The New York Times and The New Yorker seem to be in competition with each other. No sooner did I finally finish reading The New Yorker article about Harvey Weinstein then the NYT dropped their new exclusive: Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie going on the record about Harvey Weinstein sexually harassing them early in their careers. You can read the full NYT piece below:
Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie said Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed them when they were young actresses https://t.co/O9xBKp45Ye
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 10, 2017
Gwyneth Paltrow says that Weinstein harassed her when she was 22 years old and only just hired for the role in Emma, which Harvey produced. From the NYT:
Before shooting began, he summoned her to his suite at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel for a work meeting that began uneventfully. It ended with Mr. Weinstein placing his hands on her and suggesting they head to the bedroom for massages, she said.
“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she said in an interview, publicly disclosing that she was sexually harassed by the man who ignited her career and later helped her win an Oscar.
She refused his advances, she said, and confided in Brad Pitt, her boyfriend at the time. Mr. Pitt confronted Mr. Weinstein, and soon after, the producer threatened her not to tell anyone else about his come-on. “I thought he was going to fire me,” she said.
Later in the article, Gwyneth recalls feeling stunned as she drove away from the hotel, thinking “I thought you were my Uncle Harvey.” She saw him as a mentor before that, but not afterwards. Brad Pitt also confirmed Gwyneth’s account “through a representative.”
Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie says that in the late ‘90s, she was promoting the film Playing By Heart, where she ended up in a hotel room with Weinstein and he made unwanted advances on her. She tells the Times:
“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. This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable.”
The NYT also has further interviews with several other women – including Rosanna Arquette – explaining what happened on the record. It’s the same pattern: manipulating women, luring them – mostly under false pretenses – into being alone with him in a hotel room, then different kinds of propositions, assaults, harassments. And then they all had to deal with him in various ways after the hotel room – Gwyneth says that he “berated” her after she told Brad and her agent. He keeps calling the women, manipulating them, negging them, harassing them. Ugh.
Oh and President Hillary finally said something. She was going to be damned either way.
Statement from Secretary Clinton on Harvey Weinstein: pic.twitter.com/L1l2wl9l0I
— Nick Merrill (@NickMerrill) October 10, 2017
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Brava ladies! I applaud them for speaking their truth. This guy is scum of the earth.
So now we know AJ was never going to do SLPB anyways.
But didn’t Paltrow work for him again or was Shakespear in Love not his.
So Paltrow and Jolie, two women from Hollywood families were harassed, but Jennifer Lawrence from Kentucky he treated well….okay dokey. Makes total sense to me…
I applaud everyone coming forward, it’s about time. Sad that it had to take so long though. There is a blind floating around which says HW had nude pics of some actresses, what if JL was one of them and that’s why she has to play the “he did not do it to me” card? GP and AJ on the other hand have nothing to lose since they removed themselves from the the situation.
ALLISON, while I don’t believe Jennifer didn’t know, I think it’s important to note that even though GP and AJ were from “Hollywood” families, they weren’t, like, A-list or something. He wouldn’t have viewed them as you might look at Meryl Streep’s daughter, or something.
They were still struggling actresses without huge roles to their names.
Gwyneth’s godfather was Steven Spielberg. That’s how she got her first role in Hook — through Spielberg.
I think her family was kind of A-list in terms of who they knew and personal connections.
Angelina Jolie’s dad is Jon Voight, although I’m not sure if Jolie appeared more vulnerable back then because of her wild child reputation. However, it seems she was warning people, so I’m not sure I buy that Clooney and whoever else hadn’t heard anything. No matter how divisive Jolie might be, I’m more likely to believe her than anything Weinstein might have had to say. He does not look trustworthy AT ALL.
PERPLEXED – different culture, even 20 years ago.
Gwyn had Hollywood “connections”, but she was barely on the Radar.
AJ had a parent who had won an Oscars 20 years prior and hand done much since.
Shakespeare in Love is one of his. But it does look like that’s the last time she worked with him.
@perplexed
Wow. Just seeing this today. It’s a house of cards coming down. Damn. When will sexual harassers learn, those young vulnerable women you made life hell for, grow up and become their own saviors.
I read Clooney’s piece and I call bs. I live in mid west America, am not in the biz and even I knew the Paltrow/Harvey/Pitt story. I’m sure what makes it even worse is when these young women were pressured to get a role or keep a role. I poo-poo Gwyneth a lot, but I’m glad she’s finally speaking out. I think she and Harvey evolved into some kind of relationship beyond her breakup with Pitt (he knows all) because I distinctly recall Paltrow immediately dating Harvey’s golden boy Affleck, after her tumultuous breakup with Brad. Which was probably Harvey related. It seemed Harvey’s Miramax machine was deliberately trying to stick it to Brad’s career (which he even talked about in an interview!) with articles like ‘Ben Affleck, the Thinking Woman’s Brad Pitt.’
Thank Goodness Angelina became huge enough on her own with the Tomb Raider franchise so he couldn’t ruin her career.
It’s no coincidence that Paltrow dropped off the face of the earth after SIL.
She did The Talented Mr. Ripley, Sliding Doors, And Bounce too. She’s not denying that she worked with him again, and she doesn’t have to be the perfect victim. She’s a victim. Full stop.
allison – I agree with you, and according to the JLaw post, a lot of other people do as well.
Scarlett – It would not surprise me if the blind item is true. I commented in the JLaw post that I felt she was covering her tracks and not admitting to what she either saw or experienced. She is still young and has her entire career ahead of her. She wouldn’t want more unsavory stories about her rapid rise to fame to surface now.
allison I think it speaks to their connections that after the harrassment their careers weren’t torpedoed. I can absolutely see Weinstein trying it because they were young and wanted to be in the game but backing off from completely destroying them afterwards like he did others due to them having some cred in Hollywood.
If Lawrence was one of his targets then it’s completely her call as to whether to share that with anyone now. It’s not as though her contributions are necessary to bury him and she has condemned the behaviour anyway. No victim should have to publicly share their experience – this is on Harvey Weinstein and not any of the women.
And we don’t know that she was one, either.
I am left wondering how much of our negative feelings about both GP and AJ have been influenced by how they played the game regarding this gross ass.
After Emma GP was painted as a rich out of touch girl. Angelina controlling but unhinged. I think Harvey is one of many who do this crap. Will another well known producer be revealed or will we just clap after this that things have changed.
That’s a really good point! He was known to plant unflattering stories of women he harassed and assaulted.
Wow, I wonder. That’s an amazing perspective to consider – how much of our view of other people are influenced and manipulated without us even knowing it. And all because some creep wants to touch women who don’t want to touch him.
You’re right.
Wow those are really good points. How horrible. I mean, in the mean time, GP has demonstrated that she IS spoiled and out of touch, but your point is totally valid. It’s true for probably most of the women we regularly gossip about. We have NO idea what they’re really like, because the publicity that casts them in a negative light is being controlled by someone who basically owns…everyone. What a nasty piece of garbage.
But Paltrow worked for him again, in Shakespeare in Love, and got herself an Oscar. So there is that.
I just heard Brooke Baldwin on CNN shut down a guest who said that Trump was an analog to Weinstein. She shut her up and said that they were there to just talk about Weinstein. The media is complicit still in protecting Trump.
Umm..let’s not get carried away. There is still her inane advice on Goop…
@maren she worked with him many more times.
That doesn’t distract from what happened to her. She found a way to work with him anyway.
Most women do. This is sexual harassment it happens in a lot of workplaces and you really can only complain and leave a company once regardless of how many more times it happens. Otherwise u are deemed the problem
Let’s not forget…the best way to tarnish someone or take them down is to take a nugget of the truth and extrapolate…I have no doubt HW is/was diabolical and evil but unfortunately smart too. He knew what rumors to spread about these people to be believable. Perfect example: bashing Brad Pitt’s intellect in comparison to Affleck.
Now he’s 100% done!! Go to hell Harvey.
It was about time!!
It does feel that way, doesn’t it? When Paltrow and Jolie speak out…it sort of brackets everything.
Oh yeah – Angelina is the final nail in the coffin as she is a big gun if not the biggest female gun in Hollywood.
I applaud Gwyneth and Angelina and the many other women who are coming out to say their side of the story.
I also love the fact that Angelina refused to work with the pig and warned others about him not caring how powerful he was at that time.
I applaud Gwyneth too, and I never thought I would say that.
Same.
I hope this isn’t too dark, but I don’t see him making it out of this. Or for much longer. He is sick and twisted and I don’t think he’ll cope with his new found infamy, loss of power and basically entire life. I’m not even sure why I’m saying it, but it’s just this feeling I have. He’ll never get his day in court.
I’m inclined to agree with you, he strikes me as the type to take the cowards way out instead of facing the consequences of his actions, my very dark imagination envisages a Godfather type scenario…
I agree. He’ll be the coward that offs himself to avoid justice.
He’d be the crazy flasher from the park terrorizing unsuspecting women if he did not have money and connections.
I came here to read the comments just to see if anybody else felt this way. I have had a strong feeling today since hearing his wife has left him that now he has lost absolutely everything, he will feel there is nowhere left to go. He is certainly vile, but I don’t hope for something like that.
Shoes dropping all over the place.
Right? Holy sh!t, y’all. It’s done. The two biggest names just nailed him to the wall.
But how terrifying to know that these two enormous names never felt able to say this until now. Two people who should be absolutely untouchable. That’s the biz, folks, where even Paltrow and Jolie were so ashamed and fearful of this man that they were silent.
Right, and yet all these brave women left Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd hanging on the hook until they felt safe enough.
Aenflex.
Yea before you start bashing women, let’s remember neither McGowan who sold him a movie script after, or Judd, named names- not at the time nor even 5 or 10 years later. Not even when a young model two years ago was *pressing actual charges.* Rose still hasn’t.
Everyone’s experience is different.
There are women who he came on to, which isn’t illegal, who said no and never worked again.
There are women who he came on to, which isn’t illegal, who said no, and still worked, became stars but avoided him and his movies like the plague.
There are women who did sleep with him and were rewarded at the time and a little bit after.
If you had him come on to you and were skeeved out, that’s not illegal – it’s unrealistic to think it’s the place of a 22yr old actress in 1996 to start marching all over town wanting his career over because he made a move.
There are women he raped allegedly.
If he did anything illegal to you. Or you were employed by him. Maybe you could have done something via the courts/legally. Ultimately, that’s what has done it. A perfect employee of The Weinstein co. spilled the beans on all the harrasament she had seen over the years and the company chose to act in light of her lawsuit.
That’s why Ashley, Rose and subsequent ‘name’ actresses are talking.
@Casey
It is widely known that Rose McGowan has been talking for years about a huge movie mogul who raped her. It is also widely known that most of Hollywood knew who she was talking about.
She was RAPED. He was the most powerful man in Hollywood. How do you think she could have handled that situation better? Ostracized from the industry. Having a team of vicious lawyers coming after her because of Harvey. What more could she have done?
And don’t forget she was RAPED.
That she’s even been able to move on with her life is amazing
@Cara,
You do realize i was responding to a person bashing every other woman post Ashley and Rose who’s come forward?
Do you have a problem with that?
Because I do. As I said, bashing vulnerable women in bad situations because they haven’t handled it like you claim you would, gets us nowhere.
The person bashing all the other names coming out, made it seem like they’re cowardly hiding behind Rose and Ashley.
I made the point, that depending on your experience with the pig, it’s not like you could have lodged a legal complaint necessarily. On his film set? Yes. Had he committed a crime upon your person? Yes. But even then those women don’t deserve bashing.
I made the point that its a FACT both Rose and Ashley also told their stories and revealed their details at their own pace, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They are the victims and the injured parties. Did Harvey Weinstein continue his marauding ways in the intervening years? Yes. Not their fault. It’s his. Don’t get it twisted.
