The Unmitigated Gall And Self-Delusion Of Harvey Weinstein
[guest post by Dana]
Looking to generate some sympathy before his upcoming rape trial, the disgraced movie mogul who has been accused of sexual assault or harassment by more than 80 women, petulantly whined in his first interview in more than a year that he deserves credit for his support of women, because he is a delusional bastard:
“I feel like the forgotten man,’’ the 67-year-old alleged rapist griped last week.
“I made more movies directed by women and about women than any filmmaker, and I’m talking about 30 years ago. I’m not talking about now when it’s vogue. I did it first! I pioneered it!” he bragged.
“It all got eviscerated because of what happened,’’ Weinstein said bitterly. “My work has been forgotten.’’
[…]
“I want this city to recognize who I was instead of what I’ve become”[.]
In response, 23 of his accusers released a formal statement reassuring Weinstein that he’ll certainly be remembered – just not in the way what he hoped:
“Harvey Weinstein is trying to gaslight society again,” the women say in the statement, provided to the Los Angeles Times. “He says in a new interview he doesn’t want to be forgotten. Well, he won’t be. He will be remembered as a sexual predator and an unrepentant abuser who took everything and deserves nothing. He will be remembered by the collective will of countless women who stood up and said enough. We refuse to let this predator rewrite his legacy of abuse.”
And then there are these choice words from Rose McGowan, one his fiercest and unrelenting accusers:
I didn’t forget you, Harvey. My body didn’t forget you. I wish it could. I refused to sign an NDA after it happened because I knew I would come for you. And I did. This is about stopping a prolific rapist. You.
— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) December 16, 2019
There is no doubt that Weinstein is a sick, delusional bastard, as evidenced by his belief that years of sexual harassment, assault, and the denigration of women should be ignored, or at the very least, pale in comparison to what he considers his good works on behalf of women. And yet the ghastly irony is, the very community from whom he demands recognition is the very same community that willingly looked the other way – for decades – as Weinstein preyed upon its members.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
Weinstein’s trial on rape charges is set to begin January 6.
Dana (643cd6) — 12/16/2019 @ 11:32 amQ. Didn’t Harvey Weinstein help many of the women he helped bnbecause they slept with him or because they didn’t complain about what he did to them up to snd including rape?
Q. Didn’t Harvey Weinstein threaten to and occasionally damage or kill, the careers of women or even men who complained or told others about him (the men because they warned women and it got back to him.)
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 12/16/2019 @ 12:21 pmThis is why no one in Hollywood should ever lecture me (or anyone else) on moral behavior. They knew what Weinstein was doing, and did nothing to stop it. Smug little Seth MacFarlane even joked about it at the Oscars. They did it for the money and prestige.
Chuck Bartowski (bc1c71) — 12/16/2019 @ 1:14 pmeff Seth – personally I feel his Peter Griffin personae has as much responsibility for the increase of racist tropes in this country, if not more than any designated white bogeyman of the right.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 12/16/2019 @ 1:42 pmQ. Didn’t Harvey Weinstein help many of the women he helped bnbecause they slept with him or because they didn’t complain about what he did to them up to snd including rape?
It’s very unfortunate to contemplate, but one wonders exactly what might have been exchanged in return for all of the help that Weinstein gave to those women directors and producers to make their movies. Sadly, there will always be a cloud of doubt hanging over the women that worked closely with him as we wonder if they quietly traded favors for prominence.
JVW (54fd0b) — 12/16/2019 @ 1:45 pm“Quietly traded favors for prominence”?
Try “were sexually exploited for fear of professional ruin.”
Leviticus (efada1) — 12/16/2019 @ 2:31 pmIt’s quite possible for the first to be true of some and the second to be true of others.
Chuck Bartowski (bc1c71) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:08 pmTry “were sexually exploited for fear of professional ruin.”
No doubt some were, especially the young actresses who feared they might have been blackballed from the entertainment business otherwise. But I’m also quite sure there were women who made the conscious decision to trade sexual favors for professional favors. That story is as old as time.
But on second thought, I’m kind of having trouble finding movies that Weinstein produced which featured female directors. Anyone want to help me out here?
JVW (54fd0b) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:09 pm“The Unmitigated Gall And Self-Delusion Of __________”
Reuse as needed.
Kevin M (19357e) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:14 pmThere is some danger this becomes a show trial.
