Even More Dirt On Harvey Weinstein Revealed In PBS Documentary
It has been five months since a pair of explosive exposés destroyed Harvey Weinstein’s film career, and people are still coming out with more allegations of dark and monstrous behavior by the disgraced Hollywood mogul.
A “Frontline” investigation, which aired on PBS on Friday, chronicled the once-powerful producer’s fall from the top, with new accusers coming forward with more details on how Weinstein reportedly continued his abusive ways for decades.
The revelations about Weinstein sparked a massive cultural shift, now known as the Me Too movement. Since then, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of harassment or abuse, and dozens of other powerful men ― including CEOs, celebrities and congressional lawmakers ― have been ousted from their posts.
Here’s what “Frontline” uncovered about Weinstein five months after the collapse of his career.
Another Woman Told Her Story
The one-hour program followed the accounts of six of Weinstein’s female accusers, including Suza Maher-Wilson, who was speaking publicly for the first time.
Wilson worked on one of Weinstein’s early films, “The Burning,” according to “Frontline.” During a wrap party for the 1981 movie, Wilson said Weinstein invited her to his hotel room and asked for a massage.
“I agreed, being a 23-year-old, naïve, trusting, young woman,” Wilson said.
Weinstein excused himself to go to the restroom, she said. When the producer returned, she said, “he was naked with a towel. It was a little shocking.”
“I just said, ‘I’m sorry, this isn’t what I signed on for,’” Wilson recalled. “And I left the room immediately.”
Weinstein’s Former Executives Spoke Out
Two of Weinstein’s male colleagues provided accounts of his inappropriate behavior and bad reputation to “Frontline.”
Tom Prince, the Weinstein Company’s former vice president of physical production, spoke out for the first time against his former boss.
“Those of us that heard about it and read it looked at each other. I don’t think anybody was too surprised,” Prince said about his reaction to the news in 2015 that Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez had filed a police report against Weinstein alleging sexual abuse.
Paul Webster, Miramax’s former president of production, told “Frontline” that working for Weinstein’s company felt like being in “the cult of Harvey.”
“It was common knowledge, everybody knew, what a brutal regime it was,” Webster said of Weinstein’s aggressive leadership style.
“I knew I was making a deal with the devil,” he added. “But I knew also that he was at the epicenter of where I wanted to be.”
Webster also said he knew that Weinstein was a “serial womanizer.” He didn’t have “the guts to do anything about it,” he said, although he warned his own assistants against being alone with Weinstein.
“It didn’t take too much brainpower to put it together that a man that was so bullying in every aspect of his life would bring that abuse into the sexual arena,” Webster said.
“I think, looking back, I did know and I chose to suppress it. I think we were all enablers. I think we were all complicit.”
Private Investigators Made An Exception For Him
A former employee of K2 Intelligence spoke to “Frontline” about Weinstein’s mission to discredit Gutierrez, who had helped New York police obtain a recording of the producer admitting to sexually abusing her.
Weinstein hired K2 to dig up dirt on the model’s past in Italy. The firm accepted the job, even though the employee said they didn’t typically take on cases from those who were accused of sexual misconduct.
“Nobody likes to develop information on somebody who’s accusing a client of sexual misconduct ― but [with] Harvey Weinstein being Harvey Weinstein, exceptions were made,” said the former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of his job.
Weinstein Cried Before A New Yorker Reporter
Ken Auletta, a longtime writer for The New Yorker, interviewed Weinstein while working on a 2002 profile of him, eventually titled “Beauty and the Beast.”
After hearing that the producer had a number of non-disclosure agreements with his alleged victims, Auletta told “Frontline” that he reached out to Weinstein’s former assistant Zelda Perkins, who was also featured in the documentary.
Perkins said she was terrified after she answered Auletta’s phone call in 2012 and accidentally revealed to him that she had a non-disclosure agreement with her former boss.
“I just knew that one thing I was absolutely, in fear of death, not allowed to do was talk to a journalist,” she said.
When Auletta brought up Perkins’ name in an interview, he said Weinstein broke down in tears.
“I thought he was going to throw a punch at me, so I stood up and at that point Harvey started to cry. It was extraordinary,” Auletta told “Frontline.”
“What he said was, ‘Ken, you’re going to ruin my marriage,’” the reporter recalled. “‘These were consensual relationships. And if you publish this, you’re going to destroy my family.’”
