Harvey Weinstein fired from his own company

On Thursday, the New York Times published a report with the headline “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Assault Accusers for Decades”. In it, they covered allegations against the producer and co-founder of The Weinstein Company dating back almost three decades. The piece brought to light something that, while not yet reported in such concrete terms, has been understood both inside and outside the industry for many years: that Harvey Weinstein is a sexual predator who uses his power to assault women. The Times report covered settlements with women, allegations documented through interviews with current and former employees and industry workers, legal records, emails, and other internal documents.

Weinstein soon came back with an statement that blamed workplace culture in the 60s and 70s – ignoring that there are many people still alive from then who have managed to not commit sexual assaults. He apologised for the “pain” that he had caused with the way he behaved with colleagues and, bizarrely, quoted Jay-Z – with a quote that he has never said. Weinstein said that he was planning to take a leave of absence to learn how to be better and had asked Lisa Bloom, who was “putting together a team of people”, to tutor him. Bloom said that while Weinstein denied many of the allegations against him, “he has acknowledged mistakes he has made. He is reading books and going to therapy. He is an old dinosaur learning new ways.” She has since stepped down. Weinstein’s legal team then threatened the New York Times.

Now, he has been fired from the company he co-founded with his brother. The Weinstein Company said in a statement that his employment had been “terminated, effective immediately”. This decision was made “in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days”. Of course, these accusations are not “new information”. For many, they’re common knowledge. The accusations against Weinstein, and the refusal of many people in Hollywood to talk about them over the last three decades (and even now) are indicative of a much larger issue in the industry – one that with the termination and exposure of Weinstein, one of the largest, most powerful and most well-known perpetrators, might finally begin to be solved.

Rose McGowan, who reached a settlement with Weinstein and who spoke out in 2016 about a studio head that had raped her, has since been on a campaign on Twitter to get people in Hollywood to speak out about Weinstein. She told The Hollywood Reporter “men in Hollywood need to change ASAP. Hollywood's power is dying because society has changed and grown, and yet Hollywood male behaviour has not.”