The OtherArena

[Ken Viewer]

Today, the long-rumored stories about fat Harvey Weinstein being a sexual predator against women and a degenerate have been publicly reported by The New York Times. They seem to have loads of information on asserted female victims that they can't publish.

Weinstein is reported to have issued a statement of apology, stating "...Though I'm trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go... My journey now will be to learn about myself and conquer my demons...I so respect all women and regret what happened..."

Link:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/us/statement-from-harvey-weinstein.html

Entire article link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html?hp&clickSource=story-heading&WT.nav=top-news&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=U.S.&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article

Ashley Judd appears to be the most famous woman to come forward to speak, on-the-record, and say ol' Harvey was trying to get sexual favors from her after he got her up to his hotel room.

After the Times's article was published, things changed when one of Weinstein's lawyers, Charles Harder, emailed The Hollywood Reporter with extensive denials of the Times's article, and stating ol' Harvey was going to sue the Times for publishing "false and defamatory statements..."

Harder (nice name) had previously represented Hulk Hogan in that guy's lawsuit against Gawker.

I don't get it. If some Hollywoodland mogul invited me to his hotel room for a business meeting, I, myself, would immediately assume the agenda included monkey business.

Jack Warner, cofounder of Warner Bros., tried to screw every good-looking wanna-be starlet in the state of California. And apparently he was quite good at it.

Assuming the Times's allegations about various money-settlements with women who claimed he was a hotel-room sex-weirdo are accurate (the women are reportedly covered by non-disclosure agreements -- you take the money Harvey assertedly offers, you then agree to forfeit your assets if you later talk about it) -- Harvey is now qualified to run for President of the United States.

One question is whether funds from Disney's kiddie parks were used in any of the disputed settlements, if there were any.

Harvey, the Times stated, is taking a leave-of-absence from his company, which I had thought was pretty much dormant. I'd advise him to avoid eating any of Minnie's stew for the forseeable future, unless he's really Minnie and cooks it himself.

The newspaper-industry was not needed this badly since the American Revolutionary War.

Ken

[Steve Yohe]

Hey he said he was sorry.---Yohe

[Ken Viewer]

[Steve Yohe]

A Hollywood producer trying to have sex with an actress... who wants to be in his movie. That's news! It's part of Hollywood history going back to the beginning of time. Some of the biggest name actresses screwed their way to the top. The same stuff happened with male actors. As long as the person can say no, I can't get out raged by it, and I'm not interested. All I care about is good movies being made.--Yohe

[Ken Viewer]

Slavery is as old as mankind. It's endorsed by the Old Testament. Should we bring it back because it went on here for most of this nation's history?

Steve wrote:

A Hollywood producer trying to have sex with an actress... who wants to be in his movie. That's news! It's part of Hollywood history going back to the beginning of time. Some of the biggest name actresses screwed their way to the top...

True enough and I mentioned Jack Warner in one post as a guy who had a reputation similar to what Fat Harvey is developing.

And this country was born with the enslavement of human beings enshrined in the Constitution. Women couldn't vote until less than 100 years ago. The allegations here, at least what has been revealed so far, used to be fair-game in most corporations. Women in the Army were prohibited, with some irregular exceptions, until recently except for registered nurses and physicians, pilots ferrying planes outside of combat zones and such, in World War II and Vietnam.

As a guy older than Fatty, I grew up in a world where women mostly couldn't get a job as a reporter in the newspaper business or as executives in most-any publicly-owned corporation. Yet I worked beside some of the female pioneers, who are now themselves older than Harvey. They were as a good as the best guys but they went though hell to not have to sleep their way into the business and instead to be judged for the quality of their work.

The world, as it always does, has changed. The laws against sexual harrassment of women, especially in the workplace, have changed. There are more women in the U.S. now than there are men and if we don't do right by them, they'll ship us off to plantations.

Change always comes. And that created the issue. I'm not a feminist, but I am living in 2017, and the allegations against Harvey, and any additional ones that come forward, can't be excused because that was the way things used to be.

You put your life on the line for this nation; for that you ought to get an extra vote at election time, if nothing else. You're the last guy in East LA I would expect to excuse what went on, if what the New York Times has reported is what went on, or worse.

But regardless of what we post on a wrestling/entertainment board, this nation and its laws really have changed. And its morals have changed for many. Guys who try to force women into sex acts the women don't want to do are now generally-accepted as criminals.

I don't need to care; doesn't alter my life. The changes in what's permitted under American law probably do not affect your life, either. Yet sexual exploitation and sexism are not accepted any longer. Unless you're Darnald Duck. And I'm not Darnald Duck. I don't think you're Darnold Duck.

Harvey got respect from an industry full of wackos in an effectively-one-newpaper town where one of my friends there (a famous writer/reporter in his time who worked at the Los Angeles Times) use to openly call the women on the LA Times, c--ts. He'd walk around and enjoy doing it. I'd walk with him and try to get him to shut up.

