I had been wondering, at various moments in the past two weeks, if Harvey Weinstein only preyed on white actresses. Many predators have a “type,” a physical type, and judging his type from the women who came forward, the only victimology profile I can come up with if “younger than 40 and white.” He likes blondes, redheads, brunettes – he’s an equal opportunity assailant. I wondered (idly) if any women of color were going to come forward at any point. Well, I’m sorry I even wondered. Apparently, he came close to assaulting a Vietnamese actress, and he tried to get Aishwarya Rai alone in a room. First, the Rai story:
Harvey Weinstein creepily set his sights on top Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, asking her manager, “What do I have to do to get her alone?” Simone Sheffield, the founding CEO of Canyon Entertainment and Bachchan’s then-international manager, said she refused to let her client be alone with the pervy producer for even one second during a meeting in the 2000s at his New York office.
“Kiss my black ass,” Sheffield said in response to Weinstein’s come-on, she recalled to Hindustan Times. The loyal manager believed there were efforts to get her to leave the room, so that the powerful movie producer could meet with Bachchan alone – but she refused to budge.
“She was 100 percent protected,” Sheffield said, “and I would not let him even breathe in her direction.” At the time, Bachchan was set to start filming “Bride and Prejudice,” a movie Weinstein’s company Miramax owned the distribution rights to in the United States. Weinstein allegedly made the bold request to “get her alone” as the actress and Sheffield were leaving the meeting, which took place in 2003 or 2004. Sheffield was so offended, she claimed, she sent Weinstein – whom she called the “fat f—king pig that he was” — a trough of Diet Coke as a snide thank-you gift. Weinstein’s office, though, “missed the irony,” Sheffield said, and thanked her in earnest for the soda.
“Kiss my black ass” is an amazing retort. Simone Sheffield for president!! Ugh, the fact that Harvey Weinstein said that to Aishwarya’s MANAGER says a lot though. It’s what many critics have said about the whole “we didn’t know” brigade – many behind-the-scenes people knew parts of it. The agents, the managers, the publicists – they had some idea.
As for the other victim – her name is Vu Thu Phuong and this sounds horrifying:
A Vietnamese actress claims Harvey Weinstein personally tried to “teach” her how to film sex scenes — while wearing nothing but a towel. The young woman described the skin-crawling encounter in a lengthy Facebook post, saying it happened in China in 2008, not long after she had one of her movie roles reduced to almost nothing. Weinstein had been meeting with her to discuss a new film contract with a more prominent part.
“I sat there waiting [for him] alone with a heavy heart because I didn’t know what the new movie would be like,” recalled Vu Thu Phuong, who was also a model at the time. “Everything suddenly turned dark when I saw Mr. Harvey Weinstein standing before me with only a towel around his waist, smiling,” she said, according to Saigoneer. Weinstein went on to ask if Phuong wanted to star in a few sex scenes, insisting that there would be some in the new movie.
“I can teach you, don’t worry. Many stars have also been through this,” she remembered him telling her. “Just treat this as necessary experiences so that you’ll have a stronger foundation in the future.”
Phuong said she refused Weinstein’s advances, informing him that “it wouldn’t be a good thing if someone were to find out.”
“I was thinking at the moment that if he were to rape me or kill me, would anybody find out and stop him?” she wrote on Facebook. “It was an extremely horrifying feeling. My head was tensing up. It felt like my nerves would snap.”
Weinstein had promised to give Phuong a supporting role in the 2010 neo-noir thriller “Shanghai” — starring John Cusack and Chinese actress Gong Li — but he apparently made drastic cuts to the film, which downgraded her performance.
“I tried and tried to find myself on the screen, and I cried when I saw myself in a blink [in the movie],” she said. “It’s too underwhelming, too disappointing. Why were my scenes omitted so much?”
How many young actresses did this happen to? How many young actresses had their hopes dashed and their careers destroyed before they even got the chance to have a career? The way he approached this young woman just feels so… practiced. That’s what I keep thinking about, especially in the stories from the late ‘90s and early ‘00s: he was already so practiced at this. He had been doing it for so long.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
enough
I feel like I’m getting PTSD just reading the accounts of this pig and his behavior. I can’t even begin to imagine how the victims processed it.
So long as it changes how women are treated or at least scares the guys who act this way.
