Hollywood’s
A list actresses,
silent for decades,
are now coming forward about their disturbing encounters with movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Among them Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. And powerful men everywhere have been put on notice.
The legendary producer was fired from his own company after it got out that he allegedly paid off at least eight women who he either sexually assaulted or harassed. Now the skeletons are coming out of the closet.
“I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did,” Jolie said in an email. “This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable.”
Paltrow was cast in one of Weinstein’s movies two decades ago and told reporters yesterday he made a pass at her and threatened to fire her if she told anyone.
“This way of treating women ends now,” Paltrow said, “I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified.”
Paltrow’s incident happened more than 20 years ago. Since then she has become one of Hollywood’s most coveted stars. So why didn’t she come out sooner and protect other young women from the same behavior?
Jolie travels the world trying to help people dealing with extreme poverty and is a UN Ambassador.
Not even these strong, successful women felt comfortable coming forward and outing a predator.
Now it appears that a lot of actors in California knew full well what type of man Weinstein was and they stayed quiet because he was making them rich and famous.
But Weinstein has just joined the disgraced group of media moguls that went from kingmakers to creeps.
First, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, then the most watched TV news host, Bill O’Reilly fall from grace and glory for allegedly abusing their powers. Now a Hollywood heavy hitter’s career is kaput.
The board of directors at The Weinstein Group ousted him friday after arguably creating more stars than any movie producer in Hollywood.
We appear to have hit a tipping point in this country where women are no longer willing to remain silent even if they were paid off by these big wigs and even signed non-disclosure agreements.
Men who hold top jobs in the country should be paying close attention to the fate of these three men and realize that power and influence can be ripped away from them if they prey on young women.