One day, they fired him.

But as time went by and profits went down, they fired most of their best reporters and now the paper is a joke. Its entertainment staff heard the same allegations as most others. They looked the other way. When the Chandler family sold it, back in my day, they got about $3 Billion for it. Now it's worth about $30, which may be what the new owners paid. And this is the second time that the same Chicago crowd bought the LA Times.

Those who don't change usually go out of business. Sometimes they merely get a $200 million bonus and a goodbye card, which is what I'll bet Harvey will wind up with.

Last point; one of the reasons the asserted settlements Harvey's company paid so little to the offended women that so-far has been reported, was they were not actresses auditioning on the "casting couch" for roles in movies. They were just workers, including clerks, it has been claimed.

Morality counts. Not necessarily quickly, but it did learn to count for women in recent years. My respect first goes to those who live moral lives over the exploiters and bums. Harvey may get the last laugh here because he can afford to purchase it at some Beverly Hills boutique.

It was wrong when Jack Warner did it, and it's worse, on the scale of decency, now. Shame on Harvey's supporters if the allegations are true. And if you had $40 and the assets to assume the pension and other liabilities of the Los Angeles Times, you could have bought it a few months ago.

You couldn't have given me a job there, because I no longer drive and will live my life out in the apartment I'm in now, despite my landlord's intent to evict all of us old rent-regulated tenants, but you could have become the paper's chief movies critic.

If the Carnegie Deli was still open near 55th Street in Manhattan, they'd name a new sandwich after him; one made with...

Ken

[Ken Viewer]

Updating the details on Fat Harvey's scandal, tonight Sharon Waxman, famous super-reporter who runs The Wrap, is reporting ol' Harvey never wrote his supposed apology that was published in the New York Times, according to a company insider. Harvey's been working for some two-weeks on damage control, Waxman reported.

That could partly explain why some people can't figure out just what that statement attributed to Harvey actually says.

Thus, he has never personally publicly apologized.

Waxman's The Wrap headline includes:

Weinstein is said to be combative, unwilling to accept responsibility and eager to sue The New York Times

Further, he personally paid-off the women to buy their silence and may have paid 12 women, Waxman's insider claims. So when Disney owned Miramax, they would not know any asserted payoffs were being made. They are lucky.

Sharon Waxman report Link:

https://www.thewrap.com/inside-weinstein-company-crisis-execs-blindsided-harvey-paid-settlements-exclusive/

A later allegation says Fat Harvey may have sexually harrassed many more than 12 women.

Meanwhile, one-third of the board of directors of Weinsteins' sex-and-flop-movies company have resigned. The board, or what's left of it, sent Harvey on indefinate leave. Thus any sexual harrassment of women he might commit now or in the future will have nothing to do with them.

The board, citing the claim Weinstein paid the possible bribes to harrassed women out of his own pocket, denies any past knowledge of what went on, if anything did. Maybe no women were ever paid and the whole report was designed by Darnold Duck of the "Pussy" remark history.

This scandal isn't going away.

In this post, I wanted to deal more with the fact the theoretical possibility that Disney monies could have been used in any payoffs is NOT the case. Also, wanted to address Waxman's report Fat Harvey never publicly apologized for anything himself, and that any such claim he wrote it is bullshit.

Ken

[Ken Viewer]

Apparent women's-rights lawyer Lisa Bloom has resigned from representing Wacko Harvey Weinstein, according to the Associated Press.

Was she as dumb as she came off, was she not being paid enough money, did she decide she didn't want to become a lawyer for every pervert in Hollywood -- because it was amazing she thought she could work both sides of the street, was she too busy to take on the work or were there other reasons? She has declined comment.

Even the worst criminal is entitled to a decent lawyer... and though Harvey actually produced mostly awful movies, there's no way he could be the worst criminal...

Another lawyer, politician and scummy lobbyist, Lanny Davis, has also reportedly resigned from helping Harvey, according to the AP. I had no idea Davis was even involved in any way.

My money is still on Harvey getting an abassadorship from Darnold Duck, so he can hang out with the acknowledged rapist and Hollywoodland director Roman Polanski, who is currently a fugitive from the U.S. living in France. Harvey has long led a campaign to have Polanski forgiven.

Ken

[Ken Viewer]

Fat Harvey may have to move in with Steve after this. The board of directors of the company fired Harvey tonight.

I'm old, but after spending my whole life immersed in the newspaper business, I can still smell a story a continent away. It's how I stayed ahead of my competition for decades gone by.

Sharon Waxman, head-honcho and super-reporter at her site " TheWrap.com ," had some relevant revelations about alleged the ducking of this long-known tale by The New York Times, which, amazingly, is the same publication that revealed it a few days ago.

