Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenberg

Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Fri Nov 10, 2017 3:52 am

Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32
by Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites
The Washington Post
November 9 at 12:52 PM

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Leigh Corfman, left, in a photo from 1979, when she was about 14. At right, from top, Wendy Miller around age 16, Debbie Wesson Gibson around age 17 and Gloria Thacker Deason around age 18. (Family photos)

Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore.

It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing.

“He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want her to go in there and hear all that. I’ll stay out here with her,’” says Corfman’s mother, Nancy Wells, 71. “I thought, how nice for him to want to take care of my little girl.”


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This undated family photo shows Leigh Corfman with her mother, Nancy Wells, around 1979 when Corfman was about 14 years old. (Family Photo)

Alone with Corfman, Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.

“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she remembers thinking. “Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.” Corfman says she asked Moore to take her home, and he did.


Two of Corfman’s childhood friends say she told them at the time that she was seeing an older man, and one says Corfman identified the man as Moore. Wells says her daughter told her about the encounter more than a decade later, as Moore was becoming more prominent as a local judge.

Aside from Corfman, three other women interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older. None of the three women say that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact.

Wendy Miller says she was 14 and working as a Santa’s helper at the Gadsden Mall when Moore first approached her, and 16 when he asked her on dates, which her mother forbade. Debbie Wesson Gibson says she was 17 when Moore spoke to her high school civics class and asked her out on the first of several dates that did not progress beyond kissing. Gloria Thacker Deason says she was an 18-year-old cheerleader when Moore began taking her on dates that included bottles of Mateus Rosé wine. The legal drinking age in Alabama was 19.

Of the four women, the youngest at the time was Corfman, who is the only one who says she had sexual contact with Moore that went beyond kissing. She says they did not have intercourse.

In a written statement, Moore denied the allegations.

“These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign,” Moore, now 70, said.

The campaign said in a subsequent statement that if the allegations were true they would have surfaced during his previous campaigns, adding “this garbage is the very definition of fake news.”


After The Post published this story Thursday afternoon, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and a handful of other GOP senators said Moore must step aside if Corfman’s account is true.

According to campaign reports, none of the women has donated to or worked for Moore’s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, or his rivals in the Republican primary, including Sen. Luther Strange, whom he defeated this fall in a runoff election.

Corfman, 53, who works as a customer service representative at a payday loan business, says she has voted for Republicans in the past three presidential elections, including for Donald Trump in 2016. She says she thought of confronting Moore personally for years, and almost came forward publicly during his first campaign for state Supreme Court in 2000, but decided against it. Her two children were still in school then and she worried about how it would affect them. She also was concerned that her background — three divorces and a messy financial history — might undermine her credibility.

“There is no one here that doesn’t know that I’m not an angel,” Corfman says, referring to her home town of Gadsden.

Corfman described her story consistently in six interviews with The Post. The Post confirmed that her mother attended a hearing at the courthouse in February 1979 through divorce records. Moore’s office was down the hall from the courtroom.


Neither Corfman nor any of the other women sought out The Post. While reporting a story in Alabama about supporters of Moore’s Senate campaign, a Post reporter heard that Moore allegedly had sought relationships with teenage girls. Over the ensuing three weeks, two Post reporters contacted and interviewed the four women. All were initially reluctant to speak publicly but chose to do so after multiple interviews, saying they thought it was important for people to know about their interactions with Moore. The women say they don’t know one another.

“I have prayed over this,” Corfman says, explaining why she decided to tell her story now. “All I know is that I can’t sit back and let this continue, let him continue without the mask being removed.”

This account is based on interviews with more than 30 people who said they knew Moore between 1977 and 1982, when he served as an assistant district attorney for Etowah County in northern Alabama, where he grew up.

****

Moore was 30 and single when he joined the district attorney’s office, his first government job after attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, serving in Vietnam, graduating from law school and working briefly as a lawyer in private practice in Gadsden, the county seat.

By his account, chronicled in his book “So Help Me God,” Moore spent his time as a prosecutor convicting “murderers, rapists, thieves and drug pushers.” He writes that it was “around this time that I fashioned a plaque of The Ten Commandments on two redwood tablets.”

“I believed that many of the young criminals whom I had to prosecute would not have committed criminal acts if they had been taught these rules as children,” Moore writes.


Outside work, Moore writes that he spent his free time building rooms onto a mobile home in Gallant, a rural area about 25 miles west of Gadsden.

According to colleagues and others who knew him at the time, Moore was rarely seen socializing outside work. He spent one season coaching the Gallant Girls, a softball team that his teenage sister had joined, said several women who played on the team. He spent time working out at the Gadsden YMCA, according to people who encountered him there. And he often walked, usually alone, around the newly opened Gadsden Mall — 6 feet tall and well-dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt, say several women who worked there at the time.

Corfman describes herself as a little lost — “a typical 14-year-old kid of a divorced family” — when she says she first met Moore that day in 1979 outside the courtroom. She says she felt flattered that a grown man was paying attention to her.

“He was charming and smiley,” she says.

After her mother went into the courtroom, Corfman says, Moore asked her where she went to school, what she liked to do and whether he could call her sometime. She remembers giving him her number and says he called not long after. She says she talked to Moore on her phone in her bedroom, and they made plans for him to pick her up at Alcott Road and Riley Street, around the corner from her house.

“I was kind of giddy, excited, you know? An older guy, you know?” Corfman says, adding that her only sexual experience at that point had been kissing boys her age.

She says that it was dark and cold when he picked her up, and that she thought they were going out to eat. Instead, she says, he drove her to his house, which seemed “far, far away.”

“I remember the further I got from my house, the more nervous I got,” Corfman says.

She remembers an unpaved driveway. She remembers going inside and him giving her alcohol on this visit or the next, and that at some point she told him she was 14. She says they sat and talked. She remembers that Moore told her she was pretty, put his arm around her and kissed her, and that she began to feel nervous and asked him to take her home, which she says he did.

Soon after, she says, he called again, and picked her up again at the same spot.

“This was a new experience, and it was exciting and fun and scary,” Corfman says, explaining why she went back. “It was just like this roller-coaster ride you’ve not been on.”

She says that Moore drove her back to the same house after dark, and that before long she was lying on a blanket on the floor. She remembers Moore disappearing into another room and coming out with nothing on but “tight white” underwear.

She remembers that Moore kissed her, that he took off her pants and shirt, and that he touched her through her bra and underpants. She says that he guided her hand to his underwear and that she yanked her hand back.

“I wasn’t ready for that — I had never put my hand on a man’s penis, much less an erect one,” Corfman says.

She remembers thinking, “I don’t want to do this” and “I need to get out of here.” She says that she got dressed and asked Moore to take her home, and that he did.


The legal age of consent in Alabama, then and now, is 16. Under Alabama law in 1979, and today, a person who is at least 19 years old who has sexual contact with someone older than 12 and younger than 15 has committed sexual abuse in the second degree. Sexual contact is defined as touching of sexual or intimate parts. The crime is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.

The law then and now also includes a section on enticing a child younger than 16 to enter a home with the purpose of proposing sexual intercourse or fondling of sexual and genital parts. That is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.


In Alabama, the statute of limitations for bringing felony charges involving sexual abuse of a minor in 1979 would have run out three years later, and the time frame for filing a civil complaint would have ended when the alleged victim turned 21, according to Child USA, a nonprofit research and advocacy group at the University of Pennsylvania.

Corfman never filed a police report or a civil suit.

She says that after their last encounter, Moore called again, but that she found an excuse to avoid seeing him. She says that at some point during or soon after her meetings with Moore, she told two friends in vague terms that she was seeing an older man.

Betsy Davis, who remains friendly with Corfman and now lives in Los Angeles, says she clearly remembers Corfman talking about seeing an older man named Roy Moore when they were teenagers. She says Corfman described an encounter in which the older man wore nothing but tight white underwear. She says she was firm with Corfman that seeing someone as old as Moore was out of bounds.

“I remember talking to her and telling her it’s not a good idea,” Davis says. “Because we were so young.”

A second friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing her job, has a similar memory of a teenage Corfman telling her about seeing an older man.

After talking to her friends, Corfman says, she began to feel that she had done something wrong and kept it a secret for years.

“I felt responsible,” she says. “I felt like I had done something bad. And it kind of set the course for me doing other things that were bad.”

She says that her teenage life became increasingly reckless with drinking, drugs, boyfriends, and a suicide attempt when she was 16.


As the years went on, Corfman says, she did not share her story about Moore partly because of the trouble in her life. She has had three divorces and financial problems. While living in Arizona, she and her second husband started a screen-printing business that fell into debt. They filed for bankruptcy protection three times, once in 1991 with $139,689 in unpaid claims brought by the Internal Revenue Service and other creditors, according to court records.

In 2005, Corfman paid a fine for driving a boat without lights. In 2010, she was working at a convenience store when she was charged with a misdemeanor for selling beer to a minor. The charge was dismissed, court records show.

****

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This undated photo shows Gloria Thacker Deason when she was about 18. (Family photo)

The three other women who spoke to The Post say that Moore asked them on dates when they were between 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s.

Gloria Thacker Deason says she was 18 and Moore was 32 when they met in 1979 at the Gadsden Mall, where she worked at the jewelry counter of a department store called Pizitz. She says she was attending Gadsden State Community College and still living at home.

“My mom was really, really strict and my curfew was 10:30 but she would let me stay out later with Roy,” says Deason, who is now 57 and lives in North Carolina. “She just felt like I would be safe with him. . . . She thought he was good husband material.”

Deason says that they dated off and on for several months and that he took her to his house at least two times. She says their physical relationship did not go further than kissing and hugging.


“He liked Eddie Rabbitt and I liked Freddie Mercury,” Deason says, referring to the country singer and the British rocker.

She says that Moore would pick her up for dates at the mall or at college basketball games, where she was a cheerleader. She remembers changing out of her uniform before they went out for dinners at a pizzeria called Mater’s, where she says Moore would order bottles of Mateus Rosé, or at a Chinese restaurant, where she says he would order her tropical cocktails at a time when she believes she was younger than 19, the legal drinking age.

“If Mother had known that, she would have had a hissy fit,” says Deason, who says she turned 19 in May 1979, after she and Moore started dating.

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This undated family photo shows Wendy Miller around the time she was 16. (Family photo)

Around the same time that Deason says she met Moore at the jewelry counter, Wendy Miller says that Moore approached her at the mall, where she would spend time with her mom, who worked at a photo booth there. Miller says this was in 1979, when she was 16.

She says that Moore’s face was familiar because she had first met him two years before, when she was dressed as an elf and working as a Santa’s helper at the mall. She says that Moore told her she looked pretty, and that two years later, he began asking her out on dates in the presence of her mother at the photo booth. She says she had a boyfriend at the time, and declined.

Her mother, Martha Brackett, says she refused to grant Moore permission to date her 16-year-old daughter.

“I’d say, ‘You’re too old for her . . . let’s not rob the cradle,’” Brackett recalls telling Moore.


Miller, who is now 54 and still lives in Alabama, says she was “flattered by the attention.”

“Now that I’ve gotten older,” she says, “the idea that a grown man would want to take out a teenager, that’s disgusting to me.”

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This undated family photo shows Debbie Wesson Gibson when she was about 17. (Family photo)

Debbie Wesson Gibson says that she was 17 in the spring of 1981 when Moore spoke to her Etowah High School civics class about serving as the assistant district attorney. She says that when he asked her out, she asked her mother what she would say if she wanted to date a 34-year-old man. Gibson says her mother asked her who the man was, and when Gibson said “Roy Moore,” her mother said, “I’d say you were the luckiest girl in the world.”

Among locals in Gadsden, a town of about 47,000 back then, Moore “had this godlike, almost deity status — he was a hometown boy made good,” Gibson says, “West Point and so forth.”

Gibson says that they dated for two to three months, and that he took her to his house, read her poetry and played his guitar. She says he kissed her once in his bedroom and once by the pool at a local country club.

“Looking back, I’m glad nothing bad happened,” says Gibson, who now lives in Florida. “As a mother of daughters, I realize that our age difference at that time made our dating inappropriate.”


****

By 1982, Moore was by his own account in his book causing a stir in the district attorney’s office for his willingness to criticize the workings of the local legal system. He convened a grand jury to look into what he alleged were funding problems in the sheriff’s office. In response, Moore writes, the state bar association investigated him for going against the advice of the district attorney, an inquiry that was dismissed.

Soon after, Moore quit and began his first political campaign for the county’s circuit court judge position. He lost overwhelmingly, and left Alabama shortly thereafter, heading to Texas, where he says in his book that he trained as a kickboxer, and to Australia, where he says he lived on a ranch for a year wrangling cattle.

He returned to Gadsden in 1984 and went into private law practice. In 1985, at age 38, he married Kayla Kisor, who was 24. The two are still married.

A few years later, Moore began his rise in Alabama politics and into the national spotlight.

In 1992, he became a circuit court judge and hung his wooden Ten Commandments plaque in his courtroom.

In 2000, he was elected chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, and he soon installed a 5,280-pound granite Ten Commandments monument in the judicial building.

In 2003, he was dismissed from the bench for ignoring a federal court order to remove the monument, and became known nationally as “The Ten Commandments Judge.”

Moore was again elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2012, and was again dismissed for ignoring a judicial order, this time for instructing probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

All of this has made Moore a hero to many Alabama voters, who consider him a stalwart Christian willing to stand up for their values. In a September Republican primary for the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Moore defeated the appointed sitting senator, Luther Strange, who was backed by President Trump and other party leaders in Washington. Moore faces the Democratic nominee, Doug Jones, in a special election scheduled for Dec. 12.

... Polly Tix in Washington. I was a strumpet on the payroll of the Nipple Trust and the Anti-Castor Oil Lobby. Mine was the task of seducing a newly arrived bumpkin senator. Nipples and castor oil I understood, but seduction I took on faith. Decked out in a black satin and lace gown created by Mother, I swayed stiff-legged up to the senator and cooed, "Aw, c'mon, Senator, you can be had."

Flashing what I presumed was a seductive smile, I roughly drew the senator into my embrace. With a deep breath and my mouth tightly pursed, I squashed my lips hard against his. There we froze, the senator and the vixen, nobody moving or breathing. Despite my aggressive charms, the senator's incorruptibility asserted itself. Thrusting me away, he grabbed one arm and swung me in a broad arc across the room. Like snap-the-whip, my feet went out and I hit the floor and slid. Scrambling back up, I faced him with my arms akimbo and lower lip outthrust. This was not in the rehearsal. Hereafter I would have to hold back something of myself until camera time. Actors were not necessarily friendly, and sometimes competitive.

-- Child Star, by Shirley Temple Black


On a visit home in the mid-1990s to see her mother and stepfather in Alabama, Corfman says, she saw Moore’s photo in the Gadsden Times.

“‘Mother, do you remember this guy?’” Wells says Corfman said at the time.

That’s when Corfman told her, Wells recalls. Her daughter said that not long after the court hearing in 1979, Moore took her to his house. Wells says that her daughter conveyed to her that Moore had behaved inappropriately.

“I was horrified,” Wells says.

Years later, Corfman says, she saw a segment about Moore on ABC News’s “Good Morning America.” She says she threw up.

There were times, Corfman says, she thought about confronting Moore. At one point during the late 1990s, she says, she became so angry that she drove to the parking lot outside Moore’s office at the county courthouse in Gadsden. She sat there for a while, she says, rehearsing what she might say to him.

“‘Remember me?’” she imagined herself saying.