Stop deliberately misconstruing what I’m saying and lecture aenflex on bashing the other women just because they followed and confirmed their accounts. I’m proud of all of the women standing up.
Cara,
Rose McGowan did not sell him anything. Her then-fiancé sold their movie to him for distribution. She broke up with him. She said at the time, and has been saying since then, that she broke up with him because he sold their movie to her rapist.
It’s like a clearance sale at Nordstrom!
Thank God for a laugh in all this 🙂
What a filthy bastard.
Damn. Did not expect that at all
It’s truly unsettling.
Me either. I figured they were Hollywood enough when they started that he wouldn’t have targeted them. Apparently not.
My jaw was on the floor when I read that she came forward!
Shocked they came forward. And again the belief that people are “too famous or too Hollywood” for this guy are really naive to how the industry works.
I’m just surprised Paltrow came forward.
But AJ wasn’t a huge star then. Paltrow might have been huge, I’m not sure.
I’m surprised he wasn’t worried Speilberg and her dad would spread the news. She may have been not much then, but Gwyn’s connections are intense.
It shows that he wasn’t scared of much.
She wasn’t, she said this was around when she was hired for Emma.
But she knew him, as did her family.
I think it’s interesting that Speilberg hasn’t commented yet. He was asked about it and declined to answer then but he’s Gwyneth’s Uncle Morty and how could he not have known.
Whoa. Well, if Brad Pitt knew, I don’t see how George Clooney couldn’t have known.
He might not have spoken about specifics on what happened to Gwynneth though, especially since she was warned to keep quiet. It wasn’t his story to tell others.
I don’t think Brad Pitt would have told George. I just think Harvey’s harassment was widespread enough I don’t see how George couldn’t have heard something about someone or anyone. Weinstein harassed both high-profile and low-profile women. It doesn’t sound like he left anybody alone. The harassment is so widespread I don’t see how someone like Clooney who works in a production capacity couldn’t have heard something. If he was harassing people like Paltrow and Jolie and Sorvino, who are well-connected, then he must have been harassing everybody.
The article also says Angelina Jolie warned others to stay away from Weinstein. So, surely, George would have heard that?
Predators don’t harass everybody. They choose their victims carefully. They know how to assess people, they know who’s likely to lash out and who’s more vulnerable. Connections don’t make you invulnerable, trust me.
In his case, though, the numbers are quite large that I can believe he was harassing large numbers of people, to the point that it could have been everyone.
Connections don’t make you invulnerable. But personality-wise both Paltrow and Judd come across as confident and fairly strong-willed that they wouldn’t immediately strike me as a predators’ classic victim. I’m shocked he came at them. And both women did turn him down and were willing to tell somebody (whether it be a boyfriend, etc./) so I think he did make a miscalculation on some level. He’s just simply lucky that he’s in an industry where these things get covered up on a much larger scale (Jolie was warning people, yet everyone else, including executives, were still covering for him? That’s shocking to me). Anywhere else, he would have been tossed earlier (I think).
People forget now, but Paltrow used to come off as quite fragile.
And Jolie had some issues at the time, not to mention a very complicated relationship with her father, who by then was widely disliked anyway.
Maybe this is what George meant by Harvey being a dog. It sounds like with these two women, he didn’t force nonconsensual sex and he obviously didn’t ruin their careers for them turning him down.
I take it you don’t remember Jolie’s career slump around that time.
@bridget
What career slump? Angelina says it happened around the time of ‘Playing By Heart,’ which was in ’98, she won her Oscar for GI in ’99.
I think she was making so many critical waves when he tried to make a move (Gia, had come out around the same time- she was everywhere), that he couldn’t really affect her career path, especially since she didn’t want anything to do with him anyway.
I don’t believe Streep, Clooney, Lawrence, Winslet, or the inevitable comments that will soon come from the men Weinstein helped launch to the A-list who will undoubtedly deny that they knew and saw nothing (looking at Damon and Affleck). Come at me if you think it is problematic for me to say I don’t believe these men and women. I am supporting those who are coming forward with the horrible TRUTH that they were harassed, assaulted, or simply warned (thank you, Chastain) about this cretin, and chose not to work with him or have a personal friendship with him after finding out about his crimes. Never thought I’d say this, but kudos to Gwyneth Paltrow for coming forward and to Brad Pitt for confronting this monster at the height of his power and influence.
But you’re cool with Pitt working with Weinstein on Inglorious Basterds after he knew that that he had harassed Paltrow?
Also, where does it say that they “confronted” Weinstein? From what I read in the excerpt it says that they knew but didn’t say anything at the time.
I wonder when Sam Jackson and Tarantino will issue a statement. I see that Affleck just did…
From the excerpt Kaiser posted:
She refused his advances, she said, and confided in Brad Pitt, her boyfriend at the time. Mr. Pitt confronted Mr. Weinstein, and soon after, the producer threatened her not to tell anyone else about his come-on. “I thought he was going to fire me,” she said.
I don’t know enough about movies to know which stars worked with Weinstein in the last two decades. I’m guessing the vast majority of them did, and it isn’t right, but it isn’t surprising. People often separate professional and personal, and will do a project they believe in even if it means working with a horrible person they dislike. I’m not condoning it, but at least Pitt confronted Weinstein about it at the time his then girlfriend Paltrow was harassed.
And Weinstein is just one sexual criminal among what must be dozens more in Hollywood working behind the scenes. It is very easy for these men to use their power against beautiful unknown actresses. This won’t be the first or last time we hear this story coming out of Hollywood. Weinstein is simply one of the biggest names. There are small time criminals working in that industry, assaulting women everyday, I’m almost certain of it.
I haven’t read the statement from Affleck. Will look for that now. More will undoubtedly come forward in the following weeks. I’m expecting nearly all of the men who worked with Weinstein will deny knowing anything.
Sorry you are correct.
I actually read that part but somehow glossed over it, probably propelled by the seething and all-consuming rage I feel every time I read something about this disgustingly vile man.
Someone said downthread that Pitt refused to work with him except on IG because Tarantino begged him. If anyone has links to that info, I’d be interested in reading more…
Interestingly enough, I remember a Lainey Gossip article about how Brad Pitt vanished from the scene in the Oscars publicity push for IG. I always wondered why that was, but maybe this is the missing piece.
I don’t know anything about IG, but I remember that the main motivation for Brad working on Killing Them Softly was because he respected Andrew Dominik’s talent and felt that TAOJJ got a raw deal.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there some talk about Killing Them Softly underperformed because of the way it was marketed, which is the responsibility of the film distributor?
I don’t believe them either. What makes me think is that if he was so embolden as to make these inappropriate passes at young women who were highly connected in Hollywood, what did he do to the ones with no connections. If he raped Rose McGowan than there is reason to believe that there could be many many women out there who were raped by him and then black balled who had no Hollywood connections. I really don’t have any respect for these women who were protected because of Hollywood nepotism who said nothing, because they got off easy compared to the young scarlets who had no support and no chance of doing anything about it.
According to The New York Times, when Paltrow told Pitt about Weinstein, Pitt confronted Weinstein and told him never to touch Paltrow again. Pitt confirmed this through his agent.
And Ben Affleck dated Gwyneth Paltrow. She didn’t tell him about Weinstein? Please… He knew too.
Ben has a statement now too, and apparently is getting dragged for it as much of it could apply to his own brother, who he has steadfastly supported.
Affleck absolutely knew. Paltrow was his gf – Miranda set up or no, in the aftermath.
Brad Pitt knows even more. As Paltrow was his gf at the time, and Weinstein was rumored to have come between them. As gross as that sounds.
I’ll say this – it gets even trickier when maybe the young women were pressured into having complied.
That story about Paltrow stealing then-friend Winona’s copy of Shakespeare In Love off her coffee table (which did happen according to Ryder) and nabbing the role seemed odd to me…not odd that Paltrow went behind her back, but odd that a huge star like Winona would have just lost the part to then unknown Paltrow. Wonder if Harvey gave it to whoever capitulated.
It seems clear Winona didn’t have an in with Harvey. Or was unavailable and dating Depp maybe?
So gross.
I can’t see Pitt telling anyone those stories. They aren’t his to tell and they are very private. This isn’t something you’d share with a buddy.
I replied above as to why I think Clooney knew — not because I think Brad Pitt would have told Clooney, but because Weinstein’s abuse seems to have extended far and wide.
Clooney said he knew Weinstein liked to come on to beautiful young girls and was a bit of a dirty dog. This would have been filed under that heading, sadly. The employment aspects making it hideous wouldn’t be so apparent to a man until pointed out.
Strength in numbers. No snark from me. It’s the reality of how women feel alone in the face of such harassment or assault. It’s complicated. But I’m tired of analysing whether it’s right or wrong to speak up just now. I just want to hug these woman and thank them for still speaking up. I just want the scum jailed, please???
Same.
Absolutely. The nitpicking is still taking the focus off of Harvey.
Exactly how I feel. Please, please, please can he go to jail already?
ITA.
I mean, what are people expecting?
If the NYT previously bowed to pressure and killed its own story and the NYPD had evidence of his abuse from a sting operation but the investigation went nowhere (likely also due to pressure), what was a young Paltrow or Jolie supposed to do? They did what they could, they got out and told others around them.
But they were not about to ruin their careers by making public allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
And in the years since as they each gained clout and influence, are y’all honestly saying you would have believed Jolie had she just come out with a decade (or two)-old allegation? yeah right. Y’all would have claimed she was desperate for attention (like you always do). Same for Paltrow.
Also, I see lots of people mention Brad and IG. But I wonder what Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurant (sp?) experiences were while working on the film. Did they encounter Harvey? Not that they have to speak out but I’m just curious especially since Brad was not only aware but wary of working with Harvey and Jolie was reportedly warning women about him.
Right now, in terms of blame I only blame Harvey for his behavior. He and he alone is responsible.
Beyond Harvey it seems only TWC had the means to stop him. They had the dirt and the influence. Not that I am giving them credit for anything.
But someone mentioned a few days ago that Harvey and Bob’s mother died last year. More and more this feels as though TWC was just waiting to get rid of Harvey and his long history of abuse was the perfect opportunity. Like maybe the ironclad hold over the media was deliberately relaxed and this bombshell slipped (was tossed) out. I mean, they fired him with a quickness that was startling once the NYT story hit.
Nonetheless, however it went down, I am happy he has been revealed publicly.
Now for all the others …
I am having the strongest reaction to this evolving story. I am just floored, but I think more by the moment where all of these women are stepping forward. We have been working toward this for so long and I want this to be the moment that the culture allowing sexual harassment and assault changes for good.
I once told my friend that every female friend of mine had been harassed or assaulted, she looked at me disbelieving. More than ever I stand by this statement.
I had such unsettling experiences with men in power that I chose to study Women Studies in college and in turn became the object of additional harassment and questioning regarding my “womanhood”.
Every woman knows how deep this is. Amber Tamblyn wrote about it recently. This is the time that everyone who can, steps forward with their own stories.
I agree with you that everyone woman has faced some form of harassment or even more serious assault. It’s why I was so blown away when white women voted for Dump because his actions and comments about being a pussy grabber produced a visceral reaction for me and I could not see how every other woman on earth didn’t feel that way too and reject this predator.
Abso-f*in-lutely. I don’t know anyone who didn’t deal with this crap in some way, shape or form.
I know. I couldn’t believe it either.
I 100% agree with both of you. When the Trump/Access Hwood story came out, all these supports females said, “it’s just boys being boys” or something like that. It totally hit me that they are allowing this behavior, they make an excuse for them. Why I don’t understand. I think that is why so many women don’t “see” themselves as victims of harassment. For many (myself) it’s older men taking advantage of the young.
I’m really tired of hearing these stories and I truly hope these conversations lead to positive changes in how women and our girls are treated.
