Harvey Weinstein

[caperberries]

Rumours have been circulating about this disgusting man and his sleazy casting couch for years... He has offered a half-hearted apology, but seems rather smug about the fact that his family are supporting him.

AIBU to think his wife is misguided? What sort of example is she setting to her daughter? After all, this isn't a one-off - it is a pattern of serious abuse of women over decades.

www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html

He's just vomitous isn't he🤢

www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/10/why-did-no-one-speak-out-about-harvey-weinstein

This is a terrific and (in my views, anyway) horribly accurate assessment of the situation.

I think her analogy to race about halfway through - as in, nobody (sane) thinks it's the responsibility of non-white people to prevent racism from white people, so why the hell is it women's responsbility to prevent sexism/assault/misogyny from men? - is brilliant.

At the end of the day, the only solution is for disgusting creepy perverts to stop being disgusting creepy perverts.

And as the article puts very well, it is (or should be) easier for men to call out this disgusting behaviour than it is for women.

While I appreciate that Matt Damon genuinely believes, as he may well have actually done, that had he seen this going on at an event he would gallantly have ridden to the rescue, that's not really the point. Far less heroic than steaming in and landing a few punches, if he really would have done that, would have been to LISTEN PROPERLY to the swirling rumours about HW and TELL AUTHORITIES about them, loudly and repeatedly. While refusing to work with HW, and encouraging others to refuse to work with HW.

So angry and sad about this as it's just the tip of the iceberg, and I don't mean just in Hollywood.

Maragaret do you understand the difference between someone who is a victim of sexual assault and someone who isn’t?

Yes. Have you read about that case in Newcastle recently? The grooming gang? There was a girl involved who may initially have been a victim but then engaged in behaviour which brought more victims into the sphere of these men and allowed them to continue offending and attack more people. She was convicted along with them.

Now obviously Paltrow isn't as extreme as that. But she knew when she made speeches praising him, when she was photographed cuddling him, when she was making money for him, she was adding to the power, prestige and image that allowed him to do that. She was very much a part of the 'look the other way' machinery of Hollywood that allowed him to offend for so long.

Being a victim doesn't necessarily absolve you of blame if it happens to others. Particularly not if your subsequent actions facilitate the offenders behaviour. And Paltrow's behaviour did.

Make no mistake if this was happening in a taxi firm and not Hollywood and Paltrow had been telling lots of young girls how amazing Weinstein was to work with even though she knew he was likely to attack them - well she would be answering some very difficult questions.

Oh and the point about Matt Damon saying if he'd seen this happening 'at an event' - it's very telling, isn't it, that it looks as if (duh) the majority of these HW situations happened in private. Very carefully-arranged privacy, at that (assistants suddenly leaving, late-night invitations, empty rooms...)

It's almost as if HW KNEW it was wrong, or something. I mean, otherwise he'd just have been shoving his tongue down strange women's throats on the dancefloor at post-Oscars' parties, leaving Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to ride to the rescue.

Megalomaniac he thought he get away with anything
bit like Trump
Looks like a he ultimately overplayed his hand

Yy Jessi Clooney says he never saw it happen and I was like well you wouldn't, would you? It wouldn't have been in front of everyone, that's the whole point.

He's going to plead some sort of mental illness or sex addiction case isn't he

Yes, the "I'm the real victim in all of this" card being played next would follow the script.

I've never agreed with the MN logic that being a victim of something absolves you of any moral responsibility to try to prevent others suffering the same fate.

Why?

8 different women settled out of court claims against HW for harassment. He paid them off. They dropped the case in exchange for a wad of cash. Just saying.

He's got that tortured genius card up his sleeve

Jessi Zoe in the Guardian article has articulated my feelings much better than l did on this thread. Imo it's the only way things will ever change.

8 different women settled out of court claims against HW for harassment. He paid them off. They dropped the case in exchange for a wad of cash
All part of his strategy in order to get away with a wrongdoing you need to make sure that your victims are also complicit, that you have something on them, in this case their hypocrisy the fact they allowed themselves to be bought

8 different women settled out of court claims against HW for harassment. He paid them off. They dropped the case in exchange for a wad of cash. Just saying*

I doubt it’s as simple as that. Those women likely had a lot more to lose by pursuing a case against him. I don’t judge them for taking the money, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.**

And while I'm musing about the Damons and the Afflecks of the world... purely hypothetical, but I wonder what they would have said to their daughters had they been in their early 20s and summoned to a late-night meeting with HW in a hotel room?

'Ooooh, off your go, darling, what a wonderful opportunity for you, send Harvey my best!'

Or... not?

It's astonishing and awful in equal measure how widely known his behaviour was.

It's a kind of sport for men in positions of power isn't it
Instead of affirming their masculinity by going out and shooting big game they amuse themselves by seeing how many young attractive women they can take down

Of course some of them have more 'exotic' tastes
Jimmy Savile with his necrophilia
It's all a big game ....how many points can you score before you die

I think that there are layers of accountability and responsibility here -complicit in enabling this horror to continue for decades and blight the lives of many young women.

There is HW himself.

There are his Sr Managers / Board and lawyers / external advisors who systematically and repeatedly paid off / covered up with NDAs to keep the $$$$ rolling in for decades.

There are the day to day implementing enablers - assistants etc who set up the meetings.

The media who for decades smeared and destroyed careers or deliberately deflected and undermined the claims and careers of the victims.

The recipients, holders and disseminators of "the open secret"

The authorities/agencies - eg police / doctors / therapists who would have seen or heard evidence and not taken it further.

I think that if there was a system of safety that victims could trust to protect them 100% then they should be supported and encouraged to come forward so that they can be helped and future victims are minimised.

I think that there should be some government run confidential whistle blowing intermediaatery for all of the above groups to log their concerns
even if it is just a rumour or a concern so that with a critical mass these predators can be investigated and stopped much sooner.

We have such systems for modern dy slavery and anti terrorism - asking you to report anything suspicious.

“I was very petrified,” de Caunes said. “But I didn’t want to show him that I was petrified, because I could feel that the more I was freaking out, the more he was excited.” She added, “It was like a hunter with a wild animal. The fear turns him on.”
(From the New Yorker article)

Lindsay Lohan posted a video on twitter defending him. She deleted it but someone managed to get a ‘video screen shot’ so it’s still available.

She should be ashamed of herself.

Just saw this on another site. Yuck.

www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/flashback/get-them-tties-out-trainwreck-ben-affleck-interview-resurfaces-online/news-story/e1ea4b4fc6523a468bf0b365c0c28f03

Dear God, Lindsey Lohan's quote would be laughable if it weren't so horrific!

To be honest Lindsay Lohan is just another by-product of the sleazy Hollywood machine. A typical cautionary tale against putting your kid on the stage. Her parents were the ultimate Hollywood horror parents taking advantage of their cute and precocious child. And look how it ended up.

What does she do now to earn her living? She probably hopes defending Weinstein will help her in the future with re-booting her acting career.

I don't like Trump but I don't think he behaved in the same way as HW. Coercion is not the same as rape and putting the two as comparables is unfair to rape victims.

user I hope you are able to rebuild your life and recover. Well done for taking the necessary steps to report the crime. That must have been extremely difficult for you.

That Ben Affleck video is so uncomfortable to watch. You can see she’s uncomfortable but he’s clearly not letting her go so she has no choice really but to go along with it. So creepy.