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[Roy Moore: I MOLEST WITH THE BEST] Evil people are out to get me.
[Moore's Victims] We know how you feel.
by Chris Britt, Creators Syndicate

Image
ALLEGATIONS; CONDEMNATIONS; REPUDICATIONS: ROLL TIDE ...
by Walt Handelsman, Tribune Content Agency

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[Roy Moore] Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife ... But it doesn't say anything about his daughter.
10 COMMANDMENTS
by Phil Hands, Tribune Content Agency

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[Alabama Redneck] Sure, Roy Moore might be a child molester!
[Redneck's Wife] But the Bible says that children are a gift from God!
[Alabama Redneck] So ... it would be rude not to accept that gift.
[Redneck's Wife] Amen!
ALABAMA: WE LOVE KIDS
NO DEMOCRATS AT ANY COST
by Chris Britt, Creators Syndicate

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[Sign: THIS IS ROY MOORE COUNTRY]
[Mother] Girls, lock your doors.
by Marshall Ramsey, Creators Syndicate

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[Roy Moore] Neither the 10 Commandments or the 2nd Amendment say anything about dating a 14 year old ... I checked.
by Drew Sheneman, Tribune Content Agency
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Fri Nov 10, 2017 4:15 am

Multiple women accuse Minnesota state Senator Dan Schoen of sexual harassment
by Briana Bierschbach
11/08/17

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


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State Sen. Dan Schoen
Photo by Tom Olmscheid/Workingpress Photo Agency


State Sen. Dan Schoen: "I … unequivocally deny that I ever made inappropriate contact with anyone."
Minnesota state Sen. Dan Schoen sexually harassed women involved in state politics while serving as a DFL lawmaker, according to multiple women who have spoken to MinnPost. Schoen, currently a first-term senator from St. Paul Park, previously served two terms in the House. He also works as a paramedic and police officer in Cottage Grove.

The women describe behavior by Schoen that ranges from persistent and unwanted invitations to meet to physically grabbing a woman from behind. One woman, who asked to not be identified, said he sent her a photo of male genitalia via Snapchat.

Schoen, who was presented with the allegations in a meeting with MinnPost, was aware of each incident but said in a subsequent statement that the allegations are “either completely false or have been taken far out of context. It was never my intention to leave the impression I was making an inappropriate advance on anyone. I feel terrible that someone may have a different interpretation of an encounter, but that is the absolute truth. I also unequivocally deny that I ever made inappropriate contact with anyone.”


“Despite this, if any of my actions or words have ever made another person feel uncomfortable or harassed, I deeply regret it and truly apologize,” Schoen continued. “This is not who I am nor is it the person I would want anyone to feel I am.”

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MinnPost photo by Briana Bierschbach
Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk


But DFL Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, after being told about the allegations and talking with Schoen, called for him to resign from his seat in the Legislature. “These victims’ allegations are sobering and disturbing. Sen. Schoen’s actions, even with additional context, were inappropriate and do not meet the standards for behavior of a state legislator,” Bakk said in a statement. “I have discussed these allegations with my leadership team and we are united in our call for Sen. Dan Schoen to apologize, step aside, and seek care to address these actions.”

As of late Wednesday evening, Schoen said he had no intention of resigning.

‘That’s a good door-knocking ass’

Among the women to step forward to report their experience with Schoen is Lindsey Port. In August of 2015, Port was a first-time DFL legislative candidate when she went to an event in downtown Minneapolis to mingle with fellow candidates. The Democratic National Committee was hosting three days of meetings in Minneapolis, and a year ahead of the presidential election, Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley were expected to show up and shake hands with activists from across the country.

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Lindsey Port

Port, a small-business owner, had recently announced her plans to run for a state House seat in the Burnsville area. At the DNC event, she was chatting with other candidates and state legislators about her busy summer knocking on doors — a common campaign activity — when Schoen, then a representative in the House, stepped back to look at her from behind. “‘I can tell when a candidate is doing a good job knocking on doors by checking out their ass,’” Port says Schoen told her. “He said, ‘Yep, looks like you’re doing a good job.’”

The group quickly moved on to other topics, but about 15 minutes later, Port recalled, O’Malley showed up at the event and she made her way over to meet him. Right as she was about to greet O’Malley, Schoen came up from behind her and grabbed her buttocks. According to Port, Schoen then said: “Yep, yep, that’s a good door-knocking ass.”

After the incident, Port says she was initially uncomfortable talking about what happened. “I was new in politics. This was my first time running, or being anything other than a volunteer,” she said. “I already was getting a lot of, ‘Oh, your race is going to be super targeted, you’re in one of the most targeted districts, it will be very high profile, be very careful and make sure everything looks great and you’re doing all the right things.’ I was very concerned that it would become a reason for the party not to target me if I spoke out against him. Or that it would just be, ‘She was the girl who can’t take a joke,’ and that would be the story.”

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MinnPost photo by Bill Kelley
State Rep. Erin Murphy


But since she was running for a seat in the same chamber as Schoen, Port saw him as a potential colleague, even if she wasn’t in the House yet. Two weeks later, she reported the incident to DFL Rep. Erin Murphy, who was then the deputy minority leader of the Minnesota House. Murphy said she reported the incident to the executive director of the House DFL caucus. After that, it became a personnel issue and she wasn’t privy to what happened next, Murphy said. The results of that complaint are not public under state law.

“I reported it and then I went back to Lindsey,” Murphy told MinnPost. “A guiding principle to me in a situation like this is to let the person that is impacted guide how and when she wants to tell that part of her story. She has made a decision to tell this story now. I think that is brave on her part and I have said all along that when she decided — if she decided — to tell this story that I would be there to support her as a friend.”

Others report experiences with lawmaker

Port is not the only woman who has come forward with stories about Schoen.

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MinnPost photo by Kristoffer Tigue
State Rep. Erin Maye Quade


Rep. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, said she also had an unsettling experience with the lawmaker. It was December of 2015, shortly after Jamar Clark was shot and killed by a Minneapolis Police officer, and protesters were occupying the street’s around North Minneapolis’ 4th Precinct police station. Maye Quade, who was working for U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison at the time, had been spending a lot of time at the occupation. On the day when several protesters were shot, Schoen started sending her text messages.

Maye Quade had just become a candidate for the state House, and had never met Schoen, she said, but he nevertheless offered up his advice about how to handle the situation at the 4th Precinct. “Be careful about posting anything about BLM and if you want a police officer’s side of this, feel free to ask,” Maye Quade said Schoen texted.

He then asked her multiple times if she wanted to meet and have a drink and talk about it. Maye Quade said she respectfully declined.

Later that same evening, Schoen texted her again, this time suggesting she should come over, telling her his children weren’t home. She thought the messages were strange but didn’t think much of the invitation until she got another text that was “clearly meant for someone else.” It said, “'I almost got her. Working on her pretty hard, but I almost got her,'” according to Maye Quade. “My blood went cold.”

Maye Quade took a screenshot of the text and, like Port, reported it to Murphy, who asked if Maye Quade wanted her to do something about it. Maye Quade decided to not go further with it at the time, saying: “How do you report a feeling? That could be explained in any way, shape or form. After that, I’ve avoided him like the plague.”


‘We need a better process’

The allegations against Schoen come in the wake of dozens of stories about sexual harassment and assault at the hands of powerful and well-known men in various high-profile positions — an outpouring that was catalyzed with allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

Those stories led to a social media campaign, #MeToo, that has encouraged women to share their experiences with harassment, offering revelations that have upended various industries and institutions across the country. State houses throughout the U.S. have been at the center of some of the most prominent allegations, stories involving sexual harassment and assault at the hands of lawmakers, lobbyists and people who work on campaigns.

The Minnesota House and Senate have sexual harassment policies that cover both legislators and employees. Legislators go through a sexual harassment training after they are elected, and new employees are required to take harassment and discrimination training when they are hired and every five years thereafter. Temporary employees go through training every other year.

“One of the key elements of sexual harassment is that the behavior is UNWELCOME,” reads the House policy. “Sexual conduct or communications that might be welcome to you may be unwelcome to another. Sexual conduct or communications that might have been welcome between two individuals at one time may become unwelcome at a later time.”

The Legislature’s policies include procedures for reporting and working through a sexual harassment complaint. According to the policy, possible remedies for sexual harassment involving an employee include: “an apology, direction to stop the offensive behavior, counseling or training, oral warning, written warning, transfer to another department, suspension with or without pay, or termination.”

But when it comes to a member of the House or Senate, who hold election certificates, things become less clear. In that case, the House policy simply says it will be handled by “leadership.” “I think the culture is the same as it is in a lot of places, except that we don’t have a natural recourse,” Maye Quade said. “Ultimately, it’s the voter’s decision.”

Several women said there’s fear around reporting incidents of sexual harassment in St. Paul, where a sitting legislator could retaliate against another legislator by trying to block legislation they’re working on. In campaign work, women worry they won’t get hired for campaign jobs, or their own races may not be taken seriously. Shortly after she was elected last fall and as the 2017 session was ramping up, DFL Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn said she was warned by two lobbyists about Schoen. “You know about Dan Schoen, right?” Becker-Finn says she was told. “‘Just be really careful.’ This wasn’t just a one-time thing. This is clearly a pattern that people are aware of.”

When it comes to reporting incidents by lawmakers, it should be, “here are the rules and this is what will happen to you if you break those rules,” said Becker-Finn.“That isn’t how it works. It really is putting the onus back on the person who has been victimized to figure it out, which puts you on the hot seat if someone should be upset. Clearly, we need a better process. That’s clear to everybody.”
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:30 pm

Hope Solo accuses Sepp Blatter of sexual assault at awards ceremony
by David Conn and Nelson Marques
Friday 10 November 2017 15.30 EST Last modified on Friday 10 November 2017 17.10 EST

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• USA goalkeeper says assault happened at Fifa’s Ballon d’Or awards in 2013
• Blatter calls allegation ‘ridiculous’ in denial issued via his spokesman

Image
Hope Solo and Sepp Blatter at the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony in 2013, at which the USA goalkeeper claims she had the former Fifa president ‘grab my ass’. Photograph: Christof Koepsel/Getty Images

The former Fifa president Sepp Blatter has been accused by Hope Solo, the USA women’s football team goalkeeper, of having sexually assaulted her at Fifa’s Ballon d’Or awards ceremony in January 2013.

In an interview with the Portuguese newspaper Expresso, being published on Saturday, Solo, 36, claimed she “had Sepp Blatter grab my ass” at the glittering presentation of Fifa’s annual football awards for achievement during 2012. Solo presented the Fifa women’s world player of the year award on stage alongside Blatter, to her colleague on the USA team that had won the gold medal at the London Olympics, the striker Abby Wambach.

Blatter, contacted via his spokesman, responded to Solo’s recollection by denying that the incident took place. “This allegation is ridiculous,” he said.

On the official Fifa film of the event, which was hosted by the Dutch football legend Ruud Gullit and the broadcaster Kay Murray, Solo was shown coming on to the stage with Blatter from behind a curtain at the back of the stage, to present the award to Wambach. Talking to Expresso about sexual harassment in general, which Solo says is “rampant” in sport, she claimed Blatter grabbed her behind seconds before they both went on stage: “I had Sepp Blatter grab my ass,” she said. “It was at the Ballon d’Or, right before I went on stage. [Sexual harassment] has been normalised.”

Expanding on the alleged incident on Friday, Solo told the Guardian that she had to compose herself immediately afterwards to concentrate on making her speech and giving the presentation to Wambach. “I was in shock and completely thrown off,” Solo said. “I had to quickly pull myself together to present my team-mate with the biggest award of her career and celebrate with her in that moment, so I completely shifted my focus to Abby.”


Solo, the most capped goalkeeper in US football history with 202 appearances, including in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic- and 2015 World Cup-winning teams, spoke out last month about sexual harassment in sport, following the revelations about the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. In an Instagram post Solo congratulated the women who had spoken out and wrote with the #MeToo hashtag: “For the past few days, I have been thinking about all the uncomfortable situations myself and/or my team-mates have experienced throughout the years with trainers, doctors, coaches, executives and even team-mates. From inappropriate comments, unwanted advances and grabs of the ass to coaches and [general managers] and even press officers speaking about players’ ‘tits’ and physical appearance, sexual harassment is rampant in the sports world. I always felt I’d ‘handled it’ and stood up for myself in those situations, but there were never any consequences for the perpetrators. That needs to change. Silence will not change the world!”

Solo expanded on those remarks to Expresso, when she appeared at the Web Summit event in Lisbon, to speak on a platform for equal pay and women’s equality. “For years, in the past, female players date and end up marrying their college coaches, which obviously a coach should not be doing, especially with a young player,” she said. “I’ve seen it not just with coaches. I’ve seen it with trainers, doctors and our press officers ... I’ve seen it amongst players in the locker room. It’s rampant.

“I’m actually very disappointed with the women who haven’t spoken about it in the sports world … I wish more women, especially in football, would speak against it, about the experiences, because some of those people still work [in football].”


Asked why she had not spoken out about the Blatter incident before, Solo said she always tries to confront directly people, including team-mates, when it happens. With Blatter, she said as it happened seconds before she went on stage, she was unable to confront him, did not have an opportunity to do so when they left the stage and has never seen him since.

Blatter, 81, won five elections as president of Fifa from 1998 until 2015, until he was banned by the organisation for ethics breaches relating to a 2m CHF payment made to the then Uefa president Michel Platini in 2011. Over his years he faced criticism for a series of sexist remarks, including a suggestion in 2004 that female players could wear “tighter shorts” like “they do in volleyball” to make the game more appealing to a male audience. In 2013, he called a female candidate for Fifa’s executive committee “good, and good looking”. Days later, when congratulating the new female members of the executive committee, he said: “Are there ladies in the room? Say something! You are always speaking at home, now you can speak here.”

Solo has played for the US national team since 2000, although she has not appeared since last year’s Olympics in Rio because of a shoulder injury and a six-month suspension imposed by the US soccer federation. She was banned after accusing the Swedish team of a defensive performance and referring to them as “a bunch of cowards” after they beat USA in the quarter-finals, a comment she later retracted and apologised for.