There’s a lot of ingrained misogyny. There’s also a lot of women in denial, either through ignorance or self preservation, who simply don’t want to believe this sort of thing happens, and happens to pretty much every woman. Brushing it aside lets them delay dealing with it.
After the Trump tape came out I was super upset because it just made me remember every time some guy grabbed my butt or “brushed” against my breasts etc. without my consent. I just couldn’t… when I met a friend the next day I told her why I was upset and she said “well at least guys go after you, no guys come after me.” She just didn’t get what was so bad about strange men assulting me in public places against my will. To her it was a badge of honor. And no arguments persuaded her… I lost so much respect for her that day. We are still friendly because we have so many mutual friends but I no longer consider her a true friend.
I’m glad gwyneth and Angelina chose to tell their stories. even though I know people will blame them for not coming forward before I hope they understand how humiliating it is to be sexually harassed. The shame that comes with admitting even to yourself that you have experienced something like that can be traumatic and the tendency people have to say “why didnt you just….” only makes it harder to come forward.
Yes, and I think that being one person who said that Harvey got them into a hotel room and suggested a massage is a lot different than when ten people speak out and say “that happened to me too”.
It would have been difficult for Gwyneth to speak publically about just that one incident, because it would have been brushed under the carpet or dismissed as a ‘ he said/she said’.
But now that there is strength in numbers ALL of the stories can come out and be believed. And yes, kudos to Brad for backing her.
^^^^ this
And it was the least any concerned friend or boyfriend could do. Glad he backed her, though 1st person comment would be even stronger.
I keep telling people he is a good guy. He refused to work for him until he was coerced into it and even then he wanted nothing to do with him face to face. He stuck to his word for a very long time.
Was he coerced to be in Killing them Softly too?
I can see what you are saying, but I stop at Paltrow, cause she went back and worked for him in Shakespeare in Love, getting herself an Oscar. So how upset was she? AJ said she would never work for him, and she didn’t. That, to me, is a more rational and honest response.
Maren, that is why women don’t come forward. It seems like she didn’t act “victim” enough for you so you are discounting her statement. Many women find a way to deal with their harasser. Maybe she made sure never to be alone with him. The movie was clever and very good; maybe she decided with certain safeguards she could still make a movie that spoke to her without having to deal with him. Maybe she blamed herself and decided to give him another chance because she overreacted or misunderstood. Maybe she decided he wasn’t going to be the one who stopped her from doing the thing she loved. Just because you would have reacted differently doesn’t make her reaction wrong.
So proud of all the ladies telling their stories! I have to admit I expected a statement sooner from Hillary.
Why? She had to wait and see how she might best offer her statement. And because she did, it helped the “but she took his $!” crap wash out of the system.
She lost an election to an admitted sexual predator, and she’s a private citizen, so I don’t expect anything from her. I think it’s good she said anything at all, and her statement is still eons better than Trump’s “I’m not surprised.” Yeah, of course you’re not surprised, you predatory jackass.
CNN has a headline that says, “Analysis: Clinton Waited 5 Days to Comment on Weinstein” or something of that nature. Really??? Like… f*ck you, CNN. She’s not the damned president, and the guy who is IS AN ADMITTED SEXUAL PREDATOR, ffs.
no, she’s not the president, but she did take an awful lot of money from him for her campaigns…. one of them being her run FOR the presidency. probably she didn’t know his reputation in that arena, and without actual witnesses, it would have easily been brushed away. too bad. same old same old.
He gave $25K to her campaign. $25K. He gave $33K to Kamala Harris and even more to Barack Obama. But sure. “An awful amount of money” 🙄
You’re right. It’s her fault Weinstein is a serial sexual harasser.
I see the propaganda trolls/bots have arrived with their disinformation. We see you.
I applaud Jolie and Paltrow for coming forward. I side-eye Hillary’s statement completely. The Clintons are incredibly close to HW unlike other Dem politicians. They are friends and have palled around with HW for ages. Plus, Bill is a pervert and Hillary had no problems looking away from his behavior. I have no problems assuming she’d do the same for HW. Other politicians like the Obamas had a transactional relationship with Harvey. He raised money for them and that’s about it. And there is no way in hell the Obamas let their kid intern at TWC if they knew what was going on there.
Bluthfan: I hate the narrative that a wife married to a perverted husband is somehow complicit in his behaviour. This narrative has been longstanding around Bill/Hillary and now it’s starting up around Weinstein and his wife, Georgina Chapman. From what I’ve seen, there are many, many wives who have been blindsided by the news that their husbands have acted inappropriately towards women – often the husbands are charming, accomplished and first-class manipulators, so manage to weasel their way out of any consequences and gaslight their wives into believing the worst about any accusers.
And don’t come at me with “Oh, they MUST’VE known because they were powerful in their own right/politicians/rich/from a wealthy family/ambitious/capable/*insert whatever nonsense justifies shifting the blame onto women here*” It’s rubbish – all of it. And you know it. You, nor anyone else, would ever hold a husband responsible for his wife’s underhanded criminality or pervertedness or adultery. It would be all on the woman then. In fact, it’s rubbish like this that’s pervasive about ‘strong’ women: that somehow they cannot be deceived or walked over or made vulnerable. Many ambitious women internalise these attitudes, and this stops them from seeking help when they need it. I’ve known stories of ‘strong’ women who don’t report their domestic abuse or their sexual assaults or frauds they’ve been victim of because it’s not SUPPOSED to happen to them. And if they do seek help, their competence is often used against them exactly the way you use it here: “Oh, surely you must’ve known!” These women get to enjoy being victimised twice over by the people who are supposed to help them.
Bluthfan, it’s also wilful blindness if you wish to think that the Obamas (or their daughter) didn’t know the rumours surrounding Weinstein and his ilk. Previous threads discussing the Weinstein scandal goes into this. Like all presidents, Obama likely got dossiers of information about all the rumours surrounding Weinstein, particularly ahead of his daughter interning there, and ahead of Weinstein’s White House visits. Obama knew. He just didn’t care. Or at least he didn’t care enough to risk Harvey’s influence and deep pockets to his own campaign. If Hillary’s ‘guilty’ by association with Weinstein, as some commentators here and elsewhere have taken to implying, then I hold Obama accountable in this area as well. Doubly so, considering his daughter interned there – do you really think Obama was worried about his daughter getting harassed? So get out of here with your misogynistic, “But Hillary-ing!” And don’t come at Georgina Chapman or any other wives, powerful or not, of powerful, abusive and/or adulterous men with the same bullshit. As for other Dem politicians not being close to HW? Please take off the damned blinders. They all love HW as long as they get money out of it. That’s a flaw in your political system that Hillary acknowledged needed to be fixed on the campaign – to change campaign financing laws.
EDIT: Spelling.
Hillary doesn’t owe anyone any statement. A man who had 11 women come out and say he actually grabbed them won/stole the Presidency. And she is the one who has to apologize?? No.
Right Maren?
It’s getting so ridiculous that it’s starting to hurt.
I know right.
When your whole discourse is protecting women from predators yet you take money from one for years, it’s your moral obligation as a leader to speak up and loudly when something like this comes up. Even giving Hillary the benefit of the doubt that she was unaware of his reputation, once all this accusations have come out against the man who financed her campaigns she has to say something, especially when she wants to remain in politics and the public eye. I can’t believe this is such a hard concept to grasp and the fact you blindly defend a politician as is scary.
Yes, yes. F–k yes to this. And just so it’s clear, my AMEN is for Maren’s comment.
Yeah so let’s just clarify something. Trump is an “alleged” sexual harasser/ predator, Hillary Clinton is an “alleged” child rapist” if you didn’t know now you do, look it up. Bill Clinton is an “admitted” cheater and an “alleged “rapist. It is important to understand the difference between allegations and confirmed facts. The accusations against Hillary are much worse than the accusations against Trump. So if you are going to judge people for supporting Trump because there have been allegations against him, then you need to judge yourself too. Otherwise you are just being a hypocrite! And judging a wife for her husbands actions is one thing when there is a possibility of her not knowing is unfair, but when there is zero chance of ignorance as there is now with Hillary and Bill and is she chooses to be complicit then that is fair game and a reflection upon her character.
Yes! Thank you for coming forward and publicly speaking out!
Love Brad Pitt for confronting Harvey, even when his own career could have been damaged. Pitt seems like the only one who confronted Harvey on his actions during the height of his powers.
Yet, both Pitt and Paltrow worked with him several times after that incident.
No Pitt didn’t. Look it up. He only did Inglorious Basterds with him after Tarantino flew to France and begged him to do it. Even then he wanted Harvey kept away from him as much as possible. The other project Harvey was indirectly involved and not the primary.
I don’t know what to say about Gwyneth, but I refuse to shame her. I was side eyeing her hard until I thought about it and realized the same breaks I give to others should be extended to every woman exposed to vile Harvey.
Brad did pictures for Weinstein Co.
Inglourious Basterds (2009) – English
Harvey Weinstein (Executive Producer), Brad Pitt (Actor) 21 Century
Buy
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) – English
Harvey Weinstein (Executive Producer), Brad Pitt (Actor)
Buy 21st century
KILLING THEM SOFTLY (2012) | Written and directed by Andrew Dominik | The Weinstein Company | Citywide 21st Century
True Romance (1993) – English
Harvey Weinstein (Executive Producer), Brad Pitt (Actor)
He did Killing Them Softly also, and I am not shaming Gwyneth.
Paltrow seems to have stepped away from acting. Maybe she got fed up with Hollywood after winning the Oscar trying to play the game. She probably did what she thought she had to do, and then decided it wasn’t worth it. Hanging out with chefs must be less irritating…
Bap: an EP is not the same thing as your garden variety producer. At best they provide financing and that’s the extent of their involvement. Even one as involved as Harvey can be kept from the set if the actual producers have the balls to stand up to him and keep him from the set. And there are numerous instances where producers kept Harvey from set.
INGLORIOUS and CONFESSIONS are mates’ movies, namely Tarantino and Clooney respectively. They had/have strong dealings with Harvey and roped in BP, but by all accounts he was merely an actor rather than a producer and in that capacity could be kept away from Harvey.
Secondly, the Weinstein company distributed KILLING THEM SOFTLY, they didn’t produce it. Out of the collection of production companies that made this film, Megan Ellison’s company is the one that jumps out at me as having close ties with Harvey and was briefly guided by Harvey before she found her feet.
To be clear, not trying to excuse BP, just clarifying a few things.
Chastain pointed out, she’s had movies that were sold to TWC after the fact. Killing them Softly wasn’t a TWC production, it was distributed by them.
Maybe Paltrow and Pitt didn’t have to work with him directly after that. Weinstein’s name may have been attached to their projects, but I think it’s possible their interactions with him could have been limited, except for PR purposes. I can picture most people in companies working around the weirdness of a powerful person, if they don’t have to interact with that person, rather than actually point-blank leaving their positions full-stop.
Although now that I think about it, maybe that’s how the other actors in Hollywood, who might have heard whispers, worked around him too. I guess I could see Meryl and George Clooney also not dealing with him directly if he does the administrative and financial stuff. Weinstein isn’t a director they’d have to talk with directly. I suppose you’d have to be inside the system to understand how it works.
Killing Them Softly was distributed by about 20 different companies including The Weinstein Company. Plan B produced it. Distribution is a very different process.
True Romance was 1993 before Gwyneth, and he wasn’t even the star of that film. That was Christian Slater’s movie anyway.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind had about ten producers, and he was Bachelor #1. A cameo.
Like I said he didn’t work with Harvey Weinstein.
But still continued working with him.
Seems he made a decent attempt to avoid him to me. Harvey Weinstein is the problem here, not Pitt or Paltrow, despite your repeated digs.
