Weinstein roundup: Eva Green and more women come forward, Bob Weinstein speaks
Read Bob Weinstein's full statement: "Business is continuing as usual as the company moves ahead" https://t.co/Hbj45heHON pic.twitter.com/N8WQrga0yH
- Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 13, 2017
- Brother of sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein denied reports that the board would sell The Weinstein Company
- Despite Bob's claim that "business is continuing as usual" (OP note: sure you want to use that turn of phrase Bob?) the company has so far yanked the film The Current War starring Benedict Cumberbatch from their release schedule, the creators of In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes, are publicly asking Weinstein to drop the rights to the musical so they can make the film adaptation elsewhere, Amazon has cancelled the $160 million dollar Weinstein produced David O. Russell series that was in development, and director Oliver Stone, recently outed as a serial groper himself, has now announced that he refuses to work on the show Guantanamo, until the Weinstein company is removed
Writing in a piece for the Globe & Mail actress Mia Kirshner says she had her own abusive encounter with Weinstein which she does not go into detail about.
Instead she calls on her unions, SAG and ACTRA, to step in to create better protections for actors:
First of all, can we agree that no more meetings for anything related to work be held in hotel rooms? That would be up to the unions to firmly enforce.
Second, the unions need a new system for investigating allegations of wrongdoing.
Currently, if a SAG member launches a complaint, the union writes a letter and asks that the production house or studio involved conduct an internal investigation of the alleged abuse. You can imagine its effectiveness. An in-house investigation by the very nature of being in-house does not cultivate impartiality. Especially when the person being investigated runs or owns the studio. Complaints about these matters that are raised within our unions should trigger an independent third-party investigation.
The 16 episode series executive produced by David O. Russell, which was set to star Julianne Moore, Matthias Schoenaerts and Robert De Niro is now dead.
Russell, De Niro and Moore issued a joint statement:
We support Amazon’s decision as in light of recent news and out of respect for all those affected we have decided together that it is best to not move forward with this show.
Keep in mind that Russell has his own history of violence against his employees including headbutting George Clooney and calling Lily Tomlin a c*** on set which was caught on tape. He was also once arrested for groping his teenage niece's breasts, something he confessed to doing, though he was ultimately not charged.
Huffman also confirmed that Weinstein had threatened her into wearing a dress designed by his wife to a premiere.
Michael Moore took to facebook to post this message:
Anyone with a flicker of a conscience or a modicum of decency stands, as I do, with the women who've summoned the courage to tell the truth about Harvey Weinstein.
But well-meaning platitudes of support for the abused are simply not enough.
Why do we live in a society where men do not intervene when they witness the mistreatment of women? I have intervened on more than one occasion and I have fired men who sexually harass women. Harvey Weinstein knew better than to behave inappropriately toward women in my presence. I'm guessing successful sociopaths like him who get away with it for years are very, very careful not to let the kind of men who would stop them dead cold ever get a glimpse of who they really are. I don't live in Weinstein's Hollywood world and I make documentaries, so I can't speak to the culture he created and seemed to thrive in. I AM the only director that I know of who's actually taken Weinstein to court (for being a thief, which requires a different set of sociopathic skills, but, like sexual harassment, you can probably find them at a few Hollywood studios).
All of us (men) must share the responsibility for allowing a society to exist where women do not feel safe. A society where, when they are abused, they are not able to tell their stories without fear of retribution and shame. A society that badgers, blames or scoffs at women when they tell their stories. Or how they tell their stories. Or "how long" it took them. They carry a burden that most of us (men) never have to experience. If you can't empathize with that or understand what they are dealing with, then maybe you're part of the problem.
The New York Times investigation into the repugnant and abhorrent behavior of Harvey Weinstein (and the Weinstein Company) is a profound cultural/social/political moment that I believe could actually ignite a historic change in our society. What if we seized this moment and bring down, once and for all, the white male hierarchy which has ruled our way of life in America since the first boatload of religious zealots arrived on Plymouth Rock?
And what if Hollywood commits, right now, to dismantling its rampant sexism and inequality, starting with appointing more female executives and letting more than 4% -- yes, it's actually only 4% -- of all its films be directed by women?
Let's use this moment to end the abuse of women in our industry. Let's make this a call for men to take a stand against the men who perpetrate this corrosive, criminal behavior, to call them out and shut them down. We can do this. All it takes is the will and the decision to say "enough is enough!"