She happened, at the time, to be the Times's reporter who uncovered the issues and her story was quashed when, supposedly the Blubber himself came into the paper's newsroom and... umm... ate the then "Culture Editor" and/or others... or did he eat the company's then-cafeteria in one swallow? I don't know because I wasn't there at the time.

Ken

[Steve Yohe]

Harvey is cooked. He now ranks with Bill Cosby & OJ in America culture. I don't let fat guys in my house.---Yohe

[Ken Viewer]

[Ken Viewer]

Despite some 25 women who have stepped up and claimed he tried to sexually abuse them, there isn't a single criminal charge against Harvey that I'm aware of.

The Manhattan police Special Victims' Unit (you watch Law and Order, dontcha?) supposedly wanted him arrested for misdemeanor sex abuse , it has been claimed. But the Manhattan District Attorney, who even arranged an almost-private office, in a local jail, for one criminal slumlord, so he can continue slumlording, while the bum serves a year for felonies, has a severe allergy to prosecuting the filthy rich.

If Harvey chooses to leave the U.S. in coming days, since I know of no criminal charges against him, that's legal. If he does and never comes back, that's fine by me. In my opinion, the Weinstein Company needs to be put out of business for being a conduit for Harvey's sexual harrassments.

The world has changed because of Harvey's accusers coming forward, but they sure took a long time doing it because they had, to inadvertently help Harvey and the company conceal things, taken small payouts to sell their silence. To me, no one comes off looking like a shining knight, except for the news reporters and their publications.

If no criminal actions against Harvey are brought, I'd like to see Jack Warner dug up and prosecuted for cheating Hal B. Wallis out of his Oscar for Casablanca (the Academy offered to make Wallis a replacement for the one Warner stole).

Ken

[guren]

[Ken Viewer]

Glenn,

Your observation is on-the-nose

Another thought is LLL -- Lawyers Love Loot (money) and Harvey has enough to hire almost anyone. Before this situation, I'd never heard of Bloom.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild are both holding special meetings, one tomorrow and the other Saturday, apparently to consider expelling Harvey.

That fat pig has not been convicted of anything, as far as I know, and I haven't a clue as to why they're meeting now. Probably neither do they, but it has become fashionable to condemn sexual exploitation.

Where were they 25 years ago -- and much longer ago -- when, among working with other women, I teamed up with the great Kim Masters on an exclusive for The Washington Post (which was published five days before the New York Times caught up with us)?

Now the news industry is full of women, many of whom work for not-much-more than the minimum wage because they're willing to. That kills it for those of us who have a "quote" -- a top-dollar price we earned by years of hard work, below which we won't work. It's hard to compete with boatloads of people who'll work for table-scraps or let their bodies be abused for fear they won't get ahead.

Should either or both organizations suspend or expel Harvey from the membership he holds in both, so what? Ya can't go hangin' anyone without a trial and Fat Harvey doesn't need permission or membership in either organization to make movies if he wants to, although not for what's left of the Weinstein Company, before it dissolves.

If it was up to me, I'd have Yohe decide the Best Picture award. But he's busy walking the Rio Hondo mining for gold or whatever.

Ken

[Ken Viewer]

Fat Harvey Weinstein was expelled today as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by a more-than-2/3 of-the-board's vote.

So what? That organization, in my personal opinion, has a past almost as slimy as Harvey's.

Ken

[Steve Yohe]

It's funny....he worked with every major actor & actress & many famous directors. Everyone knew him.

Producers mainly give a Ok to a movie & takes care of the finances. Sometime they find the studio, the director & help pick the cast. Set up the production. Sometimes they have people to do it for them. Most just decide to get involved & find the money. Write contracts. They can firer & replace people....some are into the editing of the movie. Some are strong & some are weak. Some get told what to do by the director. Some don't do anything & just have their name in the credits. It's there job to be a hustler, and many many have had bad reputations for all kinds of things.

He was the major independent producer in Hollywood. Some of his movies:

Wind River
Gangs of New York
Lion
Djando Unchained
Silver Lining Playbook
My Week With Marilyn
The King's Speech
Nine
Ingiourious Basterds
The Reader
Rambo
The Brothers Grimm
Sin City
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Kill Bill #1 + #2
The Lord Of The Rings #1-#2 & #3
Bad Santa
Chicago
The Others
Chocolat
The Cider House Rules
Shakespeare in Love
Rounders
Jackie Brown
Good Will Hunting
Cop Land
Princess Mononoke
Mimic
The English Patient
Restoration
The Crossing Guard
Pulp Fiction
True Romance
& a million horror movies

I read stuff in movie magazines 20 years saying he was a slime bag. It was funny. I think most people tried to stay away from him. But he got good movies made. You know everyone in Hollywood is rich, smart & famous. They fuck & get fucked whenever they want. So probably he didn't seem that strange in a strange city. Sex isn't a big deal there....until someone gets some bad PR. Then they play stupid & acted shocked.---Steve Yohe