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The Downfall of Harvey Weinstein?

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    #26
    Mrs Weinstein has had enough and packed her bags.

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

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      #27
      Originally posted by WOM View Post
      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/

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        #28
        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
        I just can't

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

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          #29
          Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
          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.

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            #30
            Originally posted by WOM View Post
            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.
            Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
            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.

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              #31
              Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
              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.

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                #32
                Ah ok. I missed that bit about what said exec was allegedly up to.

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                  #33
                  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.

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                    #34
                    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.

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                      #35
                      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.

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                        #36
                        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.
                        Last edited by Lang Spoon; 11-10-2017, 18:35.

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                          #37
                          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.
                          Last edited by Lang Spoon; 11-10-2017, 22:45.

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                            #38
                            Be fair, he's very good in Team America: World Police.

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                              #39
                              Originally posted by WOM View Post
                              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.

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                                #40
                                Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
                                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
                                Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 11-10-2017, 21:20.

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                                  #41
                                  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).

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                                    #42
                                    Rather more is coming out about Affleck. None of it good, naturally.

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                                      #43
                                      Jeebus. He's apologizing left and right, and for good reason. What a douche.

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                                        #44
                                        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.

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                                          #45
                                          No, Henry Winkler is, by all accounts, a saint.

                                          But the Fonz character, especially in the early episodes, could snap his fingers and one or more “chicks” would be at his side immediately. It was all in good fun and light-hearted family entertainment. But a guy who was like that in real life would probably end up being a creep sooner or later, because he’d still think he was entitled to women’s affection long after he ceased to be cool.

                                          As I recall, the writers knew that and in later seasons, the Fonz settled down, jumped a shark on waterskis and got then married and his stepdaughter was played by the girl from Poltergeist who died, sadly.

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                                            #46
                                            Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                            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.
                                            I don’t think the Afflecks are allowed to talk about Casey Affleck’s situation because it was settled out of court and that’s a condition of the deal. Not exactly sure but I think I read that.

                                            So it’s possible that Casey’s crimes were during a time when he was doing a lot of drugs but now he’s cleaned up and made amends. It’s also possible that he’s learned nothing and is still doing it. There’s just no public info, as far as I know.

                                            I suppose it could be possible for a harasser to clean up and make amends. People can change. I don’t know if the people they assaulted - usually, but not always women - would forgive them but depending on exactly what happened, they might. People have forgiven worse.

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                                              #47
                                              Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                              As I recall, the writers knew that and in later seasons, the Fonz settled down, jumped a shark on waterskis and got then married and his stepdaughter was played by the girl from Poltergeist who died, sadly.
                                              What a marvelously informed and nerdy sentence. I had to find out if you'd meant Heather O'Rourke or Dominique Dunne (daughter of gossip whore Dominic Dunne), both of whom were in Poltergeist and died tragically young.

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                                                #48
                                                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                                Paltrow and Jolie now also on record
                                                So, er, how come Brad Pitt has been so quiet on this?

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                                                  #49
                                                  If we've learned one thing; career first, morality* second.












                                                  * morality? ethics? truth? integrity? not sure, really...

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                                                    #50
                                                    This is the board's "shock" statement

                                                    The Weinstein Company’s Board of Representatives – Bob Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar – are shocked and dismayed by the recently emerged allegations of extreme sexual misconduct and sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein. These alleged actions are antithetical to human decency. These allegations come as an utter surprise to the Board. Any suggestion that the Board had knowledge of this conduct is false.
                                                    My understanding is that Harvey does not have economic control over the firm, but the only way this could be true is if they have one of the worst corporate governance mechanisms I've ever seen.

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