The Downfall of Harvey Weinstein?

[San Bernardhinault]

Of course, it's worth noting that Ben Affleck never said anything about his own brother Casey's sexual harassment cases, so there's already smoke - if no fire.

[WOM]

Jeebus. He's apologizing left and right, and for good reason. What a douche.

[Janik]

Rather more is coming out about Affleck. None of it good, naturally.

[Lang Spoon]

You mean the Fonz? Tbh if Winkler is a dodgy geezer this world is doomed. He seemed the most benign man ever post Happy Days (and seemed pretty ridiculous in that anyway).

[Hot Pepsi]

It would be a terrible shame if Damon’s actions in 2004 stopped him running for President on the Bland Unifying ticket one day. Fucker seems a study in a progressive yet uncontroversial principled public persona but never challenging. Like he’s just waiting for the call from the DNC to get parachuted into the Senate.

And I hated hated him in The Martian. Can-do amiable jock in space bollocks with the standard boring as fuck late period Ridley Scott Spectacular direction. Again, maybe not the otf consensus moviegoing opinion. I feel like Pauline Kael in the eighties.

I loved the Martian, both the film and the book. But it would have been 160% better if the lead role had been played by Will Smith or Michael B Jordan or Amy Adams.

The Weinstein Company probably wins the 'shock/horror' prize. After cutting fat cheques to victims for two decades, they were surprised to learn that Harvey'd been acting badly toward women.

Did they actually say they're shocked and horrified or just fire him without much comment? I didn't know somebody could be fired from their own company. Doesn't he own a controlling share?

It's one of those things where businesses say bullshit that they know is bullshit and we know it's bullshit and they know that we know it's bullshit and we know that they know that we know it's bullshit, but they do it anyway because that's just how business works. If they create an expectation in the public that corporate boards can be honest and decent, their other friends at the country club will shun them.

Apparently, Harvey feels really betrayed by his brother and some of his other fellow execs for throwing him under the bus.
Appropriately, it just brings to mind this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFqgRFal35A

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah, he was an 'exec' who made $400K a year and had no other film or actual 'exec' experience, whose sole job was securing sex for HW.

Well, I suspect a lot of execs in Hollywood make $400k+ a year and have no qualifications for the job. I mean, just talk to any director or writer or author whose work has been adapted to film or TV. Or just look at what's on TV or in the cinemas. These aren't all geniuses, needless to say.

And even if they thought his job was to "secure sex for HW," they may not have known it was to secure *unwilling* sex for HW, especially if they thought he was a good guy. A lot of guys think guys who are terrible are good guys just because he's good to *them.*

The history of film, rock n' roll and sports is rife with stories of guys who got paid to find a woman that the star pointed out and discretely bring her back to the dressing room to meet the star. Of course, that's not at all benign either, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to publicly denounce a guy for that either unless I knew for sure there was non-consensual stuff happening.*

I don't know about Ben Affleck, He's a decent director and a pretty good old Batman. If he had "actionable intelligence" and didn't do anything about it, then he can fuck off. It's also possible that he just heard a story or a woman told him something and he didn't believe her because, well, that's a big problem in our culture and he doesn't seem like the type to spend a lot of time reading feminist authors.

But I can totally believe "not everyone knew." After all, if a star the size of Gwenyth Paltrow (whatever you think of her irresponsible healthy and beauty advice, she is a massive star and crushed it in Emma and Shakespeare in Love) kept quiet all this time, then it seems reasonable to believe that most or all of his victims didn't feel safe in speaking out. And if they didn't speak about it, then the only way anyone would know for sure is if Weinstein himself bragged about it, and he seems like the type who would recognize the legal risks in doing that. They might have witnessed it first hand, but it's not hard to believe that Weinstein was careful not to have any witnesses other than the woman herself, over whom he had leverage. Beyond that, there's so much nonsense gossip and tabloid bullshit floating around the industry that I suspect anyone in the business could feel justified in dismissing any rumor that they didn't like.

If Meryl Streep said she didn't know, I believe her. If there's any woman who is a bigger wheel in Hollywood than Harvey Weinstein it's Meryl 20-fucking-Oscar-nominations Streep.

Not sure if I posted this before, but this speech by Tina Fey receiving the Sherry Lansing award is apropos. Sherry Lansing herself is there and Tina Fey points out what a great role-model she is for women, especially now and especially in Hollywood, because she's managed to persevere with grace through some very misogynist bullshit. There's a good bit where Fey says "you know she has witnessed some nonsense. And some behavior that the young people today would call 'triggering.'" Everyone laughs and the way she says it is kinda funny, but very darkly funny, in my view. I suspect, however, that this is how it's widely viewed, even by a lot of women in Hollywood - that it's just one more piece of bullshit to deal with as part of an industry that is 99.999% bullshit. Indeed, that is the approach that both Fey and her friend Amy Poehler advocate in their books - if the asshole isn't actually standing between you and what you want to do, then just ignore it. But, of course, they're mostly just talking about stuff like sexist remarks or being beaten out for parts by actresses who are younger and have bigger breasts. Not full-on assault. And they were lucky and talented enough to launch their careers via SNL which, for all of its faults, has been a pretty good platform for really funny women to show their stuff. Most actresses don't get that chance and have to deal with some Jabba the Hut type like Harvey Weinstein.

