Steve Jobs (Apple) Jerry Yang (Yahoo), George Zimmer (men’s wearhouse) and others were all canned from their own companies.
I was never treated poorly at any job, except for being underpaid, but I’d had plenty of bad experiences with men alone to feel that Anita Hill was completely believable. I grew up with a Dad who thought my sister-in-law should have made my brother send me birthday cards. That’s a ridiculously old-fashioned attitude, but he would never have harassed a woman. (That I know of at least!) I have no idea what makes men think this sort of behavior could possibly be okay.
I don’t think The Weinstein Company is publicly traded and not sure how it is structured. My feeling is that the only fiduciary duty owed there was to the Weinsteins themselves who realized most of the profits. There were only 4 left on the board – one of which was his brother – and the others very close friends.
ETA: this is just my initial reaction to that news. If nothing else these guys are smart businessmen. Clearly this guy does not give a damn about his personal reputation.
This sort of behavior impacts men as well. Years ago, I knew a theater actor who got some bit parts on locally produced TV and films. He thought he had his big break when he was called to LA to audition for a speaking part in a movie. At the audition, the male casting director requested fellatio, which my married friend refused. He was not cast.
When he got back, over a few beers he bitterly told me that this was not the first time this happened, and that the reason there are so many gay actors in Hollywood is that there is always someone who will do anything to get a part. I have heard similar stories about being propositioned during auditions from females actresses I know.
The whole industry is full of scuzzy people, and you can bet that many of the household names you see in movies were willing to do something to someone to get where they are.
And now people may wonder if… There was a picture of HW with Cameron Diaz and Gwen Paltraw on the paper the other day. I couldn’t help wondering.
His contributions are smaller than I expected.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/democrats-look-distance-weinstein-181258205.html
Go girl! Yes, the entire board have to go.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/actress-rose-mcgowan-calls-entire-103350145.html
There are many men who question claims of sexual harassment especially when the accusation comes years later. I think a lot of these men get a wake up call when it the face of their questioning of the women their own wife or daughter come forward and tell them that they also faced similar behavior.
I saw it this past year with my wife. Her dad did not believe accusations that came forward during the election because they happened years ago. M y wife told him she was subject to similar behavior and she never told him or others.
It made him question his thinking on the issue
The whole world may be full of scuzzy people, but an industry where many try but few succeed to enter*, and subjective judgement is the norm, may be more prone to scuzzy people having the leverage to act upon their scuzziness.
*Note the similar observation in the threads about unpaid internship abuse.
I doubt it was. Meryl Streep put out a statement that condemns HW’s conduct but also essentially says she didn’t have a clue. I suspect that HW was one of those guys who harrassed small fish, but didn’t harrass stars. Now, some of the “small fish” ultimately made it and became important, but they weren’t when it happened.
I think that there are two separate problems with men and women in the work place. There are men who think a woman or a married woman or a woman with children shouldn’t have a job with major responsibilities or in which they supervise many men. They dislike women they think are too assertive. There are also men who use their power to get sex from women or to do outrageous things around them. Sometimes, men have both issues, but in my experience many just have one.
So, you get someone like Clinton who has the second problem, but supports the careers of talented women. You get someone like Mike Pence who won’t have dinner alone with a woman–which essentially means he’d never consider a woman for a position as something like his chief of staff–but who would never sexually harrass a woman. (At least, I don’t think he would.)
I suspect HW fell in the Clinton camp. Streep really sang his praises when she received her oscar. I think he probably really did support the careers of talented actresses and was also willing to hire female directors, work with female talent agents, etc.
I personally think that when men are supportive of women in terms of their careers, women are less willing to believe they sexually harrassed other women–but that’s nonsense, IMO.
In retrospect, I think it’s telling that HW opposed the extradiction of Roman Polanski. The kind of thing Polanski did just doesn’t seem like a crime to people like HW.
@jonri - If you believe the following article from the Weekly Standard, it was an open secret that he repeatedly paid to hush up. There are also many other like him in the industry.
“I suspect that HW was one of those guys who harrassed small fish, but didn’t harrass stars.”
I can see that. It’s true that so far the women who have come out against HW are more B-list than big stars… And although I believe that Meryl Streep wasn’t harassed, I have my doubts she’s never heard the gossip, unless she lives in a total superstar-bubble, which could be a possibility, I suppose.
Well…@Zinhead…I may be naive. However, both Meryl Streep and Judi Dench have both said that they had no inkling of this. So, while I believe the accusations, I wonder how “open” the “open secret” was.
OK, assume that the other famous Hollywood producer exists, and has humiliated and photographed the famous actresses as claimed.
Virtually everyone who knows this “open secret” knows celebrity gossip and nothing more. A few people have first hand information, but most people who know this open secret just have heard rumors. What should they do with these unsubstantiated rumors? Not all gossip is true. How should someone act on rumors for which they have no evidence?
Anyone who openly states the rumors will be attacked, and their careers destroyed, whether the rumors are true or untrue. Moreover, if rumors are not true, then publicizing them openly can harm innocent non-offenders who are the subject of a false whisper campaign.
So what should someone do if they hear the rumors?
It’s not so simple.
I don’t buy Meryl Strip or other big stars didn’t know anything about it. If you truly heard of this for the first time on Thursday, you wouldn’t wait 4 days to get outraged. You would have OMG moments immediately, on Thursday.
Come now, Iglooo. OMG moments and press releases don’t happen at the same time. The news about Weinstein came out late last week. Streep’s press release came out early this morning. This is not such an emergency for Meryl Streep that her press agent has to put out a statement on a weekend.
I also think it is possible for someone to go through stages in processing, especially if it someone you might have looked up to and/or admired in other ways. I think a lot of us have people in our professional or personal lives who we’ve respected for some things and then we found out about some aspect of their character that knocks them off the pedestal, resulting in a range of feelings and needing a little time to process. One doesn’t find out about something like that and issue a statement hours later.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Please stay away from political comments - I had to delete a few posts.
@Cardinal Fang - That is a good question. One answer comes from Sharon Waxman who first investigated Weinstein in 2004.
https://www.thewrap.com/media-enablers-harvey-weinstein-new-york-times/