For all their elitist, condescending lectures in awards speeches and film subplots, Hollywood has continually demonstrated that it is little more than a hive of sin and filth.
After attempting to be beacons amid the #MeToo movement, Ronan Farrow’s new book states that a staggering number of A-listers knew full well that Miramax co-founder and producer Harvey Weinstein was a rapist and a predator.
According to Insider, the disgraced Weinstein was found guilty late last month of a felony sex crime and rape after a lengthy, dramatic trial. Before his conviction, Weinstein had been accused by dozens of women of sexual abuse.
Ahead of the trial, journalist Ronan Farrow published “Catch and Kill,” a book that details the process behind his damning investigative report of Weinstein’s pattern of abuse in the New Yorker.
When he first began to interview Weinstein’s many accusers, Farrow shone light on a network of powerful, wealthy men and women working together to shield Weinstein and each other from accountability.
Here are just a few of those mentioned in “Catch and Kill:”
- Ben Affleck
Megastar Affleck has done plenty of work with Weinstein but officially denies any knowledge of abuse beyond his being “sleazy and kind of a bully, but unfortunately that wasn’t that uncommon.”Rose McGowan, however, one of Weinstein’s most prominent accusers, says Affleck is lying.
In “Catch and Kill,” she told Farrow that in 1997, after starring in Weinstein-produced horror film “Scream,” and working on “Phantoms” with Affleck, her business manager set up a meeting with Weinstein at a hotel restaurant. The meeting then moved to Weinstein’s hotel suite, where McGowan says Weinstein used his physical size to overpower her and rape her.
After the incident, McGowan said she immediately encountered Affleck and that the actor saw her looking visibly distraught. When she told Affleck where she had just come from, she says Affleck responded, “God damn it, I told him to stop doing this.”
- Colin Firth
Weinstein distributed “The Advocate,” starring Britain’s Colin Firth, back in the early ’90s. Sophie Dix, a supporting actress in the film, told Farrow that Weinstein invited her to his hotel room to view footage of the film. Weinstein pushed her onto the bed and tugged her clothes off, and she fled to the bathroom to hide. Dix then opened the door, where she found Weinstein masturbating on the other side. She was finally able to escape when room service came to the door.Although Dix told several what happened at the time, she received plenty of sympathy but no advocacy, including from Firth.
“She told me she had had a distressing encounter with Harvey Weinstein,” Firth told The Guardian back in 2017 shortly after Weinstein was first outed as a predator. “I don’t think she went into all the horrific detail I’ve read in her interview. But I remember her being profoundly upset by it. To my shame, I merely expressed sympathy.”
“I didn’t act on what she told me,” Firth added. “It was a long time ago and I don’t know if she remembers telling me, but the fact that I had that conversation has come back to haunt me in the light of these revelations. It’s the only direct account of this kind of behaviour by Harvey Weinstein that’s ever been told to me.”
- Lena Dunham
Lena Dunham has already earned plenty of notoriety. Back in 2014, the actress and producer brazenly recalled instances in which she sexually abused her younger sister (who is now a transgender “man”), then proceeded to gaslight into oblivion conservatives who labeled her behavior—including exploring her then-toddler sister’s vagina and offering her candy in exchange for kisses on the lips—as abuse.According to The Chicago Tribune, Dunham has also lied in order to discredit “Girls” actress Aurora Perrineau, who reported sexual assault by Murray Miller, the show’s producer.
As far as Weinstein goes, Farrow writes that Dunham knew about the allegations against Weinstein and warned then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s staff to put some space between the campaign and Weinstein, a major donor.
Dunham later revealed that she told several Clinton campaign staffers, “I just want to let you know that Harvey’s a rapist and this is going to come out at some point.”
Clinton herself has maintained that she didn’t know about Weinstein’s abuse. Although she was the Democratic presidential nominee who received more donations than any other from longtime friend Weinstein, she said in 2017 that she was only able to re-donate about $13,000 of his donations to women’s charities.
According to Farrow’s work, these are just a handful of the celebrities who knew of Weinstein’s repeated abuses of young actresses and didn’t lift a finger to help them.
So, remind me again, why should we accept any lectures on morality from Hollywood stars?
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