The Web

The New York Times explains the web of friends and connections that Harvey Weinstein used to maintain his pattern of abuse over decades:

Harvey Weinstein built his complicity machine out of the witting, the unwitting and those in between. He commanded enablers, silencers and spies, warning others who discovered his secrets to say nothing. He courted those who could provide the money or prestige to enhance his reputation as well as his power to intimidate.

In the weeks and months before allegations of his methodical abuse of women were exposed in October, Mr. Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, pulled on all the levers of his carefully constructed apparatus.

He gathered ammunition, sometimes helped by the editor of The National Enquirer, who had dispatched reporters to find information that could undermine accusers. He turned to old allies, asking a partner in Creative Artists Agency, one of Hollywood’s premier talent shops, to broker a meeting with a C.A.A. client, Ronan Farrow, who was reporting on Mr. Weinstein. He tried to dispense favors: While seeking to stop the actress Rose McGowan from writing in a memoir that he had sexually assaulted her, he tried to arrange a $50,000 payment to her former manager and throw new business to a literary agent advising Ms. McGowan. The agent, Lacy Lynch, replied to him in an email: “No one understands smart, intellectual and commercial like HW.”

Mr. Weinstein’s final, failed round of manipulations shows how he operated for more than three decades: by trying to turn others into instruments or shields for his behavior, according to nearly 200 interviews, internal company records and previously undisclosed emails. Some aided his actions without realizing what he was doing. Many knew something or detected hints, though few understood the scale of his sexual misconduct. Almost everyone had incentives to look the other way or reasons to stay silent. Now, even as the tally of Mr. Weinstein’s alleged misdeeds is still emerging, so is a debate about collective failure and the apportioning of blame.

The capper is in the concluding quote from investor Paul Tudor Jones:

“I love you,” he wrote, while detailing the steps Mr. Weinstein should take to rehabilitate his image. Mr. Jones told The Times that he condemned Mr. Weinstein’s alleged misconduct and wanted to encourage him to get help.

“Focus on the future as America loves a great comeback story,” he wrote to the movie producer.

He finished: “The good news is, this will go away sooner than you think and it will be forgotten!”

If you think that Harvey Weinstein is an isolated instance, you’re kidding yourself. The victims are not limited to young women thirsty for stardom but extend to young men and children as well. The pattern of abuse is endemic and widespread in Hollywood, as we refer to the modern entertainment industry, and any honest person in the business would tell you so. It’s not new. It began in the very earliest days of Hollywood.

Hollywood is incapable of policing itself and unless the incentives change or preventive measures are imposed on it, Mr. Jones is right.