All these women coming forward to tell their stories. They know they’ll be attacked, blamed and disbelieved, but so many are bravely doing it… and you’re most impressed with Brad Pitt? This is not about him, it’s about the women brave enough to come forward. And that includes Gwenyth even though she still worked with him after. Man some of these comments. Smh
This makes things interesting, because I believed there were certain women he left alone, but obviously if they were young & beautiful, he had no problem harassing them. Maybe the women he left alone then (if there were any) were women his own age, because, of course they might not be as scared of him. I don’t know. This whole thing is disgusting. But are we now going to blame Gwen and Jolie for not saying anything? Would it have mattered if it hadn’t been “the right time” to take him down?Someone said in an earlier post, that they suspected this came to light more because it was time to take him down, as in the men who work with him (at his company, not actors) were tired of him, than it is actually about these women being harassed & assaulted. Unfortunately i’m starting to think this is the case.
Bingo! The second this not-so-secret revelation hit the headlines, my first thought was, “Who did he piss off?” This isn’t about protecting women and exposing him, it’s a power grab, I suspect, by his brother. This is about money and power, period. Now, just because someone did the right thing for the wrong reason is irrelevant. He’s done and that’s what’s important. This monstrous behavior is now under klieg lights. Will it change. Probably not much, but we’ll see.
That is probably exactly the case.
HOLY S***.
I never thought Angelina belonged to this awful club, because she never worked with him… but it turns out that’s WHY she never worked with him.
Ugh. I bet this is one of MANY reasons she was never “part of the club” so to speak. She never really played the Hollywood game, and of course everyone used that to dismiss her as an elitist with no friends… but really she didn’t want to associate with absolute monsters. It’s telling that all her close friends are from well outside the Hollywood bubble, I guess.
Jolie and Paltrow are big guns, both Oscar winning actresses. I dare HW to contradict what they have said.
Ashley Judd probably would have an Oscar, too.
Except she had the balls to speak truth to power, so she never got the chance.
I’m glad that women are speaking out, but as others have said, he is just one of many men that think it is okay to take advantage of women in this situation. I think the grossest thing about this story is that his behavior was allowed to go on for 20+ years. I hate men thinking that it is okay to treat women like sexual objects in a professional environment. I work as a nurse, and I sometimes have comments from patients and fellow co-workers that make me feel uncomfortable. For example I was taking a patient from a male nurse who introduced me to the patient by saying “You’re going to be happy with who I chose to give you a sponge bath tonight”. I hope Weinstein is destroyed by all of these people coming out of the woodwork to confirm what a gross a**hole he is.
Yes, this is ABSOLUTELY the tip of the iceberg. This could NOT have happened for this long —
and he could not have continued to build his career to such heights — if the whole industry weren’t full of similar stories. It’s insidious and it’s definitely a much larger problem than this ONE guy. It’s also bigger than this one industry, as your anecdote proves… but the studio system was built on predatory behavior, and it continues to revolve around it.
More victims will come forward, but I hope victims of OTHER producers and directors start coming forward too.
A friend of mine worked in the industry for many many as a writer, and she tells me for an absolute FACT this is not just a Harvey problem (and in fact, there are even more perverse indulgences that many bigwigs indulge in). This is a culture with men (many, not all) in the industry. Hopefully being able to take down Harvey will send a message to the others that they aren’t safe, and we’ll come after them too.
And my biggest hope from all of this is that Harvey’s victims will be able to find some peace knowing their abuser has finally been found out.
He’s not the first, and won’t be the last, unfortunately, in this industry. And there are Harveys in every walk of life, every profession, ,every industry, every school, etc.
I hope that Corey Feldman feels some power right now and finally names his and Corey Haim’s abuser. That monster needs to pay, and Mr. Feldman needs to know that we, the public, have his back.
But if it takes this long to take down 1 man who wasn’t even hiding his pervert nature, what needs to happen to take all the other visible (Bryan Singer, Woody Allen and Polanski) and invisible ones to task?
Part of the problem is that there seems to a cherrypicking exercise going on at the moment. These people still work with Allen and sign petitions for Polanski and work with him on set and even defend them but Weinstein can be taken down? Why not the other ones then? Why are people almost running towards those other predators and acting like they don’t know for sure if their victims are telling the truth like that even matters??? Is it because their victims are not famous?… These people make no GD sense and always miss the point. That whole town, is deceased to the core.
I think it’s time to treat Hollywood for what it is: politics. Get decent journalists on every press junkets and interview and stop the silly questions. Everybody, men and women need to be held accountable.
If they are in a Polanksi film, ask the tough questions.
If a director is known for yelling and other abusive tactics (Aronofsky, DOR), ask the director over and over again how that is acceptable and why only women get treated this way.
Ask violent actors (Shia) who raised them and why they think it’s acceptable.
And you know what, I also want journalists to ask tough questions to women, not to embarrass them but to make a point about them enabling some of this behaviour. Emma Thompson took her name of the petition for Polanski and that’s an amazing thing. She got some flack for that from the people who made the petition but somebody made Thompson think about what really happened to Polanski’s victim and she made a morally good decision. When a director is emotionally abusive, I wish female actors were told that it’s NOT ok and in saying it is, they are perpetuating this toxic masculinity in Hollwyood. Not to shame them for it, but to make them think about it.
I don’t want to hear about female performers being divas, as long as nobody gets abuse, I’m fine with diva behaviour. Men can be aggressive and nobody remembers 24hrs after it happens, that’s much more concerning.
It doesn’t matter what designer they wear or how they felt close to the character in the movie, I want to know about these actors’ and directors’ values and actions. I want to know who I give my coins too.
I hope you reported your colleague to HR Sarah, or at least confronted him to his face and told him don’t you ever talk like that about me in front of patients again. what a douchebag.
I’m so grateful these women are speaking out. Their silence proves how powerful he was. Past tense.
Wow, AJ said she was never going to work with him again and kept at it. And this was around the time that her waste of space father was trying to derail the start of her career as well. She made it out okay. I wish like hell that more actresses were able to come out on top from this assaulting behavior. This is just wrong on so many levels.
You know who has been very, very quiet? Gretchen Mol. I’d like to hear Ms. Mol tell her (sure to be ghastly) story. All those blind items over the years indicated to me that Harvey really abused her.
But wasn’t that story eventually verified? I don’t think it’s a blind.
No, it wasn’t blind any longer and even us regular folks knew it. That alone tells us something about the obstinate intentional blindness around Harvey. I’d just like to see her add to the pile, since she obviously suffered greatly, both personally and professionally, from his abuse of power. A bit of revenge, maybe.
Gretchen wrote a piece for the Hollywood Reporter and essentially said that she wasn’t victimized by Harvey, but she was by the blind items. She said the stories were not true, but they stained her career none the less. Very sad. I am curious to see Lainey’s response.
Ronan Farrow was on MSNBC tonight and said one actress pulled out of the article in January after Harvey’s legal team went after her. She was terrified of him still. I’m guessing it’s Rose or Gretchen.
I think she’s married with small children. And maybe she doesn’t want to talk about it. From reading these articles, the women he attacked/harassed had a variety of reactions: from saying “no”, to going along with it because of fear/ambition-then feeling guilty about it.
If she chooses to speak out, I hope there is a lot of support for her, but if she chooses not to, I respect that as well.
@lucy2: + 1,000,000
She”s probably experiencing PTSD trauma. I hope the news of the last few days has given her some joy or peace. I’d like to think it gave her a good laugh but it was more probably a hard laugh.
I know someone with ptsd and unfortunately, all this news being out could cause a breakdown. All the women’s accounts could cause awful flashbacks, that leave a victim dissociating, or otherwise.
Please, if you can donate to someone’s therapy, for an organization that focuses on women’s mental health, or even a gofundme of a Weinstein or other assault victim, do so.
That POS deserves to lose his fortune, and be forced to donate it to PP or some other organization that is only about helping women.
No, I understand if she does not want to talk about it. He has hurt her enough, and she has endured being attached to him and had rebuilt her life. Let her heal and be with her family. My heart breaks for Gretchen, and I wish I could send her a message of support, but I think leaving her alone is best.
If she speaks, then it is appropriate but if not I understand.
Gretchen Mol just wrote an exclusive for The Hollywood Reporter. She says she’s so hurt by the rumors that have dogged her for years (she says they were first made up by a “blind item” gossip blog and grew into fact on the internet). She claims to have never even been alone in a room with Weinstein. You should read her article. It’s very well-written, and she says she’s been angry and hurt about the rumors that have been on gossip blogs for years.
This is why I call BS on J-laws, Meryls, and even Clooney’s statement claiming they ‘ didn’t know’. He harassed actresses with connections to the industry like Goop and Jolie, who come from acting families.
I wonder if Weinstien tried harassed Jennifer Aniston. She also worked on Derailed but if you look at the pics of them are the premiere she looked very uncomfortable. Plus she was married to Brad at the time, who apparently chewed Harvey out when he harassed Goop.No doubt Brad must have had a word with Weinstien to not bother Jen, who was his wife at the time.
The person who I feel sorry for the most is Gretchen Mol. Those blinds about are just…sad. Very sad. He made her do unspeakable things and then toss her aside when he wanted to go after a younger, prettier actress.
Jennifer Aniston was established actress in her 30s at the time. He wouldn’t touch her.
Jennifer Aniston was a very powerful celeb in the 90s/00s. No way would Weinstien would touch her. Even now, she is still is very well liked in Hollywood. I think she is one of the few women he would dare not touch.
But no doubt that ogre probbaly had thoughts about doing things to her. I feel bad for all these woman who came in contact with him.
Ms Mol wrote an article for variety saying those rumors are not true. She’s very upset that people believed them. She said she’s never been in a room alone with HW.
I already said this but again, what if this was a guy doing this to other men? He would have been stopped decades ago!
Farrow’s article was so good, but so upsetting.
Bryan Singer is still working.
So is Dr. Luke, resident Sony (alleged) rapist.
To be fair I think we should be careful to assume that nothing happens to men. Women will be the majority of victims but there will be predators with a taste for men. Cory Feldman talked about boys being molested. I tihnk they might even be more reluctant to talk about being raped by a man.
Hopefully the Weinstein revelations will tear it all down.
Completely right, QueenB – this sort of abuse has happened to men as well. Not to the same extent as women, but it does happen.
I wish Corey would blow the lid off the underage abuse he claims to have suffered/witnessed. Name the names.
You are right. Men are victims too. I know one and he was destroyed completely by it. The guy dwarfs Harvey’s power and I don’t think he will ever be called out.
True. What I meant to say was what if it was more common that men sexually harassed other guys, catcalled them and stuff.
My father was raped as a child, and it has f*cked up his entire world view. He’s a loving and doting father and grandfather, but he has some serious personal demons. It was in the 60s, and it was hushed up and swept under the rug, and the man was just run out of town by my very influential grandfather instead of being arrested and tried as a rapist. My father for a long time conflated homosexuality and pedophilia, and still is challenged to this day. I can’t imagine what many child actors have gone through-it makes me wonder if that’s why so many struggle in the transition to adulthood.
Please give your father an extra long hug.
The same happened to my uncle as a child. He’s very kind and protective of the people in our family, he does struggle. He and I unfortunately have much in common. I’m sorry for what happened to your dad and I hope he’s doing well now. *hugs*
*sigh* What’s so frustrating is that he’s a rabid Trump supporter. I try to remember he’s been through a lot, but I still find myself yelling back at him over political issue.
I’d love to hear from Matt Damon right about now. People will say “why didn’t they say something sooner?” Their one colleagues and friends helped keep this boys club secret a secret.
