Saturday, October 07, 2017 11:21:16 AM
Don Jr destroys Michelle Obama over her ‘good friend’ Harvey Weinstein, she calls ‘wonderful human being
Facing decades of alleged sexual harassment charges, Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein took a leave of absence from his film company on Thursday and it’s being reported that he will be suspended soon pending an internal probe into the multiple claims.
Not that Weinstein isn’t a “wonderful human being,” according to Michelle Obama, who considers the producer a “good friend.”
In light of The New York Times reporting that Weinstein, a big-time Democrat donor, has reached at least eight legal settlements with women over claims of harassment, Fox News shared a video of Michelle Obama heaping praise on Weinstein.
Kudos coming from a woman who said last week that “any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice.” A woman whose oldest daughter, Malia, interned for Weinstein in February, despite his sexual harassment of women being an “open secret,” according to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Sitting alongside notable celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and Gayle King, the former first lady gushed over the alleged series sexual harasser in 2013 at the Careers in Film Symposium at the White House.
“I want to start by thanking Harvey Weinstein for organizing this amazing day,” Obama said. “This is possible because of Harvey. He is a wonderful human being, a good friend, and just a powerhouse.”
Obama was speaking to a room full of high school students… and potential future victims of the guest of honor.
Donald Trump Jr. could not look past the sheer hypocrisy of Obama’s recent comment about women who voted for his father, President Donald Trump.
Taking to social media, the president’s namesake responded to an article reporting on Obama gushing over Weinstein.
“It’s like supporting someone ‘against your own voice’ but he’s a Hollywood liberal so it’s all good,” he tweeted.
Not that Mrs. Obama alone endeared herself to Weinstien. According to Charlie Spierling, a former writer for the Washington Examiner, the man with a reputation for terrorizing women — other than Bill Clinton — visited the White House multiple times, with “POTUS” often listed as the one being visited.
Almost as often as he accosted women… allegedly.
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2017/10/07/don-jr-destroys-michelle-obama-good-friend-harvey-weinstein-calls-wonderful-human-545370
The price of sexual harassment
The New York Times on Thursday released an investigation into Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, writing about “decades of sexual harassment allegations.”
In a statement to the paper, Lisa Bloom, an attorney advising Weinstein, said, “He denies many of the accusations as patently false.” Weinstein, in a separate statement, told The New York Times: “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go.”
When alleged perpetrators are powerful, the company may decide it’s worth paying out a few hundred thousand dollars in settlements to make a problem go away. That comes with one major problem: In many cases, these men continue to sexually harass staff.
Weinstein reached at least eight settlements with women since the 1990’s, the paper alleges. Weinstein also told The New York Times he was working with therapists and planning to take a leave of absence. Here is his full statement. (Weinstein was not immediately available for comment.)
When alleged perpetrators are prominent at their companies, employers sometimes decide it’s worth settling with alleged victims rather than getting rid of the perpetrator, Jennifer Drobac, a professor of law at Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law. They’re sometimes powerful and profitable for the company that management decides it’s worth paying “a few hundred thousand dollars in settlements to make a problem go away,” he said. That decision often comes with one major problem: In many cases, these men continue to offend.
The total cost for the economy and corporate America is difficult to calculate, partly because companies often prefer to settle out of court with the alleged victims signing non-disclosure agreements.
But one thing is clearer: The number of sexual harassment complaints has remained close to constant from the 1990s when Anita Hill made sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas, who went on to be appointed a Supreme Court justice. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 5,607 sexual harassment complaints in 1992 and 6,870 in 2015.
Despite workplace training, many people are desensitized to sexually inappropriate behavior, either through TV and movies, pornography and cyberbulling on social media. There has also been a spike in reported cases in the military. More men are reporting sexual harassment too. Cases in recent years have often involved men sexually harassing other men, even involving physical assaults.
Sexual harassment can cause emotional trauma and missed career opportunities for victims, not to mention costing them thousands in attorneys’ fees. It costs companies, too.
