“As alleged in our complaint, The Weinstein Company repeatedly broke New York law by failing to protect its employees from pervasive sexual harassment, intimidation, and discrimination,” state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in court papers filed against Harvey Weinstein and the company.
Nine industry women share what it was like to expose long-kept secrets and create a movement of solidarity by calling out the media mogul for harassment and assault: “Everything came rushing back” … “It was like PTSD” … “It was the first time I realized I wasn’t alone.”
The producer Harvey Weinstein relied on powerful relationships across industries to provide him with cover as accusations of sexual misconduct piled up for decades.
Legal woes for Weinstein Co. mounted Wednesday when the company was hit with a class-action lawsuit on behalf of dozens of women accusing co-founder Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, battery and lewd conduct.
The actress is identified only as Jane Doe in the sexual battery lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. It alleges that Harvey Weinstein held the woman against her will while Weinstein engaged in sexual situations.
In the fall of 2016, Harvey Weinstein set out to suppress allegations that he had sexually harassed or assaulted numerous women. He began to hire private security agencies to collect information on the women and the journalists trying to expose the allegations.
Exclusives
Amanda Segel, a former executive producer of the Spike sci-fi series The Mist, claims Bob Weinstein made repeated overtures to her that included invitations to dinner, to his home and to a hotel room. He denies the claim.
Amazon Studios has made a decision on the two Weinstein Co. series it was “reviewing options” on. The company “no longer plans on moving forward with the David O’Russell Project. As for Matthew Weiner’s The Romanoffs, Amazon intends to move forward without the involvement of The Weinstein Co.,” the company said.
Did The Media Help Weinstein Quash Claims?
It wasn’t just the complicit silence around Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment that made it so dangerous. It was the opposite of silence, too. It was the public humiliation that could be used to retaliate against alleged victims who spoke out. Weinstein used the media like a bludgeon to keep his alleged victims in line, by many accounts. He did it skillfully — and with plenty of help.
In the course of a 10-month investigation by The New Yorker, 13 women said that, between the 1990s and 2015, Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them. The allegations that corroborate and overlap with the New York Times’ revelations, and also include far more serious claims. Three women said that Weinstein raped them.
Three days was all it took to topple one of Hollywood’s most high-profile and sharp-elbowed moguls — a combative power player who, like few ever have, regularly dominated the Academy Awards. But it was the all-powerful Harvey Weinstein who was ousted Sunday night from the company he co-founded and that bears his name. Following a devastating New York Times expose that detailed years of sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein, the Weinstein Co. co-chairman was unceremoniously fired by his brother, Bob, and three other directors on the film and TV company’s board.
The Weinstein Co.’s television operations have been far more successful than the company’s feature business in the past few years. Harvey Weinstein has been adept at packaging projects and leveraging his connections to meet the voracious demand for TV content. But that business is in jeopardy with the detailed revelations of alleged sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior that Weinstein allegedly exhibited in the context of his work as a producer.
The Weinstein Co., which produces films like Philomena and Silver Linings Playbook, and TV shows like Project Runway and Mob Wives, is partnering with Gannett to turn reporting from its TV stations and newspapers into TV shows and movies.
The Weinstein Co., founded eight years ago by Harvey Weinstein and his brother, Bob, is making a surge into TV production that will soon test whether it can extend its success in film to the world of television.The heavy investment in the production and sale of TV series mirrors changes occurring elsewhere in Hollywood.