Can we now please stop attacking women as being complicit? Please!!! Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, both A listers, both sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein early in their careers. Gwyneth was clearly petrified of him, as he was powerful in the industry but he was also supposed to have been a family friend. I feel so bad for Gwen right now and it does explain a lot, how she is. It clearly damaged her. Regardless of what Meryl Streep may have or have not known or heard, Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in the industry. He could shut down your career in a minute. Hopefully because of this we can now prevent this from happening again like George Clooney said. I’m really tired of this argument of what other actors and actresses knew…it needs to end.
I think people are taking issue with Meryl for claiming she didn’t know anything at all, not necessarily that she had the responsibility to do something. Glenn Close admitted she heard rumours, so there’s no way Meryl couldn’t have heard something. And in the above article, Angelina Jolie says she warned others off of Weinstein.
A lot of the actors should have just said they condemned the actions, and stopped at that. Although, who knows, maybe some of them really had not heard anything. But I feel you’d have to live in Idaho like Robert Redford to not hear anything. Although now I get why Redford has chosen to live in Idaho…Hollywood is a mess. Horses are probably easier to deal with than humans.
Agreed. I am over that deflection too. Harvey abused and exploited innocent women and bullied people and was awful all around, so I don’t understand the need for a perfect comment from anyone. The guy had enormous power, and no one else made this man behave the way he did or could have stopped him except for the shareholders.
The critical part is Hollywood did something that they have never done before and shut down a man like Harvey, and this is a move in the right direction. It is a message, and it will resonate. Other creeps are on notice now.
Yes. What could have they done anyway that would’ve made a difference? It’s a bit like wondering why aren’t North Koreans trying to overthrow their leader. If you try to go about something like that alone, something bad will happen. You’d have to be able to get the backing of more powerful people and get a real momentum going with several brave people simultaneously. One or two people speaking out here and there throughout years isn’t going to cut it and those people will just sacrifice themselves while trying. I think it’s a bit too much to ask for others to make those kinds of sacrifices.
This story just gets bigger and bigger doesn’t it? I hope the massive momentum crushes him. This is disgusting.
He’s definitely done now.
I just hope the momentum keeps going and will expose the people who’ve been using and abusing the many teen stars, girls and boys, singers and actors. So many young stars who have had mental and physical breakdowns. You’d think a studio or a record company would’ve wanted to look after their stars and make sure they will be OK, but it seems it’s been the opposite. It’s horrible. Teenagers and kids have even less power to try to gain control over their own fate.
Damn so basically all the commenters who are cancelling actresses for not doing anything about Weinstein are probably going to have to give up watching movies and television altogether because this shit runs DEEP. Every woman in Hollywood seems to have been affected by this dude’s predatory behavior.
As I said on the other thread, as someone who was sexually harassed in the workplace around the same age as Gwyneth was when she was victimized by HW, I can 100% imagine what she felt when she was called up to his hotel room.
She was probably thinking “This is weird…why is he asking me up to his room? Maybe it’s just for convenience. Wait a second, why is he wearing only a robe? Eh, maybe he’s getting ready to go to sleep soon. Oh my god he just touched me and now he’s asking me to go his bedroom?!?! What the f*ck is happening? How did I put myself in this situation? What do I do now?”
As women we are absolutely socialized to make excuses for male behavior, to think that it’s all in our head and then when we are victimized to blame ourselves for getting into that situation in the first place, for somehow not seeing the signs that we were about to be harassed/assaulted/raped etc.
Sigh.
This, 100%
Gwen continued to work for his company. Why did not Brad make a statement instead of his Rep.
And I continued to work at the job where my boss whipped his dick out in front of me and regularly sexually propositioned and harassed me and eventually kissed and groped me despite me trying to fend him off.
What.
The.
F*ck.
Is.
Your.
Point??
Seriously, how do people NOT understand how sexual harassment in a professional environment works? There is a one person (employee) dependent on another person in power (boss). That is how the power structure works and that is how it creates an environment that makes it easy for the person in power to victimize the person who is dependent upon them.
It doesn’t mean that the person who is being victimized somehow enjoys it, it means that they tolerate it because they need a DAMN JOB. FFS I was just out of college, my first job and I LIKED the job a lot–it was flexible, interesting, convenient location and decent pay. The only thing I DIDN’T like about the job were the sexual advancements and harassment from my boss but I accepted it as a necessary trade-off for a decent job. I made excuses for his inappropriate actions towards me, I convinced myself that it wasn’t *that* bad, I told myself that he would eventually stop, and later on when the worst happened, I blamed myself for not leaving sooner.
THAT is how shit like this happens. Not because women “allow” it to happen, not because we don’t do enough to stop it, but because MEN in positions of power often don’t hesitate to use that power to exploit, harass, and intimidate women and because as women, we are conditioned to sanction and tolerate their actions and even excuse and exonerate them when we know what they are doing is wrong.
FFS these threads are so depressing and just…wow.
Kitten,
Been there, done that. Bills had to be paid. I am so sorry. I hope your situation is better now? You are absolutely correct. This is EXACTLY how it happens.
@Kitten thanks for sharing your story. It’s horrible and unfortunately it happens everywhere and all the time.
Everyone who think they can judge someone for staying in a job with a harasser must live in quite the fantasy world. In real life you sometimes have to put up with terrible things out of need, especially in cases like these because it’s rarely an option to fight back. In 98% of the cases with HW, the choice was either to stay quiet or to speak up, hurt your career and life and have that mean nothing because he was at the point impossible to knock down.
Some of you also all seem to think that just because a movie was produced or distributed by TWC it means the actors were working directly with Weinstein constantly. It doesn’t work like that.
Kitten, are you also commenting on the NYT article?
Anyone see the One Mississippi episode that Tig Notaro did on this where the radio exec jerks off under the table while the woman sits there? it’s a PERFECT example of this. the scene is so uncomfortable and so real; you can feel her shame during it and the fall out is exactly as expected.
A lot of people think that was Tig’s way of calling out Louis CK
This comment is completely amazing. Dead on.
Kitten: This comment is wonderfully expressed and completely on target. I agree 100%.
I think people are going to make Angelina a hero for ‘refusing’ to work with him but trash Brad for working with him for IG. Either way; they both knew and didn’t come forward which is exactly what other people were being criticized for in other posts.
I think that it was established that papers would not publish reports against HW. So, what were they supposed to do, except warning other people and not working with him?
Yes Jessica, what was she supposed to do? If she found anyone to publish that, you would be the first one who wouldn’t believe her, wouldn’t you?
@Jessica
You can’t sand on your soapbox and criticize other people for victim-blaming when you’re doing the same thing because of what I can only assume is your strong dislike for AJ.
BP was coerced into working on IG and only agreed after lots of pleading by Tarantino who famously flew to Cannes, got him roaring drunk to plead the case for IG. Even so, BP agreed on condition he didn’t have to deal with Harvey and if you look at the press for IG, BP barely figures except for the print, trailers and on-set interviews.
“This sh!t runs DEEP.”
Yep. Like the Pod Save guys said, this feels like the beginning of something big, and not just in Hollywood. We can only pray that a cultural shift is starting to happen. It’s going to be painful as hell, but I think we’ll come through this better on the other side.
Hugs to you for sharing your story.
I loved the PSA guys’ comments yesterday and I’m so happy they addressed the issue.
Thanks Shamby and hugs right back to you ♥
The PSA guy is Ronan Farrow’s boyfriend.
Wait hold up—-John Lovett and Ronan Farrow are dating????
Yes Kitten, they’re together.
I love Jon. OMG, can you imagine their conversations????/ Good for Jon. With the other guys married/engaged, I hoped he had someone too. This genuinely made me smile.
@ Kitten, I’ve been there myself so no judgement. I totally get it.
Agree 100 percent kitten. So sorry about your experience.
I’ll go one step further:
A couple of years ago I was a 40 year old new mother fresh off maternity leave and a new lecherous boss threatened to fire me if i outed him for his bad behavior (directed at me, who knows who else). I couldn’t risk losing my job/health insurance etc w two children under age 3 so yes I took the ‘complicit’ way out and kept my mouth shut until I could get out of that bad situation.
I guess what I am trying to reiterate is that life isn’t always cut and dried and we all have challenging choices to make. I hate what I went through and trust me, my old boss is getting ‘reparation’ now but I don’t regret the way I handled it, it was the best for my family.
Am I ‘cancelled”?
Adele, I’m so sorry. Thank you for saying this. It underscores why it’s such a problem to demand that every woman be the “perfect victim.” It’s precisely because women so often are in the position of having less power (in every way–less money, less physical strength, less professional security etc.) that they are forced to make these awful compromises. Do you keep your paycheck and health insurance so you can take care of your kids, or do you quit and report your boss? And on and on. Blaming women for not speaking out against Weinstein earlier, or blaming women for working on projects he financed even when they knew about his behavior, is like blaming women in abusive relationships for not leaving. If only it were that easy.
Gwennie and Brad did multiple pictures for this jerk.
Wasn’t there a story some time ago about an A-list actor who refused to work with a big movie mogul after an altercation until they had no choice because the director of a film was tight with him? Was that Brad Pitt and the movie Inglourious Bastards?
Anyhow, between Ronan’s piece and the addition of the Gwyneth and Angelina to the confirmed list, my belief that most people really did know about Harvey has only been fortified. They were just too afraid to speak or maybe it was easier to pretend he didn’t exist unless they had dealings with him. Or maybe there’s just so much rampant sexual misconduct in Hollywood that many just decided it was something to live with but avoid. I really do hope Harvey goes to jail. And all the other Hollywood assholes like him are brought to justice.
This seems to be some sort of bizarre purity test you are subjecting people to in order to invalidate their experiences. Yeah, GP worked with him, BP did once by extension. Asia Argento was raped by him and went on to have a relationship with him and is still messed up about it 20 years later. People are complex and don’t always make sound mental decisions. Or they do things in the hopes of minimizing trauma like Argento did. There are worse people out there who worked with him and knew (I’m looking at all the Afflecks and Damons of the world) then those who were victimized by him.
Wow. Look at her face in that picture. I actually feel sorry for goop.
I thought Gwyneth would have JLaw type experiences. Not Ashley Judd encounters :’-(
Can you imagine what that must have been like for her? Harassed then threatened? Having to keep silent and suck it up and not tell the truth and call him Uncle Harvey and smile smile even while she knew he was a sh*t who would crush her if she ever told her full truth?
I can’t snark on anyone who didn’t speak up sooner. Its all so gross I don’t have the heart for outrage right now. My stomach is twisting with empathy and understanding and internet hugs for movie stars who, despite winning Oscars, had to smile and stand and pose with their abuser.
You’re also assuming that JLaw did not have these experiences. I don’t totally buy her statement
For many reasons, including unfortunate personal experiences, my philosophy is ALWAYS believe the woman unless or until facts dispute a claim. However, AN, I’m kind of in agreement with you regarding Jlaw. Ii’m having a VERY hard time giving her the benefit of the doubt. And I hate that.
Honeybee Blues – I doubt her too and I think people are entitled to their opinions about what really happened. What is important is that we believe and support the victims who have the strength to come forward. As I’ve already stated, I support the women who come forward with their stories of rape, harassment, and assault. The time to speak out is now. Whatever issues I have with Jolie and Paltrow, I commend them for speaking out and telling their stories. They could have easily gone the same route as Streep or Lawrence, and simply said they were appalled, but not admit to experiencing or hearing anything about Weinstein’s crimes. I think these women need the most support now, not those who refuse to come clean and admit to what they heard, saw, or experienced.
Kibbles, agreed, which is why I stated that I hate feeling that way. I’m not faulting or blaming, just considering. Regardless of what any of us think, it’s not our story to tell, and again, I really I am not shading her. I’m not in her shoes.
I was struck by Gwyneth’s comment about the meeting at the hotel being on an official schedule from CAA, which leads to problem #2. Harvey is an evil monster, may he burn in hell. But he was heavily enabled. Now I want the names of the agents and managers who knowingly sent young women into this. I want the names of the gossip columnists and tabloids that let him plant stories about victims. I want to know who was taking his calls telling them not to hire these women. Studio heads? Directors? Oh and did Disney know about the settlements? BURN. IT. ALL. DOWN.
