Harvey trashed as firm looks to lose ‘toxic’ name
CASTING COUCH creep Harvey Weinstein got shamed by a trio of top actresses Monday as his namesake company sought a new identity and his groveling letter to fellow moguls surfaced.
Industry royalty Meryl Streep, 68, Judi Dench, 82, and Glenn Close, 70, all took the Tinseltown transgressor to task for repeatedly harassing women from his powerful perch in Hollywood.
“The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed,” Streep said in a statement, first provided to The Huffington Post.
“The intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are our heroes. One thing can be clarified. Not everybody knew,” the A-lister who once referred to Weinstein as “God” said.
Dench, who has a tattoo of Weinstein’s initials on her backside, called the revelations reported last week by The New York Times “horrifying.”
Close agreed. “I’m angry, not just at him and the conspiracy of silence around his actions, but also that the ‘casting couch’ phenomenon, so to speak, is still a reality in our business and in the world.”
The condemnations came as the Weinstein Co., now run by Weinstein’s brother Bob Weinstein and President David Glasser, reached out to rebranding experts Monday.
“They’re going to change the company name,” a well-placed source told the Daily News. “It’s moving forward, fast and furious.”
The source said a decision was expected “in the next 48 hours.”
“For them, they have to do this, it’s too toxic,” the source told The News.
Weinstein, 65, was canned by his board Sunday night after The Times published an explosive exposé last week that cast him as a serial sex predator.
According to The Times’ report, Weinstein preyed on women, including actress Ashley Judd, for decades and reached confidential settlements with at least eight accusers.
Before he got the final heaveho, Weinstein begged colleagues for support.
“A lot of the allegations are false,” he whined, according to Janice Min of The Hollywood Reporter, who posted the letter on Twitter.
“I am desperate for your help. Do not let me get fired,” he said in a pouting plea reportedly sent to NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer, Discovery CEO David Zaslav and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg.
A spokesman for Viacom’s Paramount Networks told The News that Weinstein’s name will be scrubbed from three shows set for release in 2018.
The disgraced mogul will have no credit on the David his Koresh series “Waco” starring Taylor Kitsch, the Kevin Costner drama series “Yellowstone” and the docuseries “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story,” partially based on a book by Weinstein’s former lawyer Lisa Bloom and co-produced by JAY-Z. Actress Rose McGowan reportedly settled a claim with Weinstein in 1997 and called for the Weinstein Co.’s entire board to resign Monday. To Matt Damon, whose career flourished after Weinstein produced “Good Will Hunting,” she tweeted, “Hey @mattdamon what’s it like to be a spineless profiteer who stays silent?” News anchor Lauren Sivan sat down with Megyn Kelly Monday and described in detail how Weinstein allegedly cornered her in a restaurant and forced her to watch him masturbate.
Weinstein issued a rambling apology Thursday but also threatened to sue The Times.
“That apology was the final straw for me,” Sivan said. “There was no remorse.”
Sivan told The News on Monday that Weinstein’s downfall was “decades in the making.”
“He was allowed to get away with things no one should be allowed to get away with. It took a lot to take him down,” she said.
Sivan also said Weinstein showed his colors in the sniveling letter to the entertainment powerbrokers.
“That just speaks to how he solves his problems. He’s always relied on people to have his back. He was always so powerful and such a huge force,” she said.
“I just hope as these things come to light, no one wants to be part of defending him anymore.”