At The New Yorker, Ken Auletta, a writer known for his thorough appraisals of business and media executives, had profiled Weinstein in 2002. Entitled “Beauty and the Beast,” the piece made no explicit mention of sexual predation, but dwelled on Weinstein’s brutality. He was, Auletta wrote, “spectacularly coarse, and even threatening.” And there was a curious, overheated passage that hinted that there was more to the story. Auletta noted that Weinstein’s business partners “feel ‘raped’—a word often invoked by those dealing with him.”