*continues to lie on the floor contemplating the horrible year that is 2017*
Kiss my black @$$ is a phrase I’ve used many times in my life. Usually around dudes who try and underestimate me. But lord this make me want to crawl into a hole
I remember, after November last year, a poster said 2017 would be a year of reflection. I think about that sometimes due to Dotard. But the WA revelation is not something bad in 2017, to me. I feel that it’s a good thing he got exposed now. He is somewhat being punished through ostracism, but of course it’s better if he’s jailed, and TWC and Miramax gets sanctioned or something.
OMG, Simone is absolutely fantastic.
I know we aren’t supposed to blame any HW assistants but I don’t know how they could have lived with themselves knowing they were escorting young women to a possible rape. And I don’t give Georgina any kind of pass.
My heart breaks for Vu Thu Phong.
Not even possible. Sadly – probable rape. In the very least, sexual assault. So many people were complicit
But who were the assistants supposed to tell? Weinstein controlled the assistants’ livelihoods too. If the actresses themselves (who are probably the only ones who knew the FULL details of his actions) could not bring themselves to report him or warn others, how could his female assistants be expected to? The only people who could do so without facing ruin were people higher than him — the real money behind the movies. I’ve posted before that they are the real ones who should be called out, but the problem is, most of the public (or at least, myself) do not know who those people are, to it’s easier to just call out actors and others who didn’t really have control over Weinstein.
EXACTLY. It’s his brother and the board we should be going after, not his assistants. Who is more powerful? That is who needs to be held accountable.
She was protected well by her manager. That was my immediate observation when I read the story. I’m wondering why the other managers didn’t do the same for their clients.
It also suggests her manager knew all about HW. The “I didn’t know” is really running thin.
Yeah, but we’re hearing it from actors, some of whom, as we are learning, are protected from this sort of thing.
Simone Sheffield is wonderful.
She is! But I don’t get the diet coke joke.
DIET coke i.e. Maybe he should lay off the calories.
She sent a trough of Diet Coke – ie for a fat pig. Hilarious. Wonder whether company employees got it and thanked her anyway…
How did he ever find time to run a company?
That’s what I don’t get either!
Do heads of companies have more time on their hands than we originally thought?
Trump says yes.
Ew, ew, ew. Thank god for Ms Sheffield. A verifiable hero. Ms Phuong dodged a bullet personally but not professionally in that instance. Skin still crawling.
This is legitimately the first time I have seen a hero of this disgusting story. Go Simone Sheffield! Not discounting all the victims and attempted victims, but someone actually protecting their clients.
I don’t think your comment discounted the victims. Simone Sheffield is what management should be they should protect their clients. CAA agency served their client up on a platter to this big.
These managers and agents had more than “some idea”, they were actively sending him fresh victims. They were leaving these women alone, qietly closing the door, and hoping he would reward them. They were taking his calls, blacklisting women for non-compliance.
They were more than complicit, they colluded. Harvey wouldn’t have been able to get away with it without their silence, surely, but he also needed their active participation. To me, THAT is the story. All the people scurrying to help Harvey sexually assault these women. It is endemic in the system, and until we start demanding THEY be held to some account, nothing is going to change.
There are too few Simone Sheffield’s in the world. God Bless her for standing up and protecting her client.
“To me, THAT is the story.”
I agree.
iTA
While Harvey is a huge story alone ITA the bigger story is the systemic failures and collusion.
It reminds me of CAA silencing Courtney Love. How were they sending such young and vulnerable actresses to discuss parts and contracts with such a power player as Harvey. Everyone knew he was a hard negotiator and ruthless businessman – seasoned businessmen had trouble with him yet the talent agencies, managers, etc saw no concern in leaving these relatively inexperienced young actresses alone with him?
Hogwash.
They knew the score. And knew they would be rewarded for their efforts. And that includes the reporters who cleaned up his messes and defamed his victims.
That is the bigger story. Who was involved.?Which agencies, which partners/owners ?
Until the entire rotten corpse is destroyed this is all just lip service.
And remember, Harvey had lots of enemies so his demise was and is easy to denounce. Hollywood will not be so eager with someone they like.
Assistants included. They are the story but since they are not famous or we don’t know their names, the public is trying to blame famous actresses 20 steps removed. These agents, managers and Harvey’s assistants *were* active collaborators. I’m hoping lawsuits start for some of them to let them know in the future they will face consequences along with the rapists.