But in rare cases the sexual harassment is perpetrated by a female. In 2014, a jury in Galveston, Texas, awarded $567,000 (including lost wages and benefits) to policeman James Gist, who filed suit at the 122nd Judicial District Court in Galveston. He alleged that his female boss, who was then a constable, held his face against her breasts and made derogatory comments of a sexual nature. (The suit was taken against Galveston County.) The total compensatory damage sought during final arguments was $350,000, but the jury awarded $500,000.
Sexual harassment can cause emotional trauma and missed career opportunities for victims, not to mention costing them thousands in attorneys’ fees. It costs companies, too. Some pay thousands or even millions of dollars to victims and in attorneys’ fees.
It may not even be possible to accurately assess the total damage caused by sexual harassment because so many of the cases are settled privately and sexual harassment is still under-reported, said Maya Raghu, an expert on workplace sexual harassment at the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.
What kind of payouts have companies made in sexual harassment cases?
The New York Times reported that Weinstein reached eight settlements with women to avoid “lengthy and costly” litigation, which were in the six-figure range.
A woman in California was awarded some $168 million in a court case in 2012 for punitive damages, lost wages and mental anguish. She was a physician’s assistant at a hospital in Sacramento.
Said she experienced unwanted sexual advances and touching and inappropriate comments from surgeons and other medical staff at the surgery center where she worked.
It is believed to be the highest compensation for a victim of workplace harassment in U.S. history. In that case, the plaintiff also alleged violations of health and safety code, which may have played a part in the high settlement.
What are companies doing to protect employees against harassment?
Companies are increasingly purchasing insurance, including “employment practices liability insurance,” to cover costs associated with employment lawsuits, said David Yamada, a professor of law and the director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University.
More companies are just counting liability risk as part of the cost of doing business. Some insurers are also providing training materials for companies to teach their employees about sexual harassment in hope of avoiding it.
“A growing number of companies are just counting liability risk as part of the cost of doing business,” Yamada said. Some insurers are also providing training materials for companies to teach their employees about sexual harassment in hope of avoiding it, he added.
But these policies can actually help victims, if it means the company has allocated money to compensate and help them recover, Drobac said. “Even responsible employers may not have eyes in every hallway,” she said. “It may be a top executive doing it in the office, and word doesn’t get out quickly.” And if it does, people are afraid to talk openly about it.
Do federal workers receive the same as those in the private sector?
Federal workers don’t have the same recourse. The federal government caps the amount victims can receive from their employers in punitive and compensatory damages. The caps are based on size of the company. Employers with 15 to 100 employees have a cap of $50,000, and those with 500 or more have a cap of $300,000, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
When employers and employees settle out of court, they negotiate on the amount, based on factors including the victim’s salary and how hard it would be for them to secure similar employment elsewhere.
When employers and employees settle out of court, they negotiate on the amount, based on factors including the victim’s salary and how hard it would be for them to secure similar employment elsewhere, Drobac said.
Why do sexual harassment cases often go unreported?
Critics sometimes ask victims why they didn’t just quit their jobs, if the harassment was so damaging, Drobac said. But many victims don’t have alternative jobs they could take if they left, and significant financial responsibilities, she said. Plus, leaving an employer makes it hard for victims to advance in their careers, Drobac said, in a concept known as “the revolving door.”
“If you have to leave to escape sexual harassment, you’re not climbing the corporate ladder and you’re stalled in your career,” she said. “You have to start over again at the bottom rung. You didn’t get the pay raises, the training, the opportunities to shine, and you’re constantly watching your back.”
There are also psychological costs, she said. Many employees who experience harassment may actually admire the perpetrator’s career, which can impact a person’s mental health. And victims themselves, if they make formal accusations or share their story, may be shrouded in suspicion and doubt, Yamada said.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/as-harvey-weinstein-takes-a-leave-of-absence-heres-how-much-sexual-harassment-costs-companies-and-victims-2017-10-07?mod=MW_story_latest_news
Harvey Weinstein’s Media Enablers
Now that The New York Times has put together a stomach-turning chronicle of alleged sexual harassment by the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein — complete with brave, on-the-record statements from, among others, the actress Ashley Judd — we’re hearing a lot about how the story of his misconduct was “the worst-kept secret” in Hollywood and New York.