AGents?
THIS. It was systematic. He was a spider at the center of a web, full on Moriarty style. You refused to play, he used every bit of his extensive influence to burn you, and hard. Then used you as an example for the next person, so they wouldn’t do anything so stupid
He had his fingers in ALL the pies, and made damn sure every one knew it. What was so surprising in the article, to me, was the fear every person around him felt, whether they were being abused or not. He was vicious, vindictive, and litigious.
But damn, if he didn’t reward you for “good” behavior, right? You stand up to him, your name was mud, but you went along…. all the gravy. He was a modern day mob boss, only he just asked you to keep your mouth shut about it. Or you weren’t going to work in that town again.
The whole damn industry is complicit, one way or another. This sh*t runs deep.
This is why it is important to believe the victim. This is why it is important to believe the victim. THIS IS WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO BELIEVE THE VICTIM.
When you start putting qualifiers on it, she seemed like a gold digger, he doesn’t seem like the type, she’s not his type, you are contributing to a code of silence that punishes victims further. Believe them. Believe them so they will actually come forward and tell their story.
As for wankstain, his name is dirt. Damnatio memoriae for all of those who cannot be trusted with the vulnerable. For those who use their power to hurt others, let their legacy be destroyed.
This times infinity!!!! I 100% agree!!! You cannot place qualifiers on who you believe and who you don’t.
I agree.
I think this is the mentality that we need to change when it come to sexual assault/ harassment victim. Believe in the victim first and stop making it their fault. We should give them a chance to speak out, and let them they’re not being judged or be blamed on. My heart broke after I read all of these stories. I really hope we all can walk away with more knowledge on how to treat victim better in the future.
I was already angered, grossed out and appalled by his predatory behavior, but the piece I just read where he forcibly had oral sex on women, masturbated in front of them, etc. for some reason takes it to a whole other level for me. Please know that I am not condoning any of his actions. Forcing yourself upon another is never acceptable under any circumstances. But those two things stuck with me and I wished they hadn’t. Go to hell you SOB.
I wonder if this why Gwyneth chose to move into entrepreneurship. She must have genuinely lost interest in acting…
I feel like people totally overlooked how Gwyneth acted leading up to and after her Oscar win. She was very visibly emotional that night and afterwards, and not in a happy way. She came across as extremely fragile. Her father seemed to be literally and figuratively propping her up.
She took a step back in her career immediately afterwards, purposefully. She turned down a lot of lead roles in prestige films for a few years, taking on silly comedies and support roles instead. It was a really strange trajectory for her to take. She didn’t even try and capitalise on her Oscar win until 4-5 years later.
I agree with your post.
I think her grandfather Buster was dying. Her father had battled cancer that same year. As a young, single woman, it was a fragile time for her.
Then the awful part was being on vacation with her dad maybe two years or less later in Italy I think it was and he suffered a massive heart attack. And he was flown in a helicopter to somewhere, but they couldn’t save him. Can you imagine practically having your dad die in your arms like that on vacation? That did her in. She was in a very dark, sad place. When Chris came into her life, he was her refuge. She was grieving quite a while. Work wasn’t a priority.
When she had her children, she really did step completely away from movies for years. Chris traveled so much with the band. She lived in England for him part of the year,and she was the one home with the babies. But she wanted that. I don’t think she looked at it as a sacrifice. She was creating the family nucleus she wanted.
I honestly view all of hollywood as traumatic FOR WOMEN. God it sickens me how women are constantly having to defend ourselves.
Good for them. Brave women.
Did Matt Damon have a twitter? Because if he did it’s been suspended.
No, he isn’t on Twitter.
Via Deadline he’s denying asking them to kill the earlier story, just that he relayed his experience working with the Italian guy. I’ll believe him on that, it sounds like a quick conversation saying yes, the guy worked for Miramax and did x, y, and z.
But when HW and all comes up, he’s playing the “as the father of daughters” card, which I hate – you shoudln’t need personal connections to recognize something like this is awful and is saying he doesn’t stand for that behavior.
Two words, Matt.
CASEY AFFLECK.
This story getting more and more gross by every hour. Yikes.
I had a small encounter with HW in the mid-2000’s at a hotel I was working at in Arizona. Nothing happened, but he was frequently in the gift shop and ALWAYS on his cell phone. On one occasion, he was screaming at whoever he was talking to and said something to this effect: “Well you just tell Brad Pitt that he’ll have to deal with it!” He sounded angry at Brad, well, now I know why I guess.
Yeah, but no, and really no,
No more than I will applaud the awful, self-serving Clooney for coming forward with his ‘I knew but I choose to not know’ bullshit, I will not applaud or give a pass to these two equivalent powerhouse women for waiting until they felt it was ok to publicly find their conscience.
The only voices I’m interested in are those who tried to tell their stories over the decades but were shut down because ‘men’ and ‘power’ and ‘fear’.
The rest of the now vocal-because-it’s-ok can go to hell.
Really? Angelina Jolie didn’t work with him ever again and was telling people about him. You know what would happened if she said something about it in press? Nobody would believed her, and she would be blamed like always.
Really? To me this is just proves how powerful he was. Their friends and colleagues worked to spike stories about Harvey in the past.
Condemning women once they finally have the courage to speak out is shameful, in my opinion.
There is absolutely no winning when you’re the victim of sexual harassment or sexual assault. You’re not believed, you didn’t do enough to prevent it, you didn’t tell your story fast enough, or you didn’t behave like a proper victim after the fact. Enough.
Are you serious? You’re angry with victims of deeply upsetting sexual harassment and intimidation, because they didn’t speak out about a most vulnerable moment against a Hollywood powerhouse at a time you deem correct? They were victims. Victims. Who felt powerless and scared. Direct your anger where it belongs.
“The only voices I’m interested in are those who tried to tell their stories over the decades but were shut down because ‘men’ and ‘power’ and ‘fear’.” That would be all of us.
You know, Angelina didn’t even say exactly what happened to her. For all you know, riding around on your high horse, she could have been raped. It’s too bad we’re all not perfect like you.
This is yet another example of women being blamed for male behaviour, Not only must we be perfect victims to be believed, but we must be perfect victims and speak out even if that guarantees career and social disaster on top of the psychological damage the original actions inflicted. If not, we’re culpable?
I’m as depressed about the media and public reactions to this man’s actions as I am that he did it. If we lived in a different society this would not be possible. NONE OF THE WOMEN NEED TO DO OR SAY A DAMN THING TO DESERVE SUPPORT AND SYMPATHY. THEY ARE VICTIMS BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DID. THEIR REACTIONS ARE NOT RELEVANT.
I’ll praise McGowan and Judd for courage and strength all day long. That’s separate from the respect and sympathy they deserve, along with all his victims, for what he did. His choices, They just happened to be targets, and they don’t owe anyone a damn thing in how they respond to that then or later.
So how did Angelina feel about her husband with Harvey in an Oscar-nominated movie???
Probably not good.
@Jessica
Can I ask why most if not all of your comments are attack on Jolie. She is also a victim of his, you have not commented or attacked Gwen. Is it because you dislike her or something. Any person who steps forward about being assaulted is a hero.
Maybe that is your intention, but you off as victims blaming like you accuse others of doing.
People are praising Goop also yet your not using her as example, so your comment comes off more as an attack when someone you don’t like .
That is Hillary’s statement? It would be better if she hadn’t said anything.
Lots of kudos to Angelina Jolie for never again working with Weinstein and warning others about him. That’s real integrity.
Angelina was very fortunate that she was able to not have to work with him again. Not all of his victims were so lucky. And I’m sure picking those vulnerable women was intentional on his part. He got off on stripping them of their integrity.
Of course, I wasn’t saying the contrary. I actually understand why so many women kept quiet and would still work for him. He was one of the best in his job after all. I’m merely congratulating Jolie on this because even when facing possible shunning in her career, she still refused to work with that guy. That takes a lot of courage, since it happened at a point in which her career hadn’t taken off yet and Weinstein wasn’t someone you wanted to mess with. And despite not liking her much, this definitely makes me respect her more because I know she had trouble jumpstarting her career, with her father trying to sabotage her and all. I’m sure she’s not the only one though, probably others also rejected him but weren’t as lucky as she was to be able to have a career after without his help.
I do not think Hillary should have commented. Her husband has harassed women and has documented settlements on record. I also believe he is a sexual predator and has been violent towards women. I watched his accusers and believe them. She has chosen to support and enable him for most of her adult life.
Please note, this is not a criticism of anyone who voted for Hillary. I think both candidates were poor options and we had to go with what the options were.
That you are comparing Hillary, whose husband misbehaved, with Trump, who is an admitted sexual predator, negates any argument you make on this. There is no comparision.
It is frustrating that my reply is not being posted. (edit: oh wait, now it seems be, yea!) This site often states victims need to be believed without having to prove themselves, and yet you refer to Clinton’s actions as “misbehaving”. At least three women have accused him of sexual violence. And I have every right to an opinion, regardless of who I did or did not vote for. That doesn’t even make any sense.
So his lawyer paid Cyrus Vance 10k after the DA’s office announced they weren’t filing charges for his groping the Italian model in 2015. the same Cyrus Vance who received $$$$ from TRump lawyers when he declined to file charges on Ivanka and Jared for real estate fraud. Talk about enabling. That dude Vance is f$cking dirty as hell. I hope he has to resign his office soon.
Yeah Vance needs to go, like, yesterday.
Clearly and obviously corrupt. He needs to be investigated.
I was looking for the change.org petition and couldn’t find it, but a few are floating around.
So instead, lol at his wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Vance_Jr.#Youth.2C_family.2C_and_education
Sigh, the good bits are already gone.
You know what gets to me, among many things? That I’m sure he picked women like Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd because of their histories. It’s like he knew nobody would believe them and as such they were fair game.
That’s an interesting point. I hadn’t considered it that way.
probably true, Angelina Jolie was wild, doing crazy things so I don’t think anyone would have believed her. I don’t know if I would have believed her then.
Individuals such as HW find ways of serving up revenge for perceived slights..I wonder if the “leaks” and questions about Jolie’s emotional state and unstable behaviour were crafted by him. My ex-husband best friend who was very powerful in the political sector told me he would provide lucrative contracts if I made myself available to him so I jumped out of the closet. I switched to the non-profit sector because of rumours of my unpredictable behaviour and anger issues. I knew it was both of them..because I was not going to be held hostage to their controlling sick behaviour. I applaud the women and men who are speaking out publicly, it’s about time. As said by so many on this site, we all heard the rumours for years and I hope the individuals who abused and destroyed the dreams and lives of so many young people are now dragged out into the public eye
I can understand doing one picture and finding out that he is a creep but doing multiple movies for the jerk. Question how many movies did Gwennie do for this creep? google IMDB. brad did
Inglourious Basterds (2009) – English
Harvey Weinstein (Executive Producer), Brad Pitt (Actor) 21 Century
Buy
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) – English
Harvey Weinstein (Executive Producer), Brad Pitt (Actor)
Buy 21st century
KILLING THEM SOFTLY (2012) | Written and directed by Andrew Dominik | The Weinstein Company | Citywide 21st Century
True Romance (1993) – English
Harvey Weinstein (Executive Producer), Brad Pitt (Actor)
I don’t judge at all. I get sick of women judging. The movie business is filled with compromises. He never tried anything with her again, not when she shot Emma, not after. ,She really stood up to him and demanded respect even when she thought she might be fired off Emma when he told he off for telling Brad. She didn’t back down. So any later films he was the producer or distributor on were purely professional relationships with him. He wasn’t the director that she was on set with every day. He was a producer. But he was also a horribly temperamental man that people had to put up with also, men and women.
