masters to face the dark, unseemly side of an industry that
much of America has seen through for years."
Hollywood Sex Assault Cover-Up Explodes: Asia Argento, 2 Others Accuse Weinstein of Rape
According to The New Yorker, three women, including Asia Argento, a royal member of independent cinema, allege that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein raped them:
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.
To lay that all out, on top of the eight sexual harassment settlements reported by the far-left New York Times last week, add four allegations that Weinstein exposed and/or masturbated in front of them, Weinstain apparently admitting on tape that he groped a woman, and three women claiming they were flat-out raped by Weinstein. The District Attorney will have to explain why an alleged admission like that did not result in criminal charges.
Now try to reconcile all of that over 20 years next to these denials from various people in Hollywood and in the media that they knew nothing about this.
If these charges are true, and Weinstein has not denied all of them, he was a full-blown serial predator allowed to go about his business of racking up victims thanks to a culture of enablers, a Hollywood culture of enablers.
Are we supposed to believe the Disney Company knew nothing. Disney owned Miramax for more than ten years while Weinstein and his brother ran it. Disney did not know about the payoffs? The rumors?
Are we supposed to believe Brother Bob knew nothing? That the Weinstein Company board knew nothing?
What about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck? Weinstein made them. So far they have been silent.
The specific details of the assault allegations are almost too horrific to detail. In the case of Argento, though, we get a preview of Weinstein’s alleged modus operandi when it came to his now infamous requests for a massage. Warning. Explicit content follows:
When the producer led her upstairs that evening, she said, there was no party—only a hotel room, empty but for Weinstein: “I’m, like, ‘Where is the fucking party?’ ” She recalled the producer telling her, “Oh, we got here too early,” before he left her alone with Weinstein. (The producer denies bringing Argento to the room that night.) At first, Weinstein was solicitous, praising her work. Then he left the room. When he returned, he was wearing a bathrobe and holding a bottle of lotion. “He asks me to give a massage. I was, like, ‘Look man, I am no fucking fool,’ ” Argento said. “But, looking back, I am a fucking fool. And I am still trying to come to grips with what happened.”Argento said that, after she reluctantly agreed to give Weinstein a massage, he pulled her skirt up, forced her legs apart, and performed oral sex on her as she repeatedly told him to stop. Weinstein “terrified me, and he was so big,” she said. “It wouldn’t stop. It was a nightmare.”At some point, Argento said, she stopped saying no and feigned enjoyment, because she thought it was the only way the assault would end. “I was not willing,” she told me. “I said, ‘No, no, no.’ . . . It’s twisted. A big fat man wanting to eat you. It’s a scary fairy tale.” Argento, who insisted that she wanted to tell her story in all its complexity, said that she didn’t physically fight him off, something that has prompted years of guilt.
Argento describes this as a rape and claims it happened in 1997, just when her career was taking off. She was just 22 years old. She also says that she did not come forward out of the fear no one would believe her, primarily because she later had a consensual relationship with Weinstein.
Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino claim Weinstein harassed her but again reveals that the mogul’s alleged sexual misconduct was not a secret:
Sorvino said that she struggled for years with whether to come forward with her story, partly because she was aware that it was mild compared to the experiences of other women, including another actress she spoke to at the time. (That actress told me that she locked herself in a hotel bathroom to escape Weinstein, and that he masturbated in front of her. She said it was “a classic case” of “someone not understanding the word ‘no’. . . I must have said no a thousand times.”)
The specifics involving Weinstein being caught on a recording (per the New Yorker) admitting to groping an Italian model read like a classic case of how power manipulates our legal system AND the mainstream media. Despite the fact that there was audio admitting to what amounts to a crime, the wagons all circled to protect Weinstein: [emphasis added]
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.…Two sources close to the police investigation said that they had no reason to doubt Gutierrez’s account of the incident.
New Yorker: Weinstein Raped At Least Three Women, Too
Last week’s question: Why didn’t Harvey Weinstein lose his job twenty years ago? This week’s question: Why isn’t Harvey Weinstein in prison? After the New York Times belatedly broke the news of Weinstein’s predatory behavior, the rest of the dam of silence has begun to collapse. At least three women, two of which went on the record, now accuse Weinstein of rape, while dozens of others have come forward to discuss being victimized by varying degrees of sexual assault.
New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow published the exposé about an hour ago, with Asia Argento the latest and most prominent figure to speak publicly about her experience:
For more than twenty years, Weinstein has also been trailed by rumors of sexual harassment and assault. This has been an open secret to many in Hollywood and beyond, but previous attempts by many publications, including The New Yorker, to investigate and publish the story over the years fell short of the demands of journalistic evidence. Too few women were willing to speak, much less allow a reporter to use their names, and Weinstein and his associates used nondisclosure agreements, monetary payoffs, and legal threats to suppress these myriad stories. Asia Argento, an Italian film actress and director, told me that she did not speak out until now––Weinstein, she told me, forcibly performed oral sex on her—because she feared that Weinstein would “crush” her. “I know he has crushed a lot of people before,” Argento said. “That’s why this story—in my case, it’s twenty years old, some of them are older—has never come out.” …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.
Why didn’t the Manhattan district attorney prosecute Weinstein at that time? In part, Battilana Gutierrez turned out to have some credibility problems, the New York Daily News reported over the weekend. The fact that Weinstein’s attorney donated $10,000 to Cyrus Vance Jr’s campaign coffers might have something to do with it, too:
Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer delivered $10,000 to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. in 2015, in the months after Vance’s office decided not to prosecute Weinstein over sexual assault allegations, according to an International Business Times review of campaign finance documents. That contribution from attorney David Boies — who previously headlined a fundraiser for Vance — was a fraction of the more than $182,000 that Boies, his son and his law partners have delivered to the Democrat during his political career.
Cyrus Vance Jr will have some explaining to do, no? The detectives certainly think so:
At the prospect of her now figuring as the victim in a case against a high-profile figure such as Harvey Weinstein, the DA’s office seemed to hesitate. The DA’s office asked the SVU questions and the SVU answered them and the DA’s office asked more questions that the SVU also answered.“They knocked it around about a week, back and forth,” the NYPD commander says.The DA’s office finally reached an official determination, following what a spokesman rightly described as “a thorough investigation.”“After analyzing the available evidence, including multiple interviews with both parties, a criminal charge is not supported,” the spokeswoman announced.The NYPD commander offers a different analysis based on long experience.“When you say no after a week, it’s not usually over the facts,” he suggests.
Farrow notes that Battilana Gutierrez also got paid off and signed a “highly restrictive nondisclosure agreement with Weinstein,” and declared that no assault ever took place. That was part of a well-established pattern with Weinstein, as the New York Times’ exposé made clear last week. So was retaliation, and Farrow gets two famous names to discuss that aspect of resisting Weinstein:
Virtually all of the people I spoke with told me that they were frightened of retaliation. “If Harvey were to discover my identity, I’m worried that he could ruin my life,” one former employee told me. Many said that they had seen Weinstein’s associates confront and intimidate those who crossed him, and feared that they would be similarly targeted. Four actresses, including Mira Sorvino and Rosanna Arquette, told me they suspected that, after they rejected Weinstein’s advances or complained about them to company representatives, Weinstein had them removed from projects or dissuaded people from hiring them. Multiple sources said that Weinstein frequently bragged about planting items in media outlets about those who spoke against him; these sources feared that they might be similarly targeted. Several pointed to Gutierrez’s case, in 2015: after she went to the police, negative items discussing her sexual history and impugning her credibility began rapidly appearing in New York gossip pages. (In the taped conversation with Gutierrez, Weinstein asks her to join him for “five minutes,” and warns, “Don’t ruin your friendship with me for five minutes.”)
Farrow continues in great detail to explain the power structure that Weinstein exploited to conduct his predatory behavior over several decades, and how other power structures ended up either turning a blind eye or participating in his power plays. Some of Weinstein’s more ambitious employees acted as procurers of victims to satiate Weinstein’s appetites. Personnel services allowed their temps to get exploited without bothering to protect them, with rare exceptions. Media outlets gobbled up his gossip leaks, which Weinstein used to damage people who either blew the whistle or threatened to do so. Weinstein had the money, the power, and the connections, and anyone who wanted to benefit from them ended up doing his bidding or feeling his wrath.
If Hollywood’s A-listers didn’t know about this, it’s because they didn’t want to know about it. Plenty of people knew enough about it all along, and were willing to talk enough to keep others from falling into Weinstein’s clutches. The New York Times knew about it 2004, and even law enforcement knew about it two years ago. Everyone who benefited from Weinstein had a stake in keeping his secrets, and it’s tough to conclude that they did anything else.
Report: NBC News Passed on Ronan Farrow’s Bombshell Report of Weinstein Rape Allegations
NBC News passed on a story by contributor Ronan Farrow that it allegedly possessed in August about three separate rape allegations against Harvey Weinstein that eventually appeared in the New Yorker Tuesday, according to a report.
According to the Huffington Post, Farrow’s bombshell Tuesday report — in which three women, including actress Asia Argento, accused the movie mogul of rape — “was in NBC’s hands as recently as August, according to multiple sources both inside and outside the network.”
The Huffington Post reported:
By then, Farrow, an NBC contributor and investigative reporter, had already obtained damning audio of an encounter Weinstein had with a woman, in which Weinstein admits to having groped her… Instead, Farrow’s story — and the audio, from a 2015 New York Police Department sting — appeared Tuesday on the website of The New Yorker.
According to the outlet, NBC had “concerns” with the way Farrow’s story was sourced.
The New Yorker report contained a two-minute audio clip reportedly taken from a 2015 NYPD sting against Weinstein, in which the producer is heard begging a model to enter his hotel room, and appearing to admit to groping women in the past.
After the allegations against Weinstein were made public, Democratic Party politicians, as well as the Democratic National Committee (DNC), have pledged to give away Weinstein’s contributions to charity.
In a statement, the DNC claimed they would give away just $30,000 to left-wing organizations, despite the fact that Weinstein donated nearly $250,000 to the organization since the 1990s.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton issued a statement Tuesday on the allegations against Weinstein, five days after the New York Times first published the story about decades of sexual harassment allegations against him. Weinstein hosted a $33,000-per-plate fundraiser for Clinton at his Manhattan home last year, though it was not immediately clear if the former candidate would return or donate any of the money, as other Democratic politicians have done.
“I was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein,” Clinton said in a statement issued through her spokesman, Nick Merrill. “The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior.”
A number of celebrities also spoke out Tuesday about the allegations against Weinstein, including Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck.
In another bombshell report from the New York Times published Tuesday, actresses Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Rosanna Arquette, among others, disclosed their own encounters with Weinstein during the early part of their careers.
October 10, 2017
Harvey Weinstein: Male Predators and Their Targets
Harvey Weinstein bears a shocking resemblance to Quasimodo, as portrayed in the 1982 Hallmark production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But, other than his uncanny resemblance to Hugo's hunchback, nothing about Weinstein’s behavior shocks me.
The first time I can remember a man coaxing and terrorizing me into a sexual favor was when I was 16 years old, working at Koeing Art Emporium, because I loved art, and I had no money.