But until now, no journalistic outfit had been able, or perhaps willing, to nail the details and hit publish.
For decades, stars of Oscar-winning movies produced by Mr. Weinstein appeared on the covers of glossy magazines, chitchatted with late-night hosts and provided fodder for gossip columns and broadsheet features while the uncouth executive partly responsible for their success maintained his special status in Beverly Hills and TriBeCa.
Somehow the whispers concerning his alleged hotel-room and workplace abuses never threatened his next big deal, industry award or accolades, which included an honorary Commander of the British Empire appointment.
The real story didn’t surface until now because too many people in the intertwined news and entertainment industries had too much to gain from Mr. Weinstein for too long.
Across a run of more than 30 years, he had the power to mint stars, to launch careers, to feed the ever-famished content beast. And he did so with quality films that won statuettes and made a whole lot of money for a whole lot of people.
“The unfortunate reality of Hollywood is that if someone has money, then they can generally find some kind of audience of people who are interested in working with them,” said Kim Masters, the editor at large at The Hollywood Reporter. This was particularly true of Mr. Weinstein, who, she said, was known for having “the golden touch” that produced “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting,” “The King’s Speech” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
Ms. Masters had been chasing the Weinstein story for years. She said she had gotten near “the end zone” once, only to bump up against the ultimate silencer: fear.
“At the last minute, the source withdrew,” she told me.
She said she wanted to believe that times were changing, given the number of women who have put their names to the words that derailed the careers of Bill Cosby, who faced criminal charges that resulted in a mistrial this year, and Bill O’Reilly. But she also wondered aloud whether trouble had finally found Mr. Weinstein because he was no longer the rainmaker and hitmaker he had once been.
“This industry is passionate about causes,” Ms. Masters said, “but when it comes down to doing business, they’re definitely capable of holding their noses.”
With the knowledge that the Times article was heading toward publication, and with word of a similar piece in the works at The New Yorker, Mr. Weinstein assembled an all-star team of crisis-management experts and lawyers that included Lisa Bloom. Ms. Bloom, who says she is working only as an “adviser” to Mr. Weinstein, is known for her work representing alleged (and often confirmed) victims of sexual harassment, including those who took on Mr. O’Reilly.
Ms. Bloom shared one reason she may have been sympathetic to Mr. Weinstein on Twitter in April, when she wrote, “My book SUSPICION NATION is being made into a mini-series, produced by Harvey Weinstein and Jay Z!”
Mr. Weinstein has admitted to some inappropriate behavior, and Ms. Bloom has attributed his missteps to his status as a “dinosaur” who is now “learning new ways.”
Certainly, shamefully, there is a long tradition of disgusting harassment of women who try to make it in the movie business. (Jack L. Warner, a founder of Warner Bros. studios, was no saint.)
The image that Mr. Weinstein had concocted for himself — that of a classic Hollywood type, the hot-tempered but charming mogul — took a serious hit in 2015 when an aspiring actress, Ambra Battilana, accused him of groping her at his TriBeCa offices.
The New York Police Department’s Special Victims Division investigated the matter, resulting in a lot of bad press and some hard questions from his board. As the Times investigation revealed, however, no charges materialized after Mr. Weinstein paid off his latest accuser in a confidential settlement.
Hollywood isn’t the only industry still abiding behavior that never had a rightful place in civilized society. Not at all. But it stands out because the industry often holds itself up as a force for moral good, its awards ceremonies filled with beribboned attendees.
As my colleagues who wrote the investigative article about Mr. Weinstein, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, noted, he was allegedly harassing women in five-star hotel rooms across the globe even as his company was distributing films like “The Hunting Ground,” a 2015 documentary about sexual assault on college campuses. He also helped endow a “Gloria Steinem” faculty chair at Rutgers; joined a national women’s march in Park City, Utah, in January; and was a big fund-raiser for and supporter of Hillary Clinton.
The same day that The Times broke the story about Mr. Weinstein, Bloomberg News reported that State Street, the bank behind the famous “fearless girl” statue staring down the Wall Street bull, paid $5 million to some 300 female executives after a federal audit determined it had paid them less than their white male counterparts. State Street disagreed with the audit. But as in the case of Mr. Weinstein, the face it presented to the world was woefully contradicted by the charges about its out-of-view behavior.
