In a rare 45-minute phone interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bob Weinstein, the younger brother of and Weinstein Company co-founder with Harvey Weinstein, opened up about the innumerable allegations levied against the latter. Aside from the initial exposes published by the New York Times and The New Yorker, reporters, women as famous as Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, and countless other have accused Harvey of sexual harassment, assault and rape. Bob and the Weinstein Company’s remaining board members subsequently fired Harvey, but not before catching flack for not speaking out before.
Bob refused to address another New York Times report indicating he and the Weinstein Company board knew of payments to Harvey’s accusers as early as 2015. The 62-year-old producer did, however, have some pretty harsh things to say about his 65-year-old brother. “I have a brother that’s indefensible and crazy,” he told THR. “I want him to get the justice that he deserves.”
Bob admitted he was “quite aware that Harvey was philandering with every woman he could meet” when asked how, as the man’s own brother, he didn’t know about what was happening. But he swears he didn’t know “the type of predator that he was”:
It wasn’t like he even had a mistress. It was one after another and that I was aware of. But as far as being in a room and hearing the description in The New York Times? No way. No F-in way was I aware that that was the type of predator that he was. And the way he convinced people to do things? I thought they were all consensual situations.
I’ll tell you what I did know. Harvey was a bully, Harvey was arrogant, he treated people like shit all the time. That I knew. And I had to clean up for so many of his employee messes. People that came in crying to my office: “Your brother said this, that and the other.” And I’d feel sick about it.
As for the kind of justice Harvey should face, Bob wouldn’t speculate about the investigations recently opened up by police in New York and London, but he did say he will cooperate “a hundred percent” if asked to. Bob also confirmed reports he was “gonna write a note to [the Academy] saying he definitely should be kicked out.” Regarding the future of the Weinstein Company, the remaining Weinstein said they were “coming up with” a new name that “won’t be familial,” but rebuffed claims the company would be shuttered outright and sold off to interested buyers, like Jay-Z.
If you are a victim or survivor of sexual assault, resources for support are available through RAINN‘s National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