There, at least three men, all in their late 20s, all in a supervisor position over me, attempted to kiss, maul or touch me in the back room that smelled of framing wood and Chinese takeout. Later, at Baptist Campbell University, my work-study professor would pull me down on his lap, show me condoms and stroke my hair. After I transferred to UNC Chapel Hill, two different professors asked me for sex, and threatened bleak outcomes if I refused.
The first, from the African Studies Department, asked me to sit on the front row in short skirts during lectures. I did not, but compromised and sat on the side row in shorts. He later asked me to his office, and would rub my skin frantically and promised me an A if I would touch his privates. When I ran away from his office in fear, he ignored me the rest of the semester and gave me an A-. He still teaches there, in blissful tenure.
The more sinister predator was in charge of UNC's Writing Program. He picked me out of a line of students waiting for approval of transfer credits. This man was intense, tall, and Machiavellian. He told me that if I did not spend time with him, he would not grant any of my English credits from my college transfer. The details are hazy, but I remember he came to my apartment. We kissed on my couch and I longed for my boyfriend from Campbell, a wrestler whom I adored. When the professor told me he wanted to order a pizza, like we were co-ed couple lounging on a rainy weekend, some ancient wisdom finally reared up in me. I asked him if he was married. He said he was, and I said, "I feel bad for your wife." He finally left. I avoided him and he eventually gave me the credits after I begged in handwritten letters I shoved his faculty mail cubbyhole.
I moved on with my life, graduated with good grades and even won the Francis L. Philip Travel scholarship.
Sexual harassment continued loud and proud, as I entered the legal workforce after law school. A smirking pervert, who reeked of cigarette smoke from ten feet away, and was the chief prosecutor in a huge county near Tampa, perusing porn on his computer while you briefed a case to him? You betcha. Same prosecutor and his knucklehead cronies ridiculing an African American murder victim’s photos because she had cellulite on her buttocks -- as she sprawled naked, bloodied, and beaten on the floor of an old house? I remember it in fluorescent detail.
My boss at the Florida Attorney General's Office, rubbing my shoulders, telling me I looked like a schoolgirl, and complaining that his nagging wife used the rocking chair as a clothes hamper (he should have seen my bedroom). It happened more than one time.
So, why did this happen to me? And why did it happen to Weinstein’s victims? Was my beauty so overwhelming that these men lost their minds? Hardly. There were other pretty girls, beautiful women in those environments, and they were unmolested. Just as there were other aspiring stunning actresses and waitresses who escaped Weinstein’s sweaty paws.
Was I sending out sexual vibes so strong these men thought I was a little minx? Not likely. I was often compared to Ellie Mae Clampett and was unsure of how to apply eyeliner, often resembling a sad raccoon. Forget seducing a man
So, how does the sexual predator choose who to terrorize?
The answer can be found in looking at Weinstein's victims did not have, and what I did not have. Some lone voices on Twitter have demanded: Why hasn’t Gwyneth Paltrow spoken up?
Because she was never sized up as prey. She is protected. Globally powerful men surround Paltrow. Her godfather is Stephen Spielberg. Her deceased father was movie director. She dated Brad Pitt. She married and divorced a rock star. The girl has alpha men protecting her back.
And his victims? Ashley Judd. I have read Ashley Judd's biography. Nary a male in sight to protect her. Not a male with any clout, when she was finding her place as an actress. Likewise, if my father had been a Platinum Donor to the UNC Alumni Fund, those fat cats that fly into the games on private jets, would these Professors have believed it was an acceptable risk to threaten me with harm if I did not have sex with them, and risk their joke, cushy jobs? Not a chance.
Predators have a preternatural sense of the vulnerable. They know when a female has no male to turn to when another male attempts to harm her. If there is no powerful, moneyed alpha male to rain down an ungodly firestorm on their heads, it’s a green light to lunge for whatever they desire.
The dreadful truth is that we have not moved that far from the cave and the campfire. We are still negotiating with Og and his club. And to beat Og, you need a bigger, meaner Og, ready to bash his brains out, or least the resources to pay a cold-eyed proxy (a lawyer these days) to gut him.
Women need powerful men to protect them from other men. For the celebrities who are feigning shock and dismay at this male abuse, they are as believable as an addict rummaging through your bathroom declaring she is looking for aspirin. The idea that this errant male behavior is systemic, and perhaps genetic, is heresy to feminists, the Left, and even people who believe that we live in a world where fairness and civility rule gender relations most days. It doesn’t.
The poor souls who have their faces melted with acid in the meaner parts of the world don’t come from the upper castes. They never have a rich father or a bevy of strong brothers to protect them. In the numerous documentaries I have watched, it is always a lone girl and her mother, trudging to a dusty court with half of her face ruined like a Dali painting, in hopes that someone cares that her life was obliterated by a man who was jealous or pissed off because he was rejected.
Our politically-correctness drenched world does not allow the thought to even bubble: that men are different -- as Fitzgerald told us the rich are. Men who have unchecked power, as Weinstein did, will use it to get what they want, and very often, they want sex with young, powerless females. And all the women reporting on sports that they have never played, or a sprinkling of women CEOs in Silicon Valley, or men acting cool with unshaved legs and armpits will not change this. (They actually are not cool with it).
If a woman had an influential, heavy hitting male in her corner, would she have been safe from Weinstein? Would I have been safe? Yes. And yes.
That is why Malia Obama, working her internship at Weinstein’s Miramax, was as clueless and protected as the Queen’s jewels, and why Lauren Sivan was forced to watch Weinsten masturbate over a potted plan and told to shut up, was unequivocally not.
"If nothing else, Harvey Weinstein is forcing our cultural masters
to face the dark, unseemly side of an industry that much of
America has seen through for years."
October 9, 2017
Harvey Weinstein and the Slow-Motion Theft of American Culture
By Jack Cashill
"I cannot be more remorseful about the people I hurt and I plan to do right by all of them,” wrote movie mogul Harvey Weinstein upon being busted for all manner of sexual predations, before adding this only-in-Hollywood non-sequitur, “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."
Perhaps even more troubling, the day before Weinstein’s apologia came this unfortunate tweet from Nancy “with the laughing eyes” Sinatra, “The murderous members of the NRA should face a firing squad.”
The Nancy tweet stung more because my once exhaustive consumption of American culture had dwindled down to Turner Classic Movies, Major League Baseball, and the Sinatra Channel on Sirius, and then Nancy had to go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like, “I hate you.” I always suspected that Weinstein did, but even though Ms. Sinatra deleted her tweet, the contempt lingers.
I do not need to watch Weinstein’s Pulp Fiction any more than I already have, but Nancy is the mainstay host of the Sinatra Channel, a daily staple. Having just given up on the NFL, I have to ask myself how much more of our common culture will be denied me and the millions of Americans who would rather desert that culture than be demeaned by its custodians.
It has not always been like this. As recently as 1980, for instance, almost no one in the media openly disrespected people like me. As a young Reagan fan, I had come to that enthusiasm almost entirely through the mainstream media. There was no conservative talk radio to speak of, no Fox News, no Internet, and I caught up with National Review only occasionally at the public library. I watched the evening news and the Sunday morning shows without feeling aggrieved or abused, and I listened to NPR all day long.
Fresh out of graduate school, I worked as Director of Management at the Kansas City Housing Authority. NPR helped me keep my sanity. I was one of only a handful of conservatives working at this place, but no one mistreated me because of it.
Being a witness to the left’s stealthy corruption of the black community, I wrote several articles on what I saw. My African-American boss advised me to use a pseudonym but otherwise had no objection. The Kansas City Star, then still a nonpartisan enterprise, welcomed my insider perspective. Up until about ten years ago, the Star even reviewed my books.
At the time, I served on the board of a local professional theater, had a play of mine produced, and wrote and directed a couple of fundraising mystery spectacles for the theater. Today, like the editors of the Star, the theater’s decision makers will not even read what I submit.
Throughout the 1990s, I produced a series of historical documentaries for the local PBS station. In that the audiences supported my work, I kept getting asked back. For years, I appeared periodically on the station’s weekly news program. That has dwindled away to nothing. The Star reporters will not be on the show if I am. The station needs the Star more than it needs me. Nor have I been on the area’s NPR station in a decade. Like its mothership, the station no longer even feigns an interest in the sixty percent of its red state market that voted for Donald Trump.
In that my wife is a university professor, so were many of our friends. Although they knew my politics, they did not hesitate to welcome us into their world. Although my politics have not changed, we have not been invited to an academic dinner party in at least a decade. Nor have we gone to see a speaker or see a play at the university three blocks from our house in twenty or so years. Chelsea Clinton? Angela Davis? The Vagina Monologues? No, thanks.
I used to watch late night talk shows. Who didn’t? Then the bright minds at the networks thought it would be a good idea to have every one of the main players -- Fallon, Kimmel, Colbert, O’Brien -- compete for the same angry liberal sliver of the audience. Today, I find myself watching Johnny Carson reruns.
As for comedy, is there any? The 1970s saw an emergence of fresh provocative talent -- Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Andy Kauffman, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Monty Python. None of them was conspicuously partisan. Today, many of the best comedians -- Seinfeld, Chris Rock -- won’t even play college campuses lest they offend the snowflakes.
“Saturday Night Live,” which debuted in 1975, sprang more or less from the side of the National Lampoon, which, if anything, skewed right. The show had a 1990s revival whose cast was arguably better than the original, and the show remained largely apolitical, at least until the emergence of Barack Obama/Sarah Palin. For eight years the Obama humor was tepid and unfunny. Today, the Trump humor is venomous and unfunny.
In comedy, only “South Park” maintains a niche on the anarchic right, but it is sufficiently vulgar the left doesn’t notice. On radio, Howard Stern has, if anything, upped the vulgarity. Unfortunately, he long ago abandoned his libertarian, street smart iconoclasm to keep the guests flowing on the Hollywood pipeline. Occasionally, he even cheers on the PC police.
Meanwhile, Weinstein’s Hollywood is in full decline. After years of ignoring middle America, its mavens decided it would be a good marketing strategy to insult that audience. It used to be newsworthy when the Oscars got political, even comical when, for instance, Marlon Brando sent Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring (or whomever) to receive his award.
As late as 2003, Michael Moore was booed for his rant against our “fictitious president,” and host Steve Martin was cheered when he snapped back, "Right now, the Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo." Today, the audience would have cheered Moore and booed Martin.
The Oscars have lost their magic because so many adults have lost the habit of going to the movies. There has been almost nothing for them to see. When the worthy film Dunkirk surfaced this summer, I had friends ask me where the theaters were. They had gone to the movies since Forrest Gump.
As to Broadway, it has taken a long, twisted road from Oklahoma to Urinetown. Always friendly to gays, Broadway is now bullied by them. Whereas the message once was, ‘please tolerate us,’ now it is, ‘celebrate us or else.’ Half the shows on Broadway, maybe more, are gay and/or trans themed.
Hamilton seemed to be a bright spot, and then the cast, with the full support of its producers, thought it would be cool to diss vice president-elect Mike Pence to his face. That will do wonders for the touring show. On the Tonys, to show their support for gun control after the Orlando gay nightclub attack, Hamilton’s Continental Army did a drill number without their weapons. They were trying to be sensitive. They just looked silly.
If nothing else, Harvey Weinstein is forcing our cultural masters to
face the dark, unseemly side of an industry that much of America
has seen through for years. Weinstein’s bust won’t make much of a
difference, but it might just make a little.