Agree 100 percent. The agents, managers, assistants actively participated in the assault and degradation of these women and I hope they get exposed as well.
Wait a second. What, exactly, were the assistants supposed to do? Report him to the police? I suppose they could have, but if the actresses themselves did not want to be named, nothing would have come from the reports AND the actresses would have been “outed” as victims when they didn’t want to be. Weinstein would/could ruin the assistants’ livelihoods just like he would an actress who complained. The real villains in this (other than Weinstein himself, obviously), are the money people — the people who had power over Weinstein, like producers.
How about the board of directors. We know their names. They have more power than assistants, they set the tone for the whole place. Bob Weinstein, Tarak Ben Ammar, and Lance Maerov are the only members left on the company board.
It is a massive part of the story. That is why I think this whole thing needs an autopsy without emotion to understand the web HW wove on every level. Complicit or unwittingly complicit, it doesn’t matter, we need to know.
There is a reason movies and TV shows have overweight white male leads and beautiful young White or light-skinned WOC as Love interests. It’s not what the masses want, it’s what the dirty, fat, old and unattractive White men in power want in real life so they project that as reality on our screens. The money men, the directors, the producers, the distributors.
I agree with you, and that type of thing has put me off of American cinema for a long time now. It’s obviously not created to appeal to me. I can’t tell you how happy I was that Wonder Woman had an equally attractive love interest. How sad is that?
I forget her name but I believe a black woman has come forward about Harvey raping her. Harvey’s “type” was anything with a pulse. That pig deserves to rot in prison.
Go Simone Sheffield!
Now that more info is coming out, what’s particularly infuriating (besides the whole thing) is how the media colluded to cover this up. Or the news media claim that they had bits and pieces but not enough to go public. HMMMM. Funny, such fastidious concern for “the facts” didn’t prevent them running stories/lies about WMDs or lies about the crash of 2007. So what else are they not publishing??
That HW has committed sexual crimes is clear. What is also horrible to realize is that one guy on a vicious power trip is responsible for a massive erasure of women in film. We will never be able to quantify the damage that decades of his criminal fetish has caused to individuals and to our culture. He has edited out women’s contributions. Destroyed talent, spit on dreams, obliterated messages and inspiration via film that audiences will never have a chance to experience. Total bankruptcy of Art. Let’s not blame him alone–we all know about Hitchcock and “his blondes,” for instance. This is how women are kept down in every industry in the whole wide world. Erased, edited out, cut from, pushed aside, negated. The myth of the Male Creative Genius grows out of this fetid destruction.
Good post.
This is the most striking thing to come out of this. Almost every woman who comes forward, your reaction is, “Oh, THAT’S what happened.”
Yep. After taking a women’s studies minor, I’ve come to the conclusion that any male accomplishment should have a footnote telling people to assume plenty of women were stepped on in the process of their climb to the top.
All the applause! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Applauding too! Great post.
What I am not loving about the coverage about this POS is the repeated references to his looks – fat, ugly, old, unattractive, especially fat. So many times.
As if any of this would be better if he would be better or less disturbing had a younger, taller, thinner, more obviously attractive man had done all this shit.
I mean, call him all the names in the book. F him. But let’s not play into a narrative where repulsion to his come-ons is based on him, being fat/old/ugly whatever.
I think the manager told it to his face, not the media. And she said what she thought could hit him emotionally (if he has emotions, I’m not sure) in order to protect her client.
It wouldn’t hurt less if he were “good-looking,” but I have no issue with a manager calling him every insulting word in the book if that meant she/he could protect their client. I’m sure anger also played into the choice of words. If someone is trying to assault your client, I’m pretty sure any person with moral standards would say what she said out of anger. In instances like these, I don’t think trying to be polite is going to work. Although, as mentioned in the original article, it does seem that Weinstein “missed the irony” so clearly he has no self-awareness.
Thank you for this. Comments about his looks, which he largely can’t help) may even earn him sympathy in some quarters by promoting the false narrative that poor self-esteem or early rejection turned him into a pathetic predator. This man deserves no sympathy whatsoever, regardless of what he looks like on the outside.
Clare, I’ve thought about this too. His looks should not be relevant. I’ll criticize a person’s behavior, what they’re wearing but not their physical appearance.
