From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories
What was a first a large number of women by many accounts has become an avalanche of women including several “A” list actresses. While there are those who will choose not to believe, even if the evidence of semen stained clothes are produced, it is obvious to most people that Harvey Weinstein is a sexual predator. How long has these sexually inappropriate behaviors been going on we might never know for sure but recorded accusations range back 30 years so it is more than possible that the behaviors could actually go back 40 or 50 years to when Weinstein was a teenager. Why do you ask am I sure that Weinstein’s criminal behaviors go back further. The reasoning is simply that before Weinstein would be so bold as to engage in those behaviors as a function of his career with simi-strangers he would have attempted the sexual behaviors in a more private manner with an associate. This reasoning is especially sound as it appears that Weinstein and his brother only started the company approximately 30 odd years ago.
I don’t know if Weinstein could have benefited from counseling if he had been reported/caught after one of his first incidents of sexually inappropriate behaviors.
From reports of his brother, Bob, he was always arrogant, had a sense of entitlement and would become verbally aggressive when things didn’t work out for him. Bob describes his big brother, Harvey, as a bully and stated that he knew of Harvey’s literally just going out there cheating in a pervasive way.
“I actually was quite aware that Harvey was philandering with every woman he could meet. I was sick and disgusted by his actions. 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 situation.”
{The Hollywood Reporter – Bob Weinstein Gets Emotional on “Depraved” Harvey, Saving the Company and His “Waking Nightmare” (Exclusive)
But right now, even as he struggles to right the company (of which he and Harvey both own about 20 percent each), he’s also coping with his own sense of shame and betrayal, expressing sympathy for Harvey’s victims while also questioning whether he should have done more in the face of Harvey’s alleged abusive behavior. Bob, who worked mostly in Los Angeles while Harvey presided over TWC’s New York offices, says he’s barely spoken to his brother over the past five years. “I could not take his cheating, his lying and also his attitude toward everyone,” he says. While he says he knew his brother was unfaithful to wife Georgina Chapman, Bob insists he had no idea about “the type of predator that he was” and is sickened by Harvey’s seeming lack of remorse. “I have a brother that’s indefensible and crazy,” says Bob, adding, “I want him to get the justice that he deserves.”}
Some people, I will admit mostly women, feel that Bob is covering up and down playing his knowledge of Harvey’s behaviors in an effort to save the company. If Bob is covering up he is part of a host of men in Hollywood, in front and behind the screen, who are also covering up their knowledge of the open secret of sexual abuse that was Harvey Weinstein.
But in defense of Bob, there is a learned pattern of looking the other way when working with family and close friend. This pattern isn’t started in defense of the friend or family member but in a manner of self protection. As anyone who has ever been pulled into a friends or family members person drama will tell you after a while the only way to maintain their own sanity is to put up walls between yourselves and the drama inducing situations. You could see this in the way that some of Tim Jobs early co-workers and friends provided for his daughter without his knowledge. You also see this in friends that ignore others drug usage when it doesn’t interfere with the job. These are just a couple of examples and highlight how it’s possible Bob only knew about Harvey’s casual disregard for fidelity towards his marriage vows.
This doesn’t mean that I think the company was blameless. I do think that the company contributed to the abuse as well as the cover up but that’s because that’s how Harvey wanted it. For the company, if they survive, I would hope that they would step to the forefront of the Hollywood effort to curb the “casting couch”. Because make no mistake Harvey is not the only man in Hollywood to use the power associated with the job in that manner. Something needs to be done to prevent this type of abuse from continuing.