Revealed: How Harvey Weinstein threatened the careers of stars including Sienna Miller if they didn't wear his British wife's Marchesa label (and now its future looks doomed)
- Georgina Chapman, 41, set up Marchesa in 2004 the same year she met Harvey
- She has always faced accusations her success was down to his connections
- Now reports are emerging he forced stars to wear her gowns on red carpet
- Threatened to pull funding from Felicity's Huffman's film if she didn't wear gown
Harvey Weinstein has today been accused of threatening to sabotage the careers of A-list stars, including Sienna Miller, if they didn't wear his wife Georgina Chapman's designs on the red carpet.
The British-born mother-of-two, 41, set up Marchesa in 2004 and even before the scandal over rape and sexual harassment allegations broke, she faced the accusations that the label was only successful thanks to her husband's Hollywood connections.
Now an LA-based publicist has told the Hollywood Reporter that Weinstein threatened to pull publicity funding from Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman's 2005 film Trasnamerica if she didn't wear Marchesa on the red carpet.
She obliged by turning up for her high profile appearance at the Golden Globes where she was nominated for both her movie and Desperate Housewives in a flowing white Marchesa gown.
Another publicist recalled that Sienna Miller was told Harvey 'would be very upset if she didn't wear Marchesa' when invited to sit at Harvey's table at the Golden Globes in 2007 after starring in the Weinstein-produced Factory Girl.
Now fashion insiders are questioning whether a brand that seemingly built its success thanks to the bullying actions of a sexual predator will survive - not to mention his significant financial investment.
Sienna Miller was reportedly forced to wear Marchesa to the 2007 Golden Globes or risk upsetting Harvey Weinstein whose company had produced her film Factory Girl
Harvey Weinstein reportedly threatened to pull money from publicising Felicity Huffman's film Transamerica unless she wore Marchesa to the Golden Globes
The future of Georgina Champan's label Marchesa is now in doubt as the brand has become tainted by allegations its success was founded on the bullying actions of her husband Harvey Weinstein. The couple are pictured together at the Oscars in 2013
Londoner Georgina met Harvey at a party in Manhattan in 2004, following the break down of his first marriage, the same year she set up her fashion brand.
The label was just in its infancy when it got the most incredible big break courtesy of Renee Zellweger wearing a Marchesa dress to the London premiere of Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason.
At the time, having won an Oscar for Cold Mountain, she was perhaps the biggest film star in the world and could have had her pick of any designer dress.
But it's no surprise that Weinstein's influence was at play, given that Bridget Jones was produced by his company Miramax and he received a thank you in her Oscar acceptance speech earlier that year.
Renee Zellweger gave the young brand an incredible boost in its first year when she wore a Marchesa dress to the premiere of her Weinstein-produced Bridget Jones film in 2004
Weinstein, pictured with his wife, admitted helping his wife's label take off by ensuring Renee Zellwegger's championing of the brand on the red carpet
The movie mogul himself admitted to pushing his wife's burgeoning label in an interview with Vogue in 2013, saying: 'Maybe I helped, but just very, very little, with Renée Zellweger.'
Over the past 13 years, stars who have appeared in Weinstein-produced films and worn Marchesa on the red carpet include Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry and Cate Blanchett.
As the allegations against Weinstein mounted, people have taken to social media to call for a boycott of Marcehsa, and fashion insiders say that nobody will want to wear the brand again as it's been tainted by the scandal.
An unnamed stylist told Us Weekly that their company has forbidden employees from dressing their clients in Marchesa for the time being.
Sandra Bullock in a gold Marchesa dress for her high profile appearance at the Oscars in 2010, when she won Best Actress for The Blind Side (left). Jennifer Lopez at the Oscars Vanity Fair Party, wearing Marchesa, in 2007 (right)
Nicole Kidman wears a Marchesa dress at the 69th annual Directors Guild of America Awards
'The decision was reached that unless Georgina cuts ties from her husband or donates proceeds to a women's organization, no one is allowed to pull any Marchesa dresses for clients,' the source said.
Another unnamed New York fashion publicist told The Hollywood Reporter: 'No star is ever going to want to wear the brand again.'
Other reports suggest that the brand will struggle without Weinstein's investment.
'The problem is that he has too much money in it. It's all his money in the brand,' a source told Us Weekly.
As well as putting his own money into Marchesa, Weinstein persuaded friends such as Giuseppe Cipriani to invest in the company, meaning the brand may suffer if he wants to cut off associations with the shamed mogul.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4969584/Harvey-Weinstein-forced-Sienna-Miller-wear-Marchesa.html#ixzz4vEDkFsfn
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October 9, 2017
Weinstein ignites Democrats' bonfire of the inanities
A fault line runs through the Democratic Party, with two tectonic plates colliding. The feminist plate, with its strict code of sexual conduct, is pressing up against the plate representing sexual libertinism and the normalized excesses of Hollywood culture. Back during the Clinton presidency, the feminists utterly surrendered to the libertines, going so far as to offer the "one free grope" standard that applies only to Democrats. But in the intervening 19 years, the anger of the feminists has been on the rise and was put on steroids by the vulgar private remarks of Donald Trump many years ago, recorded and released by political enemies during the campaign.
Now that Harvey Weinstein, whose movies have done so much to attack conventional norms and whose money has funded so many prominent Democrats, has been exposed as a grotesque abuser of women, the resulting pressures are causing Democrats to embarrass themselves.
There is no wining position for Democrats on any of this. Consider the case of Donna Brazile, who sabotaged Bernie Sanders's debate with Hillary by leaking questions to his opponent. She published an astounding tweet yesterday:
The Weinstein Company has taken the lead against sexual harassment and assault. https://t.co/Vozb3P3gXJ— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) October 8, 2017
The only way that "The Weinstein Company has taken the lead against sexual harassment and assault" is true is that it fired Harvey yesterday. But enabling the widely known predation for decades is not exactly taking the lead, so a lot of history must be ignored to make such a statement.
...which makes this tweet inane.
Or consider Princess Chelsea, the daughter of a serial abuser of women. She tried to have it both ways, avoiding personal comment but tweeting a link to a pathetic seven-part tweet thread from Judd Legum, editor of the Soros-funded Think Progress:
Thread: https://t.co/NNmBzj65kG— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) October 7, 2017
Hilarity ensued on Twitter, with many commenting that she is in no position to make judgments. If Bill Clinton is OK, then Harvey must be OK, too.
But take it from Ashley Judd: just BS-ing with a younger male about the sexual privilege of celebrities is a horror that merits blowing up the White House.
The Democrats and the Clintons have fastened their wagon to a sexual predator, who defiled the Oval Office with oral sex, and they are stuck.
I have to wonder how many secrets Harvey knows. My guess is that there are plenty of prominent politicians on whom he has some dirt, since he was a source of young and willing talent for their recreational use.
This scandal isn't going away. And it has sex and celebrities, the two ingredients of public and media attention.
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RICH LIBERALS AND THEIR
CELEBRATES P IMPS AND PERVS
…. The parasitism of Hillary, Billary,
Obomb, Heffner, Weinstein and the
rest.
VIDEO:
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY’S LEADING
LAP DANCERS:
Hillary, Billary and Harvey Weinstein
and their boy Obomb….. new
definitions of degradation.
Downfall of a sleazy tyrant: How Harvey Weinstein and his British wife are starring in their own disaster movie after he was accused of sexually harassing women in London and LA
One of Hollywood’s most powerful moguls came crashing down from his pedestal yesterday after stunning revelations that he paid off at least eight women over sexual harassment claims.
Harvey Weinstein said he was taking leave of absence from his company to get therapy for his treatment of women. In a remarkable admission from one of the most tyrannical men in the movie business, the American ‘sincerely apologised’ for the pain he’d caused.
Weinstein, who was made a CBE by Tony Blair’s government for services to the British film industry, said he particularly wanted to ‘earn the forgiveness’ of the star actress Ashley Judd.
In an account of his bullying behaviour, which was echoed by a string of other women, Judd described how, in the late Nineties, Weinstein lured her to what she thought would be a breakfast meeting in his suite at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel in LA to discuss film roles.
Harvey Weinstein leaves his New York family home with security. He was surrounded by photographers as he made his way to his awaiting SUV, pictured
Instead, the burly producer appeared in a dressing gown and asked if he could give her a massage. When she declined, he requested that she watch him take a shower.
‘I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask,’ she told the widely respected New York Times, which broke the story this week. ‘It was all this bargaining, this coercive bargaining.’
The actress described how she joked to him that she wouldn’t touch him until she had won an Oscar in one of his films. Judd, who says she’s heard of other actresses who received exactly the same treatment, walked out of the suite — and never heard from Weinstein’s studio again.
The newspaper said it had identified at least eight previously undisclosed instances in which Weinstein had paid money, sometimes as much as $150,000 (£115,000), to settle ‘complaints about his lewd behaviour’ covering nearly three decades.
Vince Vaughn, pictured back left, Harvey Weinstein, pictured right, and Ashley Judd at an Oscar party. Judd had heard of other actresses who received exactly the same treatment by Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein and Rose McGowan during the Grindhouse Los Angeles Premiere, pictured. McGowan had previously reached undisclosed settlement with Weinstein in 1997
They reportedly included the brunette actress Rose McGowan — who starred in the supernatural drama series Charmed — as well as a fashion model. The women were mostly in their 20s and alone with Weinstein when, they say he would appear either barely clothed or naked, coercing them to massage him or watch him in the shower.
According to the New York Times, McGowan reached a previously undisclosed settlement with Weinstein in 1997 over an incident in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. She was 23 at the time.
In at least one other instance, he allegedly pressured a temporary assistant to have sex with him.
Providing compelling evidence that the notorious Hollywood ‘casting couch’ is alive and well, the women said Weinstein offered to advance their careers if they succumbed to his advances.
Some of this ugly behaviour reportedly took place in London, where Weinstein would sexually harass female staff while staying at the Savoy hotel. The most recent allegation reported by the New York Times was in March 2015.
‘Women have been talking about Harvey among ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly,’ said Ashley Judd.
Weinstein issued a statement saying: ‘I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologise for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go. That is my commitment.
‘My journey now will be to learn about myself and conquer my demons. I’ve brought on therapists and I plan to take a leave of absence from my company, and to deal with this issue head on.’
However, without providing examples, he accused the New York Times of ‘reckless reporting’. His lawyer said Weinstein ‘denies many of the accusations as patently false’, and would sue the newspaper.
The 65-year-old producer of Oscar-winning films including Shakespeare In Love, The English Patient and The King’s Speech has five children, including two by his second wife, the British fashion designer Georgina Chapman.
He said that glamorous, Marlborough-educated Ms Chapman, his wife since 2007, would be ‘kicking my ass to be a better human being and to apologise to people for my bad behaviour’.
The 41-year-old former model from Richmond-upon-Thames, whose business was helped immeasurably by the readiness of her husband’s Hollywood friends to wear her designs at awards ceremonies, was reportedly livid after an Italian model accused Weinstein of groping her two years ago.
Weinstein rejected claims by model and aspiring actress Ambra Battilana that he grabbed her breasts and put his hands up her skirt. However, according to the New York Times, she was one of the women he paid off in a private settlement.
Yesterday, Georgina Chapman managed to smile for cameras as she emerged from the couple’s $15 million Manhattan home, refusing to comment on the scandal.