I have four suggestions that Hollywood (and our greater society) should act on immediately:
1. Put all abusers on notice NOW: You know who you are, and scores of your employees, past and present, know who you are. You need to step down before they bring you down. There is nowhere left to hide. Your years of attacking and intimidating women are over. You have only two options: 1) Resign now, or 2) face an army of women and men who are going to take you out of power. You have seen this week what has happened to the most powerful, most well-known executive in Hollywood. You're next. Turn yourself in, or go far, far away to a place where you can no longer harm more women.
2. To those abusers who ignore the above warning and choose to stay in power because you think that this is all going to die down and blow over -- and that you are going to get to continue to get away with your behavior -- let me explain to you in clearer language how this is all going to end for you:
Every one of your employees is now a documentary filmmaker. Thanks to the invention of the smartphone that has a built-in camera and voice recorder, every single one of your workers now carries in their pocket the ability to secretly record or film you and your harassment. And they will. They will post your crimes. You will be exposed, publicly shamed and hopefully removed. Avoid this cruel end by resigning now.
3. To the men who do treat women as equals and behave toward them with respect and dignity: This is your moment! Confront the abusive men at work. When you see something, you must say something. No more ignoring and turning away when you see women being harassed and intimidated in the workplace. This is on us. MEN, step forward, NOW!
4. The boards of directors of the Hollywood studios -- and all across corporate America -- must declare gender parity the new priority. Fifty-percent of all boards must be female. Hiring multiple female executives is the mandate. Of the top 100 grossing films each year, an average of only TWO are directed by women! All studios must commit to greenlighting more films by women (and, needless to say, by African Americans and other neglected groups).
These are short term actions that can happen now. But I want to point out that there is also a fundamental fix that MUST occur in the long run if there is ever to be any real change. We must reform our broken economic system and transform it into one that is equitable and democratic, one where the gap between rich and poor is ELIMINATED so that no longer do a few wealthy men hold the power.
We need to create a new economy where women and men have the same opportunities and are paid the same, an economy that no longer condemns generations to poverty and where their only option is to serve at the pleasure and the whim of the rich. We need businesses and workplaces that are owned and operated by their employees in a country where democracy is not just a word we mouth but an actual way of living -- at work, at school, in our neighborhoods and in our daily lives. A democratic economy is a must if we are ever going to be able to deny white men their major weapon of abuse -- the fear of financial insecurity -- that they have used against women for eons. This is our mission for the long haul, the big picture that must be addressed and changed. We must ALL commit to doing this. I believe our collective conscience will ultimately settle for nothing less, and the result will be a better world.
Click to view- Had horrible experiences with Weinstein on Nanny McPhee but did not know he sexually abused women
- In the now famous story where Emma Thompson threatened to quit if Hayley Atwell was made to lose weight after she was called fat Thompson confirmed that was not Weinstein but another producer
Oprah also took to facebook to issue a statement:
I’ve been processing the accounts of Harvey Weinstein’s hideous behavior and haven’t been able to find the words to articulate the magnitude of the situation. Filmmaker James Schamus captured so much of what I’ve been feeling when he said:
"This is the story of one predator and his many victims; but it is also a story about an overwhelming systemic enabling, and until that story is fully told we will fall far short of stopping future depredations on a similar scale."
Thanks to the brave voices we’ve heard this week, many more will now be emboldened to come forward EVERY time this happens. I believe a shift is coming.
[TW: Erika Rosenbaum comes forward with her story of sexual assault]
Rosenbaum met Weinstein three times over the course of her career.
In the mid - 2000s at their last encounter he held her by her neck and masturbated behind her.
She also had this to say:
I had kept my experience with Harvey Weinstein a secret for a very long time. I felt it important to tell the truth and speak out against the sexual harassment I and others have endured.
There is an important dialogue that we need to have. I want to be part of that dialogue and be on the right side of history.
Marlène Jobert said that in 2010 Weinstein began aggressively persuing Eva Green harassing her and calling her whenever he was in Paris.
She said the details match up with other accusers and that he had tried to book meetings in hotels under the guise of giving her scripts.
Green feared speaking out because he threatened to destroy her if she did.
Jobert said she was horrified and told her daughter to speak out about it, but Green told her that she feared how much damage he could do.
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Have a kitten and some resources for sexual abuse survivors thx to futile_devices
