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The sentence is a reality warp for those of us who knew Weinstein at the height of his power
The sentence that Harvey Weinstein got in court on Wednesday was breathtaking. Historic, earth-moving, epic.
For those of us who work day to day in Hollywood and who knew Weinstein at the height of his fame and power, it is a reality warp to know that the 67-year-old was rolled into a New York courtroom in a wheelchair and sent to prison for 23 years, quite possibly the rest of his life.
For the better part of three decades, this man didn’t make a move without multiple assistants, had the White House (or Democratic leadership) on speed dial, counted movie stars and billionaires as his best buddies and for a long stretch more or less owned the Academy Awards. Look at the documents released by New York prosecutors on Monday — the man direct-dialed Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Mike Bloomberg when he got in trouble.
His descent into Iago-levels of villainy — and his comeuppance at the sentencing by a New York judge — seems beyond Shakespeare, past Greek tragedy and deep into Biblical territory for a level-set of a moral reckoning.
Also Read: Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison
Harvey Weinstein and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) at the “Finding Neverland” premiere in 2004. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images)
I spoke to a few of Weinstein’s former collaborators today. Long past shock, so many of them are speechless at how the wheel of fortune has turned. Many of them were themselves among the abused by Weinstein, who was one of Hollywood’s most talented producers but also a serious rageaholic.
“He’s a despicable human being,” said one executive who worked for Weinstein for a decade. “I always thought he was reading our emails. Threatening people. I was convinced our phones were tapped. Now I believe all of it.”
And as for the verdict, this individual — like others I’ve interviewed — keeps wondering what they should have done at the time. Guilt lurks in many of them. Multiple senior staffers at Miramax and later The Weinstein Company have said they suspected he was a serial womanizer but insist they had no idea he was coercing sex from women, as the New York jury found. “We should have looked deeper. You don’t think of rape,” one executive said. (I’ve lost count how many times I’ve heard this.)
A jumble of memories has gone through my mind as I’ve been processing this sentence.
Years ago at The New York Times, I wrote a piece about how Weinstein was the critical connection among a large number of the top executives in the independent film world. Dozens had gotten their start with him, and learned in the trenches. In fact, Weinstein trained an entire generation of those who then started their own companies or helped build others. (This is still true, by the way.) Weinstein was very proud of that piece.
Also Read: Harvey Weinstein Scandal: A Timeline of a Hollywood Mogul's Downfall (Photos)
I also remember sitting across from former Weinstein assistant Zelda Perkins at a London hotel in 2005. It was one of the very posh ones that serve high tea — Brown’s, I think — but we just had regular tea. I sought out Perkins because a couple of sources told me she had some kind of physical encounter with Weinstein but had signed a nondisclosure agreement. I had heard this over many years and finally tried to get the story. She agreed to meet.
But for a frustrating two hours, Perkins would not say what happened to her, too fearful to speak because of the NDA. It was an exercise in futility for me, because I knew there was something, but there was nothing I could write. Perkins later breached the NDA — but only after the October 2017 revelations in the New York Times and New Yorker — and detailed how she had been sexually harassed, along with a colleague who claimed Weinstein sexually assaulted her (and who also took a settlement).
And I think of the last blow-out bash I saw Weinstein give, in the days before the Academy Awards of 2015. It was a classic Old Hollywood dinner party for about 300 of his close Hollywood friends, at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. The room was decked out in mirrors and towering palms, attendees wearing black tie and gowns. J.Lo swept in wearing a gorgeous feathered outfit, just for dinner. Hugh Jackman performed a number from Weinstein’s new Broadway musical, “Finding Neverland.” It was Weinstein at his most expansive, and everyone commented that no one knew how to give a party like Harvey.
Also Read: Harvey Weinstein Tells Accusers at Sentencing: 'I Have Great Remorse'
Photo credit: Getty Images
Fast forward to the shrinking figure in court today, arriving in a wheelchair and then appearing hunched over and almost contrite. “I feel remorse for the situation,” he said. “I feel it deeply in my heart.”
So often we’ve seen that change happens slowly — and then all at once. Case in point: Gay marriage was an idea that seemed unfathomable, and then in a seeming instant all opposition flipped. Marriage equality became the law of the land and those who found it to be problematic were in the margins, protesting over wedding cakes.
