating cake.

"He installed my friend, a script supervisor and her team in a hotel suite during Cannes film festival, with the demand that they stay inside the room working and not to leave until he returned. A few hours later, ravenous, the group tried to order room service but found out that the hotel reception had barred them from ordering anything, under Harvey's strict instructions.

"Unable to leave (and terrified they would be seen by Harvey if they tried) they scoured the room for food. They soon found a chocolate cake inside the small fridge in the room and assumed it was left for them. The group divided the cake up and carried on working.

"Harvey returned soon after and, discovering they had eaten the chocolate cake, proceeded to fire them all on the spot. Apparently it was his cake and his only. The team all packed up to leave and he hired an entirely new team within about two hours of the cake fiasco.

"As stupid as it sounds, it's true. And it's one of many food-firing incidents associated with Harvey apparently."
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:45 AM on November 3, 2017 [4 favorites]


Danny Masterson is another name that's been floating around in rumors as a creep

Masterson is represented by the same attorney currently representing Ratner.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 8:26 AM on November 3, 2017 [1 favorite]




Women Take The Reins (The Ankler)
But now, with the titans refusing to take charge, the women of Hollywood are charging into the leadership vacuum with an effort serious and mega-wattage high-powered enough to redraw the face of the entire industry.

The Ankler can now reveal that – sound the trumpets – a committee has been formed!

Assembling under the working name “Time’s Up!” a group has been meeting in secrecy in the labyrinths of the Creative Artists Agency since the dawn of this crisis. In contrast to the ineffectual wishlists issued by such groups in the past, Time’s Up has been working towards a concrete list of changes to the industry, with hard, verifiable benchmarks to certify progress. “50/50 by 2020” has become a hashtag ready rallying cry for many members.

Meeting every Friday morning in a conference room at CAA, the group is not a mere collection of mid-level rank and file, but includes some of the biggest name brand names and most powerful players in Hollywood. Regular attendees include Kathleen Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, Amy Pascal, Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon, Megan Ellison, Jill Soloway, Natalie Portman, Kellie Bush and Katie Abrams, as well as representatives from all the major agencies. The group has swelled to as many as 50 members in recent meetings, with CAA’s Maha Dakhil acting as facilitator.

Among the issues on the table: harassment, female representation across the workforce, pay issues and disclosure of past issues, including payoffs.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:43 AM on November 4, 2017 [14 favorites]


Time’s Up!

I love this so much.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:50 AM on November 4, 2017 [2 favorites]


Guest article in Hollywood Reporter regarding harassment committed by Dezso Magyar: I Was Harassed by a Director at the AFI and Kicked Out When I Reported It
posted by larrybob at 3:30 PM on November 4, 2017 [3 favorites]


That's real awesome that the CAA has that committee but it's disappointing to me that there are no men on the committee. I feel like it's just more of the same: women working on women's issues to present to the men in charge and hope they do something about it. It would give me more confidence if powerful men were also on the team. We need buy in from them and need their help from the start. Given we don't have the complete list of names but having it be a women only group makes it easy to dismiss/only given lip service by the people who could actually implement change.
posted by LizBoBiz at 10:32 PM on November 4, 2017


it's disappointing to me that there are no men on the committee.

I got the impression that there are no men by design. They've got Oprah! To quote L7, "got so much clit they don't need no balls."
posted by Room 641-A at 4:48 AM on November 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


That's real awesome that the CAA has that committee but it's disappointing to me that there are no men on the committee. I feel like it's just more of the same: women working on women's issues to present to the men in charge and hope they do something about it.

Here's the thing, though – I may be wrong but that list of women doesn't need men to 'do anything about it.' I don't get the sense they are asking for change they are the change. They can form their own audience. They can create their own media machine. They have enough clout and power and connections and money to just opt out. That's something that has become available to us today – the ability to find media, companies, organizations that are run by women and avoid those run by men. It's not always easy to avoid male-centered constructs but it's easier than it ever has been.

It's the rare man that can keep up with the dynamic of a group of women. And at this stage of the game, I'm happy to let them create the framework without the input of a man. Like, I can think of no male input that is necessary for their group at this moment.
posted by amanda at 6:46 AM on November 5, 2017 [7 favorites]


Here's a short snippet of an article where a woman talks about producers and directors wanting to kiss and paw her. From 1945.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:04 AM on November 5, 2017


For some reason I decided to check out the Dukes Of Hazzard wikipedia page earlier. And what did I find? Tom Wopat was arrested earlier this year on charges of indecent assault and battery (as well as drug charges).
"According to a Waltham police report, Wopat allegedly assaulted the woman during a rehearsal at the high school on July 23. The accuser said he came up behind her and grabbed her buttocks and continued touching her in that area. The show's producer and manager had previously spoken to Wopat regarding complaints from other female cast members about inappropriate comments and touching, the report said.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 11:05 AM on November 5, 2017


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