"I didn't think that my story meant anything to anybody." Two women speak about encounters with Harvey Weinstein that help trace his alleged predatory behavior back to his career's early days. Our investigation begins at 9 p.m. on the West Coast: https://t.co/sUTpsBFZ1V pic.twitter.com/zzkyWEhwdV
— FRONTLINE (@frontlinepbs) March 3, 2018
Weinstein’s long list of accusers include Rose McGowan, Mira Sorvino, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Asia Argento, Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie and Kate Beckinsale.
And they’re not alone. A USA Today study found that 94 percent of women who work in Hollywood have experienced some level of sexual harassment or assault.
On Friday, a group of investors led by a former Obama official reached a deal to buy the faltering Weinstein Company. Maria Contreras-Sweet, who ran the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama, said in a statement that the deal will ensure that “victims will be adequately compensated, employees will be protected moving forward, and those who were responsible for misconduct at [the Weinstein Company] will not be unjustly rewarded.”
Watch the entire “Frontline” documentary on Weinstein here.
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Ashley Judd
She told the Times that she thought, “How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?”
Gwyneth Paltrow
“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she said, noting that when Weinstein found out she told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt, "I thought he was going to fire me."
Angelina Jolie
Kate Winslet
"I had hoped that these kind of stories were just made up rumours, maybe we have all been naïve," she said. "And it makes me so angry. There must be ‘no tolerance’ of this degrading, vile treatment of women in ANY workplace anywhere in the world.”
Meryl Streep
“The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported," she said in a statement.
Rose McGowan
After The Weinstein Company fired Harvey, the actress and director called on the rest of the studio's board to resign.
"They knew," she said in a tweet. "They funded. They advised. They covered up. They must be exposed. They must resign."
Ben Affleck
Actress Rose McGowan denounced Affleck for implying that he didn't know of the abuse before this week, saying that the pair had previously discussed Weinstein's treatment of her.
"You lie," she tweeted.
Lena Dunham
"Abuse, threats and coercion have been the norm for so many women trying to do business or make art," she wrote. "Mr. Weinstein may be the most powerful man in Hollywood to be revealed as a predator, but he’s certainly not the only one who has been allowed to run wild. His behavior, silently co-signed for decades by employees and collaborators, is a microcosm of what has been happening in Hollywood since always and of what workplace harassment looks like for women everywhere."
George Clooney
"A good bunch of people that I know would say, “Yeah, Harvey’s a dog” or “Harvey’s chasing girls,” but again, this is a very different kind of thing," the actor told the Daily Beast. "This is harassment on a very high level. And there’s an argument that everyone is complicit in it. I suppose the argument would be that it’s not just about Hollywood, but about all of us—that every time you see someone using their power and influence to take advantage of someone without power and influence and you don’t speak up, you’re complicit. And there’s no question about that."
Jennifer Lawrence
"I worked with Harvey five years ago, and I did not experience any form of harassment personally, nor did I know about any of these allegations. This kind of abuse is inexcusable and absolutely upsetting," Lawrence said in a statement. "My heart goes out to all of the women affected by these gross actions. And I want to thank them for their bravery to come forward."
Hillary Clinton
Clinton said that she "was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior."
Barack and Michelle Obama
"Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein," the Obamas said in a statement. "Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status. We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories. And we all need to build a culture -- including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect -- so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future."
Judi Dench
"Whilst there is no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has helped and championed my film career for the past 20 years, I was completely unaware of these offenses which are, of course, horrifying and I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered, and whole-hearted support to those who have spoken out," she said in a statement.
Leonardo DiCaprio
"There is no excuse for sexual harrassment or sexual assault-- no matter who you are and no matter what profession," DiCarpio said in a Facebook Post. "I applaud the strength and courage of the women who came forward and made their voices heard."
Jessica Chastain
"I was warned from the beginning" about Weinstein, she said in a tweet. "The stories were everywhere. To deny that is to create an environment for it to happen again."
Julianne Moore
Colin Firth
“It must have been terrifying for these women to step up and call him out. And horrifying to be subjected to that kind of harassment. I applaud their courage."
Tamron Hall
Blake Lively
The actress said that she was unaware of the abuse but admitted that "it's devastating to hear."
"It's important that women are furious right now. It's important that there is an uprising. It's important that we don't stand for this and that we don't focus on one or two or three or four stories. It's important that we focus on humanity in general and say, 'This is unacceptable.'"
Julia Roberts
Ryan Gosling
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
