As the avalanche of allegations against Harvey Weinstein arose over the course of weeks — following twin bombshell reports detailing the first round of horrific accounts and the subsequent audio recording that served to corroborate — one major question surfaced … how did he manage to bury these acts for decades? Well, reports indicated that he had an army of investigators to dig into his “hit list” of accusers, and his brother, Bob, personally paid out at least $600,000 to two alleged victims. Did Harvey receive more help? Yes.
The New York Times has published an investigative report on Weinstein’s “complicity machine.” The manipulative devices that he employed would span three decades and, eventually, fail to keep him afloat. Other than Bob (who the Times says has been helping pay off accusers since around 1990), Harvey was enabled by executives who were motivated by self preservation. In addition, Harvey reportedly also needed, uh, actual physical assistance to carry out his alleged sexual assaults — in the form of penile injections:
Some low-level assistants were pulled in: They compiled “bibles” that included hints on facilitating encounters with women, and were required to procure his penile injections for erectile dysfunction. His lawyers crafted settlements that kept the truth from being explored, much less exposed. “When you quickly settle, there is no need to get into all the facts,” said Daniel M. Petrocelli, a lawyer who handled two agreements with accusers.
Oh boy. Due to statutes of limitations on sexual assault cases, it’s unlikely that Weinstein will be prosecuted for the vast majority of his alleged atrocities. One of the exceptions revolves around Paz de la Huerta’s accusations that he raped her twice in 2010, and there’s also a newly pending lawsuit (relating to a human trafficking law) against Harvey to due alleged acts at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. Yet it’s hard to imagine any justice that could be more poetic than people reading the above excerpt.
There’s much more, and the full NY Times piece is worth reading. From agents to concerned Disney executives to even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, it seems like a whole lot of people were either aware of or worried about Harvey’s behavior. There’s also a section that deals with Harvey’s political schmoozing with Hillary Clinton and a few warnings (including one from Lena Dunham) that her team received about his reputation. And that doesn’t even touch the multiple references of Harvey fretting over whether he’s going to become the next Bill Cosby. As it turns out, he had solid reason to worry.
(Via New York Times)