She told the Guardian she believes sexual harassment in sport must be dealt with: “While in this instance it was Sepp Blatter, who was the most powerful man in football at the time, sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour are rampant at every level in women’s sport and it needs to stop.”
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:41 pm

Spreadsheet Detailing Abuse by Harvey Weinstein's Accusers
Accessed November 10, 2017

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/ ... I/htmlview

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


1
YEAR / AGE / NAME / PLACE / VOCATION / ACTION / STORY / COST (financial) / OTHERS INVOLVED / LAWYER / CONTACT
2
1979 Wende Walsh Buffalo Waitress ASSAULT Begged for a ride home, sexually assualted her in car. Showed up at her home 2 nights later, prevented access by landlord.
3
1980 Paula Wachowiak Buffalo Employee HARASSED Exposed himself to her in 1980. Weinstein answered the door wearing nothing but a hand towel. He dropped the towel, took the folder, and eventually asked her to give him a massage. She refused, but Weinstein persisted, telling her “what a fantastic opportunity it was for her to be part of this project.” He later bragged to her, “So, was seeing me naked the highlight of your internship?”
4
1982 Lysette Anthony London Actor RAPE The pair became friends and one evening she ended up at his rented house in London. “The next thing he was half undressed and grabbed her. She fled. Weinstein began stalking her and turning up at her house uninvited and unannounced. Weinstein turned up at her flat in Chelsea at about 10am. He pushed her inside, rammed her up against a coat rack, trying to kiss and shove her inside. She was raped by Weinstein in the late 1980s in her home in London.
5
1984 20 Tomi Ann Roberts Actor HARASSED Set up an audition at his hotel, Weinstein calmly explained her that she would at least have to take her top off, this would demonstrate to him that she wasn’t going to be shy about doing so in front of the cameras. The movie was likely to have topless scenes. While he was nude in the bath he asked her to get naked.
6
1984 Unnamed Film Crew Employee RAPE A young female crew member came to the office of lead producer Alan Brewer, an old high school friend of Harvey’s from Queens, and started crying.Weinstein had asked her to come to his hotel room, ostensibly for work reasons, she told Brewer, but then kissed her. She resisted. Weinstein overpowered her. He forced her on the bed and attempted to perform oral sex on her. Eventually, she got him to stop.Brewer asked if she wanted to file a police report. (Another crew member heard the woman’s account separately at the time, and corroborated Brewer’s memories.) No, she said, shaking. She wanted to keep the job — but she wanted the co-director to stay away from her.
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1988 22 Lisa Rose London - Savoy Hotel Employee HARASSED She was 22 when she got an admin job at the London office of Miramax colleagues had warned her about Weinstein’s reputation. It happened around six weeks after she began working at Miramax. Weinstein was in town for a couple of days and Lisa was sent to work from the Savoy where he was staying. I was told he’d answer the door in a towel and would ask me for a massage. I was told to say no, to ignore him, and to walk away so I didn’t get too close. Events unfolded exactly as predicted. “I was alone in the room with Harvey, and he asked me to rub his back,” says Lisa. “But because I’d been forewarned, I said no and immediately moved to a suite room from where I could see the door. He huffed a bit and said, ‘well, other people give me a massage’, but he didn’t touch me. When I talked about it afterwards, people just giggled really. Or said things like, ‘well, that sort of thing just goes on.’’
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1989 Heather Kerr Actor ASSAULT During a private meeting, he asked her if she was good,”She told him about her training and acting experience and he said, ‘No. I need to know if you’re good.’ He said if he was going to introduce her around town, he needed to know if she was ‘good.’ He kept repeating that word.While she was sitting on a couch with Weinstein, he unzipped his pants, pulled out his penis, grabbed her hand, forced it onto his organ, and held it there.“He said this is how things work in Hollywood and all actresses who’d made it, did it this way,”He exposed himself and forced her to touch him . She was “terrified” as a result and quit pursuing a career as an actress shortly after the incident. Career
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1990 22 Sophie Dix London - Savoy Hotel Actor ASSAULT She was on the brink of a career in the British film industry in the 1990s when her trajectory was “massively cut down” after a sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein in a London hotel.she was invited up his room at the Savoy hotel “to watch some rushes”Once in the hotel room, “all the alarm bells starting ringing” and “within a heartbeat” she found herself pushed on the bed with him “tugging at her clothes” She managed to bolt to the bathroom and after some time in hiding opted to make an escape. She opened the door and found him facing her “standing there masturbating”. The incident left her traumatised and depressed. She was in bed for six months” and concluded that the movies were not for her.“I decided if this what being an actress is like, I don’t want it,” she said. Career
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1990 17 Kate Beckinsale London - Savoy Hotel Actor HARASSED She was called to meet Harvey Weinstein at the Savoy Hotel. She assumed it would be in a conference room .The reception desk told her to go up to his room. He greeted her wearing a robe, it did not cross her mind that this older, unattractive man would expect her to have any sexual interest in him.” After declining alcohol and announcing she had school in the morning, she left.
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1990 Tara Subkoff Actor HARASSED Asked her to sit on his lap at a party when he had an erection, asked her to come outside with him and more. It was implied that if she did not comply with doing what he asked her to do that she would not get the role that she had already been informally offered. She laughed in his face , she was in shock and uncomfortable. She left the party right after that.” Her decision to stand up to Weinstein ultimately end up costing her career. Career
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1990 Rosanna Arquette Los Angeles - Beverly Hills Hotel Actor ASSAULT She rejected Weinstein's advances in a hotel room. One evening in the early '90s, she agreed to meet Weinstein for dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel to look at a new script, but was told to meet him upstairs in his hotel room. Weinstein opened the door wearing a bathrobe, and after telling her he needed a massage, grabbed her hand. The incident escalated when, after yanking her hand away, he grabbed it again and pulled it towards his visibly erect penis. She said “I will never do that,Weinstein told her she was making a mistake for rejecting him. Her career did suffer, though she did have a small role in Weinstein's Pulp Fiction.He made things very difficult for me for years,” she lost a role because of him. Career
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1990 Louise Godbold Nonprofit Director ASSAULT She was taken on an “office tour that became an occasion to trap her in an empty meeting room, and begging for a massage, put his hands on her shoulders.She got away. Weinstein later contacted the friend who introduced Godbold to him to make sure that she would not “make a complaint about his behaviour.”
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Unnamed Assistant Employee
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1990 Unnamed Assistant Employee reached deal
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1990 Paula Williams Los Angeles Model ASSAULT Williams said Weinstein invited her to a party at his house. When she arrived it was only him. Within minutes of him opening champagne he exposed himself to her and she ran out.
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1991 Laura Madden Employee HARASSED Former assistant, propositioned her for massages during the 1990s.
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1991 19 Jessica Hynes Actor ASSAULT She lost out on a film when she refused to do a screen test in a bikini for Weinstein & lost the job. Career
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1992 Unnamed London London
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1992 Sean Young Actor ASSAULT Weinstein exposed himself to her while working on the film “Love Crimes,” which was produced by Miramax. He pulled out his penis, in order to shock her. Her response was, ‘You know, Harvey, I don’t really think you should be pulling that thing out, it’s not very pretty,'” Young recalled. “She left and never had another meeting with him again, She said she got a bad reputation for saying no. “The minute you actually stand up for yourself in Hollywood, you’re the crazy one,” she said. Career
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1993 23 Katherine Kendall NYC - His apt Actor ASSAULT Tricked her into a solo cinema trip, took her back to his apartment where he undressed and asked her to massage him. Chased her and asked her to show him her breasts
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1994 22 Gwyneth Paltrow Actor ASSAULT Suggested that she gave him a massage in his hotel room
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1994 26 Florence Darel Actor ASSAULT Propositioned her for sex when his wife was in the room next door.
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1995 Mira Sorvino NYC Actor ASSAULT Massaged her shoulders, begin chasing her around. Showed up at her house uninvited.
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1995 Liza Campbell Writer ASSAULT She got a call from Weinstein with a “godsend” job as a freelance script reader for Miramax. After she critiqued scripts for Shakespeare in Love and The Usual Suspects, the scripts abruptly stopped coming, “A few months on, another call from Weinstein arrived, asking her how work was going,” she told him everything had stuttered to a halt. He said: ‘You better come to my hotel and we’ll sort this out. She was greeted by an assistant and there were others in the suite when she arrived, she recalled that they all “vanished.” He sat down, chatted for a few minutes and then excused himself and left the room through a far door, She assumed he had gone for a pee, she could hear him moving around and suddenly the sound of bath taps running. ‘What do you say we both jump in the bath?’ he hollered. Weinstein continued, “Come on, it’ll be fun. We can drink champagne. You can soap me — whaddaya say?She escaped the room. Career
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1992 and 1995
Annabella Sciorra Her apt and Cannes - Hotel Du Cap Actor RAPE Sciorra met Weinstein in the 90’s. Her agent introduced them at a party in Los Angeles. Weinstein was friendly,and gave her a ride home , they talked about their shared love of film. Several months later, Sciorra called Weinstein about a project ,he said that he wanted to make the film and to start filming with her in a leading role . He wanted her to start work immediately after she finished two back-to-back shoots. She told him she couldn’t do it t, he then threatened to sue her .
Harvey Weinstein raped her in the 1990s,then forcibly performed oral sex on her, in her New York apartment and sexually harassed her for years later.
At one dinner, in New York, “Harvey was there and as she got up to leave he said, ‘Oh, I'll drop you off.’
In the car, Weinstein said goodbye to her and she went upstairs to her apartment. She was alone and getting ready for bed when a few minutes later she heard a knock on the door. She opens the door a crack to see who it was. And he pushed the door open and walked in like it was his apartment, like he owned the place, and started unbuttoning his shirt. He circled the apartment; it appeared that he was checking whether anyone else was there.
Then Weinstein grabbed her and shoved her onto the bed, and he got on top of her. She struggled , kicked and yelled .He locked her arms over her head with one hand and forced sexual intercourse on her. When he was done, he ejaculated on her leg, and on her nightgown He said, ‘I have impeccable timing,’ and then he said, ‘This is for you.’ ” he then attempted to perform oral sex on her. She struggled, but she had very little strength , her body started to shake violently. She later blamed herself for opening her door . She grew depressed and lost weight.
She never spoke to the police.
The alleged rape occurred sometime around 1992, when Sciorra filmed “The Night We Never Met,” which was backed by Miramax, Weinstein’s then company.
Several years later Weinstein again pursued her with unwanted sexual advances .In 1995, she was in London shooting “The Innocent Sleep,” which Weinstein did not produce.
Weinstein began calling her hotel , he sent cars to the hotel and one night pounded on her room door. She asked the film producer to find her another place to stay.
Similar incidents occurred over the next few years, the worst in May 1997 when Sciorra found out Weinstein was in the room next to hers at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc.
Early one morning, while she was still asleep, there was a knock on the door. Groggy, and thinking she must have forgotten about an early hair-and-makeup call, she opened the door. “There’s Harvey in his underwear, holding a bottle of baby oil in one hand and a tape, a movie, in the other,” she recalled. She ran from Weinstein. He was closing in really quickly, and she pressed all the call buttons for valet service and room service. She kept pressing all of them until someone showed up. Weinstein retreated, , when hotel staff arrived.
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1996 24 Judith Godreche Cannes - Hotel Du Cap Actor ASSAULT Invited her to his hotel suite, asked her for a massage, pressed against her and pulled off her sweater.
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1997 25 Claire Forlani Peninsula Hotel Actor ASSAULT Suggested a massage, tried to kiss her in two separate meetings.
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1997 20 Ashley Judd Actor ASSAULT Invited her to his hotel, appeared in bathrobe and asked if he could give her a massage or if she could watch him shower
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1997 21 Asia Argento Cannes - Hotel Du Cap Actor RAPE She was brought to a party by Fabrizio Lombardo but ended up alone in a room she was left there by Lombardo on her own with Weinstein. He raped her at the Eden Roc Hotel in Cannes. She was stalked by Weinstein for 5 years after the assault. Career Lombardo
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1997 Rose McGowan Actor RAPE Raped her, she had to have 3 surgeries on her wrist and elbow. Made her sign an NDA Career
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1998 24 Zoë Brock Cannes - Hotel Du Cap Model ASSAULT Weinstein and his associates offered to drive her, and although she thought she was staying with the larger group, she ended up with Weinstein and just a few others in his room at the Hôtel du Cap, where they opened a bottle of champagne No one else showed up and the few remaining people left. Took his clothes off and asked her for a massage, She ran into the bathroom and locked the door. He chased her naked and banged on the door with his fists, pleading with her to come out. Eventually, Weinstein promised to put his clothes on,when she came out of the bathroom, he was crying and saying she rejected him because he was fat. He and an assistant drove her to another hotel where she slept the night. Career Fabrizio Lombardo, Jean Luc Brunel, Manolo, Vittorio Zeviani, Rick Schwartz Gloria Allred
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1998 Zelda Perkins Employee HARASSED Signed a NDA after a female colleague told her she had also been sexually harassed. Weinstein’s sexual abuse began on the first day she showed up for work: He would ask for massages, walk around hotel rooms naked and ask to be bathed.The two women sought damages and were awarded a sum of £250,000 ($330,500), split equally, but also signed a non-disclosure agreement, prohibiting them from discussing the allegations. SETTLED
34
1998 Angelina Jolie HARASSED Made unwanted advances
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1999 Marisa Coughlan HARASSED Requested a massage from her and suggested that she could become one of his ‘special friends’, continued to proposition her with dates
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2000 24 Melissa Sagemiller Actor ASSAULT Refused to let her leave until she kissed him, kidnapped her bags so she had to fly on his private plane.
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2000 Erika Rosenbaum Actor ASSAULT Masturbated behind her whilst holding her neck, made 3 separate aggressive sexual advances in 3 separate meetings.
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2000 Heather Graham Actor HARASSED Implied she had to have sex with him to get a movie role, she was never hired for a Weinstein film. Career
39
2000 Morgan Shanahan Employee HARASSED Described the company as being like a cult, describing the internal atmosphere as sadistic and another assistant saying Weinstein hurled a glass picture frame at her in the midst of an argument. Paul Webster, who was head of production at Miramax between 1995 and 1997, said he believed that the “sex allegations are just the particularly rancid tip of the iceberg” at the company. Miramax was absolutely a cult, the cult of Harvey, and that’s how he got away with his behaviour for so long,” said Webster. “It was crude but very effective. People became brainwashed, some people had nervous breakdowns. People would be hired and then destroyed for no apparent reason, and then their careers and lives would be in tatters.” He added: “Everything Harvey did was all about manipulation and fear. He was a massive bully. He would flatter people, get the best out of them and then dump on them really, really hard to destroy them. It was this whole thing of breaking people down so you could build them up in your own image.”Webster admitted that Weinstein’s predatory behaviour towards young women was common knowledge but that the culture of Miramax led them to “compartmentalise it”. “it’s that pattern of bullying behaviour combined with the sex stuff. I can say now I did think he was a rapist.” Other former Miramax employees described how their years working at the company had left them with post-traumatic stress disorder. Friends would ask him what it was like to work at Miramax , he would always tell them that it’s kind of like telling people you fell down the stairs,” said Jesse Berdinka, a former US marine who worked at Miramax for seven years , the “mental weight” of the “sadistic” experience would affect the rest of his life. It wasn’t just sexual abuse. Everyone got abused. It didn’t really matter how high up you were, you got the same treatment,” After one meeting in 2001, Weinstein was so abusive that the executive was told by her boss that she would not have to attend another meeting with him for a year. Career
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2000 18 Romola Garai Actor HARASSED Auditioned her wearing a bathrobe.She described the encounter as humiliating and “an abuse of power”.
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2000 21 Larissa Gomes Actor ASSAULT She was a 21-year-old actress when she was working on the Toronto set of “Get Over It,” a Miramax-produced teen movie . Weinstein approached her and asked for her opinion about the production, and mentioned multiple films his company shoots in Canada each year. .Weinstein asked her for her personal number through an assistant, then set up a breakfast meeting at his hotel. The first meeting was professional, after which he asked to meet again in his hotel room, this time in the early evening, After plopping down a stack of scripts in front of her that he said he wanted her to read, he went into his bedroom and asked her to come in. Weinstein was on his bed, saying he had a headache. He asked her to lie down with him and asked her to take her shirt off so he could see her breasts, She left the room, and he followed in a bathrobe and started massaging her shoulders and neck despite her saying she didn’t want it. He would not stop. He just kept pushing his hands close to her chest forcefully until she finally was able to get up and away from him, Weinstein told her, “You know, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd were exactly where you are at one point. Look at them now,”she made an excuse to leave at that point, and Weinstein, at the door, grabbed her and tried to kiss her on the lips. She said she turned her head, and he sneered. She never saw or spoke to him again. She never got over her encounter with Weinstein.
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2000 Daryl Hannah Cannes - Hotel Du Cap Actor HARASSED She first met him in Cannes before she appeared in Kill Bill Vol 1, he saw her at the reception of The Cap hotel asked for her room number so that he could call to schedule a meeting. She was in her room in pyjamas getting ready for bed when when the phone calls start incessantly he then proceeded to pound on her door , she saw him trough the peephole and was so frightened that she had to leave her room via an exterior door. She spent the night in the make-up artist room. The next evening the knocking started against she pushed the dresser in front of the door and the next morning before she left HW was standing outside the hotel, waiting for her , she left quickly to the airport . A few years later while promoting Kill Bill 2 in Rome for the Italian premiere , she and the rest of the cast were scheduled to leave next morning on a private plane belonging to Miramax company . After the film reception in her suite at the Hasller hotel she was with Steeve Daviault watching a movie when Weinstein entered , he had a Key to the room . He came in like a raging bull into the bedroom. if the make up artist wasn't in the room things would have had a dramatic outcome . When she asked what he was doing he became angry , told her to get dressed to attend a party downstairs and stormed off. there was NO party downstairs.when she asked him what was happening he said “ Are your tits real, ?” then asked if he could feel them. She replied “NO you can’t” , to which he replied “ At least Flash them”, she said “ Fuck off Harvey” , sure enough after this she faced repercussions immediately , next morning the Miramax plane left without her , her flights to the french film premiere were cancelled , as was her room in Cannes and her make up artist for the event. She called everybody , including her manager, producer on the film and Quentin Tarantino, she called all the powers that be and told them what happened . This was the repercussion , she feared retaliation even more , she was scared to loose everything if she went further with revealing what had happened .