The allegations against Mr. Weinstein have come to light several years after similar stories concerning Mr. Cosby. The charges against the once-beloved comedian and sitcom star had been floating around for years. But they generally stayed hidden — and did not figure in the biography of Mr. Cosby by the former Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker, published shortly before his public image unraveled — because of what my predecessor, David Carr, described as Mr. Cosby’s “stalwart enablers” and “ferocious lawyers.”
Mr. Weinstein had his own enablers. He built his empire on a pile of positive press clippings that, before the internet era, could have reached the moon. Mr. Carr wrote in a 2001 New York magazine profile of Mr. Weinstein, of whom he was an astute observer: “As the keeper of star-making machinery, Weinstein has re-engineered the media process so that he lives beyond its downsides.”
Every now and then, glimpses of his nasty side spilled out, like when he placed the reporter Andrew Goldman in a headlock and dragged him out of a party in 2000. Someone who was involved in that altercation, Rebecca Traister, wrote in New York’s The Cut on Thursday that it didn’t get the media attention it deserved because “there were so many journalists on his payroll, working as consultants on movie projects, or as screenwriters, or for his magazine.”
Let’s hope that those in the know did not include members of the Los Angeles Press Club, which this year gave Mr. Weinstein its “Truthteller Award,” calling him an example of “integrity and social responsibility,” along with Jay-Z. (The mogul received the honor because of his producing “Time: The Kalief Browder Story,” a Spike TV documentary series about a 16-year-old who spent three years in Rikers Island awaiting a trial that never took place.)
The Press Club might want to rethink the award given that Mr. Weinstein has hired the emerging leader of anti-press jurisprudence, Charles Harder, who brought the case that put Gawker out of business last year.
And what about the eerie Hollywood silence? As The Daily Beast noted, Lena Dunham was one of the few who spoke out against Mr. Weinstein. It sure was a departure from the delight that greeted the charges against the conservative Mr. O’Reilly. Behind the scenes in Los Angeles, as Janice Min, a former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, told me, “I can guarantee the second that story hit yesterday, several men called their attorneys.”
There will be questions for those who knew what was going on but did nothing, for the agents who dispatched would-be stars to his hotel suites when they may have understood what the cost would be and for the editors and reporters who conveniently didn’t bother to look into the tales making the rounds.
I asked Ms. Min how many other Harveys were out there.
“No name comes up more than Harvey Weinstein in this sort of behavior,” she told me. But, she added, “I guarantee there are many more rocks to overturn.”
The sooner, the better. It’s time for the era of open secrets to come to an end.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/business/media/harvey-weinsteins-media-enablers.html
Producer Harvey Weinstein has a 30-year history of sexual harassment
The Times reporters, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, write that they learned of legal settlements with at least eight women.
Many of his accusers have been young female employees of his production companies, the Weinstein Company and Miramax, the Times reports. However, they also include actress Ashley Judd, who says Weinstein, 65, invited her to his Beverly Hills hotel room for a breakfast meeting some 20 years ago and then suggested he give her a massage or she watch him shower.
Other allegations include:
In 2014, Weinstein invited Emily Nestor, who had worked just one day as a temporary employee, to a hotel. He told her that if she accepted his sexual advances, he would boost her career.
In 2015, a female assistant said Weinstein badgered her into giving him a massage while he was naked, leaving her “crying and very distraught."
Also in 2015, Italian model Ambra Battilana called the police to report that Weinstein had groped her after inviting her to his New York office to discuss her acting prospects. The Manhattan district attorney's office did not press charges and she reportedly reached a settlement with Weinstein.
One woman advised a peer to wear a parka to cover her figure when summoned by Weinstein as a "layer of protection" against unwelcome advances.
Weinstein has been married for the duration of the allegations raised; to Eve Chilton from 1987 to 2004 and to fashion designer Georgina Chapman since 2007.