There are few movie parts for women, parts of substance, leading roles, strong co-starring roles, and lots of women vying for those parts. Harvey did champion good to great movies with some great roles for women that might not have been made without him. That’s how he came to have the power he did, unfortunately. It’s not like those roles are out there hanging on a tree to pick from. Few and far between. So just remember that when you are judging her.
There’ a lot of creeps in Hollywood to deal with, not just him. S If you are an ambitious and driven actress, you navigate it as best you can. That’s what she did.
Thank you!
She was a victim. She did nothing wrong. Why the hell is she or any other actress expected to turn down great work because of the wrong someone else did to them?
Was she meant to give up on her dream career because he sexually harassed her, as some kind of proof that what he did was sufficiently bad? How would that have benefitted anyone but Harvey? She didn’t deserve punishment – he did. She chose not to give up her career, knowing she’d have to deal with him again, and refusing to be cowed – good on her. I’d wager she made sure never to be alone with him again.
Exec Prod and distribution are not the same thing as producing.
Harvey was the EP on the first set of films, BP was merely an actor for hire and coerced by Tarantino to apear in one project (BP made it a condition to nnot deal with HW and he barely promoted the film) and the other film was Clooney’s directing debut where he worked on the financing as well by pulling in all his mates in order for Harvey to allow the film to go ahead with him at the helm.
Weinstein company distributed the last film on your list, Harvey didn’t produce it. It was a film that they bought after completion which given the number of production companies involved doesn’t mean that BP had a close working relationship with Harvey, but his company which would have been their acquisitions and distribution depts.
And Killing Them Softly was done with Annapura, who is now a major partner with Plan B.
Brad obviously has no close personal or business relationship with Harvey. Bap is just grasping at straws here. Her hatred of Brad clouds her nearly non-existent judgement.
It’s frustrating to see her repeatedly post misinformation when she clearly doesn’t understand the film process structure and the gotcha information she’s posting shows her lack of knowledge rather than prove any wrongdoing on BP’s part.
I just want to compliment this site & its writers on the way they’ve handled this story. It’s upsetting and triggering for many women, and your reporting has been empathetic with the right amount of angry. Thank you for the outlet to read about and discuss this.
Yes I agree with you so much. Sometimes I get so caught up in commenting that I forget to credit the C/B writers for their sensitive handling of issues like this.
So thank you, Kaiser and C/B.
Kaiser’s been killing it today and it looks like she’s mostly on her own.
Brava, Kaiser!
Agreed.
Kudos to both ladies for coming forward. Kudos to all the ladies. I hope the victims find some comfort in knowing there’s others who’ve been through it too and are ready and willing to come forward and stand with them.
Weinstein is done. But I do hope some kind of criminal charges can eventually be brought. He really needs to be punished above and beyond public humiliation. But if not, still, all these ladies have done a great thing. This is a conversation that needs to be had. And hopefully change comes from this.
Gloria is defending one of Harvey’s accusers
This is why companies need to take harassment of employees seriously, because Weinstein messed with his company’s ability to draw talent.
Jolie and Paltrow went on to become big-name talents, and Weinstein (1) stopped them from ever working with him again, (2) caused them to warn away other talent from ever working with him, and (3) undoubtedly drove away talent who might have become big-name stars if their interaction with him hadn’t scarred them and scared them away from their chosen career path.
This isn’t just a human rights violation; it’s also bad business. Companies need to accept that predators exist, and work hard to keep them out of their pool of employees and colleagues.
i did wonder why I’m yet to see a picture of Jolie and Weinstein together,just only of pitt..Glad Brad took a stand for his gf back then,still side eye-ing you Matt Damon(you must have known/heard something!
Thank god for the women coming forward. No longer afraid. I have to commend the ones who are being honest about it instead of acting surprised when this scumbag’s ways have been well known to everyone in HW for years…
I never thought I’d ever hear and know the whole story on Harvey Weinstein. This is just an amazing thing that women like Rose McGowan have unleashed an avalanche of truth upon Hollywood. How powerful is that.
I’ll say this I don’t really blame any individual actor/actress because if you know anything about malignant narcissists and sociopaths they are able to manipulate situations and always collect dirt on people so that they always cover their tracks and control situations so that if they ever get exposed they won’t go down alone. Thats why there must be so many people in Hollywood shaking in their boots right now. He obviously knows where the bodies are buried.
So when Jlaw and some other starlets were hacked and horribly had their private pictures cruely posted online, it was said that more than a few of the victims of said hack were pictured on the same couch/ furniture/ room.
I am obviously not in the know on this particular story, but this does make me very, very, very curious if there is a Jabba The Weinstein connection to the hack. I wonder if this was Bobs first attempt to oust his bro?
Angelina and Poop are not my favorite people in the very slightest. I’m not a fan by any stretch of the imagination but these women are good to come out now, and I understand those who did not come out before. Sexual harassment, coercion, attempted assault, all of it can be very difficult for the brain to absorb and it gets tricky for the victims. Especially when society has taught you to expect, accept, and ignore these crimes. So sick and wrong
Hoping that was autocorrect? If not, let’s refer to her as Gwyneth, at least on these stories.
No.
None of them were pictured in the same surroundings.
People just saw JLaw posing on a couch, and took it as evidence of ‘couch-casting’. Because people take that term way too literally (Weinstein used hotel rooms) and no one’s ever just had sex on a couch I guess.
I didn’t look at the pictures myself because I did not want to further victimize these women or be a party to a crime.
Unfortunately I read a gossip article that alluded to the literal couch and the same carpet that was pictured in Jennifer’s pictures as potentially belonging to Holt because another girl who hooked up with Holt was pictured on the same couch in a room with the same carpet. The theory was that the pictures were stolen from Holts cloud. It was later proven not to have been taken from Holts cloud. This gossip article I’m referring to is what made me curious.
Hotel rooms have sofas. Hotel suites have sitting areas. Movie sets have RVs with couches. Offices have couches. The casting couch is a euphemism but having gone on auditions I’ll tell you that there is often a literal couch in the office. *shrugs*
@Electric Tuba Your comment is so wrong. There have never been gossip articles about this. Stop spreading these false rumors
You’re presently commenting on a gossip site. Thick irony. And no I am not wrong about what I read, where I read it, or when I read it.
Or are you disagreeing that couches can indeed exist in hotel rooms and various other places besides a living room *eyeroll*
there have been some rumblings that harvey has blackmail footage and photos of a lot of actresses.
This pig.
Georgina needs to leave him or she is totally complicit.
It doesn’t sound like he was ever home. To me, it seems like a marriage of convenience. She has her children, and her company is her spouse, what is important to her. Harvey was hugely instrumental with helping her with that. And she was on the arm of a powerful man, high visibility, connections, people wearing her clothes. They were a power couple.
There’s no way she didn’t know he cheated on her at the least, even if she chose to turn a blind eye to him being a sexual predator Beyond him being a sexual harasser of the unwilling, he probably also had plenty of willing women with him for the power and money. But where he really got off wasn’t affairs or prostitutes. He got off on intimidation and power over those wanting a job and making them submit to him. What a gross human being..
She’s had to have caught him at an affair and knew enough of the rumor mill.
He’s lost his power. So will she stay or go?
What day will the announcement come that Harvey has admitted himself to rehab for sex addiction? I guess that sounds better to him than serial abuser of women. It should be “to be a predator” addiction rehab he announces he is going to. But whatever he calls it, there will be an announcement by the end of the week he’s going, at at the latest, by the end of next week.
So much for some blogger’s assertions (starts with L) that the elite didn’t know. They knew.
Of course they did. That was a ridiculous article.
Some of the comments are saying that JLaw “must’ve” been harassed and is remaining silent on the issue. Excuse me?? Are we so blind that we are now accusing other women of being harassed? So first, we accuse women of lying about being sexually harassed, now we accuse them of NOT telling us that?? Gross behavior.
And don’t forget – condemn them for not having what we would think of as perfect public responses to the situation. All the ‘everyone who says they never experienced it or didn’t knuw is a liar’ bs.
People are also behaving as though it’s our right to know what happened if she was. If she was and didn’t want everyone to know about it, that would be her right.
.
I feel bad for Gretchen Mol. Her piece was well written. Makes me feel a little sick about blind item gossips.
What a horrible horrible man. This story is profoundly disturbing.
Thank you to the posters sharing their own experiences.
Her statement is great. I hope people actually listen to what she’s saying, and stop trying to force false narratives of abuse onto the women who say they weren’t abused. It’s not helpful. Not to the women who were victims, or to women in general.
blind items are disgusting in my view. either report something or don’t.
Thanks for mentioning it – I went and found the piece.
Yet another way this man, and the misogyny with which people treat his acts, harms women. Even those he hasn’t approached are tainted by the insinuations that he did.
I guess Paltrow and Jolie’s careers weren’t ruined because HW knew he couldn’t be too vindictive with them, considering their fathers prestige In The industry?
Also Jolie already had some big successes at this point (Gia, Girl interrupted too i think).
I feel so bad for those whom it derailed completely. I feel bad for all of them though. I’m grateful Jolie and Paltrow spoke out, it means a lot .
This also shows that even nepotism and priveleged women aren’t safe from misogyny and old boys network nastiness.
Playing By The Heart came out the same year as Gia. Girl Interrupted was the next year.
At the time this would have happened, Hackers and, depending on the exact timeline, the George Wallace TV movie, were the only really notable work she’d done. She was very much just beginning her career.
I never thought he could harass even some young actresses from Hollywood royalty .
Gretchen Mol just wrote about the rumors on her and Weinstein in Hollywood Reporter. She wrote it is totally untrue and condemns HW’s behavior.
AND I repeat that some years ago,she said to a French journalist in off that the rumors on her and Weinstein had damaged her career. Her lowest career moment was during 3:10 for Yuma filming when nobody ( except Crowe/Mangold/Bale who were polite) wanted to talk to her.
Just read that. Oh man. What an unfair fate. And people are happily repeating it in the JLaw thread.
I wonder if Lainey is going to address the Gretchen Mol story. Lainey herself is complicit – she printed that blind (which she made very clear was about Gretchen) on her site.
I doubt she’ll address her part in spreading that narrative. It’s the one thing that really bugs me about Lainey. She can’t wait to tell you when she was right about something, but when she’s wrong, and she’s regularly wrong, it’s like it never happened.
People speculated that was about Gretchen Mol, but another popular guess was Jessica Alba.
She was also trying to protect her access to stars by saying that none of them knew. This was before two big a-listers had come out.
Cory Booker is donating his donations from Weinstein, as is Liz Warren. Hillary should do the same; her foundation received at least 250K from that disgusting monster.
Hillary is disappointing me. I hate to say it.
OmG Rose McGowan outed Ben Affleck on Twitter writing that he knew about Weinstein’s behavior /assaults .
*Pretends to be shocked*
Ben and Matt are both looking rather unsightly at the moment. I have a feeling someone wrote that statement for Affleck without asking questions. They should have asked questions.
Oh and the other guy who has been awfully silent? Tarantino. He was Mira Sorvino’s boyfriend FFS!
There’s tons of male actors, directors and producers who have said zero. Tons. The majority, zilch. Single people out if you want. But in my mind you can’t single one out unless you single every one of them out since apparently the whole town knew in some form or another. Someone like Tarantino who literally owes his career to Harvey, who has believed in every movie he’s done, he’s not going to just jump out and dump on him no matter what people want. He’ll probably address it when asked if he gives an interview for a movie or some project. I could be wrong, but that’s how I see Tarantino handling it.
But I guess another way to look at it is not one person has come out in support of Harvey, a man who had so much power and connections in this industry. That’s telling how bad this is. Well, Donna Karan did, and then tried to pretend she didn’t.