43
2000 Unnamed Toronto Toronto Actor / Model ASSAULT A Toronto actress and model is launching a $4-million lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein, claiming he sexually assaulted her twice in 2000 when she was in her 20s and starring in her first small movie role. In addition to Weinstein, Doe is also suing Schneeweiss, vice president of Production and Development, Film and Television, at The Weinstein Company, claiming she knew Weinstein preyed on women and had facilitated the attacks. She is also suing Miramax and its corporate owner at the time, The Walt Disney Company.
44
2002 Actor HARASSED During a meeting a female producer asked: "How’s your Harvey-meter?” Because Harvey would like to sign off personally on the lead roles for this,” she continued. So obviously, if you’re on good terms… well, you know.” She smiles.She set up a meeting in his hotel room.She felt uncomfortable , she tells him “My boyfriend screen tested for you last night” He said “I know, he did a great job” He then asked to touch her breasts.She said “You’re so silly” he then responded “I want to touch your ass” She was nervous , told him she had a boyfriend and that there were people around but he replied “It doesn't matter, go to the bathroom , I’ll follow you “she panicked and told him”Well maybe I see you in the bathroom”and disappeared . He saw her disappear and he goes: “ I hope it all works out for your boyfriend “ She saw him again the next night, and decides to go up to him to make sure she hasn’t messed up her boyfriend’s chances.She walked up to him and he looked at her like if he had never seen her before. She said “It is me Alice “Weinstein replies : “Do I know you?” She was never again considered for a Weinstein film, and neither was her boyfriend . Career Jean Luc
45
2002 Natalie Mendoza HARASSED Mendoza refers to a groping incident around 2002, when she was shooting “The Great Raid,” the first of three films she had under a three-picture deal withMiramax.”I might have told Mr Weinstein mid-script ‘meeting’ after he sent his assistant out that I’d punch him if he didn’t take his hands off me,” she wrote., I knew my first film would be my last
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2003 25 Trish Goff NYC - Tribecca Grill Model ASSAULT Groping incident at a lunch, asked her about her love life and put his hands of her legs, grabbed her breasts and face, tried to kiss her
47
2003 Samantha Panagrosso Cannes Model ASSAULT Weinstein boasted he had slept with several A-list actresses.Turned up in her cabin when she declined dinner , told him she was ill , he got his assistant to get medicine , came with baby oil and medicine to her cabin wanting to massage her she said no but he kept insisting , he then asked for a massage instead , she refused but he didn't give up then pulled at her bathrobe and wanted to see her breast , she had to physically push him out of the room. In the pool the previous day he groped her between her legs and told her that if she resisted he would get the young model who was with them in the pool to come up for a “ screen-test” she tried warning her sister who was there with her , but he managed to manipulate the situation to get the young girl in his room alone.
48
2003 24 Dawn Dunning Actor HARASSED Found him alone in a bathrobe, told her she could only sign contracts for his next 3 films if she had 3 way sex with him
49
2004 Lucia Evans/Stoller RAPE Forced her to perform oral sex on him, in his office. a complaint was “never filed” regarding the assault, but police are now investigating what happened.
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2004 Katya Mtsitouridze ASSAULT Greeted her in a bathroom, told her his masseuse was late and that they could have fun without her, and that she give him a massage.
51
2004 Ashley Matthau Puerto Rico Dancer ASSAULT She met Weinstein while she was filming Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights in 2004. When he invited her back to his hotel for a meeting, he fondled her and masturbated on top of her. Matthau entered into a confidential settlement with Weinstein for $100,000 after a lawyer intimidated her when she tried to report her alleged encounter with Weinstein.
52
2005 Lena Headey Actor HARASSED Spoke to her inappropriately, reacted angrily when she refused his advances, and walked her to the hotel exit holding her arm tightly.
53
2005 Connie Nielson Actor ASSAULT Weinstein put his hand on her thigh at the premiere of the 2005 film The Great Raid. She warned a young co-star not to take Harvey up on his invitations to drinks unless the whole group was there.She had no issues on the film, nor when she met Harvey at social events around the world,” but was shocked when at the premiere he touched her while her boyfriend and brother were present.
54
2006 Mimi Haleyi RAPE Weinstein “orally forced himself” on her after pinning her on to a bed and removing her tampon.
55
2007 30's Anonymous Cannes Majestic Actor RAPE Weinstein stalked her and then bullied and coerced oral sex then raped her in his office at Majestic Hotel. Made her shower after to destroy DNA. Called after to see if she was okay. career
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2007 Lauren Sivan NYC Journalist ASSAULT Trapped her in a closed restaurant, attempted to kiss her and masturbated in front of her into a plant pot, 2007.
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2007 30's Juliana de Paula NYC - his Crosby St Apt Studio manager ASSAULT Weinstein groped her and forced her to kiss other models at his New York loft 10 years ago. She added that when she tried to leave, he chased her around naked, and she had to fight him off with broken glass. "He looked at her and he started to laugh," Juliana witnessed three other women be raped that night
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2007 NYC - his Crosby St Apt RAPE Juliana witnessed three other women be raped that night
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2007 NYC - his Crosby St Apt RAPE Juliana witnessed three other women be raped that night
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2007 NYC - his Crosby St Apt RAPE Juliana witnessed three other women be raped that night
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2008 Sarah Ann Masse Actor HARASSED Hugged her in his underwear and said that he loved her.
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2008 Louisette Geiss Actor ASSAULT Masturbated in front of her whilst she made a pitch, grabbed her forearm and pleaded that she watched, 2008.
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2008 Vu Thu Phoung HARASSED Greeted her in a towel and offered to show her how to perform sex scenes.
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2008 Natassia Malthe London - Sanderson Hotel Actor RAPE Natassia Malthe was raped by Harvey Weinstein in 2008 at the Sanderson Hotel in London following the BAFTA Awards He then forced himself on the 98lbs actress and began having intercourse without a condom despite her pleas to stop .She dropped out of the movie however after Weinstein began getting oral sex from an assistant at a meeting and asked her to join them in a threesome.
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2010 Paz De La huerta NYC her apartment Actor RAPE x 2 Weinstein offered actress a ride home after Standard Highline meeting and raped her. The second rape occurred when he showed up at her home the same year. depression, drinking, career
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2010 Emma De Caunes Actor ASSAULT Disappeared into his hotel bathroom, came out naked with an erection and demanded she lie on the bed
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2010 Lupita Nyongo Actor ASSAULT Several encounters, offered to help her career in exchange for sex, asked if he could massage her, and asked if he could take off his trousers
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2010 Eva Green Actor ASSAULT She had to physically push him off of her.
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2010 32 Myleene Klass HARASSED Offered her a sex contract
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2010 Dominique Huett Actor RAPE Lured in hotel room and raped her She is now suing HW for 5 Million $.
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2010 29 Juls Bindi Massage Therapist ASSAULT Bindi was a 29-year-old massage therapist when she says Weinstein arranged for an appointment with her. As she began the massage, she said Weinstein stopped her and asked her about his genitals. Stunned, Bindi stepped back and ran into the bathroom, but Weinstein allegedly followed her and proceeded to masturbate in front of her. When she tried to get by him, Bindi said “he grabbed me, starting groping on my chest, and he kept going.” She pushed him away and left the room.
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2010 Ivanna Lowell ASSAULT She exposed Harvey Weinstein in her memoir seven years ago - he blasted her for making him "look like a pervert” He chased her around a desk and showed up at her home unannounced in "Why Not Say What Happened?” Weinstein slammed her when the book was first published in 2010, saying: "When my book was first published, Harvey called me up, screaming, and said that I made him look like a pervert. I replied ‘Yes, so?’
"He threatened to sue me, and then both Harvey and Bob called me a liar.”
In the memoir, Lowell describes how Weinstein arrived at her apartment one night while she was hanging out with a friend.
He then apparently barged in and asked for a massage. she said “The scene was comical: Harvey lying spread-eagle, dwarfing the bed like Gulliver pinned down by midgets, and [a friend] and I laughing nervously, still edging as far away as possible.”He left disappointed, leaving the two women to speculate about whether he had bribed Lowell’s doorman in order to be sent up unannounced.
Lowell admitted: “I left out a lot of sordid details because I still considered Bob a friend and I didn’t realise the extent and consequences of Harvey’s sickening ways.
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2011 Alexandra Demonceau Ritz Hotel PARIS Production Assistant HARASSED June 16, 2011 in the afternoon at the lounge of the Ritz. On one side there were two actresses and me and on the other side Harvey Weinstein with his french assistant and partner, a woman called Maeva. The meeting started and we were really surprised as HW didn’t seem to be interested at all about the movie we wanted to introduce to him. He was asking to the three of us questions in a very inquisitor way about our personal lives, where we came from etc ... I didn’t want to answer his questions and was always trying to come back to the film but that didn’t work. Harvey went towards me and told me he had « something » to say to me. He said goodbye to the two actresses that were with me. Maeva was gone. I found myself in the middle of the lobby of the Ritz with HW.
He then grabbed my two hands into his hands and put them on his chest at his height. As he was taller than me, my hands were almost higher than my head. He was squeezing my hands so strongly that I couldn’t move. He was acting like if it was a « romantic » position but it was clearly a dominant one. He then told me that I was pretty and that he wanted to hire me in his production company in New York. He added that he will tell Maeva to organize a screening of my film if after his dinner in Paris I will join him to his suite later on and spend a part of the night with him in order to have sex with him. I was shocked that he will never even consider the film if I didn’t accept his conditions. The sexual blackmail seemed totally usual to him and I was so devastated that no sound came out from my mouth. I didn’t know what to say, I was telling to myself « find something clever to say » but I had no idea.
As I was remaining silent, he asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said yes.He asked me if it was serious or if I could see other men meanwhile. I said “yes, it’s serious with my boyfriend”.
Then he released my hands and let me go saying : “Too bad. You’re missing the opportunity of your life.”People don’t realize how this sexual blackmail put women into a shitty position. In some way, because of him, I bear responsibility for having lost the opportunity of releasing the film. I bear responsibility towards all the actors, technicians that worked for that film.
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2011 Jessica Barth Actor ASSAULT Asked her to give him a massage whilst he was naked.
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2011 23 Caitanya Tan Hong Kong Actor HARASSED Tan, who was 23 then, attended the fifth Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong.She was just starting out as an actress.Tan and her friends bumped into Weinstein, a keynote speaker at the event, on the red carpet. He was with his entourage.Tan said her group went to take photos with Weinstein and he obliged. She only knew the producer-by name, and did not know about his background at that time.
However, after they parted, Tan said Weinstein returned and spoke to her, asking: “Hey, are you an actress?”
Tan said she was. According to Tan, Weinstein then asked her: “I have a couple of scripts with me, would you like to come to my room to read them?”
She said she thought that was really creepy and declined.
But as he walked away, he asked her: “Do you know who I am? Do you know I can make you very famous?”Tan also said she decided to share her own experience in light of the mounting allegations and increasing number of women speaking out against him.
She maintains she is not a victim.
“I’m not a victim because nothing happened, but the reason I shared it is because I think it’s important to report and speak out about it,”
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2011 22 Lacey Dorn NYC - Grammercy Park Hotel Actor ASSAULT She met Weinstein at a party for The Artist, and again at a Halloween party at Rose Bar in the Gramercy Park Hotel in 2011. There, he asked her for her email so they could discuss her career. When Dorn went to say good-bye to him, he allegedly grabbed her between her legs. “I was so naïve, I didn’t say anything. And he didn’t say anything either,” she told the Times. “I just got out of the party as fast as possible.”
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2012 Cara Delevingne Actor / Model ASSAULT Encouraged her to kiss another women in his hotel room, would not let her leave and tried to kiss her on the lips
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2012 Lea Seydoux Actor ASSAULT Tried to kiss her on the lips after a Paris fashion show, 2012.
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2013 20 Amber Anderson ASSAULT Private meeting, propositioned her with a personal relationship
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2013 Chelsea Skidmore ASSAULT Chelsea Skidmore says that she met Weinstein around 2013. She says she had at least four encounters with Weinstein in which, under the pretence of discussing business, he would expose himself or try to coerce her into getting physical with other women.
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2013 Unnamed Italian Actor - Model RAPE David Ring
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2013 Unnamed Los Angeles Los Angeles POLICE REPORT Los Angeles police say they are investigating after a second woman came forward to report criminal wrongdoing involving film mogul Harvey Weinstein. Los Angeles police are also investigating another report filed by an Italian actress who said she was raped by Weinstein in 2013. That investigation is still ongoing.
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2014 Emily Nestor Employee HARASSED Invited her to his hotel room, told her he would help her succeed if she accepted his advances.
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2014 Brit Marling Actor ASSAULT Touched and wanted a massage.
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2015 Unnamed Los Angeles LA POLICE REPORT The exact nature of the claims were not immediately clear. A law enforcement source described the alleged behavior as lewd acts. Los Angeles police spokesman Josh Rubenstein confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press on Wednesday. He says the incident occurred in 2015 but police declined to provide any other details.
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2015 22
Ambra Battilana Gutierrez
NYC Model ASSAULT Groped her breasts and attempted to put his hand up her skirt, she was aged 22. Informed the NYPD who had her wiretapped and released the tape , case was dismissed , although there was hardcore evidence.
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2015 Unamed Employee ASSAULT The Times obtained a memo written by a TWC employee named Lauren O’Connor that said in 2015 Weinstein pressured an unnamed female assistant to give him a massage while he was naked, leaving her “crying and distraught.”
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DATE UNKNOWN
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- Unamed Employee
90
- Minka Kelly Actor HARASSED Propositioned her to be his girlfriend.
91
- Angie Everhart Model ASSAULT Masturbated in front of her on a boat when she was in bed.
92
- Mia Kirshner Actor HARASSED Harassed her in a hotel room, he attempted to treat her “like chattel that could be purchased with the promise of work in exchange for being his disposable orifice.”“She had kept her experience with Harvey Weinstein a secret for a very long time. She said it felt it important to tell the truth and speak out against the sexual harassment her and others have endured.
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- Unnamed Mother w kids
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- Lauren O'Connor Employee HARASSED She sent an internal memo about the toxic environment created by his sexual harassment and misconduct.
95
- Giovanna Rei ASSAULT Got naked in front of her with oil & wanted a massage , she screamed and managed to run away, she menaced to sue him, he let her get away
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- Lina Esco Actor - Director HARASSED In 2010, Esco and Weinstein dined together and kept pressing her for a kiss. “He tried to insinuate that everything would be easier for me if she went along, Esco gave Weinstein a “very special thanks to” credit on her feminist film “Free the Nipple.”
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- Sarah Polley Actor - Director HARASSED Was pulled out of the photo shoot abruptly. The publicist said that they needed to be in Harvey Weinstein’s office in 20 minutes.When she got there, Mr. Weinstein wasted no time. He told her in front of her publicist and a co-worker beside him, that a famous star, a few years her senior, had once sat across from him in the chair she was in now. Because of his “very close relationship” with this actress, she had gone on to play leading roles and win awards. If he and her had that kind of “close relationship,” she could have a similar career. “That’s how it works,”he told her ; that meeting was almost 20 years ago.
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- "Sarah Smith" (Alias) Employee RAPE
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- Unamed RAPE She was raped , but hasn't spoken to anyone about it, not even her family.
100
1970's Hope Exiner D'amore Employee RAPE Worked for Weinstein’s concert promotion company, Harvey and Corky Productions.Weinstein raped her in a hotel room in the 1970s when they were in their 20s. After Exiner d’Amore’s alleged rape, she said Weinstein offered her credit cards for shopping sprees, but she declined and was later fired.
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1970's Cynthia Burr Actress RAPE She met Weinstein in a hotel for a meeting, where he tried to kiss her in an elevator, and then forced her to perform oral sex in a hallway.
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1980-90 Elizabeth Karlsen ? Weinstein had appeared naked in her bedroom, don't know the extent of what did happen, but there was an out-of-court settlement and she left the company. SETTLED
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1990-2000 30's Lauren Holly Actor HARASSED Meeting was set up between her and Weinstein at a hotel to talk about her future with his company , After entering the suite, she said that Weinstein dropped his robe, went into the bathroom, and began using the toilet.“He keeps the conversation going, he finishes, he turns on the shower, he gets in the shower. He’s continually talking to her, he’s in the shower washing himself. Leaning out, asking for responses.Weinstein left the shower, dried off, and began approaching her while still naked.he said she could use a massage,or maybe she could give him a massage.Weinstein began to threaten her, and that it would be a “bad decision” if she left the room. she “pushed him and ran.”
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1990-2000 Vana Barba HARASSED Her refusal to attend a private dinner with Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein cost her a Hollywood career. She was asked by an intermediary to go out for dinner with a producer she had never heard of, at the time. It was more of a demand rather than a polite invitation”, she declined the invitation. It cost her..Weinstein asked that she should immediately leave the country and that she should not be able to work in the US again.
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2010-15 Unnamed London Police report
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:55 pm

