Hollywood mega mogul Harvey Weinstein has been fired from the Weinstein Company, the independent film company he co-founded, after the New York Times published an explosive, deeply reported article accusing him of a pattern of sexual harassment that goes back decades. Variety reports that Weinstein is leaving against his will, and with no financial settlement.
Harvey Weinstein has been fired from the Weinstein Company
Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for The Weinstein Company
Constance Grady is a senior correspondent on the Culture team for Vox, where since 2016 she has covered books, publishing, gender, celebrity analysis, and theater.
Weinstein co-founded the Weinstein Company with his brother Bob Weinstein in 2005 after leaving Miramax Films, where the two architected the success of movies like Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction. At the Weinstein Company, the brothers produced a string of awards juggernauts, including films like Django Unchained and The Silver Linings Playbook.
But all the while, Harvey Weinstein was allegedly preying on women in a pattern that’s been widely described as an “open secret.” Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, and according to the New York Times, he allegedly used that power to sexually harass his assistants, his employees, and actresses desperate for parts.
While rumors about Weinstein’s harassment spread widely across the entertainment industry, it proved difficult to make them stick. At the Wrap this weekend, Sharon Waxman wrote candidly about her attempts to write an exposé on Weinstein’s behavior for the New York Times in 2004 — and claimed that her story was ultimately killed under pressure from Weinstein. The belief that Weinstein was so feared as to be essentially untouchable may be behind the rumors that Bob Weinstein was behind Harvey’s ouster, with Page Six reporting that he may have fed sources to the New York Times: If no one could make the story stick before, the thinking goes, someone extremely powerful must have really wanted it to stick this time.
According to Variety, Harvey Weinstein has been “furiously resisting efforts to force him out [of the Weinstein Company] permanently,” going so far as to continue to appear at work after he said that he would be taking a leave of absence. According to the New York Times, Weinstein has been trying to rally support to his side, asking top industry agents to write and publish a public letter supporting him — but everyone that he approached has refused him.
Control of the Weinstein Company now lies in the hands of Bob Weinstein and chief operating officer David Glasser.
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By Constance Grady and Tanya Pai
