Harvey Weinstein Reminds Us Hollywood Only Worships Money and Influence
Women are the latest group to relearn the lesson.
Hollywood is very good at maintaining a smug, more-progressive-than-thou image. After all, it’s an industry populated by actors, writers, producers and directors who specialize in creating and selling fiction. Unfortunately, life is not a movie set so the truth routinely surfaces to trample all over the self-congratulatory narrative.
Over and over, Hollywood reminds the public: If you aren’t rich and powerful, you are pawns to be used when convenient and discarded when not.
When The New York Times finally entered Harvey Weinstein and his open secret of serial sexual assault into the public record, women around the world received the updated memo. LA’s glitterati are going into overdrive to control the damage, but make no mistake, if they didn’t know about Harvey’s disgusting behavior, it’s because they didn’t want to know.
There’s no need to re-chronicle the number of times Weinstein invited young women to his room for solicitations of shower viewings (gross) and naked massages (grosser) or the threats, monetary settlements and non-disclosure agreements they precipitated. The victims of his lewd and lascivious behavior have certainly suffered enough at the hands of a man cut from the same cloth as President Donald Trump.
What bears emphasizing, is the fact the media mogul’s criminal conduct was a non-secret in the industry.
In the words of one anonymous Hollywood producer, as reported by CNN’s Jake Tapper via Twitter, Weinstein’s predations were hardly unknown:
That’s why the only shock coming out of of Hollywood is originating with those who could be personally tainted by the revelations. Harvey’s misogynistic disgraces are apparently news to his brother-cum-colleague Bob Weinstein, the rest of the Weinstein Company board of directors and actors who’ve profited from their association, then showered Harvey with adulation. The majority of Tinsel Town, however, is simply refusing to comment on the same sort of conduct that had the town foaming at the mouth when President Trump, who deserved every bit of condemnation he received and then some, was the perpetrator.
This despite those very same people knowing about Harvey Weinstein or, if not, opting for willful ignorance.
Indeed, story after story beat the “open secret” drum. The Cut’s Rebecca Traister relayed her own tale of pursuing the allegations back in 1999 while acknowledging she’s “been having conversations about Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual harassment for more than 17 years.” The USA Today published its own collection of Hollywood insiders sharing Harvey’s-a-lech anecdotes while expressing disgust, but tellingly, not surprise.
Sharon Waxman, writing for The Wrap, dropped perhaps the most effective piece of evidence demonstrating Weinstein’s sins were there for any industry insider to see if they so chose. She detailed how, as a reporter in 2004 for the same organization that would eventually bring Harvey to his knees, The New York Times spiked her story about an Italian handler, who specialized in procuring women for him, and one of his victims, who had been paid off after an “unwanted sexual encounter:”
The story I reported never ran. After intense pressure from Weinstein, which included having Matt Damon and Russell Crowe call me directly to vouch for Lombardo and unknown discussions well above my head at the Times, the story was gutted. I was told at the time that Weinstein had visited the newsroom in person to make his displeasure known. I knew he was a major advertiser in the Times, and that he was a powerful person overall. But I had the facts, and this was the Times. Right? Wrong. The story was stripped of any reference to sexual favors or coercion and buried…The Times’ then-culture editor Jon Landman, now an editor-at-large for Bloomberg, thought the story was unimportant, asking me why it mattered. “He’s not a publicly elected official,” he told me.
If we believe Waxman, then stars like Damon and Crowe rallied to his defense, but never pursued the matter further to either figure out why they were vouching for him or whether they might be vouching for a heinous pig. Additionally, they must’ve never told another soul about any of the above. That might be, in fact, what happened, but it’s certainly no defense.
Furthermore, it still doesn’t explain away the copious rumors and whisperings that swirled around the man for over a decade.
A Google search of “Harvey Weinstein open secret” returns no shortage of testimony:
The only reasonable conclusion in light of all this is Hollywood knew or should’ve known about Weinstein’s dirty dealings with vulnerable women.
The female gender need not feel singled out, though. It can take heart, or share in equal despair, with basically every other marginalized group or hot-button social issue. Hollywood monetizes the image of each flavor of progressive activism while betraying its commitment to them all.
Its best and brightest love to rail against the evils of environmental degradation while flitting around the globe on private jets, dumping tons of noxious gases and particulate into the upper atmosphere. Meanwhile, on the ground, they live in palatial mansions on expansive grounds that use more electricity and water than any residence should ever need.
Hollywood-types fancy themselves crusaders for racial equality. Alas, #OscarsSoWhite, the dearth of minority directors/producers/senior executives and every time Johnny Depp is cast as Tonto or Matt Damon gets the lead in a movie set on the Great Wall of China show the dramatic limits of such crusading.
As for the tried-and-true anti-war sentiment? Marvel, a Disney property, would like a word:
There is no cause the industry won’t sell out for the right price or if the right person demands it. So the next time a sanctimonious A-lister feels the need to lecture about how much better and more enlightened the place is, remember this lesson.
Of course, if you don’t, Hollywood will remind you. Just give it time.