The power producer has also long been an axis of power and culture. In 2016, he hosted a fundraising dinner for Hillary Clinton, and this past year, Malia Obama completed an internship with his company.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/10/05/nyt-producer-harvey-weinstein-has-30-year-history-sexual-harassment/736387001/
Facing decades of alleged sexual harassment charges, Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein took a leave of absence from his film company on Thursday and it’s being reported that he will be suspended soon pending an internal probe into the multiple claims.
Not that Weinstein isn’t a “wonderful human being,” according to Michelle Obama, who considers the producer a “good friend.”
In light of The New York Times reporting that Weinstein, a big-time Democrat donor, has reached at least eight legal settlements with women over claims of harassment, Fox News shared a video of Michelle Obama heaping praise on Weinstein.
Kudos coming from a woman who said last week that “any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice.” A woman whose oldest daughter, Malia, interned for Weinstein in February, despite his sexual harassment of women being an “open secret,” according to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Sitting alongside notable celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and Gayle King, the former first lady gushed over the alleged series sexual harasser in 2013 at the Careers in Film Symposium at the White House.
“I want to start by thanking Harvey Weinstein for organizing this amazing day,” Obama said. “This is possible because of Harvey. He is a wonderful human being, a good friend, and just a powerhouse.”
Obama was speaking to a room full of high school students… and potential future victims of the guest of honor.
Donald Trump Jr. could not look past the sheer hypocrisy of Obama’s recent comment about women who voted for his father, President Donald Trump.
Taking to social media, the president’s namesake responded to an article reporting on Obama gushing over Weinstein.
“It’s like supporting someone ‘against your own voice’ but he’s a Hollywood liberal so it’s all good,” he tweeted.
Not that Mrs. Obama alone endeared herself to Weinstien. According to Charlie Spierling, a former writer for the Washington Examiner, the man with a reputation for terrorizing women — other than Bill Clinton — visited the White House multiple times, with “POTUS” often listed as the one being visited.
Almost as often as he accosted women… allegedly.
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2017/10/07/don-jr-destroys-michelle-obama-good-friend-harvey-weinstein-calls-wonderful-human-545370
The price of sexual harassment
The New York Times on Thursday released an investigation into Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, writing about “decades of sexual harassment allegations.”
In a statement to the paper, Lisa Bloom, an attorney advising Weinstein, said, “He denies many of the accusations as patently false.” Weinstein, in a separate statement, told The New York Times: “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go.”
When alleged perpetrators are powerful, the company may decide it’s worth paying out a few hundred thousand dollars in settlements to make a problem go away. That comes with one major problem: In many cases, these men continue to sexually harass staff.
Weinstein reached at least eight settlements with women since the 1990’s, the paper alleges. Weinstein also told The New York Times he was working with therapists and planning to take a leave of absence. Here is his full statement. (Weinstein was not immediately available for comment.)
When alleged perpetrators are prominent at their companies, employers sometimes decide it’s worth settling with alleged victims rather than getting rid of the perpetrator, Jennifer Drobac, a professor of law at Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law. They’re sometimes powerful and profitable for the company that management decides it’s worth paying “a few hundred thousand dollars in settlements to make a problem go away,” he said. That decision often comes with one major problem: In many cases, these men continue to offend.
The total cost for the economy and corporate America is difficult to calculate, partly because companies often prefer to settle out of court with the alleged victims signing non-disclosure agreements.
But one thing is clearer: The number of sexual harassment complaints has remained close to constant from the 1990s when Anita Hill made sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas, who went on to be appointed a Supreme Court justice. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 5,607 sexual harassment complaints in 1992 and 6,870 in 2015.
Despite workplace training, many people are desensitized to sexually inappropriate behavior, either through TV and movies, pornography and cyberbulling on social media. There has also been a spike in reported cases in the military. More men are reporting sexual harassment too. Cases in recent years have often involved men sexually harassing other men, even involving physical assaults.
Sexual harassment can cause emotional trauma and missed career opportunities for victims, not to mention costing them thousands in attorneys’ fees. It costs companies, too.
But in rare cases the sexual harassment is perpetrated by a female. In 2014, a jury in Galveston, Texas, awarded $567,000 (including lost wages and benefits) to policeman James Gist, who filed suit at the 122nd Judicial District Court in Galveston. He alleged that his female boss, who was then a constable, held his face against her breasts and made derogatory comments of a sexual nature. (The suit was taken against Galveston County.) The total compensatory damage sought during final arguments was $350,000, but the jury awarded $500,000.