Harvey Weinstein's wife, Georgina Chapman is seen for the first time as she leaves their family home in New York amidst her husbands sexual allegations
Weinstein claims he has had ‘really tough conversations’ with his family, but that they are standing by him. The tantalising question is whether Hollywood will stand by him, too.
Embarrassingly for an industry priding itself on its progressive stance on women’s rights, many women confirmed yesterday that Weinstein’s behaviour has long been an open secret in Tinseltown.
However, over the years, instead of criticising or refusing to work with him, scores of female stars — including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and Judi Dench — have showered praise on him for championing their careers.
Streep once called him ‘God’ as she picked up a Golden Globe award, while Dame Judi has said she would never have had a film career without him.
While Hollywood allowed Weinstein to establish himself as a champion of liberal values, a staunch feminist and humanitarian, critics say that those who knew the truth about his private life were either blinded by ambition or silenced by the terror of crossing such a powerful and hot-tempered mogul.
The son of a diamond cutter from suburban New York, Weinstein and his brother Bob used the profits from a concert promotion business to set up their film distribution company, Miramax — named after their parents — in the Seventies.
Their first hit was The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, a collection of live performances by British comedians and musicians in aid of Amnesty International. After the success of the British thriller The Crying Game in 1993, the brothers sold Miramax to Disney for $80 million, but stayed at its helm until 2005, when they struck out on their own, building a reputation for upmarket if often violent films.
Pictured, Weinstein and first wife Eve Chilton, who was a former assistant of his
Weinstein — who had three children with his first wife, his former assistant Eve Chilton — is notorious for interfering in his films, ruthlessly cutting those he regards as too long or slow with a ferocity that earned him the nickname Harvey Scissorhands.
His aggressive efforts to campaign for his films during the Oscar season — wildly out-spending other studios in his overtures to the judges — earned a ban on such tactics by the awards organisers.
He and his brother have notched up more than 300 Oscar nominations, while Weinstein has been thanked more times in Oscars acceptance speeches than anyone — including God.
Nonetheless, he has a reputation as a brutal bully, with a monstrous ego and volcanic temper. As Ashley Judd recalled, when confronted with the producer’s lewd behaviour in his hotel suite, she thought: ‘How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?’
His influence stretched far beyond the film industry and into politics, too.
A staunch Democrat, Weinstein was a prominent supporter of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns. When Obama’s daughter, Malia, recently finished school, she got an internship with Weinstein’s company.
After the scandal broke yesterday, at least two Democratic senators gave away past donations they had received from Weinstein. America’s liberal elite is usually quick to jump on the bandwagon of condemning sexual harassment of women by powerful men. However, those who have worked with Weinstein were slow to comment.
One who did was the Tony-nominated British actress Jessica Hynes — star of BBC satire W1A — who said yesterday that she was once sacked from a film when, aged 19, she refused to do a screen test in a bikini for Weinstein. ‘I’m sure there are many more,’ she added.
Rose McGowan commented on Twitter: ‘Anyone who does business with _ is complicit. And deep down you know you are even dirtier. Cleanse yourselves.’
In a sign that colleagues may not wait for Weinstein to emerge from therapy a better man, the board of his business — the Weinstein Company — reportedly held an emergency meeting yesterday which he was expected to address. Rumours flew that Weinstein’s more amiable brother, Bob, and chief operating officer, David Glasser, will stage a coup.
It remains unclear precisely what the producer is admitting and what he is denying. His lawyer, Lisa Bloom, admitted he was ‘an old dinosaur learning new ways’.
She said she had ‘explained to him’ that, as a powerful studio boss dealing with far less influential women in the industry, ‘whatever his motives, some of his words and behaviours can be perceived as inappropriate, even intimidating’.Bloom also told U.S. breakfast TV yesterday that his behaviour had been ‘gross’ and agreed that it was also ‘illegal’.
Weinstein has attempted to justify his behaviour as having been a product of another Hollywood era. ‘I came of age in the Sixties and Seventies when all the rules about behaviour and workplaces were different. That was the culture then,’ he claimed.
He said yesterday that he wanted another chance, ‘but I know I’ve got work to do to earn it’. Weinstein added: ‘I also have the worst temper known to mankind . . . I can’t talk specifics, but I put myself in positions that were stupid.’
According to the New York Times, executives at Weinstein’s company were warned about his behaviour in 2015 when a young female production executive, Lauren O’Connor, wrote a memo describing disturbing incidents involving herself and colleagues.
‘There is a toxic environment for women at this company,’ she wrote. ‘The balance of power is me: 0, Harvey Weinstein: 10.’ She recounted how, a year earlier, Weinstein had summoned a woman called Emily Nestor, who had worked for just one day at his company as a temp, to the Peninsula Beverly Hills, and offered to advance her career if she accepted his sexual advances.
The following year, according to Ms O’Connor, a female assistant said Weinstein ‘badgered’ her into giving him a massage while he was naked at the same hotel, leaving her ‘crying and very distraught’.
Weinstein has disputed some of Ms O’Connor’s claims, and insists they parted on good terms.
The New York Times also reported the ugly behaviour spread across the Atlantic as he targeted female staff at his London office with ‘inappropriate requests or comments in hotel rooms’.
Laura Madden, a former employee there, said Weinstein pressured her for massages in hotels from 1991.
‘It was so manipulative. You constantly question yourself — am I the one who is the problem?’ she said. She confided to a colleague that she once locked herself sobbing in the bathroom of Weinstein’s hotel room.
One of his London assistants, Zelda Perkins, then 25, was paid off by the company’s lawyers when she confronted Weinstein in 1998 and threatened to ‘go public’, the newspaper reports. Ex-staff said women employees responded by never visiting Weinstein alone.
At least one Weinstein Company board member said he called for an independent investigation following Ms O’Connor’s claims, but the matter was dropped after Weinstein settled with his accuser.
Hollywood insiders say it’s easy to see why his reported victims were cowed into silence. As one commented yesterday, Tinseltown had a very permissive culture for a long time, and Weinstein has been very powerful for a long time, which is why women are only now feeling emboldened to speak out.
The ebullient Weinstein has long been one of Hollywood’s most colourful and controversial figures.
Throwing his weight around: Weinstein has also become a huge Democratic donor over the years (above with Hillary Clinton in 2012)
Alliance: The film mogul was one of Obama's top 40 'bundlers' during his 2012 re-election, bringing in $679,275 for the candidate
A friend of Paul McCartney, Bill Clinton and ‘acquaintance’ of the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, he and brother Bob revolutionised the industry when Miramax, showed independent outfits could compete.
He was a master at getting small films noticed by the Oscar judges, championing actresses as varied as Nicole Kidman, Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Tara Fitzgerald and — most recently — the aristocratic model Cressida Bonas, former girlfriend of Prince Harry.
Gwyneth Paltrow, a Weinstein favourite whom he propelled to Oscars glory in Shakespeare In Love, repaid him by appearing in skimpy dominatrix gear in his society magazine, Talk.
‘There were certain favours that he asked me to do that I felt were not exploitive, but not necessarily as great for me as they were for him,’ she said later.
In the Nineties, Hollywood watchers wondered at the way pretty, young but not always very talented actresses would suddenly — and unaccountably — attract huge media buzz as Weinstein took them under his wing.
Long-time speculation over which of those ‘Harvey Girls’ have succumbed to his sexual overtures has inevitably been given new life by the latest revelations.
When Ashley Judd wrote about her experience — without identifying Weinstein — in 2015, she said she had discovered that a ‘bunch’ of other actresses had had the same ordeal — right down to the producer asking each of them to watch him in the shower.
Notoriously demanding of colleagues, and pugnaciously aggressive towards anyone who gets in his way, Weinstein is nicknamed The Punisher in Hollywood. Time will tell if he finally earns the new title of The Punished.
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‘Your Silence Is Deafening’:
Oscar-Winning Actresses
Who Worked with Harvey
Weinstein Stay Quiet on
Sexual Harassment Claims
Oscar-Winning Actresses
Who Worked with Harvey
Weinstein Stay Quiet on
Sexual Harassment Claims
Several actresses who worked with Harvey Weinstein on critically-acclaimed films have come under fire from one of their fellow stars for refusing to speak out publicly after a bombshell report Thursday detailed decades of sexual harassment allegations against the Hollywood movie mogul.
In posts to her Twitter account Friday, actress Rose McGowan said the “ladies of Hollywood” were conspicuously silent following a New York Times report earlier this week that claimed Weinstein reached financial settlements with at least eight women over his decades-long career in movies, including McGowan herself.
“Ladies of Hollywood, your silence is deafening,” McGowan wrote.
While a number of female celebrities have spoken out since the allegations broke, including actresses Amber Tamblyn, Lena Dunham, and Brie Larson, several A-list stars who worked with Weinstein on Oscar-winning films have remained silent, including Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Anna Paquin, Renee Zelwegger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Judi Dench, and Penelope Cruz.
In fact, as the Daily Mail notes, some stars’ lack of any public statement on the allegations against Weinstein is made more conspicuous by the fact that Weinstein’s name has been mentioned almost more than any other during acceptance speeches at the Oscars, more than 20 times.
Weinstein has been credited with launching actresses’ careers and getting them in the Oscar spotlight; when Meryl Streep won in 2012, she expressed gratitude to “God – Harvey Weinstein” in her acceptance speech, while in 2014, Dench, who won an Oscar for the Weinstein-produced Shakespeare in Love in 1999, showed the producer a fake tattoo of his name she’d gotten on her backside.
Additionally, Oscar-winner Kidman, who just picked up an Emmy for her role on the HBO series Big Little Lies, used her acceptance speech just last month to highlight domestic abuse and violence against women.
One actress who did speak out about Weinstein’s behavior was actress Ashley Judd, who spoke to the New York Times on the record about an experience she had with the producer in his hotel room while filming the 1997 film Kiss the Girls.
“I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask. It was all this bargaining, this coercive bargaining,” Judd told the paper, adding: “Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.”
The lack of a significant response from women in Hollywood comes as even more accusations have been leveled at Weinstein, and The Weinstein Company announced it would conduct its own investigation of its co-founder while he remains on indefinite leave.
Former television news reporter Lauren Sivan told HuffPost in an interview Friday that in an incident that allegedly happened more than a decade ago, Weinstein allegedly cornered her in a restaurant that was closed to the public and masturbated in front of her. The producer has not yet commented on the claims.
Meanwhile, three board members at TWC reportedly resigned their positions Friday after a two-day emergency meeting to discuss the allegations. The company, co-founded by brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005, says it plans to continue with its production and awards season campaign slate.
Weinstein apologized for his behavior in a statement to the Times, and said he would seek outside help, though he blasted the paper for what he called its “reckless reporting” and announced he intended to sue for $0 million.
October 8, 2017
Democrats launder Harvey Weinstein's dirty dollars
All full of tears and flapdoodle. Democrats are returning Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's campaign contributions in the wake of revelations that he was a voracious sexual predator. But not to Weinstein, whose donations are tainted by the supposed disconnect between the women's rights they claim to champion and Weinstein's porcine behavior: Just to themselves.
They're laundering Harvey's dirty dollars through Democrat front groups dedicated to electing more Democrats. These include Emily's List, Emerge America, and Higher Heights. And it's only a fraction of what Weinstein donated to the Democratic National Committee anyway: $30,000 out of a collective total of $300,000. They'd rather keep the rest. They also ignore the inconvenient detail about Weinstein himself, whose money is being given back, and blame Trump.