Kevin M (19357e) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:15 pmIt’s so old news about him. Hollywood really is a small town…
Of the first three anecdotes heard and learned on a gig in Tinseltown– [nd this was 20 years ago BTW]– was never, ever assign/send a young female rep to see Weinstein at Miramax (unless they fully know what they’re walking in to.) And only guys attend the Weinstein/Miramax yacht party in Cannes– for obvious reasons. The third; avoid Kevin Spacey; he was known to hit on male staffers on occasion at a local watering hole.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:15 pm@8. Look at the flick associated w/Miramax back in their heyday and their subsidiary studios– he did produce a lot of what we’d call ‘chick flicks’ and bought a lot of advertising to supplement their marketing. His axiom was a dozen Oscar nominations was worth much more in boxoffice return than one Best Picture win.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:22 pm^flicks
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:23 pmSpeaking of sexual deviants. Remember how the President praised his friend Epstein and commented on how Jeffrey liked his women on the younger side? Do we think that comment was borne out of personal knowledge and experience, or just a complete coincedence? Remember this comment was made by the same man told shock Jock Howard Stern that it was fine to call his own daughter a “piece of a$$.”
JRH (52aed3) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:46 pmYour writing exercise of the day. Rewrite the following sentence with as few words of as few syllables as possible, while completely retaining the meaning.
Extra credit for double entendres (yes, if I can think of one, so can you).
nk (dbc370) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:54 pmWatch this clip and tell me the character of Les Grossman wasn’t directly and obviously inspired by Weinstein.
Gryph (08c844) — 12/16/2019 @ 3:58 pmCriminals generally aren’t mustache twirling, cackling movie villains. Outside of the criming, they may do things that benefit other people. If you both tutor low income kids AND murder puppies, you are the Puppy Killer.
@15 Stiffed.
Nic (896fdf) — 12/16/2019 @ 7:10 pm110!
nk (dbc370) — 12/16/2019 @ 7:36 pm😉
Nic (896fdf) — 12/16/2019 @ 8:04 pm@8. Look at the flick associated w/Miramax back in their heyday and their subsidiary studios– he did produce a lot of what we’d call ‘chick flicks’ and bought a lot of advertising to supplement their marketing
No, no. There’s a huge difference between casting female actresses in lead roles, which has only gone on since at least the days of Mary Pickford, and hiring women to direct and produce movies. There really is no comparison. And I’m still waiting to hear what Weinstein did with regards to the latter.
JVW (54fd0b) — 12/16/2019 @ 8:46 pmI’m not sure if that is technically a sentence, nk. I think it’s just a series of descriptors.
Leviticus (7fcc89) — 12/16/2019 @ 9:03 pmYour writing exercise of the day. Rewrite the following sentence with as few words of as few syllables as possible, while completely retaining the meaning.
Back when I was a kid we would write the sentence as follows: Chorus girls.
JVW (54fd0b) — 12/16/2019 @ 9:21 pm(I’m not really that old, but I liked the joke.)
JVW (54fd0b) — 12/16/2019 @ 9:21 pm@20. Well, yes-yes; that may be your perception but in the biz that was his pitch back in the day- women hd a better shot at parts and getting flicks produced; in industry circles Miramax was the place to go get the indies financed and produced- a lot of them not particularly huge draws and straight to VHS/DVD stuff but some cult classics and a few gems; for instance, Shakespeare In Love beat out Saving Private Ryan for the big prize by profuse marketing– and that it had a shorter running time so theatres could screen it more times/day than SVP. It’s a screwy business.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 9:38 pmSee if you can find a way to read it as a sentence, Leviticus! I know you can, I have faith in you.
nk (dbc370) — 12/16/2019 @ 9:48 pm@8. BTW- in Miramax’s heyday there really weren’t that many ‘female directors’ the big studios were wiling to let helm a $250 million flick — Ida Lupino was dead; Penny Marshall comes to mind; Streisand as well, of course; the ‘Sherry Lansing times’ times and so forth brought a lot of change very fast. Producing became big and a good in– Broccoli had already picked up the helm on the Bond flicks, Jolie showed her stuff… Demi Moore as well; there’s really a growing list. It’s really only been in the past decade or two they’ve really broken out- Bigelow’s Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty and so on. Really good stuff and opportunities long overdue for women I the biz; they’re good storytellers.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 9:57 pmCome on, DCSCA, let’s remind ourselves of what Weinstein said:
“I made more movies directed by women and about women than any filmmaker.”
Is that true at all? Did he really make more movies “about” women than, say, William Wyler or Alfred Hitchcock, or even for that matter John Ford? And in terms of movies directed by women, I’m still waiting to hear what notable movie he produced that featured a woman director. I think that Weinstein’s quote is exactly the sort of Hollywood balderdash that he puts out which people who don’t take any time to think about it accept at face value because it seems plausible, but which turn out to be complete and utter bullshit.