Sexual harassment can cause emotional trauma and missed career opportunities for victims, not to mention costing them thousands in attorneys’ fees. It costs companies, too. Some pay thousands or even millions of dollars to victims and in attorneys’ fees.
It may not even be possible to accurately assess the total damage caused by sexual harassment because so many of the cases are settled privately and sexual harassment is still under-reported, said Maya Raghu, an expert on workplace sexual harassment at the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.
What kind of payouts have companies made in sexual harassment cases?
The New York Times reported that Weinstein reached eight settlements with women to avoid “lengthy and costly” litigation, which were in the six-figure range.
A woman in California was awarded some $168 million in a court case in 2012 for punitive damages, lost wages and mental anguish. She was a physician’s assistant at a hospital in Sacramento.
Said she experienced unwanted sexual advances and touching and inappropriate comments from surgeons and other medical staff at the surgery center where she worked.
It is believed to be the highest compensation for a victim of workplace harassment in U.S. history. In that case, the plaintiff also alleged violations of health and safety code, which may have played a part in the high settlement.
What are companies doing to protect employees against harassment?
Companies are increasingly purchasing insurance, including “employment practices liability insurance,” to cover costs associated with employment lawsuits, said David Yamada, a professor of law and the director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University.
More companies are just counting liability risk as part of the cost of doing business. Some insurers are also providing training materials for companies to teach their employees about sexual harassment in hope of avoiding it.
“A growing number of companies are just counting liability risk as part of the cost of doing business,” Yamada said. Some insurers are also providing training materials for companies to teach their employees about sexual harassment in hope of avoiding it, he added.
But these policies can actually help victims, if it means the company has allocated money to compensate and help them recover, Drobac said. “Even responsible employers may not have eyes in every hallway,” she said. “It may be a top executive doing it in the office, and word doesn’t get out quickly.” And if it does, people are afraid to talk openly about it.
Do federal workers receive the same as those in the private sector?
Federal workers don’t have the same recourse. The federal government caps the amount victims can receive from their employers in punitive and compensatory damages. The caps are based on size of the company. Employers with 15 to 100 employees have a cap of $50,000, and those with 500 or more have a cap of $300,000, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
When employers and employees settle out of court, they negotiate on the amount, based on factors including the victim’s salary and how hard it would be for them to secure similar employment elsewhere.
When employers and employees settle out of court, they negotiate on the amount, based on factors including the victim’s salary and how hard it would be for them to secure similar employment elsewhere, Drobac said.
Why do sexual harassment cases often go unreported?
Critics sometimes ask victims why they didn’t just quit their jobs, if the harassment was so damaging, Drobac said. But many victims don’t have alternative jobs they could take if they left, and significant financial responsibilities, she said. Plus, leaving an employer makes it hard for victims to advance in their careers, Drobac said, in a concept known as “the revolving door.”
“If you have to leave to escape sexual harassment, you’re not climbing the corporate ladder and you’re stalled in your career,” she said. “You have to start over again at the bottom rung. You didn’t get the pay raises, the training, the opportunities to shine, and you’re constantly watching your back.”
There are also psychological costs, she said. Many employees who experience harassment may actually admire the perpetrator’s career, which can impact a person’s mental health. And victims themselves, if they make formal accusations or share their story, may be shrouded in suspicion and doubt, Yamada said.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/as-harvey-weinstein-takes-a-leave-of-absence-heres-how-much-sexual-harassment-costs-companies-and-victims-2017-10-07?mod=MW_story_latest_news
Harvey Weinstein’s Media Enablers
Now that The New York Times has put together a stomach-turning chronicle of alleged sexual harassment by the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein — complete with brave, on-the-record statements from, among others, the actress Ashley Judd — we’re hearing a lot about how the story of his misconduct was “the worst-kept secret” in Hollywood and New York.
But until now, no journalistic outfit had been able, or perhaps willing, to nail the details and hit publish.