The Hill reports:
The DNC said it chose the three groups “because what we need is more women in power, not men like [President] Trump who continue to show us that they lack respect for more than half of America.”
Some of the more ambitious Democrats, with eyes to higher office perhaps, such as Sen. Liz Warren of Massachusetts, are redirecting their donations to abused women's shelters, which would probably help the victims of wife-beaters, but not the women abused in the workplace as Weinstein's victims were. What's more their cash amounts are small and it's not much skin off their noses to do it. The cash-strapped DNC is different, however, and it would rather just recycle.
That whole premise of 'electing women leaders' is worth looking at in any case. The Democrats have already elected a lot of 'women in power' and that sure didn't stop Weinstein from being one of their choicest donors while plying his sexual behavior. In fact, it rather empowered Weinstein, who specialized in donating to women's causes, while acting like a predatory pig a his own workplace and even in public. Right now, Weinstein has a $5 million donation in the pipeline to University of Southern California's famed film school for the creation of more .... women directors. He also was a bigtime donor to Planned Parenthood, which the left's idea of what women's rights amount to, and rubbed elbows with all the right feminist causes. Feminist causes seemed to be his 'beard' for barbarism because he knew his money would always get these pompous, self-regarding feminist groups to look the other way.
It was the same way for women politicians. Hillary Clinton took in big dollars from Weintein to become president and that sure didn't signal any virtuous intentions from Weinstein, who kept on harassing the interns back at the studio. Would electing another Kamala Harris have prevented Weinstein from preying on Hollywood neophyte actresses and paying hush money to harassed production assistants? Harris of course took cash from Weinstein in 2014, so it's safe to say that her election most certainly didn't. What two of them or ten of them would do, would be just as useless. The reality is, the trope of 'electing more women leaders' is an old argument feminism's critics have blasted at Democrats and feminists as empowering only an out-of-touch feminist elite, not the average working girl subject to predators like Weinstein. Laundering Weinstein's cash through this rationale can only be an insult.
VIDEO:
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY’S LEADING LAP DANCERS:
Hillary, Billary and Harvey Weinstein and their boy Obomb….. new definitions of
degradation.
RICH LIBERALS AND THEIR CELEBRATES
PIMPS AND PERVS
…. The parasitism of Hillary, Billary, Obomb, Heffner, Cosby, Weinstein and the rest.
Champagne, caviar and the after-hours
'office tour': Former waitress details her
personal experience with Harvey
Weinstein's 'sleazy' ways
Jade Budowski worked as a waitress in
Weinstein's office building last year
Young writer speaks out about film
producer's 'sleazy' ways in essay Saturday
- Says the married father of five brought a
- string of young dates into Tribeca Grill
- Inevitably took the women upstairs for
- 'office tour' while food sat cold, she says
- Mogul 'slurped and splattered' his soup
- and had the food tastes of a 'toddler'
- Weinstein has settled numerous sex
- harassment suits, report revealed
- Thursday
- Budowski says he was 'every bit the
- sleazy Hollywood caricature' reports claim
A former waitress has spoken out about her personal experience with Harvey Weinstein's 'sleazy' ways.
Writer Jade Budowski, who worked last year at Manhattan's buzzy Tribeca Grill in the ground floor of the film mogul's office building, detailed her experience in a scathing essay on Saturday for the New York Post.
'Harvey Weinstein was every bit the sleazy caricature recent reports have made him out to be,' Budowski wrote.
Weinstein, 65, has come under withering fire following a Thursday report revealing he has settled sexual harassment claims from at least eight women over the past three decades.
Now Budowski reveals that the married father of five was a fixture in the upscale Tribeca Grill, which is owned by Robert DeNiro.
Scroll down for video
Writer Jade Budowski, who worked last year at Manhattan's buzzy Tribeca Grill in the ground floor of Weinstein's office building, detailed her experience in a scathing essay
Weinstein, 65, has come under withering fire following a Thursday report revealing he has settled sexual harassment claims from at least eight women over the past three decades
Weinstein's food tastes were those of a 'toddler' though, she wrote: 'well-done' fries, chopped-up fettuccine, ice cream with extra sprinkles and French onion soup 'that he would slurp and splatter all over the booth'.
The movie mogul's tastes in women were equally predictable, with a steady stream of dates who appeared barely 21, and looked 'vaguely European, always beautiful, stylishly dressed, and totally out of place next to someone like him'.
If the women were sitting at the bar when Weinstein arrived, even if they'd requested to wait for him there, Budowski says he would fly into a rage, screaming at the servers: 'Why the f**k isn't she at the table?'
At one of Weinstein's favored tables in the back of the dining room, the dates would proceed along a regular formula: 'Champagne, caviar, and an unspoken rule that Weinstein and his date not be disturbed.'
'We all knew what was in store for her,' a former coworker recalled to Budowski.
'After a little small talk and a sip of champagne, there would be an "office tour" - usually well past working hours, after which the girl would return looking worse for wear and barely able to finish the glass.'
Married father-of-five Weinstein was a fixture in the upscale Tribeca Grill (pictured), which is owned by Robert DeNiro, according to Budowski
Weinstein is seen in September. Budowski says he brought a string of young twenty-somethings to the restaurant in his office building
At one of Weinstein's favored tables in the back of Tribeca Grill (pictured), the dates would proceed along a regular formula: Champagne, caviar, and an after-hours 'office tour' upstairs
These so-called 'office tours' would sometimes last hours, while at Weinstein's insistence their table sat untouched, food growing cold, the ex-waitress said.
Not all of his dates were put off by this routine, apparently, with some of them returning for second or third dates with the powerful producer.
Staff at the restaurant were terrorized though, claims Budowski, fearing Weinstein's penchant for 'inappropriate touching'.
Budowksi left the Tribeca Grill in January and has gone on to work as an arts and entertainment journalist.
One-third of the nine-man board at Harvey Weinstein's company resigned after the harassment allegations became public.
The company declined to comment on Budowski's recollections.
But the Weinstein Company has launched an internal probe into the claims against their disgraced co-founder, and confirmed he would take an indefinite leave of absence.
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'He appeared naked in her bedroom':
Oscar-nominated producer tells how
'bully' Harvey Weinstein harassed an
employee 30 years ago but 'a culture of
fear' stopped victims speaking out
- Big name Hollywood figure has come forward with a second hand account of alleged sexual harassment by disgraced studio executive Harvey Weinstein
- Elizabeth Karlsen told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday that she'd been informed of a sexual harassment accusation almost 30 years ago
- Karlsen is the Academy Award-nominated producer of hits like The Crying Game and Carol
- 'She came to me directly and said that [Weinstein] had appeared naked in her bedroom,' Karlsen said
- That claim was made by a young female executive at Weinstein's then-company, Miramax, she said
- Weinstein has been fired 'by email' from his own production company in the wake of the sexual harassment claims that emerged last week
British film producer Elizabeth Karlsen told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday that she'd been informed of a sexual harassment accusation almost 30 years ago
Another big name Hollywood figure has come forward with a second hand account of alleged sexual harassment by disgraced studio executive Harvey Weinstein, it was reported on Sunday.
Weinstein - the Hollywood mogul so powerful that Meryl Streep once called him 'God' - has been fired 'by email' from his own production company in the wake of the sexual harassment claims that emerged last week.
Elizabeth Karlsen, the Oscar-nominated producer of The Crying Game, among others, told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday that she'd been informed of a sexual harassment accusation almost 30 years ago.
That claim was made by a young female executive at Weinstein's then-company, Miramax, she said.
The woman had been staying in a house in London rented by the studio.
'She came to me directly and said that [Weinstein] had appeared naked in her bedroom,' Karlsen said.
'I don't know the extent of what did happen, but there was an out-of-court settlement and she left the company.''
Karlsen said it was the first time she had heard the rumors of Weinstein's alleged sexual conduct.
Weinstein (left) - the Hollywood mogul so powerful that Meryl Streep (seen with Weinstein in 2012) once called him 'God' - has been fired 'by email' from his own production company in the wake of the sexual harassment claims that emerged last week
She said 'everyone' in the film industry knew of Weinstein's alleged behavior for years.
Karlsen called Weinstein 'a bully' for his behavior that she claims directly affected her work.
In 2015, her critically acclaimed comedy, Carol, was set for release in the United States.
The film was produced by a British studio, Number 9 Films, which she co-founded with her husband, Stephen Woolley.
Weinstein's studio, The Weinstein Company, had signed up to distribute the film in the US.
Karlsen is the Oscar-nominated producer of the 1992 hit The Crying Game, which stars Forest Whitaker (left) and Stephen Rea (right)
But when news broke that Weinstein was being accused of groping a young Italian model, plans went awry.
'We had a screener to garner critical response that was in New York, but Harvey wasn't able to attend any of the meetings because the day after the screening the story broke about the groping of an Italian actress in his office,' Karlsen says.
'So we were told he was holed up over the weekend with his lawyers.'
Since its release, Carol has grossed in excess of $12million at the box office in the US and Canada.
Worldwide, the movie generated over $40million.
The romantic drama, which stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, cost just $11.8million to make.
Karlsen said a 'culture of fear' in Hollywood deterred people from speaking out about Weinstein's behavior.
'We all have to ask ourselves - those of us who knew - why do we feel unable and un-empowered to do something?
Karlsen called Weinstein 'a bully' for his behavior that she claims directly affected the distribution of her 2015 film, the critically acclaimed movie Carol. The film's stars, Cate Blanchett (left) and Rooney Mara (right), are seen above
'And I think the answers are very complicated and to do with power structure as a whole in society and women's place in it,' Karlsen said.
The British producer said that it is difficult for women to speak out about the male-dominated power structure because of the harsh reaction online.
'Women are at the bottom of the ladder over and over again,' she said.
When asked about Weinstein's 'indefinite leave of absence', she said: 'I would hope that that's the end.'
'I think the real tragedy is not only do you have the damage that's been done to people in terms of abuse, but there's the damage that's felt by the people who weren't able to speak up for whatever reason and feel confused about that.'
Weinstein allegedly preyed on young women hoping to break into the film industry. The accusers - including celebrities such as Rose McGowan (right) and Ashley Judd (left) - say Weinstein promised to help advance their careers in exchange for sexual favors, pressuring them to massage him and watch him naked
The 65-year-old was ousted from The Weinstein Company - which he founded with his brother Bob in 2005 - by its board of directors on Sunday.
The firing comes after a bombshell report alleged Weinstein, whose company produced such hits as 'The King's Speech' and 'The Artist,' preyed on young women hoping to break into the film industry.
The accusers - including celebrities such as Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd - say Weinstein promised to help advance their careers in exchange for sexual favors, pressuring them to massage him and watch him naked.
In a statement confirming the producer's departure, the The Weinstein Company said: '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.'
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Matt Damon called 'spineless profiteer
who stays silent' by Harvey Weinstein
victim Rose McGowan after it is revealed
he and Russell Crowe helped kill a story
about mogul's harassment
- The Wrap founder Sharon Waxman says Matt Damon and Russell Crowe called her in 2004 to stop a negative story about Harvey Weinstein
- At the time, Waxman was working for the New York Times and had been given the green light to investigate claims about the exec's inappropriate behavior
- She says she found proof that Weinstein sexually harassed at least one woman, who then got a payout
- Multiple sources told her that a man hired by Weinstein's former Miramax company had been put on the payroll to procure women for him
- Waxman says Damon and Crowe called her to vouch for that man, Fabrizio Lombardo, and eventually the story was killed
- Weinsten victim Rose McGowan responded to this by tweeting: 'Hey @Mattdamon what’s it like to be a spineless profiteer who stays silent?'