Anyway, it's worth a listen. John Hamm introduces it.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...y-pussy-anymor


*This kind of thing - sex with groupies and stars that seem to always have 20 random young women in bikinis at there house, etc, etc, is often just seen as a "boys will be boys" thing or a sign that women just really dig these guys. But I think we should start to be more suspicious of any guy who seems to think that women owe him their affection. Because its a very short step from that attitude to the kind of entitlement that leads to harassment and assault. I'm not saying Fonzi was a rapist, but I'm not saying he wasn't either.

[Snake Plissken]

Be fair, he's very good in Team America: World Police.

[Lang Spoon]

Clicked on the deadline link there, yeah, maybe he didn’t know. Still a stupid thing to do though, if he was really unaware of what the allegations were, it might have been smart to find out from the reporter. Unless you want to be able to plausibly deny helping cover up Bunga Bunga or whatever years later. I do find it hard to believe he never knew nuthin about nuthin. Just maybe Paltrow or someone might made a loaded comment on set, strange that no gossip ever reached his ears.

[Lang Spoon]

It would be a terrible shame if Damon’s actions in 2004 stopped him running for President on the Bland Unifying ticket one day. Fucker seems a study in a progressive yet uncontroversial principled public persona but never challenging. Like he’s just waiting for the call from the DNC to get parachuted into the Senate.

And I hated hated him in The Martian. Can-do amiable jock in space bollocks with the standard boring as fuck late period Ridley Scott Spectacular direction. Again, maybe not the otf consensus moviegoing opinion. I feel like Pauline Kael in the eighties.

[WOM]

The Weinstein Company probably wins the 'shock/horror' prize. After cutting fat cheques to victims for two decades, they were surprised to learn that Harvey'd been acting badly toward women.

[G-Man]

The shock-horror at Weinstein's sexual assaults and coercion, as if that kind of thing is an aberration in Hollywood, is a bit disingenuous. It will have real meaning only if this is the scandal that blows the lid off that misogynist cesspit of rape and exploitation. Let Weinstein be to Hollywood what Boston was to the Catholic Church.

[WOM]

Yeah, he was an 'exec' who made $400K a year and had no other film or actual 'exec' experience, whose sole job was securing sex for HW.

[Patrick Thistle]

Ah ok. I missed that bit about what said exec was allegedly up to.

[WOM]

The story Crowe and Damon were enlisted to spike was about a Miramax exec in Italy who was a bit shady apparently.

Right...that he'd had no other role at the company other than to procure young actresses to satisfy Harvey's sexual appetites. They apparently went on the record that he was a fine fellow and had never troubled either of them....which...you know.

[Janik]

And, of course, this thing keeps growing. In addition to the women who now feel emboldened to tell their stories (3 or 4 more, with names and dates, so far...), it's being reported that Matt Damon and Russell Crowe (both in career-debt to HW) helped spike this story when it was close to emerging back in 2004. If true, that should (in a just world) be the end of them.

Damon explained it a bit differently and his explanation is plausible. In fact, the “he spiked the story” isn’t even remotely what the reporter, whose name eludes me, suggested.

http://deadline.com/2017/10/matt-dam...ew-1202185574/

Matt Damon may not have known, but Rose McGowan is very clear that Ben Affleck did.

[Patrick Thistle]

Damon explained it a bit differently and his explanation is plausible. In fact, the “he spiked the story” isn’t even remotely what the reporter, whose name eludes me, suggested.

http://deadline.com/2017/10/matt-dam...ew-1202185574/

They had the reporter on the radio yesterday morning. The story Crowe and Damon were enlisted to spike was about a Miramax exec in Italy who was a bit shady apparently. The NYT had the story but Weinstein didn't want it printed.

[Hot Pepsi]

I just can't

This is so awful that it’s kinda comical, really.

[Hot Pepsi]

And, of course, this thing keeps growing. In addition to the women who now feel emboldened to tell their stories (3 or 4 more, with names and dates, so far...), it's being reported that Matt Damon and Russell Crowe (both in career-debt to HW) helped spike this story when it was close to emerging back in 2004. If true, that should (in a just world) be the end of them.

Damon explained it a bit differently and his explanation is plausible. In fact, the “he spiked the story” isn’t even remotely what the reporter, whose name eludes me, suggested.

http://deadline.com/2017/10/matt-dam...ew-1202185574/

[WOM]

Mrs Weinstein has had enough and packed her bags.

http://people.com/movies/harvey-wein...an-separating/

[Lang Spoon]

I just can't

The Weirdest Man in 70’s cinema (which is saying something) keeping that keen sense of perspective so. I’m still reeling from the thought of him and Natajassa (aye there’s for sure sp) Kinski as a couple, and it must be ten years since reading Easy Riders, Total Arseholes.

[delicatemoth]

A week ago I didn't know who this man was; now I've seen many, many pictures of his repulsive Jabba The Hutt-like being. It's a bit like the publicity given to gun murderers, that various studies say shouldn't be given. It's like that with Trump being pictured all over the place too. Rubbing our faces into how our society is so fucked up that these are the people who run it.

Sorry if that's dark, or too obvious to state, but brrrr.

[ursus arctos]

I just can't

[Lang Spoon]

The media in the UK has survived Saville etc as well. I’d imagine there’s a bit of abuse fatigue among the public now, like it’s almost expected from those in positions of power now. Mibees a bit of the revulsion toward the church in Ireland was due to the exalted position they held till the Casey revelations, and possibly societal transference of guilt and complicity (a whole load of people from every townland must have known that so and so was a rum old Brother, that old priest had wandering hands etc, but did nothing about it)

[ursus arctos]

Paltrow and Jolie now also on record

[WOM]

The New Yorker story is now out. It's heavy.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-...-their-stories