For decades, stars of Oscar-winning movies produced by Mr. Weinstein appeared on the covers of glossy magazines, chitchatted with late-night hosts and provided fodder for gossip columns and broadsheet features while the uncouth executive partly responsible for their success maintained his special status in Beverly Hills and TriBeCa.
Somehow the whispers concerning his alleged hotel-room and workplace abuses never threatened his next big deal, industry award or accolades, which included an honorary Commander of the British Empire appointment.
The real story didn’t surface until now because too many people in the intertwined news and entertainment industries had too much to gain from Mr. Weinstein for too long.
Across a run of more than 30 years, he had the power to mint stars, to launch careers, to feed the ever-famished content beast. And he did so with quality films that won statuettes and made a whole lot of money for a whole lot of people.
“The unfortunate reality of Hollywood is that if someone has money, then they can generally find some kind of audience of people who are interested in working with them,” said Kim Masters, the editor at large at The Hollywood Reporter. This was particularly true of Mr. Weinstein, who, she said, was known for having “the golden touch” that produced “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting,” “The King’s Speech” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
Ms. Masters had been chasing the Weinstein story for years. She said she had gotten near “the end zone” once, only to bump up against the ultimate silencer: fear.
“At the last minute, the source withdrew,” she told me.
She said she wanted to believe that times were changing, given the number of women who have put their names to the words that derailed the careers of Bill Cosby, who faced criminal charges that resulted in a mistrial this year, and Bill O’Reilly. But she also wondered aloud whether trouble had finally found Mr. Weinstein because he was no longer the rainmaker and hitmaker he had once been.
“This industry is passionate about causes,” Ms. Masters said, “but when it comes down to doing business, they’re definitely capable of holding their noses.”
With the knowledge that the Times article was heading toward publication, and with word of a similar piece in the works at The New Yorker, Mr. Weinstein assembled an all-star team of crisis-management experts and lawyers that included Lisa Bloom. Ms. Bloom, who says she is working only as an “adviser” to Mr. Weinstein, is known for her work representing alleged (and often confirmed) victims of sexual harassment, including those who took on Mr. O’Reilly.
Ms. Bloom shared one reason she may have been sympathetic to Mr. Weinstein on Twitter in April, when she wrote, “My book SUSPICION NATION is being made into a mini-series, produced by Harvey Weinstein and Jay Z!”
Mr. Weinstein has admitted to some inappropriate behavior, and Ms. Bloom has attributed his missteps to his status as a “dinosaur” who is now “learning new ways.”
Certainly, shamefully, there is a long tradition of disgusting harassment of women who try to make it in the movie business. (Jack L. Warner, a founder of Warner Bros. studios, was no saint.)
The image that Mr. Weinstein had concocted for himself — that of a classic Hollywood type, the hot-tempered but charming mogul — took a serious hit in 2015 when an aspiring actress, Ambra Battilana, accused him of groping her at his TriBeCa offices.
The New York Police Department’s Special Victims Division investigated the matter, resulting in a lot of bad press and some hard questions from his board. As the Times investigation revealed, however, no charges materialized after Mr. Weinstein paid off his latest accuser in a confidential settlement.
Hollywood isn’t the only industry still abiding behavior that never had a rightful place in civilized society. Not at all. But it stands out because the industry often holds itself up as a force for moral good, its awards ceremonies filled with beribboned attendees.
As my colleagues who wrote the investigative article about Mr. Weinstein, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, noted, he was allegedly harassing women in five-star hotel rooms across the globe even as his company was distributing films like “The Hunting Ground,” a 2015 documentary about sexual assault on college campuses. He also helped endow a “Gloria Steinem” faculty chair at Rutgers; joined a national women’s march in Park City, Utah, in January; and was a big fund-raiser for and supporter of Hillary Clinton.
The same day that The Times broke the story about Mr. Weinstein, Bloomberg News reported that State Street, the bank behind the famous “fearless girl” statue staring down the Wall Street bull, paid $5 million to some 300 female executives after a federal audit determined it had paid them less than their white male counterparts. State Street disagreed with the audit. But as in the case of Mr. Weinstein, the face it presented to the world was woefully contradicted by the charges about its out-of-view behavior.
