Weinstein family feud is tip of the iceberg

Harvey suspects brother Bob gave company file to media

HARVEY Weinstein may have become the most vilified man in show business.

But friends say what really vexes him about his downfall is his suspicion it was sparked by a spectacular betrayal by his younger brother Bob.

According to a show business report, Harvey Weinstein has a receipt slip that indicates that seven months ago Bob was sent Harvey’s personnel file from their company, in which many of the sexual harassment claims made against him were detailed.

Several resulted in women being paid off with large sums. The disgraced mogul believes his brother passed it on to the New York Times, providing it with the concrete evidence it needed for the story that has engulfed him.

Harvey has also told friends that Bob, 62, and fellow members of the Weinstein Company board knew about his behaviour for years, contradicting their insistence that the revelations came as an “utter surprise”.

Bob – who voted with the board to sack Harvey on Sunday – has denied his brother’s claims.

“My brother Harvey is obviously a very sick man,” he said. “I’ve urged him to seek immediate professional help because he is in dire need of it.

“His remorse and apologies to the victims of his abuse are hollow. He has proven himself a world-class liar and now, rather than seeking help, is seeking to blame others.”

The apparent vitriol driving the family feud and the dramatic coup that has left Bob as sole chairman of their company, has shocked the industry.

“It’s Cain and Abel – Hollywood style,” proclaimed a US newspaper amid reports that a long- simmering antipathy between the brothers worsened after the death of their mother, Miriam, a year ago.

Bob is a colourful character in his own right: his second wife went to court seeking a protection order against him on the grounds she feared “bodily harm”, while other reports say he was once punched to the ground by Harvey.

It is an extraordinary state of affairs for the siblings who took on the Hollywood establishment and became perhaps the most powerful brand in the film industry.

Bob provided the behindthe- scenes business brains while Harvey was “front of house”, the creative genius who chose the Oscar-winning scripts, schmoozed the stars and – we now know – operated Tinseltown’s most insatiable casting couch operation.

Bob has always kept a lower profile. He oversees the company’s Dimension division, which releases both familyfriendly pictures such as

Pad, as well as horror films dington like .

Scary Movie “Harvey was more the celebrity of the two,” said Marvin Peart, producer of the Weinsteins’ new Robert de Niro film, .

War With Grandpa “It was very much a case of him having a certain table at a restaurant, going to the opening nights. Bob was more comfortable on a film set.”

They have long had a tempestuous relationship and have been known to stop talking to each other for months at a time, according to former colleagues. – Daily Mail

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PICTURE: AP Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein. Together they ran perhaps the most famous company in Hollywood until Harvey was axed following accusations of sexual harassment.