The issue of confronting sexual abuse by people in positions of power has also moved quickly. One measure of the speed and weight of that change is just how many Weinstein silence-breakers themselves were braced for a Weinstein acquittal last month. I spoke to many of them who described living in a high state of anxiety before the “guilty” verdict came in, worried that all of their efforts and public sharing of tightly held experiences would come to nothing.
Tarana Burke, who coined the phrase #MeToo that morphed into a movement, summed up her reaction simply on Wednesday: “Well, I’ll be damned.”
The change has come, and few will shed any tears for Weinstein. For the former Weinstein executive, the lesson in one that can only be learned in the bitter crucible of real life: “How you treat people on your way up, is how you will be treated on your way down.”
Harvey Weinstein was once the king of the indie film world. But the Oscar-winning producer's career and reputation have imploded since fall 2017, when scores of women stepped forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct. Here's a breakdown of what happened.
OCT. 5, 2017
The New York Times published a story revealing that Harvey Weinstein had paid financial settlements to at least eight women who have accused him of sexual harassment or assault. Actress Ashley Judd is the only accuser to go on the record, accusing the mogul of assaulting her in his hotel room. In a statement, Weinstein apologizes, vows to take a self-imposed leave of absence from his company, and bizarrely declares war on the NRA.
Getty ImagesOCT. 6, 2017
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, as well as other Congressional Democrats, donate campaign contributions they received from Weinstein to charity.
Getty ImagesOCT. 8, 2017
Weinstein is fired as CEO from The Weinstein Company.
Getty ImagesOCT. 10, 2017
The New Yorker publishes its own piece, written by Ronan Farrow, in which three women, including Italian actress Asia Argento, accuse Weinstein of rape. Through a spokesperson, Weinstein denies any account of nonconsensual sex.
Hours after the New Yorker article runs, the New York Times publishes on-the-record accusations of inappropriate behavior from Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie.
Model and actress Cara Delevingne also comes forward on Oct. 11 to accuse Weinstein of making sexually inappropriate comments and harassing her.
Getty Images
OCT. 12, 2017
The NYPD and London’s Metro Police both launch criminal investigations of Weinstein. On social media, Rose McGowan accuses Weinstein of raping her. (He has consistently denied engaging in nonconsensual sex.)
OCT. 13, 2017
Director Quentin Tarantino, arguably Weinstein’s greatest discovery, says he is “heartbroken” by the scandal. A petition to expel Weinstein from AMPAS passes 100,000 signatures.
OCT. 14, 2017
The AMPAS Board of Governors expels Weinstein. The Weinstein Company’s development slate falls apart, losing projects with David O. Russell and more. Release of Benedict Cumberbatch’s "The Current War" is delayed.
OCT. 15, 2017
Actress Alyssa Milano kicks off a cultural movement by encouraging women to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault on social media. She asks them to tag the stories #MeToo.
OCT. 17, 2017
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy vows to start an industry-wide commission to create “protections against harassment and abuse.” Frequent Weinstein collaborator and filmmaker Kevin Smith vows to donate all of his Weinstein Company residuals to Women in Film.
OCT. 25, 2017
The Taylor Sheridan film "Wind River," which had a successful release by the Weinstein Company in August, excises the Weinstein name from its home video and streaming releases. Principal financier Acadia Entertainment buys the film back from TWC and self-funds an awards campaign. (It doesn't land any Oscar nominations.)
NOV. 6, 2017
The Television Academy bans Weinstein for life. The New Yorker runs a follow-up piece saying a battery of former Mossad agents and communications experts were used to silence stories of Weinstein’s impropriety for years.
NOV. 15, 2017
TWC is hit with a class-action lawsuit from several of Weinstein’s accusers. The company is forced to sell its live-action "Paddington 2" to Warner Bros. to help infuse the studio with cash and keep the doors open.
DEC. 6, 2017
The Academy announces its “standards of conduct,” which read, in part, “The Academy is categorically opposed to any form of abuse, harassment or discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, age, religion, or nationality.”
JAN. 1, 2018
#TimesUp is born as four female talent agents from CAA create a legal defense fund for women in the U.S. workforce to protect them from sexual harassment. The effort is announced and endorsed by contributors like Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Fox Film head Stacey Snider, Fox TV honcho Dana Walden, Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, among others.
JANUARY 7
To draw attention to the mistreatment of women in Hollywood, virtually all women attending the Golden Globes wear black.