I get the impression Rose has something big and specific on the Affleck brothers. Damon and Crowe got mentioned by Waxman and made a ton of headlines which is unfortunate. I looked into her and she is not a source to believe. Huge holes in her story.
Hardly surprising. Why does no one ever talk about the video of Ben Affleck touching and groping and leering at an interviewer while she just tries to interview him about his film? Or the Project Greenlight video where he makes totally unprompted sexual jokes to and about the female producer in the room? He did those things on camera. What do we think he’s like off camera?
@Jules323
Wow I’ve never heard that, was this covered by the media? or was it swept under the rug.
Neither were covered at the time they occurred, but they resurface as stories briefly now and then. No one ever really seems to care though. I thought the thing with the nanny and then his support of his brother would get people looking into Ben and his skeletons, but somehow he seems to be Teflon coated on that score.
Here’s coverage of the video with the interviewer: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/flashback/get-them-tties-out-trainwreck-ben-affleck-interview-resurfaces-online/news-story/e1ea4b4fc6523a468bf0b365c0c28f03
I can’t find the Project Greenlight video for the life of me, since every search for Project Greenlight and female producer just leads to the Effie Brown scandal. But it’s definitely out there somewhere.
Thanks for the link. Wow I’m surprised, but not surprised at the same time. When Nanny gate happened people were to busy calling her every name in the book and attacking her and making Ben a helpless victim to look into anything. Not to mention the “family man” image he was putting out.
How he reacted to the PBS incident should have gotten people looking.
From Seth Macfarlane in 2013:
https://boingboing.net/2017/10/10/watch-seth-macfarlane-joke.html
And he didn’t sue :zip:
Didn’t any of the big A-list stars like Meryl Streep and George Clooney wonder why he made that joke?
Hillary isn’t disappointing me, in fact, this is just more misogyny. Why does she have to give any m oney back? Listen, it was spent on the campaign. Whatever he donated to the Clinton Foundation so what? It’s the most good that pig will ever do. He bought aids vaccinations for poor kids, great. Keep the money.
I think this whole “the dems should have the money back” is so ridiculous. What are people thinking? You know, if the NRA gives you money and you vote to make guns easier to get, and then something happens, you have some explaining to do.
Someone please point me to any law that was passed, or that any Dem attempted to pass, that would lessen penalities for sex offenders? That would in any way benefit Harvey Weinstein?
Also, how far back do we have to go? Just to the year Hillary was running, or does Obama have to give back his money too?
This is so much nonsense and people aren’t stopping to think. She is not responsible for this. i want you to do a thought experiment. Close your eyes right now and dream that Chelsea Clinton interned for TWC last year, not Malia Obama. Now open your eyes and imagine what would be going o n now.
Then tell me that misogyny isn’t t he single biggest driving force in our culture, beyond all.
I don’t understand the “give the money back” angle either. Why would you give money back? I’m asking an honest question – is it because then you feel like you have to condemn Him or are beholden to him?
I see it as “thanks for the money but you’re still in need of punishment.”
I know some other people have returned money and I just thought, why?! Why not take a nasty guys money to advance your own cause especially if it is a woman friendly cause? Why not keep it? Money spends the same …. I’m pretty sure I’m missing something though so someone please explain?
The list of alleged victims continues into the evening (now H.Graham has a story). And the wife is now said to be leaving him (what a surprise). Guess the heat is getting too hot in the kitchen.
I’m surprised Georgina announced it so quickly. I assumed she’d stick around for a few weeks and then do it quietly, but she obviously wants it known that she is leaving him. She’s got to salvage her reputation and company.
My guess is that Angelina and Gwyneth coming forward was like hitting an accelerator. I agree that she’s likely in salvage mode, for her own livelihood’s sake. If she stays, it’s all going down the drain.
I wonder if it was a planned tactical strategic plan. Nothing wrong with that, btw. But over the course of several days a lot of A-listers and heavyweights came forward. Could be planned.
Creepy Brangelina fans aka Brad Pitt fans are trying to blame Jolie for him working twice with Weinstein. Inglorious basterds and killing them softly. He knew weinstein sexually harassed the mother of his children and still chose the chance to win a gold trinket over loyalty to his family.
I knew she was likely a victim because I googled images Jolie and Weinstein and found zero… He’s been photographed with almost every big star in Hollywood. Come to find out this is why. She kept her distance at the basterds premiere while Brad was yucking it up with the creep.
It’s positively weird. They seem to blame Jolie for everything Pitt ever did. As if he were some kind of puppet who could only move when she pulled his strings.
People want to be mad at Hillary but give Brad Pitt a pass? Brad Pitt knew two women who were sexually harassed and still took financing for killing them softly. 🙄 Hillary likely didn’t know.
There’s no way Hillary (and Obama) didn’t know. He hosted big fundraisers for them. Politicians vet the people who do that, thoroughly. If they’d never heard the rumours before, they’d have heard them then, and they made the calculation that the risk was worth the reward.
Remember when Hillary had DiCaprio abruptly back out of hosting a big fundraiser for her because of the whole Malaysian embezzlement thing that ultimately fizzled out (in regards to him). That was not an unusual occurrence. Any hint of scandal and things get switched around, unless you’re seen as too big to be brought down. Weinstein was a huge donor who encouraged others to be huge donors, and he was entrenched enough that they thought they were safe and it wouldn’t blow up in their faces.
I’m not mad at Hillary for anything. And the only reason I’m disappointed in her is she waited so long to make a statement.
Why? She doesn’t owe anyone a statement.
Harvey’s company was one of the distributors of that movie, which is a part of the process would have been beyond Brad, and they didn’t do a good job of it, maybe on purpose. You can read upthread about how Brad did go well out of his way to avoid Weinstein.
I don’t quite understand why you’re making this as a matter of culpability between Clinton and Pitt. HRC’s statement was something I suppose she felt she had to make. Personally, considering the names involved in this story (so many daughters and sisters of established show business families), I doubt Harvey’s crap didn’t become a well known fact in Hollywood, but I really don’t know about Washington. Then again, there’s supposed to be a thing called government intel. I think the other big problem with her statement is that she is the wife of Bill, and many people see her shock and disgust as somewhat empty, considering her husband’s alleged history. Whatever she says or does on this, she’s going to get crucified by the right wing for the contributions she took.
Breaking news: Georgie is leaving him!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4968300/Harvey-Weinstein-s-wife-announces-LEAVING-him.html
Hopefully her design sensibilities will move upwards from here too but I doubt it…
She can’t turn a blind eye to this amount of allegations, even big stars coming out. And it’s also the only way to save Marchesa at this point. As far as red carpets, by divorcing him, stars might be amenable to wearing her gowns as a show of solidarity with someone who was humiliated and wronged by her husband. Without a divorce and still attached to Harvey, I don’t see a star going near one of her gowns for a red carpet.
Absolutely! She’s obvs hired a great damage control manager, it’s in her favour to rip this toxic band aid off quick sticks…
As soon as Gwyneth and Angelina came out and accused him of sexual misconduct it was only a matter of time. I find it really hard to understand why she chose to marry him. Wealth, money, power, exposure for her fashion label, sure. But the rumors surrounding him existed back in 2007 when she married him. The writing was on the wall once Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly at Fox got ousted–did she really think her husband would be spared?
All in all, if anything she had to get out because of her children. I really want to feel bad for her but I’m still puzzled as to how she could have chosen a life with him. It’s never a good idea to dance with the devil.
As I expected as soon as the NYT article came out. Their marriage was a business arrangement; he wanted an attractive woman on his arm and she wanted his connections in the entertainment industry. She is leaving him because the story got out, otherwise she would have been perfectly fine staying with him regardless of his infidelities and sex crimes. I hope now that most actresses have no good reason to wear her designs, that her label tanks eventually anyway. She definitely won’t have as much clout as she did with Weinstein’s forcing actresses to wear her horrible designs, but I imagine she’ll still have a few friends left who will support her.
+1 to all of this, kibbles.
I agree with you Kibbles until you say she was willing to stay with him regardless of his sex crimes. I don’t think she knew he was a rapist.
How on earth could she stay with him behind this?
Hillary ran on women’s rights and this dude gave millions to her..don’t call trump a womanizer and then take money from one.
Neither of these men are “womanizers”. They are rapists and sexual predators.
Was Weinstein responsible for those weird gossip items in Ted Casablanca’s column that Gwyneth “baked cookies” for him?
This is why I am not pleased with how the Obamas so far have not commented and how they sent their teenage daughter to work for this disgusting predetor.Harvey Weinstien did not spare women who even came fro acting backgrounds like Goop, Jolie, Mira Soverino, Ashely Judd, Asia Argento and many other women . There are college professors who have teach film a NYU and USC who discourage female students from seeking internships or job offers at TWC.
He was known as a disgusting predetor all around.
I don’t think the Obamas follow or think to really take seriously celeb gossip- I just don’t. They don’t have/make the headspace. Trump yes. But the Obamas are academic and global citizen literary types. Yes I’m sure they know surface stuff (they love Beyoncé and watch some reality tv) but I think it’s very surface.
When the first article appeared last week, Tommy Vietor, a former Obama aide (2011-2013, as well as during Obama Senate years) tweeted that it was a well known fact in their circles that HW was a scumbag – his words.
My guess is they knew, but not the extent of it. Then HW made a big show of his support for women’s issues which was a nice deflection from the horror underneath.
And while I am no fan of either Goop or Jolie( I am repulsed by how she is treating her husband and kids in her divorce) good on them for speaking up. God knows which other stars he harassed .
“The Punisher. Old Testament.”
huh? repulsed that she is protecting her kids from an abuser? this exacly why women and children don’t come forward- they are never believed. shame on brad pitt for abusing his kids and shame on him for working with harvey because he is desperate for that hollywod gold trinket.
angelina’s stance to never work with Harvey despite the chance she wouldve won awards shows what type of persopn she is. no bullsh*t with her.
i 100 % believe angelina dumped brad for the right reason… to protect her kids. and i still don’t think he has custody.
Give it up.
For all the women that have come forward and described rejecting unwanted advances from HW, there are at least as many (if not dozens or hundreds more) who felt they had to comply with his inappropriate suggestions… for whatever reason. We may never hear those stories.
No one wants to admit they got a role or a magazine cover or an award after massaging, showering with, jerking off or sleeping with a film exec. Let alone the truly disgusting slob that is HW.
No matter how big this story becomes and how many people issue statements and go on the record… keep reminding yourself that we’re only hearing part of the story.
That’s such a good point. This whole thing is such a giant bucket of ugggghhhhhhh.
Agreed. It’s horrible, and one of the reasons playing guess-the-victim is so vile, as well.
Every woman you know has their own ‘Weinstein’ type story, we ALL do….sometimes things happen in front of others and they do nothing….we all have a story of this type of deplorable behaviour in our past. Men do need to do better…
This was out there either last week or two weeks ago that both NYT & the New Yorker were working on stories about him. I figured that both wouldn’t be published as is often the case. But wow! I did not see all this coming.
According to IMDB his nickname is Harvey Scissorhands. Guess it’ll be Harvey Grabbyhands now.
SOP in Hollywood and the music industry. Sex is a commodity and it is traded freely for the hopes of becoming a star.
.
Kudos to both ladies for speaking up.
Harvey Weinstein should be fired, along with all the other producers, executives, directors and investors who rape and sexually harass. Also, fire those who threaten to destroy the lives and career of the victim, or actually destroy their careers. This includes refusing to do Tabloid stories to take down someone a rapist/abuser wants to and the money they pay you. We need reform, and the tabloids do too.
I hope women start speaking out about Creeplord Michael Bay next!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was brave.
Good Job Brad
Where I am so tired of people propping him up as if he is God. He put out that stupid story in people mag trying to distance himself yet again. you chummed it up with this man knowing he was a predator.