Weinstein a star in oldest horror story in Hollywood

Maureen Dowd

In her autobiography, “Child Star,” Shirley Temple described going with her mother to see her new bosses at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after leaving Fox.

Louis B. Mayer spirited away Gertrude Temple.

The curly-haired superstar — hailed by FDR for helping America get through the Depression — was taken to the office of Arthur Freed, an associate producer on “The Wizard of Oz.”

After telling her that she would have to get rid of her baby fat, Freed stood up and pulled out his penis. The 11-year-old had never even seen one before. She gave a nervous laugh, which offended the producer.

“Get out!” he shouted. When she rejoined her mother, an affronted Gertrude told Shirley that she had to back out of Mayer’s office when he lunged at her.

“Not for nothing was the MGM lot known as the ‘factory,’ a studio perfumed with sultry, busty creatures with long legs and tight haunches,” Temple wrote, “and more than its quota of lecherous older men.”

Nearly 80 years later, that aroma of perversion clings to Hollywood. Now we are inundated with grotesque tales of Harvey Weinstein, enlisting the pimping help of agents and assistants to have actresses delivered to his hotel rooms, where he pestered the women to watch him shower or give him a massage or engage in intimate acts.

“The ill will towards him for getting away with it all for so long has unleashed something so primitive,” a prominent male Hollywood producer told me. “If people could rip him apart, they would.”

Some who were importuned, like Angelina Jolie, told studio executives that she would never work with the pestilent mogul. Others whom Weinstein asked to give him a massage in his hotel suite refused but continued to collaborate, like Gwyneth Paltrow, who put aside qualms to become “the first lady of Miramax.”

When David Carr wrote about “The Emperor Miramaximus” in 2001 for New York magazine — several years after the unpleasant experience Paltrow described for the first time this past week to The New York Times — he quoted her saying: “I think that for every bad story you hear about Harvey, there are three great ones. People are complicated, and nobody’s all good or all bad.”

Other victims, like Rose McGowan, took settlements from the mogul to stay quiet but continued to seethe, until her rage spilled over Thursday when she tweeted that Weinstein had raped her.

Once more we are in a searing national seminar on sexual misbehavior by men, just like the Hill-Thomas hearings, the Clinton impeachment hearings, the Bill Cosby trial, the harassing big shots at Fox News, and Donald Trump and the fallout from the “Access Hollywood” tape.

How many times do we have to go through this before things really change?

I asked Tim Robbins, who had some unpleasant business dealings with Weinstein, what the moral of this revolting story should be.

“It’s not just in show business, it’s every business,” he said. “It’s about men who use power to get an advantage over women. It’s gross, it’s unacceptable, but unfortunately, it’s pretty persistent.”

Women in Hollywood say social media, plus the anger about Trump getting into the Oval Office instead of Hillary, were propelling forces in the fire raining down on Weinstein.

“I hope it’s a witch hunt,” said a top Hollywood woman. “I hope it’s a purge. There are people we have to get rid of in our business. Everyone knows them.”