Matt Damon may soon be forced to comment on the decades of sexual harassment Harvey Weinstein inflicted upon his staff and a number of Hollywood actresses after one of those stars took aim at the Oscar-winning writer and star of 'Good Will Hunting.'
One day after Sharon Waxman revealed in a post on The Wrap that she had been working on an expose about Weinstein until Damon and actor Russell Crowe called her directly to try and bury the piece, Rose McGowan lashed out at the actor.
'Hey @Mattdamon what’s it like to be a spineless profiteer who stays silent?' wrote McGowan Monday afternoon, hours after calling on the entire board at Weinstein Company to step down for being complicit in covering up the executive's actions.
McGowan also acknowledged a few of Damon's similarly tongue-tied pals, tweeting: 'Ben Affleck Casey Affleck, how’s your morning boys?'
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Best of buds: The Wrap founder Sharon Waxman says Matt Damon and Russell Crowe called her in 2004 to stop a negative story about Harvey Weinstein (Damon and Weinstein above in 2005)
Friends forever: Crowe called around the time he was working on 'Master and Commander' for the studio (above with Weinstein in 2005)
Lashing out: Weinsten victim Rose McGowan responded to this by tweeting: 'Hey @Mattdamon what’s it like to be a spineless profiteer who stays silent?' (above)
Looking for some goodwill: McGowan also acknowledged a few of Damon's similarly tongue-tied pals, tweeting: 'Ben Affleck Casey Affleck, how’s your morning boys?'
Waxman said in her piece that Damon and Crowe called her after she managed to get multiple sources stating on the record that an Italian man being paid $400,000 by the company knew little about film and was better known for the 'evenings he organized with Russian escorts.'
The story was ultimately killed despite Waxman's findings at the time.
Reps for both Crowe and Damon did not respond to requests for comment.
At the center of the story was a man who worked as the head of Miramax Italy, but who had no film experience.
The Wrap founder Sharon Waxman (pictued on October 3) says Damon and Crowe called her in 2004 to stop a negative story about Weinstein
Miramax, which was founded by Weinstein and his brother Bob in 1979, was still being run by the brothers at that team even though in 1993 they had sold to Disney.
Multiple sources told Waxman that Fabrizio Lombardo was actually put on the payroll to help procure women for Weinstein, and that was the reason for his $400,000 in the one-year span betwee m 2003 and 2004 when he worked for the company.
Waxman also tracked down a woman in London who said she had been paid off after an unwanted sexual encounter with Weinstein.
She revealed however that while the reporting was going well, she began to hit a different road block once Weinstein learned that the Times was working on a negative story.
That is when the executive got to work trying to kill the story, using Damon and Crowe to help him by vouching for Lombardo.
The two men both appeared in Miramax films produced by Weinstein around that time - Damon in 'The Brothers Grimm' (2005) and Crowe in 'Master and Commander' (2006).
Damon and his lifelong pals Ben and Casey Affleck all owe their careers to Weinstein in many ways thanks to his championing of 'Good Will Hunting.'
Waxman wrote the she was ultimately told that Weinstein made a visit to the Times newsroom, where he visited with people 'above my head' to 'make his displeasure known'.
In the end, her editors decided against publishing the accusations.
'The story was stripped of any reference to sexual favors or coercion and buried on the inside of the Culture section, an obscure story about Miramax firing an Italian executive. Who cared?' Waxman recalled.
The story centered on Fabrizio Lombardo, who was head of Miramax Italy for less than a year between 2003 and 2004. Multiple sources told Waxman that Lombardo was put on the payroll to procure women for Weinstein (the two pictured above in 2007)
Damon and Crowe called Waxman to vouch for Lombado. Damon, it can be argued, owes his career to Weinstein who financed 1997's Good Will Hunting, which he starred in and wrote (left). At the time of the 2004 article, Crowe was filming Master and Commander for Miramax (right)
Waxman wrote the story about her failed attempt to out Weinstein in response to a 'sanctimonious' story written by the Times columnist Jim Rutenberg on Friday, praising his newspaper for taking down one of Holllywood's most powerful men when so many other media outlets ignored the rumors.
'Until now, no journalistic outfit had been able, or perhaps willing, to nail the details and hit publish,' Rutenberg, the Times' media columnist, wrote.
Waxman wanted to set the record straight: The Times may have been the ones to finally get Weinstein - but they knew about the allegations as early as 2004 and passed on the opportunity to report the truth.
'The New York Times was one of those enablers. So pardon me for having a deeply ambivalent response about the current heroism of the Times,' she wrote.
Harvey Weinstein accused of raping Italian star Asia Argento and forcing himself on Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rosanna Arquette and Mira Sorvino in private meetings
- Asia Argento says that Harvey Weinstein raped her in a hotel room at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc back in 1997 when she was 21
- Angelina Jolie said that she never worked with Weinstein again after her made unwanted sexual advances on her while filming 'Playing by Heart'
- Gwyneth Paltrow was sexually harassed by Weinstein at the start of her career claims the actress, and had boyfriend Brad Pitt confront the producer
- Mira Sorvino says that Weinstein made sexual advances towards her back in 1995 in a hotel room and later by showing up to her apartment unannounced
- Rosanna Arquette says she met Weinstein in a hotel room and he asked her to give him a massage then tried to have her touch his erect penis
- Both Sorvino and Arquette said that their careers suffered after they refused these sexual advances
- In total, 13 women said they were sexually harassed or assaulted and three said that they were raped
- Ben Affleck, who refused to respond to requests for comment for days, said after the released of the 'New Yorker' story that the allegations made him sick
Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow are the latest women to accuse movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of trying to force himself on them - as three other women today said the Hollywood executive raped them.
Italian star Asia Argento told the New Yorker that Weinstein raped her in 1997 at a party hosted by Miramax at the Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc. She claims the mogul led her to an empty room and asked her to give him a massage.
She reluctantly agreed, and halfway through he began to perform oral sex on her despite her repeated request for him to stop. Aspiring actress Lucia Evans and another unnamed woman accused him of rape as well according to the article.
Jolie was filming 'Playing By Heart for Weinstein when he made unwanted advances on her in a hotel room.
'I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did,' Jolie told the New York Times.
'This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable.'
Paltrow meanwhile said that the man who launched her career sexually harassed her at his Beverly Hills hotel when she was just 22, and that it almost lost her a big role.
Rosanna Arquette and Mira Sorvino also state that the powerful Hollywood executive forced himself upon them, but that they were able to fight off his sexual advances.
Soon after, the two women say their careers began to suffer.
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Angelina Jolie (above in September) said that she never worked with Weinstein again after her made unwanted sexual advances on her while filming 'Playing by Heart'
Victim: Gwyneth Paltrow was sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein (pair above in 2002) at the start of her career claims the actress, and had boyfriend Brad Pitt confront the producer
Leading lady: Paltrow arrived at Weinstein's hotel and he began to massage her and then asked her to join him in the bedroom (above with Weinstein, Edward Zwick and her Best Actress Oscar in 1999)
GWYNETH PALTROW
'I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,' said Paltrow, who revealed that when she was told to meet Weinstein in his hotel room she did not think anything suspicious of it because it came on a fax from Creative Artists Agency.
Once she arrived at the hotel, he began to massage her and then asked her to join him in the bedroom.
She rejected his advance and drove away devastated, thinking: 'I thought you were my Uncle Harvey.'
She told then-boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident she said, who then confronted Weinstein.
Weinstein came back to the actress and told her to never tell anyone what happened between them again.
At the time, Paltrow was preparing to shoot the lead role in Miramax's new adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Emma' alongside Toni Collette and Ewan McGregor.
'He screamed at me for a long time,' said Paltrow.
'It was brutal.'
A few years later she was a superstar and Oscar winner, but she did not have the power to share her story.
'I was expected to keep the secret,' said Paltrow, who called Weinstein 'alternately generous and supportive and championing, and punitive and bullying.'
She has now decided however to no longer staying quiet.
'We’re at a point in time when women need to send a clear message that this is over,' said Paltrow.
'This way of treating women ends now.'
More victims emerge: Asia Argento (above in 2004) says that Harvey Weinstein raped her in a hotel room at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc back in 1997
Site: Argento said that her assault occurred in 1997 at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in France (above)
On the scree: Asia Argento depicted a scene similar to the rape in her film 'Scarlet Diva' (above)
ASIA ARGENTO
Argento says that she became suspicious when the party she arrived at was just an empty hotel room, but was assured that people would soon be arriving by Weinstein.
Then, he emerged from the bathroom in a robe and holding a bottle of lotion says the actress, who was just 21 at the time.
'He asks me to give a massage. I was, like, "Look man, I am no f***ing fool,"' said Argento.
'But, looking back, I am a f***ing fool. And I am still trying to come to grips with what happened.'
The actress, who is the daughter of famed Italian director Dario Argento, said that once Weinstein began performing oral sex on her there was no way for her to stop him because he was so much bigger than her.
'It wouldn’t stop. It was a nightmare,' said Argento, who eventually decided to pretend she was enjoying the act in hopes that it would end.
When it was over, Argento said she said on the bed and told her attacked: 'I am not a whore.'
He laughed at her and said he would put that on a shirt according to Argento, who said that Weinstein contacted her for months after the attack and even began offering her expensive gifts.
Argento eventually relented and over time became close to her attacker, and even engaged in consensual relations with him she admits.
She explained the sudden shift by saying that it was a few months before the release of her 1999 film 'B. Monkey' and she was afraid that if she did not agree to Weinstein's advances he might destroy her career.
The following year, Argento released her film 'Scarlet Diva,' which had a scene similar to the one she experienced three years earlier in France.
In that film, a young actress is cornered by a big producer in a room with one crucial difference.
'In the movie I wrote, I ran away,' said Argento.
In has been 20 years now since that encounter, and Argento still struggles, especially when she sees Weinstein.
'When I see him, it makes me feel little and stupid and weak,' said Argento.
'After the rape, he won.'
In total, 13 women told the New Yorker that they were sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein and three said that they were raped.
Shortly before the story was published, Weinstein asked Argento to meet with a private investigator and give testimony on his behalf.
Mighty Harvey: Mira Sorvino says that Weinstein made sexual advances towards her back in 1995 in a hotel room and later by showing up to her apartment unannounced (Sorvino and her husband Chris Backus with Weinstein in 2006)
Support: Soon after the article was published, Sorvino tweeted: 'Very proud of my sisters in spirit who had the courage to break the silence'
MIRA SORVINO
Sorvino and Arquette both say their careers took a nose-dive when they dared to reject Weinstein.
Sorvino said that Weinstein's attempts to engage with her began in 1995, when she was promoting her role in Woody Allen's 'Mighty Aphrodite,' for which she would go on to win the Academy Award.
He began to massage her shoulders while the two were alone in a hotel room at the Toronto Film Festival according to Sorvino, who said that he then tried to take things further but she was able to ward him off at the time.
