Kit10Phish Explains It All: III. Soho House and Weinstein

Soho House

(Markus Anderson, Ron Burkle, Harvey Weinstein, Johan Eliasch):

Harvey Weinstein has connections to Soho House-

For decades, Weinstein had been a living legend, one of the few producers with face as well as name recognition. The former head of Miramax and likely the most powerful man at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) held court (once again) on Sunday night at Soho House for this year’s festival. All the stars do it: The deferential Weinstein greeting (as if Weinstein is the Pope and they’re there to kiss his ring).

In 1979 he and his younger brother, Bob, had dropped out of college and set up a distribution company in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. It became Miramax (named after their parents, Miriam and Max). Weinstein discovered a gift for repackaging classy, yet cheap, European fare for the US market. In 1993 Miramax was taken over by Disney for $60m, and profits rose from 5m to 75m in four years. Of course Harvey’s signature bad behavior eventually ruined the partnership. He had a short fuse, self-indulgence, and audacity. He was foul-mouthed, obese, loud, and angry, which worked for, and against the company.

After only a year the brothers divorced from Disney to go it alone again, after an escalating conflict with Michael Eisner, then Disney's CEO. "You don't hear the horrific Harvey stories you used to," says Peter Biskind, whose book Down and Dirty Pictures traced Weinstein's story through to the Disney split. "He seems to be regaining his normal stature as a master at manipulating the academy audience. "My guess is he's been a little bit chastened, that his experience post-Disney was a real struggle. He lost weight, he got a new wife. It might be an exaggeration to say he's a new Harvey but he went through some difficult times and I think it made an impression on him. "British producer Stephen Woolley, seems sceptical about the scale of his overhaul. "He hasn't changed much. But it's the condition of the job; you have to have somebody who's fairly Machiavellian to compete against the studios." "He's still perceived as an absolute nightmare," says one industry insider. "He buys movies, changes them, buries them, fucks over young filmmakers, gets furious when he doesn't get the mention in the acceptance speech." Clerks director Kevin Smith said, "Harvey is somebody everybody loves when they're releasing your films, and somebody they feel bitter about if they're not." Asked at the time if he was frightened, Weinstein said: "Yes, I am very frightened. I'm frightened I am going to have a better year than last."

The success of the Harvey story, measured in newspaper stories and awards (some 69 Oscar wins, to be precise) emboldened him. He holidayed with Gwyneth Paltrow and Bill Clinton.

2010:

He told the New York Observer he was "the fucking sheriff of this fucking lawless piece-of-shit town". To some extent, he was right.

Harvey's method was the method of the studios from the great age of absolute image control. He owned the columnist who otherwise might write about him; or, in the event that someone not under his control wrote about him, his columnists would exact retribution. Weinstein is a man people are strikingly reluctant to discuss, even off the record– nobody was brave or powerful enough to call him out on his bad behavior. Harvey had effective sleepers in every relevant media organisation. These were people either on his payroll, buried in development deals, or people who looked forward to the possibility of being on his payroll. Indeed, what you could not say about Harvey - because he would yell at you, or his PR people would beg you, or because your lawyers wouldn't let you - provided a certain frisson to every story about him.

Worse than fear or being stymied, everybody liked having that “muscle” negotiating on behalf of the creatives. Aspiring media people and creative types really needed someone like Harvey. Meryl Streep referred to him as "God"; Madonna as "the punisher." He was our tough guy. Harvey’s sociopathic traits of tough belligerence, with a flair for drama and eye for PR, is precisely what enabled the creatives. Harvey exploited not only powerless young women but everyone else. Indeed, as almost a romantic figure, he puts these, this borderline evilness, this total thuggishness, in the service of creativity.

It would hardly be accurate to say people didn't suspect that Havey’s vices, bullying, and flaunting of personal power included sexual predation and assault, because everybody in the entertainment industry and every journalist covering the entertainment industry did. The media directly corroborated with letting Harvey get away with intimidation and sexual demands. Those characteristics were built into the Harvey myth, a myth propounded by all the same media outlets that are now taking him down.

Screenwriter Abi Morgan has said “I think everyone knew that he was a bully.” Part of his apparent deception was down to his notoriety for throwing celebrity parties. Morgan said she asked herself, “Why did I never challenge that?” when she heard reports of accusations from dozens of women of sexual misconduct, ranging from harassment to rape, adding that “there was always that rumour around him”. When you sit down with a Hollywood producer who seems interested in female feminist work, then somewhere along the way you think, ‘OK, this is good, he must have an appreciation and respect for women’, and you realise how deceptive that is.” I don’t want to excuse my behaviour because I think I’ve shocked myself, actually, in terms of the way you don’t listen to yourself and go, ‘This doesn’t feel entirely right.’ I probably had a meeting with him a year before all the allegations came out, and the thing he was interested in was female feminist work.

The Harvey defence featured Harvey himself, cajoling, wheedling, threatening, promising, begging and ultimately exhausting everyone who might otherwise ruin him.

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