Now that Harvey Weinstein has been fired from TWC as of yesterday, the question now turns to who knew about his history of sexual misconduct and who helped to enable him.
As many in the industry have stated, it was effectively an open secret about Harvey Weinstein's proclivities - but who was covering for him? Sharon Waxman, who created TheWrap, has alleged that she tried to uncover his allegations in 2004 when she was a reporter for the New York Times.
As Waxman tells it, she had proof of Weinstein's indiscretions and the story was dropped after "intense pressure from Weinstein, which included having Matt Damon and Russell Crowe call me directly (to vouch for Fabrizio Lombardo, president of Miramax Italy)... and unknown discussions well above my head at the Times." The New York Times was the publication that brought Weinstein's history to light, however Waxman believes they were one of Weinstein's very own enablers.
So far, neither Russell Crowe or Matt Damon have responded to Waxman's claims, however George Clooney - who worked with Weinstein on a number of films, including Out Of Sight and Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, has had made his own feelings known about both Waxman's allegations and Weinstein's in an interview with the Daily Beast.
"A lot of people are doing the “you had to know” thing right now, and yes, if you’re asking if I knew that someone who was very powerful had a tendency to hit on young, beautiful women, sure. But I had no idea that it had gone to the level of having to pay off eight women for their silence, and that these women were threatened and victimized. I’ve been talking with a lot of people about this, and I don’t know many people who knew of that."
Weinstein has made no public comments since news of his firing from TWC broke, however Damon has since spoken about his side of the story to Deadline.
Via TheWrap