Actress Sean Young Alleges Harvey Weinstein Exposed Himself to Her
by Rebecca Rubin @rebeccaarubin Rebecca Rubin
October 20, 2017

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CREDIT: GREGORY PACE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

“Blade Runner” star Sean Young has come forward with sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein. The actress alleges Weinstein exposed himself to her while working on the 1992 film “Love Crimes,” which was produced by Weinstein’s former company, Miramax.

Young recounted the experience on the Dudley and Bob With Matt Show podcast in Austin, Texas. She said on set, she “personally experienced him pulling his you-know-what out of his pants in order to shock me.”

“My basic response was, ‘You know, Harvey, I don’t really think you should be pulling that thing out, it’s not very pretty,'” Young recalled. “And then leaving, and then never having another meeting with that guy again, because it was like, ‘What on earth?'”

She said she got a bad reputation for saying no. “The minute you actually stand up for yourself in Hollywood, you’re the crazy one,” she said.

Young also claimed she was harassed by Warren Beatty and was criticized at the time by Barbra Streisand for speaking out. When she auditioned for “The Mirror Has Two Faces,” she said Streisand told her it was “disgusting” she talked to the press.

“What I had said to the press was that I was harassed. That I was sexually harassed by Warren Beatty. And she told me she thought that was disgusting,” Young said.


Streisand denied Young’s claims in a statement to Variety. “I have no memory of ever having interviewed Sean Young. I do not condone the harassment of women under any circumstance,” she wrote.

Young joins dozens of women who have spoken out recently about sexual harassment or assault involving Weinstein. He is currently under investigation by the LAPD for charges of rape.
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Sat Nov 11, 2017 12:07 am

'Stand united': Weinstein accusers join forces to publish list of allegations: Women release Google doc presenting detailed summaries of more than 100 sexual misconduct allegations against producer: ‘There is strength in numbers’
by Sam Levin @SamTLevin
Tuesday 7 November 2017 18.09 EST Last modified on Wednesday 8 November 2017 10.47 EST

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A group of women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct have published a list of more than 100 allegations of harassment, abuse and rape, launching a campaign to “stand united” against the disgraced movie producer and any efforts to intimidate victims.

The women released a Google Doc with detailed summaries on Tuesday, one day after a New Yorker investigation alleged that Weinstein had deployed an “army of spies” to monitor and silence his accusers. The Hollywood mogul, according to the report, had hired private investigators to aggressively track actors and journalists in a highly sophisticated push to prevent the publication of a litany of sexual harassment and assault allegations.

Image
Zoë Brock. Composite: Getty

“There is strength in numbers,” Zoë Brock, a Weinstein accuser and model, told the Guardian. “I just want to empower all survivors of abuse, men and women, to feel that they are not alone, and to feel that together we can shine a light into the darkness where these predators hide.”

Brock – who accused Weinstein of making an unwanted sexual advance when she was 23 years old – posted the list on Twitter, alongside Asia Argento‏, an Italian actor and director who alleged that the producer assaulted her and has since become one of the most prominent voices as the fallout continues in Hollywood and beyond.

Asia Argento ✔@AsiaArgento
100+ women
assaulted/molested/harassed by #Weinstein. 18 women raped.
This is our updated list #NOSHAMEFIST https://tinyurl.com/ybq3ompo
1:14 PM - Nov 7, 2017
List
List YEAR, AGE, NAME, PLACE, VOCATION, ACTION, STORY, COST( financial), OTHERS INVOLVED, LAWYER, CONTACT 1980, Paula Wachowiak, Buffalo, Employee, HARASSED, Exposed himself to her in 1980. Weinstein...
docs.google.com


“Writing the list was horrifying,” said Samantha Panagrosso, a Paris-based model who has also accused Weinstein of assault. “There are not just all the famous people. There are so many other women and every other day, there are more.”

Panagrosso said in an interview on Tuesday that she had been working on the list for more than two weeks and had collaborated and communicated with Brock and Argento in the process. “Everybody is supporting each other. It’s very daunting … But we are really organized.”

We’re all survivors of Harvey and we’re doing our own investigation
-- Zoë Brock


The Weinstein allegations, first documented in a New York Times investigation last month, has rippled across the entertainment industry, leading to a steady stream of accusations against the producer and other prominent figures, including the director James Toback and the actor Kevin Spacey. The controversies have also inspired women to speak up about sexual misconduct in a number of other sectors, with powerful men losing their jobs in media, broadcasting, the art world, publishing and government.

Weinstein, who was fired from his company and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is facing multiple criminal investigations, and the New York City police department has said it is pursuing an arrest warrant in connection with a “credible” rape allegation.

The Google document, promoted with the hashtag #NoShameFist, offers a summary of claims against Weinstein dating back to 1980. Its release comes at a time when survivors of sexual violence are increasingly naming their assailants on social media and crowdsourcing lists of abusers in an effort to warn and protect others. An anonymous “Shitty Media Men” spreadsheet recently made the rounds among female journalists.

Image
Samantha Panagrosso. Photograph: Courtesy Samantha Panagrosso

Some say the tactic of directly publishing claims online can be particularly effective for victims who face significant obstacles reporting to police or through other official channels due to the power and influence of their abusers.

“We’re all survivors of Harvey … and we’re doing our own investigation,” said Brock. “We want to figure out exactly how all these things happened so we can see the patterns.”

Weinstein has apologized for his past behavior, but his representatives have repeatedly said he denies many of the harassment allegations and “unequivocally” denies “allegations of non-consensual sex”.

Panagrosso said the list was not a “witch-hunt”, but part of a larger effort to help shift the mentality that enables predatory behavior. “It’s the start, and I hope the fire keeps burning on the cause.”

She and Argento recently met in Paris and have stayed in contact, Panagrosso said: “We felt like we knew each other … It’s amazing to be part of this movement. It’s like sisterhood.”

Brock, a model and writer from New Zealand, said she had also connected with more than 20 other Weinstein accusers and had discussed ways to “disrupt this culture of abuse and secrecy and coverups and shame”.

Image
Asia Argento. Photograph: Lenny/IPA/Rex/Shutterstock

The recent New Yorker story alleged that Weinstein contracted investigators – including a firm run by former officers of Israeli intelligence agencies – to pose as journalists and activists in an effort to extract information from his accusers and dig up dirt on them.

Weinstein’s spokeswoman dismissed the report, telling the New Yorker: “It is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time.”

The producer’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday about the list.

Brock said the revelations about spies made her feel nervous for the first time since she had come forward, but that she was all the more resolved to keep talking and to work with the other women: “It’s better if we now start speaking together, now that we understand exactly how dangerous this is.”

Contact the author: sam.levin@theguardian.com
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Sat Nov 11, 2017 12:09 am

Ex-Israeli PM introduced Harvey Weinstein to former Mossad spies: Ehud Barak admits referring movie mogul to private investigators who reportedly helped to suppress sexual abuse allegations
by Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem and Gwilym Mumford
Wednesday 8 November 2017 08.51 EST First published on Wednesday 8 November 2017 08.51 EST

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The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has said he introduced the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to a Tel Aviv-based investigations firm made up of former spies reportedly hired by the producer to suppress sexual abuse allegations against him.

Weinstein allegedly hired an “army of spies” in an attempt to stop accusers from going public with sexual misconduct claims against him, according to a report in the New Yorker this week.

The magazine claims that among the private security agencies hired by Weinstein, starting from around autumn 2016, was Black Cube, which is largely run by former officers of Israeli intelligence agencies, including Mossad.

Over a year ago, Barak was asked by Harvey Weinstein if he knew an Israeli company he had heard of, that was capable of helping him with business issues he had. Barak confirmed to [Weinstein] the company he heard of was likely Black Cube,” a spokesperson for Barak said in a statement.

This Letter of Engagement supersedes all prior agreements, written or otherwise, between the parties (including, in particular, the Letter of Engagement, dated October 24, 2014, between Black Cube and the Firm, acting on behalf of the Client (hereinafter “the Original LoE”) and the Client, whether written, oral or otherwise) and Black Cube acknowledges and agrees that it is not and will not be entitled to any fees (whether success fees or otherwise, whether pursuant paragraphs 16 through 18 of the Original LoE or otherwise) or costs under the Original LoE.

-- Harvey Weinstein’s Army of Spies: The film executive hired private investigators, including ex-Mossad agents, to track actresses and journalists, by Ronan Farrow


“Barak is not personally familiar with the firm or its executives but gave Weinstein its contact information. Barak was not aware until this morning of the fact the company was hired by Weinstein, or for what purposes or operations,” the statement added.

The New Yorker alleges that two Black Cube investigators met the actor Rose McGowan, who later publicly accused Weinstein of rape, to obtain information.

Weinstein “unequivocally denies” all claims of non-consensual sex, a spokesperson for the producer said.

Black Cube has not replied to a Guardian request for comment, but it told Israeli media outlets that it did not discuss its clients, and said its work was legal.

On its website, Black Cube describes itself as a “select group of veterans from the Israeli elite intelligence units that specializes in tailored solutions to complex business and litigation challenges”.

Barak’s statement coincides with dates in the New Yorker article which claims that Weinstein approached Black Cube in autumn 2016, to seek their assistance in silencing the emerging sexual abuse allegations against him.

This Letter of Engagement supersedes all prior agreements, written or otherwise, between the parties (including, in particular, the Letter of Engagement, dated October 24, 2014, between Black Cube and the Firm, acting on behalf of the Client (hereinafter “the Original LoE”) and the Client, whether written, oral or otherwise) and Black Cube acknowledges and agrees that it is not and will not be entitled to any fees (whether success fees or otherwise, whether pursuant paragraphs 16 through 18 of the Original LoE or otherwise) or costs under the Original LoE.

-- Harvey Weinstein’s Army of Spies: The film executive hired private investigators, including ex-Mossad agents, to track actresses and journalists, by Ronan Farrow


The magazine claims investigators secretly recorded at least four meetings with McGowan while pretending to be a women’s rights advocate, citing dozens of pages of documents and seven people directly involved in Weinstein’s efforts.

The investigator reportedly used a different fake identity to meet a New York magazine journalist who was investigating allegations made against Weinstein.

She also allegedly attempted to broker a meeting with Ronan Farrow, the New Yorker journalist who reported 13 claims of abuse made against Weinstein last month, and also wrote the 6 November investigation into Weinstein’s links with Black Cube.

During the year that Black Cube reportedly worked for Weinstein, agents allegedly collected information on dozens of people, compiling psychological profiles with their personal or sexual histories in order to contradict, discredit or intimidate his accusers.

The New Yorker reports that Weinstein sought the assistance of ex-employees from his movie enterprises to help collect names and place calls. Investigations also allegedly sometimes went through Weinstein’s lawyers. Among them, the New Yorker claims, was David Boies, who represented Al Gore in his 2000 presidential election dispute with George W Bush.

The New Yorker claims Boies signed a contract demanding that Black Cube seek to uncover information to stop the publication of a New York Times story about Weinstein’s sexual abuse when his firm was also representing the Times in a libel case. Boies told the magazine “it was a mistake” to have been involved with the investigators.

Weinstein’s spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister has dismissed the New Yorker report, saying: “It is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time.”

Neither Hofmeister nor Boies immediately responded to requests for comment.

After the publication of the New Yorker report, McGowan praised Farrow for his investigation, tweeting: “Ronan Farrow your words will line the halls of justice.”

Meanwhile, another person alleged to have been spied on, the actor Asia Argento, described the revelations as terrifying, writing on Twitter:

Asia Argento ✔@AsiaArgento
Why didn't I, @rosemcgowan, @RoArquette @AnnabellSciorra spoke up earlier? We were followed by ex-Mossad agents. Isn't that terrifying? Very https://twitter.com/newyorker/status/927721031946686464
2:49 AM - Nov 7, 2017


Police in London, Los Angeles and New York have launched investigations into the alleged behaviour by Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by more than 90 women.
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:30 am

Child abuse documentary Hollywood 'didn't want you to see' goes viral: The film An Open Secret died upon release in 2015, but is seeing a renewed interest online amid a cascade of allegations against Hollywood’s elite
Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, @rorycarroll72
1 November 2017 08.59 EDT Last modified on 1 November 2017 14.35 EDT

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Amy Berg, director of An Open Secret, talks to Evan Henzi. Photograph: Handout

When the documentary An Open Secret tried to lift the lid on child abuse in Hollywood, it billed itself as “the film Hollywood doesn’t want you to see”. The marketing tagline did not exaggerate.

The film died upon release in 2015. There was no theatrical release to speak of, no television deal, no video-on-demand distribution.

“We got zero Hollywood offers to distribute the film. Not even one. Literally no offers for any price whatsoever,” said Gabe Hoffman, a Florida-based hedge fund manager who financed the film.

It did not seem to matter that it was directed by an Oscar-nominated director, Amy Berg, or that it uncovered damning evidence of the sexual abuse of teenage boys by figures in the film industry.