I would call him fat and unattractive like Kate Beckinsale did if he tried to assault me. I have no issue with his victims calling him anything they want. Whatever could get under his skin (metaphorically, I mean) is what I would use.
Obviously, I wouldn’t talk about the physical appearance of a good person, but if you are a bad, bad, bad man, I feel the gloves can come off.
Thank you very much!
I had a horrible discussion on FB yesterday whit a guy how tried to mansplain, that women who find a “masculine” figure like Khal Drogho attractive can not complain, if they are sexually assaulted, as long as the predator is good looking.
In his sick and twisted view, the only problem was HW physical uglyness.
It ended with him calling me a stuck up feminist bitch who woulf Need a good f**+ and I would be good looking enough for him to volunteer.
All this under the metoo post of a friend of me, how she was assaulted (by a good looking man).
I agree Clare.
There should be something similar to RICO laws to address this. A lot of these people belong in prison. Collusion.
I think that has been brought up. I hope they do it.
“I can teach you, don’t worry. Many stars have also been through this,” she remembered him telling her. “Just treat this as necessary experiences so that you’ll have a stronger foundation in the future.”
Has there ever been a quote that better encapsulates what’s happening in the mind of a serial sexual harasser/assaulter/rapist? He’s only doing it for the power he will gain over these women, he knows they don’t actually desire him and doesn’t care, and in his head he’s actually doing them a favor and helping their career. Just a complete sociopath with no actual human emotions.
You know that feeling when you smell you favorite food, and you just close your eyes, smile, and for one second everything is right in the world? “Kiss my black ass” did that for me this morning.
Thank God for people like her who actually cared enough about their clients (the people they are supposed to be loyal to, as their JOB) to protect them. Also, Aishwarya is the most beautiful human being ever. EVER.
Yass Simone Sheffield!!
I wondered how many more women who have consensually have sex with Harvey Weinstein other than his wife Georgina Chapman. That would be disgusting.
“It’s what many critics have said about the whole “we didn’t know” brigade – many behind-the-scenes people knew parts of it. The agents, the managers, the publicists – they had some idea.”
But I can also now see how some actresses would have been better protected than others, and hence have seen nothing.
I once saw Aishwarya Rai in the very early 2000s – sort of by mistake. I didn’t know who she was then but I think she was filming a commercial that I sort of stumbled upon while out one day. And oh my God – I have never in my life seen such a exquisticly beautiful person IRL before or since. You just got the sense that her outer beauty was just a reflection of her inner . When I looked her up, no photos did her justice – she’s just simply stunning. The idea of Weinstein salivating at getting her alone in a room makes me want to heave.
I know that culture can go both ways for famous BOllywood starlettes- either deeply exploitative or almost overly protectively chaste – but I’m glad she at least seemed to have had the later to some degree if it saved her from such predators.
This is where my mind keeps going as well… exactly how many women has he ‘hoteled’ or ‘toweled?’ There has to be hundreds. Thousands?
Yep. I am sure there are a lot of non-celeb females who he took advantage of as well. He is a monster who should have been stopped a long time ago.
Thank goodness there are people like Simone Sheffield out there. I only wish every manager or agent was as protective of their clients – especially the young ones.
Brava Simone and Aishwariya! I’m glad Simone was one of the agents who had the gumption to say kiss my ass to the likes of Weinstein. I wonder now though, Aishwariya Rai was touted as the next big international beauty. I have watched her Hindi and Telugu language movies, huge fan of hers, she’s beautiful and she can act. She can certainly speak much better English than many other international actresses who made it in Hollywood (ie, Penelope Cruz). Yet despite her high profile, Rai never made it big in Hollywood. I’ve always wondered if the reason for that was because Rai wasn’t willing to do the casting couch.
Now we have the confirmation.
I’m heartbroken by Phuong’s story. Coloured women come at the very bottom of the pecking order and she saw her dreams of a global career destroyed single handedly by Harvey.
Nah, she’s almost a white-passing poc, so still in his type zone.
It’s interesting though that no obviously non-white-passing poc have been mentioned/come forward because a lot of his projects were considered awards bait and this just points out – again – how generally excluded from that consideration poc/woc were/are.
In short: he’s still flaming garbage.
Yikes! Good on Aishwarya’ agent!