A few weeks later he managed to bypass her doorman and make it up to her apartment around midnight, at which point she told him her boyfriend was on the way after calling a male friend to rush over.
Sorvino believe that this rejection of Weinstein ultimately hurt her career.
'There may have been other factors, but I definitely felt iced out and that my rejection of Harvey had something to do with it,' said the actress.
Soon after the article was published, Sorvino tweeted: 'Very proud of my sisters in spirit who had the courage to break the silence. Very hard for me-more so for others. We took our power back!!'
She later added that her story 'pales in comparison' to some of the others.
One of those women was initially on the record detailing her experience until the last second.
'I’m so sorry, the legal angle is coming at me and I have no recourse,' she said, having to suddenly remove all her claims and name from the piece.
Dam story: Rosanna Arquette says she met Weinstein in a hotel room and he asked her to give him a massage then tried to have her touch his erect penis (Arquette and Weinstein above in 2001)
Support: Patricia Arquette tweeted her support for sister Rosanna on Tuesday (above)
ROSANNA ARQUETTE
Arquette says that her encounter with Weinstein happened in the early nineties, when she had been sent to pick up a script from the producer at a restaurant in Beverly Hills.
Soon after she arrived, she was asked to instead meet Weinstein in his hotel room.
Once inside the room, Arquette said that Weinstein asked her for a massage, and eventually pulled her hand towards his erect penis.
'I will never do that,' Arquette said that she told Weinstein.
Weinstein soon exacted his revenge she claims, saying: 'He made things very difficult for me for years.'
Arquette and Sorvino were arguably both at the heights of their career during the moments when these incidents occurred, and their careers did noticeably cool down with fewer roles in prestige pictures.
Many of the actresses were connected within the industry but that did not seem to matter to Weinstein.
Sorvino is the daughter of 'Goodfellas' actor Paul Sorvino, Rosanna the sister of Patricia and David Arquette and Argento the daughter of 'Suspiria' director Dario Argento.
Rosanna's Oscar-winning sister, who has been supportive of all the women who have come forward this far, wrote about her sibling's bravery on Tuesday.
'I am very proud of my sister @RoArquette and all the women and men & police who spoke up in this article,' said Patricia Arquette.
Nicole Kidman also weighed in on Tuesday, saying: 'As I’ve stated before publicly, I support and applaud all women and these women who speak out against any abuse and misuse of power — be it domestic violence or sexual harassment in the workforce,” the actress, 50, said. “We need to eradicate this behavior.'
Recording: Model Ambra Battilana (above) can be heard repeatedly rejecting Weinstein's requests to have her join him in his bedroom in a recording obtained by the New Yorker
AMBRA BATTILANA
The New Yorker article also contains new revelations about Ambra Battilana, who accused Weinstein of groping her back in 2015 then watched as District Attorney Cyrus Vance elected not to press charges.
The aspiring actress said Weinstein grabbed her breasts and put his hand up her skirt in a meeting in his office. She fled and reported the incident to the NYPD.
The next day she agreed to meet the executive again but this time was recording the exchange for officers.
In the audio, obtained by the New Yorker, Weinstein apologizes but then tries to coax her into his hotel room.
Battilana says 'no' multiple times before Weinstein finally gives up and they return downstairs.
The most damning exchange is the one when Weinstein admits to groping the model.
'Oh, please, I’m sorry, just come on in. I’m used to that. Come on. Please,' Weinstein can be heard saying on the tape.
'You’re used to that?' responded Battilana.
'Yes. I won’t do it again,' said Harvey.
The recording has now led many to call for the firing of Cyrus Vance, who just a few months after deciding to drop charges got a $10,000 check for his campaign from Weinstein's lawyer David Boies.
'We had the evidence,' said a police source.
'It’s a case that made me angrier than I thought possible, and I have been on the force a long time.
Manhattan Chief Assistant District Attorney Karen Friedman-Agnifilo responded to the release of the audio in a statement on Tuesday.
'If we could have prosecuted Harvey Weinstein for the conduct that occurred in 2015, we would have. Mr. Weinstein’s pattern of mistreating women, as recounted in recent reports, is disgraceful and shocks the conscience,' said Friedman-Agnifilo.
'While the recording is horrifying to listen to, what emerged from the audio was insufficient to prove a crime under New York law, which requires prosecutors to establish criminal intent.'
She then added: 'Subsequent investigative steps undertaken in order to establish intent were not successful. This, coupled with other proof issues, meant that there was no choice but to conclude the investigation without criminal charges.'
Emma de Caunes (above September) said that Weinstein had her come up to his hotel room then emerged from the shower naked and asked her to join him in bed
EMMA DE CAUNES
French actress Emma de Caunes said that she met Weinstein in 2010, soon after he told her he had a script he was producing based on a book with a strong female character.
Weinstein offered to show her the script, and asked her up to his hotel room, where he began to take a shower.
He then emerged naked and with an erection, asking her to lay down with him on the bed and telling her that many had done so before.
'I was very petrified,' said de Caunes.
'But I didn’t want to show him that I was petrified, because I could feel that the more I was freaking out, the more he was excited.'
When she told him that she had to leave, Weinstein responded by telling the actress: 'We haven’t done anything! It’s like being in a Walt Disney movie!'
De Caunes said that she then gathered all her strength and turned around, telling Weinstein: 'I’ve always hated Walt Disney movies!'
A director at the studio she went to film at after the encounter confirmed that she was terrified and immediately shared details of her account, with Weinstein calling the women repeatedly to offer her expensive gifts.
She also said that despite the statements of stars like Meryl Streep, there was no one in Hollywood who was unaware of Weinstein's behavior.
'I know that everybody - I mean everybody - in Hollywood knows that it’s happening,' said de Caunes.
'He’s not even really hiding. I mean, the way he does it, so many people are involved and see what’s happening. But everyone’s too scared to say anything.'
Familiar patter: Judith Godreche (above) was lured into Weinstein's bedroom and then given a massage she said, making her exit when he tried to take off her sweater
JUDITH GODRECHE
French star Judith Godrèche said that she, like so many other women, was alone with Weinstein when he offered to give her a massage.
She was at the Hotel de Cap, just like Argento, when Weinstein invited her to his room after breakfast.
'I was so naïve and unprepared,' said Godrèche, was was 24 at the time.
Soon after the massage began, Weinstein tried to rip off Godrèche's sweater she said, at which point she fled the room.
The actress told her father and later phoned a Miramax executive, who told her not to complain and keep quiet about the incident.
'They put my face on the poster,' said Godrèche, whose breakout role in the film 'Ridicule' was released around the same time.
In the 20 years since the 1996 incident she has stayed on good terms with the executive, sending emails from time to time and keeping in touch because she felt it was necessary for her career.
'I tried to negotiate the situation over the years, and negotiate with myself and pretend it kind of never happened,' said Godreche.
'I wish I’d had someone to talk to, to say, "How do you deal with this?"'
Speaking up: 'I just hope that my story and the other brave women who came forward can stop him from making other women feel powerless,' wrote lucia Evans on Twitter (above)
LUCIA STOLLER
Lucia Evans (nee Stoller) was a college student preparing for her senior year at Middlebury in 2004 when she met Weinstein at Cipriani in New York City.
She wanted to be an actress and gave the executive her phone number, eventually agreeing to come in and read for a female casting director at Weinstein's offices in Tribeca.
When she arrived however she was taken to meet Weinstein in a room with empty takeout boxes and exercise equipment.
The two spoke for a bit and then, according to Evans, Weinstein pulled out his penis and forced her to perform oral sex on him inside the office.
'I said, over and over, "I don’t want to do this, stop, don’t,"' said Evans.
Evans was in college when she was raped by Weinstein she said
'I tried to get away, but maybe I didn’t try hard enough. I didn’t want to kick him or fight him.'
His size proved to be too much for Evans however, who found herself completely helpless.
'I just sort of gave up. That’s the most horrible part of it, and that’s why he’s been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like it’s their fault,' said Evans.
Weinstein later acted as if nothing had happened she said, and began calling her at night to meet said Evans, who turned down the executive.
The repercussions from the incident last to this day however, with Evans saying she still had nightmares.
'I had an eating problem for years. I was disgusted with myself. It’s funny, all these unrelated things I did to hurt myself because of this one thing,' said Evans.
'I ruined several really good relationships because of this. My schoolwork definitely suffered, and my roommates told me to go to a therapist because they thought I was going to kill myself.'
EMILY NESTOR
The former assistant at the Weinstein Company was first revealed to be one of the movie mogul's victims last week in the New York Times' initial expose.
She was 25 back in 2014 when she was starting at the company, and on the very first day Weinstein had her take his number and asked her to join him for a drink.
She declined and asked if they could do an early morning coffee instead, expecting him to turn down the offer.
Weinstein did not according to Nestor, who having been warned of his behavior dressed 'frumpy' for their breakfast.
The took soon turned sexual however, despite the venue and time of day.
'He said, "You know, we could have a lot of fun,"' said Nestor.
'"I could put you in my London office, and you could work there and you could be my girlfriend."'
When she declined her replied: 'Oh, the girls always say "no." You know, "No, no." And then they have a beer or two and then they’re throwing themselves at me.'
At that same breakfast, she also said that she watched him plant a negative item about an unnamed individual in relation to a story that was playing out at the time involving Amy Adams, who was starring in the Weinstein Company film 'Big Eyes.'
That seems to be a reference to Adam refusal to discuss the Sony hack at that time, which resulted in her being booted from an appearance on 'Today.'
'I was very afraid of him. And I knew how well connected he was. And how if I pissed him off then I could never have a career in that industry,' said Nestor.
She ended up alerting human resources of her issues despite being a temporary employee at the company, having spent the entire mornign also fighting off his unwanted sexual advances.
'It made me feel incredibly discouraged that this could be something that happens on a regular basis,' said Nestor.
'I actually decided not to go into entertainment because of this incident.'
'Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances,' said a spokesperson for Weinstein.
'Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.
'Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4966816/Harvey-Weinstein-accused-raping-Asia-Argento.html#ixzz4v8YPN4AY
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'We cannot blame the victims': Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlize Theron send their support to the 'brave and heroic' women who have come forward against Harvey Weinstein
The stars of Hollywood are sending their support and applauding the women who have stepped forward against producer Harvey Weinstein.
Accusations of sexual harassment and assault have been leveled at the producer by actresses and women who once worked with Weinstein, who was recently fired from his position as co-chairman of the board at Weinstein Company as a result of the unearthed accusations.
On Tuesday, Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlize Theron were among those commending the women for their bravery as they came forward with their stories - and the actress added she was not 'surprised' by the allegations.
'We cannot blame the victims': Charlize Theron was just one of the stars to lend her support to the women who have come forward, applauding the 'brave and heroic' ladies for their actions, and adding she was not 'surprised' by the allegations (pictured July 2017)
'There is no excuse' Leonardo DiCaprio addressed the scandal on Facebook on Tuesday
'The women who have spoken about their abuse are brave and heroic and although I didn't have a personal experience like this with Harvey Weinstein, I unfortunately cannot say I'm surprised.
'This culture has always existed, not just in Hollywood but across the world. And many men in positions of power have gotten away with it for far too long. We cannot blame the victims here.
'A lot of these women are young, just starting out in their respective fields, and have absolutely no way to stand up to a man with so much influence, much greater than theirs.