“There was nowhere to see it,” said Lorien Haynes, the film’s writer. “I don’t think it impacted at all. Nobody saw it. We released a film that didn’t [seem to] exist.”


Now, two years later, multiple “open secrets” of predatory behaviour are detonating across Hollywood and the documentary that blew the whistle is getting millions of viewers -– but still no distribution deal.

Hoffman released the film for free on the video-sharing website Vimeo this month after reports about Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual assaults set off a chain-reaction, with James Toback, Tyler Grasham and Kevin Spacey among those accused of harassment and worse.

Corey Feldman, a former child actor who says he was the victim of a paedophile ring, has raised more than $170,000 through crowdfunding for a purported $10m biopic about the abuse.

Hoffman said he had intended to end the free online viewings of An Open Secret on Tuesday, but extended the window until Sunday because of public interest, with more than 3 million viewings on various social media platforms since 12 October.


“We knew a Harvey Weinstein moment was coming and when it would, that we’d release it for free,” said Hoffman. He hoped the documentary would yet make its way on to television. “We’d love to be on Amazon and Netflix. We’re always ready to talk.”

The documentary’s initial vanishing into the void and belated re-emergence underlines how Hollywood long ducked evidence of abuse. An Open Secret had the elements to make a splash.

Berg, the director, had earned an Oscar nomination for her film Deliver Us from Evil, about sex abuse in the Catholic church.

Her team obtained evidence of a paedophile ring in Hollywood -– managers, agents, publicists and directors -– that preyed on young boys and teenagers seeking entry to the industry.


Some hosted lavish parties where men allegedly plied the boys with alcohol and drugs and traded them for sex. Others spent years grooming victims, and winning the confidence of their families, before starting sexual assaults.

A handful were caught and served relatively brief jail sentences before returning to the industry. Brian Peck, an actor and acting coach who worked for Nickelodeon and the X-Men franchise, was convicted of two counts of lewd acts with a child. He is now working in the industry again.

The documentary features interviews with Evan Henzi, who was 11 years old when his manager, Martin Weiss, started assaulting him. Weiss pleaded no contest in 2012 to two counts of child molestation, and was sentenced to a year in jail and five years’ probation. He was freed immediately due to time served.

“I shared my story in An Open Secret so other victims who have been molested for years just like me can heal,” Henzi, 24, said this week.

“When the film was released, I witnessed a lot of support by people who actually saw the film. What I did not witness was support from film festivals or Hollywood at large to promote the film. I do believe, though, that both some of the film-makers of An Open Secret and the Hollywood establishment are responsible for this.”


Internal disputes disrupted the film’s launch. Hoffman took Berg to arbitration, alleging she did not fulfill her end of the deal. She denied that. There were other rows behind the scenes over the script, crediting and edits.

Berg declined to be interviewed, saying she would let the film speak for itself.

Hoffman downplayed any suggestion that the film-makers had shot themselves in the foot and blamed Hollywood for its distribution travails -– for instance initially rating the film R, before relenting and classifying it PG-13. “Hollywood clearly blocked the film. The higher-ups didn’t like how it portrayed the industry.”

Hoffman also claimed festivals in Los Angeles, London and Toronto promised to give the well-reviewed film prominent screenings, only to rescind the invitations without proper explanation. The Guardian could not immediately verify this account.

Haynes, who wrote the script, said mid-ranking television executives seemed eager to buy the film, only to be overruled. “At the top of the food chain is where we got the ‘no’. It did feel that people were scared to run it. It is complete anathema to release a film about corruption in Hollywood in Hollywood.”

She acknowledged another factor: a harrowing film about child abuse was a tough sell. “You’re expecting a lot of an audience to sit through that.”

For two years An Open Secret existed in film purgatory, available only in pirated online versions, few people aware that here was evidence of abuse, collusion and cover-up in the heart of Tinseltown.

Weinstein does not feature in the documentary –- he allegedly preferred women, not young boys -– but the accusations against him unleashed a gale which put An Open Secret in the headlines as a “must watch” documentary that explains Hollywood’s complicity.

Weinstein has apologized for his past behavior, but denies many of the harassment claims and “unequivocally denied” allegations of non-consensual sex.

Spacey apologized this week after he was accused of making an unwanted sexual advance toward the Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp, who says he was 14 years old at the time of the alleged incident in 1986. Spacey, star of the Netflix show House of Cards and former artistic director of London’s Old Vic, said he did not remember the “encounter” but if he had done what Rapp described in an article published by BuzzFeed, it “would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior”.

Meanwhile, Toback, a veteran director, faces allegations from more than 30 women of sexual harassment and trying to trade roles for sex. He has denied the accusations, saying he hired people only on merit. Grasham, a veteran agent, is accused of harassing and assaulting multiple young men. His employer, the Agency for the Performing Arts, fired him after the claims went public. One alleged victim has filed a complaint with the Los Angeles police department. Grasham has not addressed the claims in any public statement yet and could not be reached for comment.

The cascade of allegations have all served to give Open Secret the kind of limelight its backers believe it deserved in the first place.

“The dangers and threats that follow speaking out are very real. I’ve seen them first-hand. But I believe we’ve turned a corner,” said Katelyn Howes, one of the producers. “I hope this continues to push these abuses of power into the spotlight, making it safer for so many people, especially children, who aren’t in the position to talk about their experiences yet.”

Henzi, the former child actor who shared his story of abuse, echoed that. “I do believe that the allegations against Harvey Weinstein have completely opened up the door to having a grand conversation about different experiences of sexual assault by people in the entertainment industry, and that will be really beneficial for a lot of people. It is about time.”

If you have information about sexual misconduct in Hollywood, please contact rory.carroll@theguardian.com
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Sat Nov 11, 2017 10:21 pm

Harvey Weinstein Urges Jews to Take on Anti-Semites: "Kick These Guys in the Ass"
by Scott Feinberg, Tina Daunt
March 24, 2015 11:49pm

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"We're gonna have to get as organized as the mafia," the mogul told the audience at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's national tribute dinner, where he was introduced by friend and competitor Jeffrey Katzenberg as "a really nice Jewish boy."


"We're gonna have to get as organized as the mafia," the mogul told the audience at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's national tribute dinner, where he was introduced by friend and competitor Jeffrey Katzenberg as "a really nice Jewish boy."

"We better stand up and kick these guys in the ass," movie mogul Harvey Weinstein said about present-day anti-Semites as he accepted the Humanitarian Award at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's National Tribute Dinner on Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton. "We're gonna have to get as organized as the mafia," he continued. "We just can't take it anymore [from] these crazy bastards."

At the conclusion of a ceremony that celebrated four Jewish and gentile heroes (several posthumously), and at which more than a dozen Holocaust survivors were asked to stand and be applauded, Weinstein was introduced by his longtime friend and competitor Jeffrey Katzenberg — the event's master of ceremonies — and Christoph Waltz. The actor has twice won the best supporting actor Oscar for roles in Weinstein films, the first time for portraying a Nazi in Inglourious Basterds. Weinstein said to hearty applause, "Too bad movies can't all be like Inglourious Basterds, where Hitler gets what he deserves."

Weinstein, 63, then went off-script to speak about his father, who was a sergeant stationed in Cairo during World War II. The elder [Max (1924–1976), a diamond cutter] Weinstein aided the Haganah (the precursor to the IDF before Israel was a state) and later taught his sons about anti-Semitism. Weinstein emphasized his concern about anti-Semitism around the world, which Wiesenthal Center studies indicate is at its highest levels since the end of World War II.

It will be recalled that after Black Sabbath (Saturday), Menahem Begin received a letter from Moshe Sneh (chief of the Haganah General Headquarters) with instructions to blow up the King David. After preparatory work and several postponements, Irgun fighters gathered at 7 am. on Monday, July 22, 1946 at the Bet Aharon Talmud Torah seminary in Jerusalem....

The Haganah focused its efforts on bringing in illegal immigrants, and in order to appease those activists in the Haganah ranks who continued to favor armed struggle, it sanctioned the sabotaging of British naval vessels which were hunting down illegal immigrants. Thus, on August 18, 1946, Palmach fighters sabotaged the Empire Haywood and two days later damaged the Empire Rival, the two ships used for deporting immigrants from Haifa to Cyprus.

-- The Bombing of the King David Hotel, by etzel.org


"I'm upset when I read The Atlantic Monthly's headline that says, 'Should the Jews leave Europe?' — a resounding 'no' on my end — and [New York Times columnist] David Brooks today talking about how to combat anti-Semitism," Weinstein said. "It's like, here we go again, we're right back where we were [before the Holocaust]. And the lessons of the past are we better stand up and kick these guys in the ass."

The co-head of The Weinstein Company continued, "I think it's time that we, as Jews, get together with the Muslims who are honorable and peaceful — but we [also] have to go and protect ourselves. We have to build, once again, back into the breach. There's a quote from Kurt Vonnegut's book The Sirens of Titan and it always was the motto of Miramax and now The Weinstein Company. It says, 'Good can triumph over evil if the angels are as organized as the mafia.' That's how we built our company! And, unfortunately, we [Jews] are gonna have to get as organized as the mafia. We just can't take it anymore. We just can't take these things. There's gotta be a way to fight back."




It was sometime in 1963. I was seven and my brother was nine. My father called us to him, saying he had something “important” to discuss with us. Our minds began racing to figure out what our infraction had been to get the butt-whipping we were sure was coming. But that wasn’t what Max had in mind. He walked us into the living room and told us to take a seat in the two “club chairs.” Now we really knew something was up, because in our whole lives we had never, never been allowed to sit in these chairs or even look as if the thought of sitting in them might have crossed our mind. The expensive chairs were for “company only” and that was that. So we figured we were dead for sure. We obediently sat in our assigned seats and waited to hear what we had done. But what followed was the only “sit-down” speech my father ever made to me and my brother in our lives.

“I want you both to listen. I have something very important to tell you.”

He proceeded to recount the story of the Kennedy family: how John Kennedy was the president and had picked his brother Bobby to be the attorney general and how their old man, Joe Kennedy, had helped organize the entire election campaign. Joe and his two sons were a lesson in how important family was—if a family worked together, they could accomplish anything. He went on to say that John and Bobby Kennedy were the perfect example of how powerful that bond of family could be and that John had picked Bobby because he knew he could trust him like no other. Then came Max’s greatest leap, a leap that only a dreamer with an innocent purity of belief in the power of his dream could make.

“And you guys can accomplish as much as them. If you stick together, nothing is impossible.”

There it was in one sentence—the prime directive. The secret ingredient had been stirred in. He went on to say that even if someday we ended up not working together we should always look out for each other, no matter what. But the implication remained. Together was better. And with this knowledge imparted, we were dismissed.

***

Image
-- Frank Sinatra, center, with Harvey Weinstein, right, and Weinstein business partner Corky in Buffalo on Oct. 4, 1974. Photo by Mickey Osterreicher.


Max had lived to see Harvey achieve a high level of success as a concert promoter in Buffalo, where he put on all kinds of shows, from Frank Sinatra and Bette Midler to the Grateful Dead. And my father had gone to listen to and meet them all, even the Dead.

-- All Thanks to Max, by Bob Weinstein


Giancana had longtime ties to the Kennedy clan, going back to JFK's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who was involved with Giancana in the bootlegging business during Prohibition. Additionally, Gianciana was an associate of singer Frank Sinatra, a close Kennedy friend, and allegedly was a donor to JFK's 1960 Presidential campaign, at a time when politicians weren't required to disclose their deep-pockets contributors.

There also have been allegations that Giancana secretly helped JFK win the 1960 West Virginia primary, in which he bested fellow U.S. Sen. Hubert Humphrey, D-Minn. In 2009, Tina Sinatra, daughter of Kennedy friend Frank Sinatra, told the TV program "60 Minutes" that the legendary singer—at the behest of JFK's father, Joseph P. Kennedy—approached Giancana. Sinatra allegedly asked Giancana to use mob muscle to pressure local union members to vote for JFK. The request was made through an intermediate, Sinatra, because "it would be in Jack Kennedy's best interest if his father did not make the contact directly," Tina Sinatra explained.

In his 1997 book, The Dark Side of Camelot, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh alleged that the elder Kennedy eventually did meet with Giancana in Chicago, to solicit his support for JFK in the general election.

During the Kennedy Administration, the Chicago mobster, along with other crime figures, is known to have been enlisted by the CIA to plot the killing of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Giancana and Kennedy also shared a mistress, Judith Campbell Exner, with whom they were involved with at different times (Kennedy first, then the mob boss). In a 1988 People magazine article, Exner claimed that she arranged a meeting between then-Presidential candidate Kennedy and Giancana at the Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami in April 1960 at JFK's request. "I think I may need his help in the campaign," she claimed that Kennedy told her. Subsequently, Exner claimed, she arranged nine other meetings in 1960 and 1961, and personally witnessed at least one of the sit-downs. In addition, Exner later claimed that she carried mysterious envelopes between Kennedy and Giancana.

-- Was Kennedy Tied to the Mob?: Rigged Elections, Shared Mistresses, And An Assassination Plot, by Patrick J. Kiger


"While we must be understanding of our Arab brothers and our Islamic brothers," he added, "we also have to understand that these crazy bastards [Arab and Islamic extremists] are also killing their own — they're killing neighbors, they're killing people from all sorts of different races. And, unlike World War II, when we didn't act right away and we paid the price, we better start acting now. Trust me, I'm the last guy who wants to do anything about it, but I realize if we don't, we will perish. We can't allow the bad guys to win. So, as they say in The Godfather, 'back to the mattresses,' and back to the idea that we will not ever forget what happened to us."

Earlier in the evening, Weinstein was described as "a larger-than-life personality" but also "a really nice Jewish boy" by Katzenberg. The emcee pointed out that Weinstein and his brother, Bob, named their first company, Miramax, after their parents, Miriam and Max, asking — to laughter and applause — "In all the thousands of years and annals of dutiful, nice Jewish boys, how many of them named their company after their parents? C'mon, this is like the ultimate mitzvah!" He also described Weinstein as having "an outsized personality" and "an outsized heart," and also being "an extraordinary and dedicated philanthropist."

Waltz handled the actual presentation of Weinstein's award. Calling Weinstein a man with "a heart of gold," Waltz pointed out that the honoree has handled the distribution of a great number of films connected to Jews, Nazis and/or the Holocaust — not just Basterds, but also The Truce, Life Is Beautiful, The Reader, Sarah's Key, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, The Imitation Game and the upcoming Woman in Gold. (He then introduced a clip from Woman in Gold — a film about an elderly Jewish woman seeking the return of artwork stolen from her family by Nazis — which opens next week.) He closed, "Harvey's words, philanthropy and brilliant films inspire all to strive toward righteousness without shielding our eyes from the past."

NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer, Larry A. Mizel, Rabbi Meyer May and Rabbi Marvin Hier (SWC's dean and founder, as well as a two-time Oscar-winning documentarian and the only rabbi among the Academy's 6,000-plus members) helped to confer the award — a menorah-like statuette — upon Weinstein. Other notables in attendance included Vivi Nevo, Michael Milken and Michael Chow.

This year's gathering took on a particular somber tone in the wake of the ongoing unrest in the Middle East.

“As many of you know, it’s been my privilege to be a part of these dinners for some 15 years,” Katzenberg told the crowd. “Throughout the time, the need for the work of the center has always been great. But I believe that, right now today, the need is greater than ever. Intolerance seems to be spreading like an incredibly dangerous virus — a virus that far too often is lethal.” He listed a “sampling of events” over the past year — rockets fired randomly on towns and schools in Israel, the murder of 21 Christian Egyptians in Libya and the “gruesome spectacle of beheadings by terrorists afraid to show their faces but proud to post videos of every horrific detail on the Internet.”