JANUARY 8
Immediately after he wins a Golden Globe wearing a #TimesUp pin, James Franco is accused of sexual misconduct by several women. The accusations, which the actor denies, come in the middle of the Oscar nomination voting period.
JANUARY 9
Lady Bird writer-director Greta Gerwig joins Mira Sorvino, Chloe Sevigny and others in saying she would not work in the future with director Woody Allen, who had been accused of sexual assault by his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow. (He has repeatedly denied the accusation.)
JAN. 10, 2018
Page Six reports that Weinstein and Chapman reached the terms of an eight-figure divorce settlement, with Chapman securing primary custody of the couple's two children.
JAN. 27, 2018
The Academy emails members to reveal the process by which violations of its code of conduct can be reported.
FEB. 6, 2018
“I may be a 75-year-old white male,” says Academy President John Bailey at the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon, “but I’m as gratified as any of you that the fossilized bedrock of many of Hollywood’s worst abuses [is] being jackhammered into oblivion.” (One month later, the Academy would investigate -- and then dismiss -- accusations of sexual harassment against Bailey himself.)
FEB. 8, 2018
Los Angeles police send three sexual assault cases concerning Weinstein to the city’s district attorney for possible charges.
MARCH 19, 2018
The Weinstein Company filed for bankruptcy in Delaware, reporting that it had less than $500,000 in cash on hand. Dallas-based Lantern Capital Partners stepped up as a stalking horse bidder prepared to buy virtually all of the company’s assets for $310 million.
As part of the company's bankruptcy filing, TWC also released all of Weinstein's accusers from any non-disclosure agreements that would've prevented them from speaking about Weinstein's alleged misconduct.
MAY 8, 2018
Despite a last-minute bid from Broadway producer Howard Kagan’s Inclusion Media, a Delaware bankruptcy judge approves Lantern Capital's purchase of The Weinstein Company's assets.
MAY 25, 2018
Following a months-long investigation by the NYPD, Weinstein is arrested on three felony charges of rape and criminal sex act in connection with two female accusers. Weinstein pleads not guilty and released on $1 million bail pending trial.
MAY 30, 2018
Weinstein is indicted on charges of rape in the first and third degrees, as well as on charges of criminal sexual act in the first degree, as announced by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Then on June 1, Three women filed additional charges against Weinstein in a class action lawsuit, saying that Weinstein isolated the women “in an attempt to engage in unwanted sexual conduct that took many forms: flashing, groping, fondling, harassing, battering, false imprisonment, sexual assault and attempted rape, and/or completed rape.”
GettyJULY 2, 2018
A grand jury served Weinstein with three more sexual assault charges, an additional count of criminal sexual act in the first degree for forcing a woman to have sex with him in 2006, and two counts of predatory sexual assault. The latter charge carries a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of a life sentence. Weinstein would plead not guilty.
Getty ImagesAUG. 3, 2018
Weinstein made a push to have a New York judge toss out a criminal sexual assault case brought against him, saying in a filing that the Manhattan district attorney “failed to provide the Grand Jury with exculpatory evidence of the long-term, consensual, intimate relationship between Mr. Weinstein and the alleged rape victim.”
Getty ImagesAUG. 19, 2018
A report in the New York Times said Asia Argento paid a settlement of $380,000 to actor Jimmy Bennett after accusing her of sexually assaulting him when he was just 17. Argento denied the accusations. Rose McGowan distanced herself from Argento, and Weinstein issued a statement saying Argento displayed a “stunning level of hypocrisy.” “The sheer duplicity of her conduct is quite extraordinary and should demonstrate to everyone how poorly the allegations against Mr. Weinstein were actually vetted and accordingly, cause all of us to pause and allow due process to prevail, not condemnation by fundamental dishonesty,” the statement continued.
AUG. 30, 2018
Former NBC News producer Richard McHugh said that people at “the very highest levels of NBC” worked to quash Ronan Farrow’s Harvey Weinstein story that eventually published in The New Yorker. Then on Sept. 3, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack sent an internal memo saying that after eight months, Farrow's reporting “did not have a single victim or witness willing to go on the record.” Farrow disputed the memo and said NBC's list of sources was incomplete.
SEPT. 6, 2018
The U.S. Attorney’s office in New York opened an investigation into Weinstein’s involvement with the private spy firm Black Cube to see if he violated any federal wire fraud laws. Weinstein had hired Black Cube to gather information on those accusing him of sexual assault.