'If they speak up, they are shut down, and that could be the end of their career. This is all a positive step forward in changing that culture, and these young women need to know that they have a support system should anything like this happen to them. And I want you all to know I support you.'
Making her point: The actress took to Instagram on Tuesday to address the scandal
'I applaud the strength and courage of the women': Leonardo took to Facebook on Tuesday to share his opinion
Leonardo also sent his support to the women, writing on his Facebook page: 'There is no excuse for sexual harassment or sexual assault — no matter who you are and no matter what profession. I applaud the strength and courage of the women who came forward and made their voices heard.'
Mandy Moore also gave her thoughts on the issue during her appearance on the SiriusXM show, EW Morning Live, explaining the stories of these women coming forward 'need to be believed.'
'When a scandal like this comes to light, only good can come from this — the fact that feeling like there's going to culpability in regards to harassment in the workplace and in this industry specifically,' she said.
'It's important for us to talk about because it does exist and women need to be believed and their stories need to be out there,' she added.
Lending their support: Mandy Moore and Minnie Driver also commended the women coming forward (L ad R pictured 2017)
'The Harvey situation was not a surprise to me': Rosie O'Donnell addressed the scandal on Monday night in an interview with Extra , and claims he insulted her to her face
Minnie Driver also commended the women who have accused Weinstein of misconduct, though made clear she had 'never experienced any abuse' during her time with the producer.
'In light of the revelations about Harvey Weinstein in the past few days, I feel it necessary to add my support for the women who have been victimized and have been brave enough to talk about it,' she told Variety in a statement.
'While I never experienced any abuse while working with Harvey, I think it's important to add my voice to those of women everywhere who have experienced abuse at the hands of powerful men.'
Ben Affleck, who previously worked with the producer, took to Facebook to condemn Weinstein:'I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades.
Statement: Ben Affleck took to Facebook to condemn Weinstein: 'I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades
'The additional allegations of assault that I read this morning made me sick. This is completely unacceptable, and I find myself asking what I can do to make sure this doesn’t happen to others. We need to do better at protecting our sisters, friends, co-workers and daughters. We must support those who come forward, condemn this type of behavior when we see it and help ensure there are more women in positions of power.'
Cate Blanchett, who starred in several Weinstein produced films, said in a statement to Variety: 'Any man in a position of power or authority who thinks it’s his prerogative to threaten, intimidate or sexually assault any woman he encounters or works alongside needs to be called to account. It is never easy for a woman to come forward in such situations and I wholeheartedly support those who have.'
Rosie O'Donnell addressed the scandal on Monday night in an interview with Extra, and claims he insulted her to her face.
'Yes, it took a long time, 20 years, pretty much, for people to speak out,' she said. 'Harvey was very powerful in Hollywood… I know from my own friends and circumstances.
'The Harvey situation was not a surprise to me. I'm not one of the women that he ever would or was interested in. He did call me the "c u next Tuesday' to my face."'
'I wholeheartedly support those who have': Cate Blanchett gave a statement on the matter (pictured 2017)
'We need to eradicate this behaviour': Nicole Kidman also pledged her support to any victims of the misconduct, in a statement to People
Nicole Kidman also pledged her support to any victims of the misconduct, in a statement to People.
'As I've stated before publicly, I support and applaud all women and these women who speak out against any abuse and misuse of power — be it domestic violence or sexual harassment in the workforce. We need to eradicate this behaviour.'
On Tuesday, the New York Times published a story revealing both Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie were subjected to unwanted advances by the Hollywood bigwig.
The newspaper first published a story last week saying the producer reached at least eight settlements with women including one who said she was coerced into giving him a massage while he was naked.
Thirteen women have said Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them between 1990 and 2015, according to the New Yorker.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4968226/Charlize-Theron-talks-victims-Harvey-Weinstein-scandal.html#ixzz4vEGyGeki
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Ewan McGregor claims he heard 'rumours' for YEARS about Weinstein's sexual harassment and says it's 'about time' he gets his 'just deserts'
- Actor Ewan McGregor slammed Harvey Weinstein on Twitter, calling him a 'bully'
- McGregor was in the 2013 film August: Osage County, produced by Weinsetein
- The producer was fired by the company he co-founded and saw his wife leave him after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and assault
- He has been accused of raping three women and assaulting or harassing others
Actor Ewan McGregor is the latest Hollywood star to slam Harvey Weinstein over sexual harassment allegations, saying the disgraced movie mogul was getting his 'just deserts'.
'It's about time this came to light and he is getting [his] just deserts,' the Trainspotting actor said on Twitter on Wednesday. 'Heard rumours over the years but this is awful. Bye Bully!'
McGregor starred in the 2013 film August: Osage County, which was produced by Weinstein.
Co-star Meryl Streep criticised Weinstein earlier this week over the assault allegations.
Actor Ewan McGregor slammed Harvey Weinstein on Twitter, saying he had heard 'rumours' over the years about the disgraced Hollywood film producer. Weinstein was fired by the company he co-founded and saw his wife leave him after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and assault
'The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported,' Streep said.
The disgraced producer was fired by the company he co-founded and saw his wife leave him after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and assault.
He has been accused of raping three women and assaulting or harassing many others during decades of predatory behavior.
After The New York Times and The New Yorker articles bringing accusations to light were published on Tuesday, more accusations followed.
One from a former actress who recounted Weinstein meeting her wearing a bathrobe with nothing on underneath at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, the other from actress Heather Graham, who says he implied she would have to sleep with him for a role.
Separately, the New York Times reported on Tuesday that actress Gwyneth Paltrow said she was sexually harassed by Weinstein and that Angelina Jolie said she 'had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth and as a result chose never to work with him again.'
Weinstein, pictured with his wife, Georgina chapman, has been accused of raping three women and assaulting or harassing many others during decades of predatory behavior
Paltrow said that Weinstein touched her and suggested having joint massages in the bedroom before she started shooting the 1996 film Emma. She said she told her then boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident and he confronted the mogul.
Jolie said she had to turn down advances from Weinstein in 1998. She said she warned other women about him.
The scandal-hit 65-year-old multi-millionaire has reportedly taken a private jet to Europe where he will stay in a rehab clinic and receive therapy for sex addiction.
The move to rehab came after his wife, Georgina Chapman, announced she was leaving her husband.
'My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions. I have chosen to leave my husband,' she told People.
'Caring for my young children is my first priority and I ask the media for privacy at this time.'
BAFTA today posted a statement on its website which said that Weinstein's membership has been 'suspended, effective immediately'
Ben Affleck finally broke his silence to condemn Harvey Weinstein, saying the sexual harassment claims made him sick. Weinstein produced Good Will Hunting, for which Affleck and Matt Damon (all three pictured) won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar
In a statement, Weinstein said: 'I support her decision, I am in counseling and perhaps, when I am better, we can rebuild.'
He added: 'Over the last week, there has been a lot of pain for my family that I take responsibility for. I sat down with my wife Georgina, who I love more than anything, and we discussed what was best for our family.
'We discussed the possibility of a separation and I encouraged her to do what was in her heart. I understand, I love her and I love our children and hopefully, when I am better, I will be in their lives again.'
Meanwhile, Britain's film academy says it has suspended Weinstein over the multiple accusations of harassment and sexual assault.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts said Wednesday that Weinstein was informed 'that his membership has been suspended, effective immediately.'
The organization says Weinstein had supported its charitable work, but called his alleged behavior 'completely unacceptable and incompatible with BAFTA's values.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4970580/Ewan-McGregor-slams-Harvey-Weinstein.html#ixzz4vEJ0iEpG
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Ewan McGregor claims he heard 'rumours' for YEARS about Weinstein's sexual harassment and says it's 'about time' he gets his 'just deserts'
- Actor Ewan McGregor slammed Harvey Weinstein on Twitter, calling him a 'bully'
- McGregor was in the 2013 film August: Osage County, produced by Weinsetein
- The producer was fired by the company he co-founded and saw his wife leave him after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and assault
- He has been accused of raping three women and assaulting or harassing others
Actor Ewan McGregor is the latest Hollywood star to slam Harvey Weinstein over sexual harassment allegations, saying the disgraced movie mogul was getting his 'just deserts'.
'It's about time this came to light and he is getting [his] just deserts,' the Trainspotting actor said on Twitter on Wednesday. 'Heard rumours over the years but this is awful. Bye Bully!'
McGregor starred in the 2013 film August: Osage County, which was produced by Weinstein.
Co-star Meryl Streep criticised Weinstein earlier this week over the assault allegations.
Actor Ewan McGregor slammed Harvey Weinstein on Twitter, saying he had heard 'rumours' over the years about the disgraced Hollywood film producer. Weinstein was fired by the company he co-founded and saw his wife leave him after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and assault
'The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported,' Streep said.
The disgraced producer was fired by the company he co-founded and saw his wife leave him after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and assault.
He has been accused of raping three women and assaulting or harassing many others during decades of predatory behavior.
After The New York Times and The New Yorker articles bringing accusations to light were published on Tuesday, more accusations followed.
One from a former actress who recounted Weinstein meeting her wearing a bathrobe with nothing on underneath at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, the other from actress Heather Graham, who says he implied she would have to sleep with him for a role.
Separately, the New York Times reported on Tuesday that actress Gwyneth Paltrow said she was sexually harassed by Weinstein and that Angelina Jolie said she 'had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth and as a result chose never to work with him again.'
Weinstein, pictured with his wife, Georgina chapman, has been accused of raping three women and assaulting or harassing many others during decades of predatory behavior
Paltrow said that Weinstein touched her and suggested having joint massages in the bedroom before she started shooting the 1996 film Emma. She said she told her then boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident and he confronted the mogul.
Jolie said she had to turn down advances from Weinstein in 1998. She said she warned other women about him.
The scandal-hit 65-year-old multi-millionaire has reportedly taken a private jet to Europe where he will stay in a rehab clinic and receive therapy for sex addiction.
The move to rehab came after his wife, Georgina Chapman, announced she was leaving her husband.
'My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions. I have chosen to leave my husband,' she told People.
'Caring for my young children is my first priority and I ask the media for privacy at this time.'
BAFTA today posted a statement on its website which said that Weinstein's membership has been 'suspended, effective immediately'
Ben Affleck finally broke his silence to condemn Harvey Weinstein, saying the sexual harassment claims made him sick. Weinstein produced Good Will Hunting, for which Affleck and Matt Damon (all three pictured) won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar
In a statement, Weinstein said: 'I support her decision, I am in counseling and perhaps, when I am better, we can rebuild.'
He added: 'Over the last week, there has been a lot of pain for my family that I take responsibility for. I sat down with my wife Georgina, who I love more than anything, and we discussed what was best for our family.
'We discussed the possibility of a separation and I encouraged her to do what was in her heart. I understand, I love her and I love our children and hopefully, when I am better, I will be in their lives again.'
Meanwhile, Britain's film academy says it has suspended Weinstein over the multiple accusations of harassment and sexual assault.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts said Wednesday that Weinstein was informed 'that his membership has been suspended, effective immediately.'
The organization says Weinstein had supported its charitable work, but called his alleged behavior 'completely unacceptable and incompatible with BAFTA's values.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4970580/Ewan-McGregor-slams-Harvey-Weinstein.html#ixzz4vEJ0iEpG
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