Weinstein’s vile. But the silence of Hollywood’s women helped him get away with it for years

ONCE, I met harvey Weinstein. Well, I say met; I was interviewing a famous actress (I honestly can’t remember who — they’ve all had so much Botox these days that they blend into one) in the lobby of a Central London hotel when a large man with a sweaty face walked past.

‘harvey!’ she exclaimed, practically knocking me out in her eagerness to get to him. Lukewarm about having to answer my questions, she now lit up like a 100-watt bulb.

he smiled by way of acknowledgment and encircled the small of her back with a bearish paw, bestowing his blessing upon her.

She sat down, flushed with delight. It was clear he was the one with all the power.

Not any more. Weinstein’s former friends and allies have been queuing up to denounce him after revelations of the movie mogul’s 30-year career as hollywood’s sex-pest-in-chief finally came to light. his brother has fired him from The Weinstein Company, the film company they founded together, his lawyer wants nothing more to do with him, and his liberal chums (including Bill and hillary Clinton) suddenly seem otherwise engaged.

Even Meryl Streep, who referred to Weinstein as ‘God’ at the 2012 Golden Globes, has issued a lengthy statement declaring his abuse ‘disgraceful’ and professing herself shocked.

A-listers Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow have both revealed that Weinstein had propositioned them in their youth.

And yesterday, The New Yorker magazine dropped a bomb: 13 interviews with women who detailed their encounters with Weinstein.

In one case — that of a FilipinaItalian model named Ambra Battilana Gutierrez — there is even a piece of police audio in which Weinstein tries to persuade the girl to enter his hotel room.

She stands in the corridor, refusing to go in. ‘I’m not gonna do anything,’ he says. ‘I swear on my children.’ Still she refuses.

‘ Five minutes,’ he tells her impatiently. ‘Don’t ruin your friendship with me for five minutes.’

hardly surprising that holly- wood, once at his feet, is now queuing up to put the boot in.

Weinstein’s alleged behaviour has been at best repulsive, at worst criminal. Three of the women in The New Yorker report accuse him of actual rape.

The allegations are denied by Weinstein. his representative issued a statement to The New Yorker saying: ‘Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein.’

Many of the stories show a distinct pattern, of Weinstein asking aspiring actresses to watch him shower or give him ‘massages’ before exposing himself and, if rejected, pleasuring himself in front of them.

Yet, however vile Weinstein’s actions may be, however many reprehensible acts he may have carried out, however much he deserves to be shunned, what is fast becoming clear is that this whole sordid story reaches far beyond the actions of one man.

Weinstein is merely a symptom — of something even bigger and nastier: hollywood itself and an entire industry that has for decades thrived on the sexual exploitation of young women by older, uglier and more powerful men.

Weinstein may be the chief perpetrator of these vile acts. But he is by no means the only guilty party.

Countless others are guilty, either by association or because they chose to look the other way. And that is inexcusable. For one thing is becoming more and more apparent: everyone seemed to know.

NOT for nothing was ‘You don’t go through harvey — harvey goes through you’ the most over-used cliche in town.

or, as Romola Garai pointed out: ‘You can’t find an actress that doesn’t have that kind of story about harvey.’

The oscars this year were all about Trump-shaming, and yet a much worse specimen of sexism was in their midst, lapping up the love. how dare hollywood lecture the world about morality.

So, let us not forget the sickening hypocrisy of stars and executives, many of whom owe their success to Mr Weinstein and who, until last week, were more than delighted to sing the man’s praises, despite the fact his horrible behaviour was an open secret.

You don’t get to become quite as big a creep as Weinstein without a certain amount of collusion.

And for all the expressions of consternation and solidarity now emanating from hollywood’s A-list, what is surprising is that the collusion here is as much female as it is male.

This is a real eye-opener. Not so much that a movie producer turns out to have operated a casting

couch, repellent as that is; but that if they knew, how so many of Hollywood’s leading women seemed impervious to the plight of their less famous sisters.

Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansson, self-styled feminist icon Emma Watson, Gwyneth Paltrow and many more: all part of Weinstein’s powerful network.

All happy to go to his parties, drink his champagne, pose with him on the red carpet, take his money, make his hits.

Then there’s Dame Judi Dench, who once got a fake tattoo of his name on her bottom, but who now condemns his actions as ‘horrifying’ while being careful to point out that she knew nothing about it.

And not forgetting Hillary Clinton: Weinstein was a big Democrat supporter (although, when it comes to justifying sex pests and vilifying their victims, Mrs Clinton, of course, has form). Where were they when an 18-year-old Garai was ‘violated’ in a hotel suite when Weinstein auditioned her wearing only a dressing gown? Or when Ashley Judd was asked to watch him take a shower? Did he simply not try these things on with them? Or did they consider a little indulgence a price worth paying?

We’ll probably never know. But the fact that Weinstein has been exposed as a lurid sexual predator is as much a reflection on the sleazy culture that condoned his behaviour for the past three decades as it is the man himself.

A culture that condemns a man such as Donald Trump for his outand-out sexism while all the time seemingly enabling an abuser at the very heart of its own glittering liberal Establishment.