When Biden took office, one of his first acts was the elimination of our border security. Like a power-hungry dictator, Biden simply decided to ignore our immigration laws. His catastrophic border policy resulted in untold millions of unidentified foreign citizens from around the world pouring into our country. Its impact is now being felt in cities across the country. The worst is yet to come. PETER LEMISKA - AND WE'RE ALREADY THERE!!!
Monday, October 9, 2017
SICK HOLLYWOOD! HARVEY WEINSTEIN AND HIS MANY A$$ LICKERS
"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
"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. 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
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:
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.
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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
Harvey Weinstein dodges questions as he heads to work in New York
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Throwing his weight around: Weinstein has also become a huge Democratic donor over the years (above with Hillary Clinton in 2012)
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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.
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 Mailnotes, 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.
Actress Meryl Streep, producer Harvey Weinstein and actress Margo Martindale attend a Q&A session following a screening of “August: Osage County” at the DGA Theater on January 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Actress Nicole Kidman and Weinstein attend the premiere of TWC-Dimension’s ‘Paddington’ held at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on January 10, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Mark Davis/Getty Images)
Harvey Weinstein, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and actress Liv Tyler attend the after-party for “Iron Man” hosted by The Cinema Society and Michael Kors at The Odeon on April 28, 2008 in New York City. (Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
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 producer and actress Penelope Cruz attend the 18th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Museum of Finance on December 2, 2008 in New York City. (Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
Actress Dame Judi Dench and Harvey Weinstein attend a special screening for ‘Mrs. Henderson’ November 28, 2005 in New York City. (Scott Wintrow/Getty Images)
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.
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
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.
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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
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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.'
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Married father-of-five Weinstein was a fixture in the upscale Tribeca Grill (pictured), which is owned by Robert DeNiro, according to Budowski
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Weinstein is seen in September. Budowski says he brought a string of young twenty-somethings to the restaurant in his office building
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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.
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.
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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?
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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.'
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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.'
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)
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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.
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