If you’ve ever paid attention to the opening credits of a movie, or listened to the ‘thank you’ section of just about every Oscar and Golden Globes speech, you’ll know the name Harvey Weinstein.

He is one of the most influential people in Hollywood, and just like the President of the United States he believes that power gives him the right to sexually assault women.

The whispers and rumours and allegations have swirled around Harvey for decades, but to speak out was to ruin your career and face immediate legal action.

Finally, after three decades of getting away with it, the New York Times took aim in a story titled “Decades of Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Harvey Weinstein“.

Here’s how that story kicks off:

Two decades ago, the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein invited Ashley Judd to the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel for what the young actress expected to be a business breakfast meeting. Instead, he had her sent up to his room, where he appeared in a bathrobe and asked if he could give her a massage or she could watch him shower, she recalled in an interview.

“How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?” Ms. Judd said she remembers thinking.

Quickly followed by:

In 2014, Mr. Weinstein invited Emily Nestor, who had worked just one day as a temporary employee, to the same hotel and made another offer: If she accepted his sexual advances, he would boost her career, according to accounts she provided to colleagues who sent them to Weinstein Company executives.

The following year, once again at the Peninsula, a female assistant said Mr. Weinstein badgered her into giving him a massage while he was naked, leaving her “crying and very distraught,” wrote a colleague, Lauren O’Connor, in a searing memo asserting sexual harassment and other misconduct by their boss.

You can see where this is going.

Another woman alleged that he grabbed her by the pussy because he’s rich and thought that gave him the right…no, sorry, that was a different sexual predator.

Weinstein has deep pockets, and of course money can make almost anything go away:

An investigation by The New York Times found previously undisclosed allegations against Mr. Weinstein stretching over nearly three decades…

During that time, after being confronted with allegations including sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact, Mr. Weinstein has reached at least eight settlements with women, according to two company officials speaking on the condition of anonymity. Among the recipients, The Times found, were a young assistant in New York in 1990, an actress in 1997, an assistant in London in 1998, [and] an Italian model in 2015…

27 years since he first settled, and the sexual assaults continue to this day.

Turns out Harvey had his employees sign some pretty iron-clad contracts:

Dozens of Mr. Weinstein’s former and current employees, from assistants to top executives, said they knew of inappropriate conduct while they worked for him. Only a handful said they ever confronted him.

Mr. Weinstein enforced a code of silence; employees of the Weinstein Company have contracts saying they will not criticize [sic] it or its leaders in a way that could harm its “business reputation” or “any employee’s personal reputation,” a recent document shows. And most of the women accepting payouts agreed to confidentiality clauses prohibiting them from speaking about the deals or the events that led to them.

One more illustration of peak creep:

…eight women described varying behavior by Mr. Weinstein [who has been married for most of three decades]: appearing nearly or fully naked in front of them, requiring them to be present while he bathed or repeatedly asking for a massage or initiating one himself. The women, typically in their early or middle 20s and hoping to get a toehold in the film industry, said he could switch course quickly — meetings and clipboards one moment, intimate comments the next. One woman advised a peer to wear a parka when summoned for duty as a layer of protection against unwelcome advances.

And now for what we all knew was coming, with this via Variety:

In a statement, attorney Charles Harder said that the Times’ account “is saturated with false and defamatory statements about Harvey Weinstein.”

“It relies on mostly hearsay accounts and a faulty report, apparently stolen from an employee personnel file, which has been debunked by 9 different eyewitnesses,” Harder said. “We sent the Times the facts and evidence, but they ignored it and rushed to publish. We are preparing the lawsuit now. All proceeds will be donated to women’s organizations.”

How noble. How very, very noble.

I can’t wait for all the Trump supporters to bang on about how Harvey donated money to Hillary Clinton’s campaign (he donated plenty), whilst glossing over the fact that they voted a sexual predator into office.

He’ll never see the inside of a cell, he’ll never be properly hauled over the coals, and he will continue to wield great power in Tinseltown.

And so the cycle continues.

[sources:nytimes&variety]