AUG. 26, 2019
Weinstein is indicted on two new charges of predatory sexual assault. He faces seven counts, including first-degree and third-degree rape.
The new indictment also allows for Annabella Sciorra to testify at his trial. Though Weinstein cannot be charged for raping Sciorra at her apartment in 1993, as she had said in a 2017 interview with the New Yorker, the actress’ testimony could strengthen the D.A.’s case against Weinstein.
The criminal trial, originally scheduled to begin on Sept. 9, is also pushed back to Jan. 2020.
Spencer Platt / Getty ImagesSEPT. 6, 2019
A judge grants the consolidation of charges against Weinstein, bringing the count back down to five. The consolidation, which was voluntarily requested by the district attorney’s office, dismisses prosecutors’ earlier charges of predatory sexual assault and essentially replaces them with the two new charges of predatory sexual assault that were included in the indictment last month.
Drew Angerer / Getty ImagesSEPT. 10, 2019
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the New York Times reporters who first broke the Weinstein story, publish their book "She Said," which chronicles their investigation into the mogul and the aftermath of their initial story.
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty ImagesOCT. 15, 2019
Ronan Farrow publishes "Catch and Kill," his own recounting of reporting on Weinstein and the roadblocks he faced while trying to publish his work at NBC News. The book includes damning revelations about NBC News' leadership and a detailed accusation of rape against Matt Lauer. (Lauer has denied the accusation, and NBC News has repeatedly denied many of the details in the book.)
Getty ImagesTime's Up denounces the tentative settlement, describing it as emblematic of a "broken system that privileges powerful abusers at the expense of survivors."
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DEC. 11, 2019
After accusations of ankle bracelet tampering, Weinstein's bail is increased to $5 million.
David Dee Delgado / Getty ImagesJAN. 6, 2020
The first day of Weinstein's criminal trial begins in Manhattan.
As court was convening, a group of "silence breakers" — including Rosanna Arquette, Rose McGowan, Lou Godbold, Sarah Ann Masse, Dominique Huett, Lauren Sivan, and Paula Williams — hold a press conference outside the courtroom to call on Weinstein to be held accountable for his actions.
Getty ImagesJust hours after Weinstein left the courtroom after the first day of his trial, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced new charges of sexual assault against the ex-mogul: one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force, and sexual battery by restraint.
An arraignment date has not yet been set, but a spokesperson for the DA's office told The Wrap that they expect to wait until Weinstein's trial in New York is complete first.
Weinstein's bail is set to $5 million and, if convicted, he faces up to 28 years in prison.
Getty ImagesJAN. 17, 2020
The jury is selected for Weinstein's criminal trial. The 12-person panel includes seven men and five women. Three alternates are also chosen to sit in on the trial proceedings, should any of the chosen jurors need to be dismissed.
Scott Heins / Getty ImagesJAN. 23, 2020
"Sopranos" actress Annabella Sciorra testifies that Weinstein barged into her Gramercy Park apartment around 1993 or early 1994, raped her, and then orally sexually assaulted her.
“My body shut down,” she said. “It was just so disgusting that my body started to shake in a way that was very unusual. I didn’t really even know what was happening. It was like a seizure or something."
Spencer Platt / Getty ImagesJAN. 27, 2020
Miriam Haley (née Mimi Haleyi), a former production assistant on the Weinstein-produced TV show "Project Runway," testifies that Weinstein pushed her down onto a bed, pulled out her tampon, and orally sexually assaulted her.
Getty ImagesJAN. 29, 2020
Dawn Dunning, a former aspiring actress now working as a costume designer, testifies as one of the prosecution's "prior bad acts" witnesses. Dunning says Weinstein put his hand up her skirt and touched her genitals in 2004 and then, later, propositioned her for a threesome with one of his assistants in exchange for movie roles.
Ari Perilstein / Getty ImagesFEB. 24, 2020
After four days of deliberations, a New York jury convicted Weinstein of third-degree rape and a criminal sexual act, but found him not guilty of the more serious charges of predatory sexual assault.
MARCH 11, 2020
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for his crimes.
A blow-by-blow look at how the indie mogul’s career and reputation unraveled
Harvey Weinstein was once the king of the indie film world. But the Oscar-winning producer's career and reputation have imploded since fall 2017, when scores of women stepped forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct. Here's a breakdown of what happened.