JVW (54fd0b) — 12/16/2019 @ 9:58 pmPenny Marshall’s A League of Their Own — nothing to do with the Weinstein brothers, produced by Columbia
Barbra Streisand’s The Mirror Has Two Faces — nothing to do with the Weinstein brothers, produced by Sony
Katherine Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker — nothing to do with the Weinstein brothers, produced by Voltage Pictures
Katherine Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty — nothing to do with the Weinstein brothers, produced by Columbia
Seriously dude, what point are you trying to make?
JVW (54fd0b) — 12/16/2019 @ 10:07 pm@27/@28. Not arguing that he’s a lying POS; you’re missing the point- Miramax did give women ‘film opportunities’ bckin the day so those lists you have today could grow; but everybody in Hollywood knew what Weinstein was and kept quiet for career and business reasons just as they did w/t buzz on Mel being an anti-Semite and Reagan ratted to Hoover was known.
Until the fertilizer hit the fan. It’s a small town; high school with money. The ‘give some head to get ahead’ bit was routine and W does conflate directing with producing; typical mogul– he really believes his own press clippings; ego. A lot can go going vocal now in this era but you can bet plenty of the more successful will stay quiet. Why soil their careers. He got a lot of what we’d call ‘chick flicks’ made – the straight to VHS/DVD junkyou’ll find in the dollar bins at Walmart. Certainly not defending him– but businesses who knew what he was still took his $$$$.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 11:04 pm@29. Postscript- W’s the type to hype lumping associate producers, associate directors, 2nd and 3rd unit directors/producers into ‘broad’ exaggeration– just like Trump, except he can’t get away with it anymore.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 11:27 pmJVW, just peruse this list for why W believes he did so much for so much for women in film whn he was there:
https://www.simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miramax_Films
BTW, remember, Peeping Hitch was a bit of a creep, too 😉
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 11:35 pmJVW- this is a better Miramax list w/directors (w/photo access) and such- helluva lot of films… with men, women and likely those between 2nd and 3rd and not sure which way to run helming as well:
https://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Miramax_films
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/16/2019 @ 11:45 pm@27, re- @32. Arrgh! Typo.
JVW, peruse this list and you can see what W was reaching for– some of the females, directors or otherwise,may seem obscure along with the projects, but it is a lengthy list of flicks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Miramax_films
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/17/2019 @ 12:53 amJVW and DCSCA: Certainly we can agree that W should have said:
felipe (023cc9) — 12/17/2019 @ 4:41 amYou can’t say Kill Bill and Sin City: A Dame To Die For were not about women. And Quentin Tarantino does talk like a Valley Girl.
nk (dbc370) — 12/17/2019 @ 5:03 amJVW, we’ve had two posts immediately before this about people who look you in the eye, lie, then tell you they aren’t lying, and accuse you of being at fault for even doubting them. I think we’re dealing with a rule of three situation. Even if he’s correct it doesn’t matter.
frosty (f27e97) — 12/17/2019 @ 5:04 amI can’t believe anyone here would have the gall to actually argue over how much Harvey Weinstein had done
Gryph (08c844) — 12/17/2019 @ 6:14 amtofor women. Let’s make one thing absolutely crystal clear: Weinstein was the undisputed master of the casting couch. He wasn’t the first and won’t be the last, but he embodies every salacious stereotype about working in Hollywood and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that virtually every Miramax movie had a casting couchvictimbeneficiary somewhere in the cast list. I think we can all agree on that, no?The scum bucket is probably bewildered that he isn’t getting the benefit of whatever keeps the Left defending Pedophile Rapist Roman Polanski (technically Ephebophilic Rapist).
C. S. P. Schofield (757b7b) — 12/17/2019 @ 6:36 amPardon a cynic. But it is easy to notice that Weinstein’s crimes started getting unearthed at the time his movies stopped making money.
Appalled (1a17de) — 12/17/2019 @ 7:36 amIf Weinstein did not have unmitigated gall, he would not have done half of what he did.
Bored Lawyer (998177) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:33 am#3
Hear, hear.
Bored Lawyer (998177) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:35 amNow that Hollywood has turned on him, Weinstein’s best bet is to come out in support of Trump. I mean there ought to be at least one Trumpie on the jury…
Kevin M (19357e) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:35 am@39. That is always the bottom line in Hollywood.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:43 am@37. Fair assessment. Just hearing tales about tail from his infamous annual yacht parties at th Cannes Fil Festival would make you want to shower– or, depending on your gender and POV, wish you’d been invited aboard.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:49 am@3. That’s right. Exhibit A: Ronald-I-knocked-up-Nancy-with Patti-Reagan.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/18/2019 @ 10:33 am