“Hate can wreck sudden destruction with the blast of bomb or the trigger of a gun,” Katzenberg said.

Tuesday’s gala featured the surprise announcement that an additional $50 million has been raised toward construction of a sprawling Museum of Tolerance complex in Jerusalem. Katzenberg announced the new donation, which he said had come together “over the last few months” and gives the center 87 percent of the new campus’ projected cost.

Katzenberg said the $50 million includes “a gift of $26 million — the largest gift in the history of the Simon Wiesenthal Center — from Dawn Arnall to name the building in memory of her late husband, Roland,” the billionaire businessman and former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands. The other bequests include “a gift of $10 million from the world-renowned philanthropist and chairman of the Milken Institute, along with his wife, Michael and Lori Milken... and a gift of $10 million from Larry and Carol Mizel to jointly name the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem campus. A gift of $18 million [came] from one of Canada’s most generous families, Gordon and Leslie Diamond, to name the 1,000-seat amphitheater.” There also was an anonymous $5 million gift.

The planned Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem will tackle pressing issues like the rise of global anti-Semitism, the promotion of human dignity for people of all faiths and the necessity of opposing extremism and hate, no matter where it is directed. The 94,000 square-foot site will house a 149,000 square-foot building, including two experiential museums, one for adults and one for children; a state-of-the-art International Conference Center; a “Grand Hall,” Education Center and Theater for the Performing Arts. The building will be surrounded by the Tikkun Olam Garden of approximately 24,000 square feet as well as a 1,000-seat Amphitheater of approximately 11,765 square feet.

As is traditional at these events, Simon Wiesenthal Center Medals of Valor were presented to an international cadre of individuals who have heroically defended tolerance and human rights. One of this year’s recipients was Lassan Bathily, a Muslim immigrant from Mali, who courageously hid Jewish shoppers at a kosher market in Paris during a tense hostage crisis with a terrorist. Another was Kevin Vickers, who as Sergeant-at-Arms of the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa, shot and killed a terrorist gunman, saving the lives of many of his colleagues. (He is now his country’s ambassador to Ireland.)

Zidan Seif, a policeman from Israel’s Druze minority, was honored for sacrificing his life to protect a West Jerusalem synagogue from two Palestinian terrorists. Eduard Schulte, a prominent German industrialist and secret anti-Nazi, was singled out for risking his life to cross the border into Switzerland to warn the West that the Nazi regime intended to kill all of Europe’s Jews.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with more than 400,000 member families in the United States. Its Museum of Tolerance on Pico Blvd. hosts more than 350,000 people annually, including 130,000 students. Its “Tools for Tolerance” programs have been the recipients of many awards, including the United Nations Peace and Tolerance Award. The museum also is a member of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and part of their Immigration and Civil Rights Network Southwest Region Immigration Training Project.
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Re: Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenbe

Postby admin » Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:33 am

All Thanks to Max
by Bob Weinstein
Vanity Fair
April, 2003

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Plenty of ink has been devoted to the rise of Miramax Films, the personalities of the two brothers who run it, and the company’s extraordinary run of Academy Award nominations. Now, in a deeply personal reflection, Bob Weinstein reveals the key to his and Harvey’s success: their father, Max, a diamond cutter whose dreams and passion for the movies turned two young boys from Queens into Hollywood’s most formidable team.

In 1979 my brother, Harvey, and I founded Miramax Films, the company that we named in honor of our parents, Miriam and Max, and that we continue to run to this day. Harvey is the public face of Miramax, a role born out of the necessity to win recognition for the “art house” films we began our careers by distributing—films of high quality, but most of them sorely lacking in bankable stars. Harvey tapped into his inner showman and became the voice these small jewels needed to win the recognition they deserved.

My style is more low-key. Outside of the movie business I tend to be known as the “quiet brother,” which is fine by me. We have different means of working toward the same end, which have proved successful for 25 years. It actually works out for the best that only one of us likes the spotlight. There wouldn’t physically be enough room in it for both.

For the first 18 years, we pretty much worked on everything together. We had to agree on the buying of a film, otherwise it wasn’t bought. We then collaborated on the marketing, the distribution, and the thousands of other details that go into creating and running a movie company.

Over the last seven years, as the company has grown from 30 employees to more than 400, our roles have altered considerably. My brother and I now choose and market our own films separately, Harvey under the Miramax banner, which has accumulated 176 Academy Award nominations, including a best-picture nomination an unprecedented 11 years in a row, as well as two winners, The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love. I created the Dimension banner, under which I produce the company’s more mainstream, commercial movies, such as the Spy Kids films, Scary Movie 1 and 2, The Others, and the Scream trilogy. Despite our different focuses, not a day goes by that we don’t speak to each other at least five times, to offer suggestions, ask advice, deal with business matters, and generally watch each other’s back. We remain partners in every way.

I offer the above as a brief overview of the company that has been our life’s work. When you are running a company, time for reflection is a luxury you can’t (or don’t) usually afford yourself, but on this past Father’s Day my thoughts traveled back to our dad. Although he had died 26 years earlier and never lived to see a single film that Miramax produced, his influence extends far beyond merely lending his name to the company. His passions in life, from his love of movies and business to his belief in the importance of family, have infused our own personal and professional lives. Max Weinstein was more responsible than anyone else for the creation and success of Miramax Films, and I feel compelled to give him the credit he deserves and tell his story.

My father was born in 1924 on the Lower East Side of New York City. He served in World War II and upon his return met my mother at a dance; the rest, just barely, became history. Spotting the beautiful 19-year-old Miriam Postal from across the room, he swiftly moved in and asked her to dance. She just as swiftly turned him down. As he walked dejectedly away, she took pity and called him back over. Whew! Whatever it was he lacked in first impressions he must have subsequently made up for, and they were married soon after. They moved to Queens, and my brother was born in 1952; I came along in 1954. We grew up in a small two-bedroom apartment in a lower-middle-class housing development called Elechester. Harvey and I shared a bedroom until he left for college, but luckily we didn’t spend much time inside. We had a stoop where all the kids from our building, and those nearby, would congregate. There was always some kind of game going on, and we spent every minute we could taking part.



The Movies

In the 60s and 70s every Saturday was Mom’s “beauty-parlor day,” a ritual that had to be observed by her and a thousand like her—six hours to get their hair “done,” i.e., washed, cut, teased, God forbid colored, and then heat-fused to a helmet-like condition under the huge old-style dryers, all in the quest for the perfect hairdo.

Upon returning, week after week, year after year, my mom would ask the same question:

“Max, what do you think?”

And, on cue, whether he liked it or not, whether he even looked or not, his response was unfailingly the same:

“Great.”

One memorable Saturday, my mom came home sobbing, with a truly laughable and horrible new hairstyle that she had been “talked into.” The inevitable question came. The inevitable answer was given. Only after hours of my mom begging and pleading through teary eyes for him to stop lying and tell her the truth did Max finally relent this once and reply:

“Yeah, they really killed you.”

The sound of horror that emanated from my mother will be remembered forever by those who heard it. Of course, Max was ordered to seek retribution: “Have the hairstylist fired and sue the beauty parlor for everything they’ve got!” Max and his sons learned a valuable lesson that day. No matter what, the hair always looks great.

On these Saturdays, it was Max’s responsibility to “do something with the boys.” His interpretation of that was to take us to the movies, and not a few Saturdays now and then, but every Saturday. Max loved movies, all kinds—adventures, comedies, thrillers, foreign films, love stories, Westerns. I think that through these stories he was transported to a place where his own beliefs, among them that the impossible was possible, were nurtured. I can remember sitting with my father and brother and watching Alec Guinness blow up the bridge on the River Kwai. We sat through Sink the Bismarck, were dazzled by the greatest array of stars ever assembled in The Longest Day, cheered along with the rest of the audience as Jimmy Brown ran for daylight only to be shot at the last second in The Dirty Dozen. For my brother and me, there would be no *Field of Dreams–*like playing catch, no nature lessons with our old man. Instead, it would be a darkened theater, the projector light coming on and a new adventure unfolding. We weren’t complaining. And for Max it was killing two birds with one stone: he had to do something with us, and he was able to do something he loved and pass that love on to his sons. Everyone came out ahead.

One Saturday, Miriam decided things needed to change.

“Max, why don’t you do something different with them? They’re not getting any fresh air! No sunlight!”

My mom’s persistence always yielded some result and Max was left with no choice but to give in.

So, off to the beauty parlor my mom went, leaving Max to break the news: no movie today. What?! What else was there? But there would be no debate. My father was firm when he had to be, and direct orders from Miriam meant he had to be. And he had already come up with a plan.

“Boys, we’re going fishing.”

Silence is not something the Weinstein brothers will ever be remembered for, but on this day it was the only response we could come up with. Had our father gone insane?

Off we went to Wainwright’s, the local all-purpose department store. In the record time of 30 minutes, our father bought three rods, reels, hooks, flies, sinkers—everything and more that was or might be instrumental in catching a fish.

Fifteen minutes later, we were in Flushing Meadows Park at the man-made lake left over from the 1964 World’s Fair. We set up our new stuff alongside several actual fishermen, put our lines in the water, and waited. And waited. Thirty minutes went by and nothing. We were still hopeful. Forty-five minutes passed. Had we ever possessed anything resembling patience, it would have been wearing thin. Since we had never been supplied with any, we just felt acute anxiety. One hour now, and nothing.

Max finally turned to the fisherman nearest him.

“How’s it going?”

“Good.”

“Catch anything yet?”

“Not yet.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Oh, about four hours.”

Max gave the orders:

“That’s it, we’re outta here!”

The rods, reels, sinkers, flies, etc., were left on the ground, abandoned without guilt. The grand experiment was over. Thirty minutes later, the lights went down, the projector came on, an adventure began to unfold, and order was returned to our universe.

Most of our moviegoing consisted of the types of films I mentioned earlier—action adventures, war epics, musicals … basically whatever the local movie house was playing that week. We loved them all. But on one occasion Harvey started pressing to go to a foreign film. Being 15 and having been to a few on his own already, he argued that it was educational and cultural and a bunch of other things that made me think my brother had lost his mind. I was 13 and I didn’t want to read my movie! Before I could protest too much and ruin the plan, he took me aside and explained: The name of the film was I Am Curious, Yellow, a specially imported Swedish “art” film. We needed our father in order to get in because it was rated X, the first film containing scenes of full-frontal nudity ever to be played in regular movie houses. Suddenly foreign didn’t sound like such a bad idea.

Image
I Am Curious, Yellow


Miriam disagreed, citing a lack of convincing evidence of any “art,” foreign film or not. Max won the day for us by agreeing to chaperon and supervise should anything be inappropriate. So off we went. Max fell asleep a half-hour into it. I know that Harvey has been quoted in many articles as saying The 400 Blows was one of his favorite foreign-language movies ever, but I can tell you what mine was at that moment in time—I was 13, after all! There was no chance of my falling asleep. But Harvey was just enough older to watch the movie and notice something else: a packed audience of “art-lovers” who never would have set foot in a movie with subtitles but for the fact there was a little something extra added. It was a lesson that would come into play years later.

The Window

My father was a diamond cutter in New York City’s Diamond District, located on 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. For those in the business it was simply known as “the Street.” As New Yorkers and tourists pass by the vast rows of displays, filled with tens of thousands of diamonds in as many cuts and configurations, most rarely notice the floors above these shining windows. In some Jewish-American inversion of class structure, the workers are upstairs on the Street and the owners are down. Each building has hundreds of upper-floor shops where workers and tradesmen put in 10- to 12-hour days transforming raw, unpolished hunks of stone, which would seem like junk to a layman, into polished diamond gems with 56 facets to be sold in the windows and stores below.

In Max’s day, each of the workshops was approximately 800 square feet in size, housing up to eight cutters. Every cutter was provided a stool and a workbench outfitted with a steel wheel lying flush in the center, like a record turntable. When the cutter flipped the electric switch on the side of the bench, this wheel would begin spinning, eventually reaching speeds around 1,800 rotations per minute. The cutter would place the raw gem, dull and grayish, into a lapidary tool called a dop. He would then begin pressing it to the wheel, systematically turning the dop to create the facets that bring out the luster of the stone, and transform it into everyone’s idea of a diamond, white and shining. The work was intense and monotonous, not to mention hard on the back.

It was in these shops that my father spent most of his life, literally and figuratively grinding out a living to support his family. And, more than anything, Max wanted to be on the ground floor. He wanted to be, as he called it, “one of the big boys,” someone who controlled his own destiny, could call the shots for himself, and had status. Striking it rich wouldn’t have been bad, either. Is it any surprise that one of his favorite songs was “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof? As he sang it around the apartment, doing his best Zero Mostel imitation, we would all laugh, and so would he—but underneath it was a serious matter for him.

Like a lot of people, he had his dream, but he also had a few plans for achieving it. He was determined to try, and his sons watched it all and learned.


It was one thing to have a store on the Street, but even then there was a hierarchy. The main floors typically housed 50 or 60 individually owned booths in which a retailer could exhibit his merchandise to the customers who came in to browse. The ultimate goal was to have a “window”—storefront property where your merchandise could be displayed not just to the people who bothered to open the door and come in but to every passerby on the street. This was the Boardwalk and Park Place. And in the fall of 1965, a window property became available—23 West 47th. The dream was about to become reality.

Over the years, Max had saved around $25,000. This was our rainy-day money, but my father was dreaming of sunshine every day.

In Max’s world, there were no I.P.O.’s to raise money, no investor cocktail parties at $1,000 a head. This was small business with big dreams—you saved your money, bought your store, and took your shot. And he wasn’t investing his nest egg to have just another window full of diamonds—no, he had a plan.

Diamonds combined with jade! It was just what he needed to single himself out, a new product, something the Street hadn’t seen before, and Max was going to corner the market. He imported the finest jade available and set out to design all types of merchandise—rings, earrings, bracelets—all with the moodiness of the deep-green Chinese stone offset by occasional flashes of light from the diamonds.


Around this time, sensing that it was harder to go it alone and be successful, he also found himself a partner. With a partner, one person could mind the store while the other hunted up new opportunities. In theory, he was right in every respect. In practice, he got the wrong guy. The man he chose had none of Max’s drive or vision, but was willing to hang on for a ride. My mother, never one to keep an opinion to herself, pointed out these defects repeatedly. My father didn’t listen, but in his heart I believe he knew she was right, and this would come into play years later.

And so the store finally opened. A glorious day—a “premiere.” Max was officially in business! He had moved downstairs and become one of the big boys. And the best part of all was that business was great. His instinct to come up with something new was paying off: the customers were buying his stuff—he had a hit! The store provided a common interest for the whole family. In our apartment, the talk at dinner had changed, and it was wonderful. Every night, we would wait for him to come home to hear how he had done that day. Instead of the drudgery of the daily grind, now the discussions were of actual sales being made and how they had transpired. My brother and I would memorize the percentages and tally up the profits. Thirty to 40 percent from selling just one $1,800 bracelet meant upwards of $540 take-home—an entire week’s pay in the old days. Harvey and I quickly grew dissatisfied with a pair of earrings being sold for a mere $600, but Max would always remind us that “it all adds up.”

My brother and I asked every question we could think of and soaked up the answers. And one summer day Harvey had an opportunity to prove just how well he had been listening. Max’s partner had the day off, and my father had an appointment and left his 13-year-old son to mind the store. Upon Max’s return, Harvey informed him that he had sold a diamond ring to a woman for $1,200. Stunned, Max turned to the other owners nearby for confirmation. Equally amazed, even after witnessing the transaction, they grudgingly assured Max he had a “supersalesman” in the family.