The allegations against Mr. Weinstein have come to light several years after similar stories concerning Mr. Cosby. The charges against the once-beloved comedian and sitcom star had been floating around for years. But they generally stayed hidden — and did not figure in the biography of Mr. Cosby by the former Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker, published shortly before his public image unraveled — because of what my predecessor, David Carr, described as Mr. Cosby’s “stalwart enablers” and “ferocious lawyers.”
Mr. Weinstein had his own enablers. He built his empire on a pile of positive press clippings that, before the internet era, could have reached the moon. Mr. Carr wrote in a 2001 New York magazine profile of Mr. Weinstein, of whom he was an astute observer: “As the keeper of star-making machinery, Weinstein has re-engineered the media process so that he lives beyond its downsides.”
Every now and then, glimpses of his nasty side spilled out, like when he placed the reporter Andrew Goldman in a headlock and dragged him out of a party in 2000. Someone who was involved in that altercation, Rebecca Traister, wrote in New York’s The Cut on Thursday that it didn’t get the media attention it deserved because “there were so many journalists on his payroll, working as consultants on movie projects, or as screenwriters, or for his magazine.”
Let’s hope that those in the know did not include members of the Los Angeles Press Club, which this year gave Mr. Weinstein its “Truthteller Award,” calling him an example of “integrity and social responsibility,” along with Jay-Z. (The mogul received the honor because of his producing “Time: The Kalief Browder Story,” a Spike TV documentary series about a 16-year-old who spent three years in Rikers Island awaiting a trial that never took place.)
The Press Club might want to rethink the award given that Mr. Weinstein has hired the emerging leader of anti-press jurisprudence, Charles Harder, who brought the case that put Gawker out of business last year.
And what about the eerie Hollywood silence? As The Daily Beast noted, Lena Dunham was one of the few who spoke out against Mr. Weinstein. It sure was a departure from the delight that greeted the charges against the conservative Mr. O’Reilly. Behind the scenes in Los Angeles, as Janice Min, a former editor of The Hollywood Reporter, told me, “I can guarantee the second that story hit yesterday, several men called their attorneys.”
There will be questions for those who knew what was going on but did nothing, for the agents who dispatched would-be stars to his hotel suites when they may have understood what the cost would be and for the editors and reporters who conveniently didn’t bother to look into the tales making the rounds.
I asked Ms. Min how many other Harveys were out there.
“No name comes up more than Harvey Weinstein in this sort of behavior,” she told me. But, she added, “I guarantee there are many more rocks to overturn.”
The sooner, the better. It’s time for the era of open secrets to come to an end.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/business/media/harvey-weinsteins-media-enablers.html
Producer Harvey Weinstein has a 30-year history of sexual harassment
The Times reporters, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, write that they learned of legal settlements with at least eight women.
Many of his accusers have been young female employees of his production companies, the Weinstein Company and Miramax, the Times reports. However, they also include actress Ashley Judd, who says Weinstein, 65, invited her to his Beverly Hills hotel room for a breakfast meeting some 20 years ago and then suggested he give her a massage or she watch him shower.
Other allegations include:
In 2014, Weinstein invited Emily Nestor, who had worked just one day as a temporary employee, to a hotel. He told her that if she accepted his sexual advances, he would boost her career.
In 2015, a female assistant said Weinstein badgered her into giving him a massage while he was naked, leaving her “crying and very distraught."
Also in 2015, Italian model Ambra Battilana called the police to report that Weinstein had groped her after inviting her to his New York office to discuss her acting prospects. The Manhattan district attorney's office did not press charges and she reportedly reached a settlement with Weinstein.
One woman advised a peer to wear a parka to cover her figure when summoned by Weinstein as a "layer of protection" against unwelcome advances.
Weinstein has been married for the duration of the allegations raised; to Eve Chilton from 1987 to 2004 and to fashion designer Georgina Chapman since 2007.
The power producer has also long been an axis of power and culture. In 2016, he hosted a fundraising dinner for Hillary Clinton, and this past year, Malia Obama completed an internship with his company.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/10/05/nyt-producer-harvey-weinstein-has-30-year-history-sexual-harassment/736387001/
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