ODIOUS ENCOUNTERS
How Harvey Weinstein hunted his prey
Harvey Weinstein might be one of Hollywood’s most prominent producers, but his role is all twisted in his head.
Dude, it’s not lights, camera, and a bit of girl action.
The Weinstein sex scandal has now deepened with US actress Rose McGowan publicly accusing him of raping her. In an investigation by the New Yorker, which follows one in the New York Times, three other women also accuse him of rape. At least 10 more have described incidents of sexual harassment or assault.
Weinstein is painted as a compulsive sexual predator with the confidence of a 16thcentury sultan; an absolute despot who can summon a string of Circassian beauties at will and command them to perform degradations of his choosing.
Enter naked troll, stage left
As astounding as the number of women now speaking out is the way he hunted his prey and went in for the kill. Hotel suite. Young female lured into his lair. Naked and blatantly parading an erection.
French actress Emma de Caunes was one of the victims of this routine. She was invited to a lunch meeting at the Ritz in Paris and somehow landed up in his hotel suite. Weinstein disappeared into the bathroom. “I was like, what the fuck, is he taking a shower?” He reappeared without any clothes and with an erection and demanded she lie on the bed — as many other women had done before her, he informed her. She slammed the door as she fled.
One of the subplots in this sordid tale is Weinstein’s appearance. Let’s be honest, he’d never crack it as the leading man in one of his movies. He must have been the kid who came last in the egg-and-spoon race at school. He’s more gargoyle than statue of David. There are crocodiles who are far betlecherous ter looking than Harvey Weinstein.
Looks of course should be entirely irrelevant; pretty boys are just as likely to molest women as ugly ones. But this is the most glamorous industry on the planet, the kind of environment where women have Botox at the age of 30. Where, when she was 14, Judy Garland was told by MGM that she looked like a “fat little pig with pigtails” and executives would remove a plate of food from under her nose. And that was only the ’30s.
It might seem like a minor observation, but Weinstein’s taste for the shock entrance, butt-naked or in his dressing gown, skin mottled and with a tummy as soft as a marshmallow, reinforces the image of an absolute monarch who need neither know nor care about the feelings of his vassals.
So secure was he of his supreme power that he felt no need to use flattery or chemicals to gain compliance.
A company temp told the New Yorker that Weinstein, in a “very weirdly proud” voice, once announced “that he’d never had to do anything like Bill Cosby” and drug his targets. “It’s just a bizarre thing to be so proud of,” she said.
In Weinstein’s kingdom, however, the same hold he had on his victims was exerted on his staff. So many people knew and everyone was too afraid to speak out. There were those specifically tasked with taking care of his “women needs”.
During the years several Hollywood stars have covered up for him. A former New York Times writer claims a story of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct was spiked more than a decade ago after pressure from Matt Damon and Russell Crowe.
Swimsuit model Angie Everhart has claimed on TV that during the Venice Film Festival Weinstein broke into the cabin where she was sleeping on a yacht, forcibly held her and masturbated. She says she told everyone about it, but no one cared.
Writing in the Guardian, French actress Léa Seydoux describes her interaction with film’s big cheese.
“All throughout the evening, he flirted and stared at me as if I was a piece of meat. He acted as if he were considering me for a role. But I knew that was bullshit. I knew it, because I could see it in his eyes. He had a look. He was using his power to get sex.” Her story resumes later that evening in his hotel suite. “We were talking on the sofa when he suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me. I had to defend myself. He’s big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him. I left his room, thoroughly disgusted.” At least Seydoux had stature in the film community and thus a degree of protection from his attack. Pity the poor vulnerable starlet confronted with the sight of Weinstein emerging from his hotel bathroom with his lollipop blatantly on display. The inevitable Hobson’s choice: a forced encounter of the odious kind with Harvey’s hairy bits or a future back in the Midwest as a supermarket teller. Zimbabwean-born singer Lucia Evans told the New Yorker Weinstein attacked her in his office. “He forced me to perform oral sex on him. He’s a big guy, he overpowered me.” The casting couch phenomenon originated in the motion picture industry and Weinstein has drawn attention to past scandals. One of the most notorious assaults happened in the 1920s. Aspiring actress Virginia Rappe suffered a ruptured bladder after a sexual encounter with comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle during a wild party. Before she died three days later she claimed the silent film actor raped her. Arbuckle was acquitted after three trials. Errol Flynn, known for his roles as a romantic swashbuckler on screen, was a habitual child molester behind the scenes. He had been accused of statutory rape of two underage girls when he embarked on a relationship with 15-year-old Beverly Aadland in 1942.
The good, the bad and the ugly
Shirley Temple wrote in her memoirs that an MGM producer exposed himself to her during their first meeting. She was 12 and unfamiliar with the mechanics of the male anatomy. She laughed nervously. He threw her out of his office.
Even Hollywood royalty in the form of Gwyneth Paltrow has not been exempt from Weinstein’s predations. As a 22-year-old she was summoned to his hotel suite, where he suggested she give him a massage. After boyfriend Brad Pitt confronted Weinstein about the incident the producer warned Paltrow not to tell anyone else.
The list goes on. In 2015 Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez reported Weinstein to the New York police for groping her breasts. During a sting operation Weinstein is heard trying to herd Gutierrez into his hotel suite.
At her repeated refusal he warns her: “Five minutes. Don’t ruin your friendship with me for five minutes.” This implied threat is repeated numerous times: I can send you to that most scary place for entertainers, the land of oblivion.
As for Weinstein, he deserves a thorough acquaintance with the four walls of a prison cell, together with that fate worse than death for Hollywood moguls: a steep descent into irrelevance.