Another incident was in hindsight so full of foreshadowing that “ironic” is too small a word to describe it. Max returned home from work one day beaming.

“You won’t believe who came in the store today.”

“Who? Who?”

“Mel Brooks!”


Now, my father’s absolute favorite movie, and I swear on this, was The Producers. It starred his favorite actor, Zero Mostel; it had a great story; and Mel Brooks was the funniest man alive. And the genius who had made this movie had been in the store! Being the starstruck Jewish family that we were, the first question that occurred to us was: “Did he buy anything?” My father told us that he hadn’t, but he did sign an autograph. Max pulled out a business card and turned it over. On the back was written, “To Max and his two rotten sons—Mel Brooks.” We laughed and it was a cute little story. But cut to 34 years later. I was with my brother on the afternoon of the Academy Awards, the year Shakespeare in Love was in the running for best picture. I asked him if he had a speech written should he win, and he said he didn’t. I told him to write something down, just in case. He quickly scribbled something out and read it back to me. My only suggestion for a change was to use Mel Brooks’s line: instead of thanking his two daughters, thank his “two rotten kids.” It would be different, I assured him, and it would get a laugh. Well, the movie did win, and Harvey—via Mel—did get the laugh.

But the serendipity didn’t end there. Not long after, Mel Brooks called Harvey to say that he was offering a few people the opportunity to invest in a new Broadway musical he had written based on his film The Producers, and Harvey and I were on the list. Of course, we accepted. Two years later we were fortunate enough to be up onstage with Mel Brooks and the rest of the producers of The Producers, receiving the Tony Award for best new musical—the only award my brother and I have ever won for doing no more than signing a check. Max would have loved it.

During the time he owned the window, my father was happy. He was fulfilling his long-held dream, and work didn’t seem like work anymore now that he was his own man. This lasted for two or three years, but the heady days of the first sales passed, and competition from some of the bigger big boys on the Street increased; Max wasn’t the only one who could buy jade. Gradually, as with so many small businesses, the economic pressure took its toll on Max’s window. It gets difficult to ride out the tough times when you need to make changes but lack the capital to implement them. Business started slowing down and the store couldn’t break even.
And the partner Max had sought out for advice, support, collaboration, etc., proved himself to be nothing more than a glorified employee at the end of the day.

The store eventually had to be closed. The lease was not renewed, and the remaining merchandise was sold to the bottom feeders at rock-bottom prices. Max had taken his shot, experienced success and, ultimately, failure, and now he was headed upstairs again, back to grinding out his daily living to keep his family afloat. My brother and I knew how filled with hurt and disappointment Max was, and we watched him accept this with grace and dignity and we loved him for it. One thing we didn’t know at the time was that in Max’s mind this was merely a temporary setback. He had had a taste of success, and as he headed upstairs he was already making plans.

The Comeback

Max took his next big business shot in the winter of 1971, when I was 17 years old. Harvey had already started college, and I had just graduated from high school six months early, in January. Eight months with nothing to do before I went away to college in the fall sounded like Nirvana, and I was ready to take it easy. But my father had other plans for me. A new business opportunity had arrived, he had $20,000 saved up in the rainy-day account, and he was taking me with him.

A new product had emerged on the scene, a synthetic diamond marketed under the brand name Diamonair. Each gem was promised to be pure white, with none of the imperfections of real stones. A working-class guy could buy his fiancée or wife a beautiful stone the color and size of a $100,000 real diamond for just $1,000. For the customer, what a bargain! For Max, what an opportunity!

The Street was ready to accept this new merchandise and sell it right alongside the real stuff. And this time my father had come up with a different way in: he wasn’t going to be selling the goods retail in a window on the Street. He was going to get in on the action even earlier by buying the equipment needed to cut the new material, hiring his own workers, setting up a shop, manufacturing the goods, and selling them to the dealers on the Street.


Once it came time to hire and train the workers needed to cut the Diamonairs, my father realized he couldn’t afford to hire experienced cutters with families to support, so he came up with an innovative and, in retrospect, a pretty open-minded plan. He recruited several of my brother’s friends who were still in that one- or two-year limbo that people sometimes fall into between high school and the next step, be it college or career. He trained them and paid them less than a real diamond cutter would make but more money than they could dream of making elsewhere. I, of course, was drafted by my father to be one of his elite crew. So one morning, off I went with Max on the subway into Manhattan. On 47th Street, we met up with a group of guys who looked like the Dirty Dozen by way of the Grateful Dead: five longhaired “hippie types,” in the jargon of the day. I was a little scared of them, but Max saw nothing but his first-ever employees. They turned out to be the greatest, sweetest, hardest-working crew on the Street. I was a young 17, they were 19 and experienced, and working with them I learned a lot more than just how to cut Diamonairs. My father was a strong but patient teacher, and at the end of six weeks we were all trained. We each made $300 a week—a gold mine for us—and my father was back in business. He would never let pride get in the way of making an honest dollar, so when Max wasn’t out hustling up new customers, he was cutting right alongside us. I can remember looking up from my cutting machine to see my old man down at the other end of the row of benches; in between us were Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Telly Savalas, and John Cassavetes.

Our shop had the most unusual atmosphere of any on the Street. Most of the manufacturing houses had 8 to 10 employees, usually Hasidic Jews, in the traditional long black coats, white shirts, and yarmulkes, working side by side in almost absolute silence. It wasn’t that they were antisocial; they just seemed to take a Zen-like approach to their job. Maybe that was how they trained their minds to deal with the monotony of the work. By way of contrast, the shop my father ran was filled nonstop with the music of the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, the Who, etc. My father’s occasional request for some Sinatra was always quickly rebuffed. Everyone had his own style, and that was fine with Max, as long as the work got done. That’s what we loved about him, and why the work always did get done.

Some afternoons my father would come back from an appointment and notice a strange aroma wafting from the bathroom. He would ask the guys if they were smoking any of those “funny cigarettes.” They would just smile and my father would move on. One of the guys once overheard Max on the telephone, obviously in the middle of an argument with my mother. When Max hung up, the guy handed him a joint and advised him to take it home and smoke it later that night with Miriam to “ease the tension.” No kidding—and my father took it. I have no idea what actually happened later (and my mother’s not telling), but it puts a smile on my face to this day to imagine Miriam and Max puffing on a joint together and forgetting the silly problems of the day.

Eventually, it was time for me to head off to college. Max had been holding my $300 a week for me for the whole eight months, so I was looking forward to having a cool nine grand or so to take with me. When it came time to collect, I got the shock of my life: it didn’t exist! Max had used what would have been my salary to buy new equipment for the shop. My own father had “taken” my hard-earned money! Boy, did I scream. Miriam said, “Max, how could you?” His reply? “It needed to be done and that’s that.” The way he saw it, it was a small price for a lifetime of room and board; the business needed it and that was more important. He didn’t feel one ounce of guilt, and in time I had to respect him for doing what he had to for the shop, even if it was with my salary.

The business survived a few more years with the usual ups and downs. Max had hoped to open several shops, but the demand for Diamonairs didn’t last, and his one shop closed down. He tried little business ideas from time to time, but that shop was really his last hurrah, and he settled back into being someone else’s employee.
He was approaching 50 and was slowly starting to plan for other things, like traveling with my mother now that both kids were grown and out of the house.

He had no regrets. He had taken his shots, and just knowing he had really tried made him feel that he was successful. He was right.

For me and Harvey, the most important part of all my father’s business ventures was that they gave us an opportunity to work alongside him—for my brother, several summers, for me, eight straight months, side by side. There wasn’t any great advice given or big speeches made, but we had the opportunity to observe him in action day after day. We learned the “business” at the University of 47th Street. No actual school could have taught us what it really takes to run an enterprise. The vision, determination, stamina, hope, relentlessness, and sheer work that are involved in staying afloat, much less succeeding, are the same whether you are running a window on 47th Street or Miramax Films or Microsoft.

The Family

Max came from a family of nine children and yet felt no closeness to his brothers and sisters and had a distant relationship with his parents, particularly his father. Until he became an adult and created his own family, he felt very much alone. Most times, it seems that the human mind picks one of two ways to deal with a very negative aspect of childhood: either we subconsciously re-create the very situation we hated, or we consciously work very hard to make it different. Well, lucky for Harvey and me, our father was in the latter group, and his family was everything to him, especially the closeness of his sons. And this was not something we inferred or just felt. He told us outright.

It was sometime in 1963. I was seven and my brother was nine. My father called us to him, saying he had something “important” to discuss with us. Our minds began racing to figure out what our infraction had been to get the butt-whipping we were sure was coming. But that wasn’t what Max had in mind. He walked us into the living room and told us to take a seat in the two “club chairs.” Now we really knew something was up, because in our whole lives we had never, never been allowed to sit in these chairs or even look as if the thought of sitting in them might have crossed our mind. The expensive chairs were for “company only” and that was that. So we figured we were dead for sure. We obediently sat in our assigned seats and waited to hear what we had done. But what followed was the only “sit-down” speech my father ever made to me and my brother in our lives.

“I want you both to listen. I have something very important to tell you.”

He proceeded to recount the story of the Kennedy family: how John Kennedy was the president and had picked his brother Bobby to be the attorney general and how their old man, Joe Kennedy, had helped organize the entire election campaign. Joe and his two sons were a lesson in how important family was—if a family worked together, they could accomplish anything. He went on to say that John and Bobby Kennedy were the perfect example of how powerful that bond of family could be and that John had picked Bobby because he knew he could trust him like no other. Then came Max’s greatest leap, a leap that only a dreamer with an innocent purity of belief in the power of his dream could make.

“And you guys can accomplish as much as them. If you stick together, nothing is impossible.”

There it was in one sentence—the prime directive. The secret ingredient had been stirred in.
He went on to say that even if someday we ended up not working together we should always look out for each other, no matter what. But the implication remained. Together was better. And with this knowledge imparted, we were dismissed.

Giancana had longtime ties to the Kennedy clan, going back to JFK's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who was involved with Giancana in the bootlegging business during Prohibition. Additionally, Gianciana was an associate of singer Frank Sinatra, a close Kennedy friend, and allegedly was a donor to JFK's 1960 Presidential campaign, at a time when politicians weren't required to disclose their deep-pockets contributors.

There also have been allegations that Giancana secretly helped JFK win the 1960 West Virginia primary, in which he bested fellow U.S. Sen. Hubert Humphrey, D-Minn. In 2009, Tina Sinatra, daughter of Kennedy friend Frank Sinatra, told the TV program "60 Minutes" that the legendary singer—at the behest of JFK's father, Joseph P. Kennedy—approached Giancana. Sinatra allegedly asked Giancana to use mob muscle to pressure local union members to vote for JFK. The request was made through an intermediate, Sinatra, because "it would be in Jack Kennedy's best interest if his father did not make the contact directly," Tina Sinatra explained.

In his 1997 book, The Dark Side of Camelot, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh alleged that the elder Kennedy eventually did meet with Giancana in Chicago, to solicit his support for JFK in the general election.

During the Kennedy Administration, the Chicago mobster, along with other crime figures, is known to have been enlisted by the CIA to plot the killing of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Giancana and Kennedy also shared a mistress, Judith Campbell Exner, with whom they were involved with at different times (Kennedy first, then the mob boss). In a 1988 People magazine article, Exner claimed that she arranged a meeting between then-Presidential candidate Kennedy and Giancana at the Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami in April 1960 at JFK's request. "I think I may need his help in the campaign," she claimed that Kennedy told her. Subsequently, Exner claimed, she arranged nine other meetings in 1960 and 1961, and personally witnessed at least one of the sit-downs. In addition, Exner later claimed that she carried mysterious envelopes between Kennedy and Giancana.

-- Was Kennedy Tied to the Mob?: Rigged Elections, Shared Mistresses, And An Assassination Plot, by Patrick J. Kiger


There's a quote from Kurt Vonnegut's book The Sirens of Titan and it always was the motto of Miramax and now The Weinstein Company. It says, 'Good can triumph over evil if the angels are as organized as the mafia.' That's how we built our company!

-- Harvey Weinstein Urges Jews to Take on Anti-Semites: "Kick These Guys in the Ass", by Scott Feinberg, Tina Daunt


“O.K., that’s it. Get out of here.”

The only thought I remember having as we slid out of the hallowed club chairs was how weird my father was. And as we went off to play baseball or football or whatever, Harvey and I didn’t discuss what Max had just said to us. Nor in the years to come did we ever, not once. The sentence “Remember what Dad said about sticking together … ” was never uttered by either of us. Somehow Max took his dream, bypassed our conscious minds, and injected it directly into our DNA.

On June 4, 1976, as he was walking up the front stoop after a day at work, just as he had every other weekday of his adult life, my father died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 52. I was now 22 and my brother was 24.

Image
-- Frank Sinatra, center, with Harvey Weinstein, right, and Weinstein business partner Corky in Buffalo on Oct. 4, 1974. Photo by Mickey Osterreicher.


Max had lived to see Harvey achieve a high level of success as a concert promoter in Buffalo, where he put on all kinds of shows, from Frank Sinatra and Bette Midler to the Grateful Dead. And my father had gone to listen to and meet them all, even the Dead.

I had dropped out of college, having set the record for lowest number of credits earned over two years. I then moved to Buffalo to live with my brother and began promoting movie festivals in the theater Harvey owned, to keep the money coming in between live concerts.

One day the rock group Genesis came to perform. They mentioned to my brother that they had a concert film they had made, and asked if he knew anyone who could promote it nationally. He told them his brother, Bob, was the best movie promoter in the country and could easily do the job. At the time, I didn’t know a single theater outside of Buffalo.


Thrown into a job you know nothing about with no way out, you learn very fast. Genesis: A Band in Concert, as it was titled, became the first picture we owned together. The seeds were being planted—we just didn’t know it.

Harvey was becoming frustrated with the concert-promotion business, and I was busy doing my thing, but not enjoying doing it alone. The “club-chair conversation” must have been working in both our subconsciouses, because it wasn’t much longer before Harvey and I set out to start our company for real. I came up with the name in an hour, Harvey approved it in a minute, and Miramax was born.

Twenty-five years have passed, and I have so many memories: a hundred Miriam stories, a thousand Harvey stories, and even more Bob-and-Harvey stories. As our company has grown, and continues to grow, and as our families do the same, the stories multiply. But the Max stories stopped on that June day in 1976.

As for you, Max, well, your best “shot,” the one you nurtured all through our childhood, has paid off: your sons are making movies that you would love, they can hold their own with anyone when it comes to business, and they are not only each other’s partner but best friend as well—an alliance that cannot be broken.

Bob Weinstein, 62, said that he's barely spoken to his brother in the past five years. He emphasized that he was not aware of his brother's alleged sexual misconduct but instead thought Harvey Weinstein was engaged in adultery with one woman after another.

"I could not take his cheating," he said, referring to Harvey Weinstein's marriage to wife Georgina Chapman, "his lying and also his attitude toward everyone."

With the allegations now made against Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein said, "My brother has caused unconscionable suffering ... I want him to get the justice that he deserves."

-- Bob Weinstein says 'sick and depraved' brother Harvey Weinstein abused him, by Joi-Marie McKenzie


You also have four grandchildren: my two daughters, aged 22 and 17, and Harvey’s daughters, aged 7 and 4. And rest assured, both sets of sisters hear all the stories of Grandpa Max, and there are two important lessons from their grandfather that we will always keep alive: that they are each other’s greatest ally, and that their hair always “looks great.”
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