Producer ‘broken’ by Weinstein scandal
A Hollywood producer has killed herself after she became ‘‘collateral damage’’ in the Harvey Weinstein scandal, her family says.
Jill Messick, a married mother of two who for years struggled with depression, was the manager of Rose McGowan in 1997, when the actress has claimed that she was raped by Weinstein.
Shortly after that, Messick took a job as a production executive with Miramax, the company that Weinstein and his brother, Bob, co-founded in 1979.
That chapter of her career was put under heavy public scrutiny over the past four months as more than 80 women made accusations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, leading to a hunt for the ‘‘enablers’’ who had made his alleged crimes possible.
Messick, 50, kept a low profile while McGowan, who has been one of the most vocal of Weinstein’s alleged victims and is now promoting a memoir, made ‘‘slanderous’’ claims that her former manager had failed to support her, had been complicit and tried to ‘‘squash’’ her testimony, Messick’s family said.
Weinstein then produced an email from Messick, without her consent, as evidence that he had not raped McGowan.
‘‘Jill was victimised by our new culture of unlimited informationsharing and a willingness to accept statement as fact,’’ Messick’s family said in a statement. ‘‘The speed of disseminating information has carried mistruths about Jill as a person, which she was unable and unwilling to challenge.
‘‘She became collateral damage in an already horrific story.’’
Messick was a junior manager assigned to McGowan when she attended the Sundance Film Festival with the actress in 1997. According to the family, after a breakfast meeting with Weinstein, McGowan told Messick that she had voluntarily removed her clothes and climbed into a hot tub with the film mogul, ‘‘a mistake which Rose immediately regretted’’.
The family said McGowan told her manager about it afterwards but ‘‘never once used the word rape in that conversation’’. Messick recognised that what Weinstein had done was ‘‘untoward ... if not illegal’’, and complained to her bosses.
A US$100,000 settlement between McGowan and Weinstein was then negotiated, and McGowan continued to make films with him.
Messick did further details not know any until McGowan went public accusation last said.
‘‘Seeing her name in headlines again and again, as part of one person’s attempt to gain more attention for her personal cause, along with Harvey’s desperate attempt to vindicate himself, was devastating for her. It broke Jill,’’ their statement said.
Criminal investigations are proceeding in London, New York and Los Angeles, where police this week referred three cases to prosecutors to decide whether Weinstein will face charges.
Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex. with year, her the rape family