When it comes to Harvey Weinstein, the floodgates have opened.
In the aftermath of last week’s New York Times report that revealed his decades of sexual misconduct, more and more women have steadily taken the plunge and gone public with their disturbing stories. As of Tuesday, three women have accused Weinstein of rape.
The breadth of his abuse is stunning, spanning decades and implicating powerful people and entities in a cover-up.
Who knew?
Some in Hollywood say “everybody.” Others, such as Meryl Streep, disagree. “Not everybody knew,” she insists.
What’s the truth?
Evidence certainly suggests the rumors about Weinstein’s reputation were so pervasive that it’s difficult to imagine they failed to reach someone as well-connected as Streep or the many other entertainment industry figures (and politicians) who made the decision to work with him in recent years.
His reputation was big enough that it was the punchline of a joke on 30 Rock in 2012. “I’m not afraid of anyone in show business. I turned down intercourse with Harvey Weinstein on no less than 3 occasions … out of 5,” said Jenna Maroney.
Upon announcing the Oscar nominees for Best Supporting Actress in 2013, Seth MacFarlane quipped, “Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.”
How could well-connected industry leaders have been totally ignorant until just last week, when the private rumblings were so powerful they even spilled (briefly) into the public square on major platforms years ago?
Were she to sit down to enjoy an episode of 30 Rock back in 2012, would that joke have been lost on someone like Streep?
Granted, neither of those jokes alluded to criminal assault, but both clearly implied Weinstein had a habit of pressuring women into sexual activity in exchange for career advancement.
George Clooney’s reaction is, perhaps, the most revealing (emphasis added):
I’ve heard rumors, and the rumors in general started back in the ’90s, and they were that certain actresses had slept with Harvey to get a role. It seemed like a way to smear the actresses and demean them by saying that they didn’t get the jobs based on their talent, so I took those rumors with a grain of salt. But the other part of this, the part we’re hearing now about eight women being paid off, I didn’t hear anything about that and I don’t know anyone that did. That’s a whole other level and there’s no way you can reconcile that. There’s nothing to say except that it’s indefensible …
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.
At the very least, it seems fair to say just about everybody in Hollywood knew Weinstein had a reputation for sleazy womanizing — as someone who, in Clooney’s words, “was very powerful” and “had a tendency to hit on young, beautiful women.” Bear in mind that Weinstein was married from 1987-2004 and then married his current wife in 2007.
“In the fall of 2016, I performed at a benefit for Hillary Clinton organized by the Weinstein Company. I had heard the rumors. I felt that going onstage under his aegis was a betrayal of my own values. But I wanted so desperately to support my candidate that I made a calculation,” Lena Dunham admitted in a laudably honest and insightful op-ed for the New York Times this week.
I find it difficult to believe that if Dunham had approached someone like Meryl Streep last year and said, “Have you heard the rumors about Harvey Weinstein?”, that person wouldn’t have privately acknowledged they knew something, if even it amounted to adultery or the exploitation of power dynamics, rather than rape and outright sexual harassment. Thus, in her vague insistence that “not everybody knew,” Streep was able to imply she meant not everybody knew much beyond the rumors of womanizing.
That being said, it’s starting to look like too many people probably did know Weinstein’s behavior was abusive and allowed him to pressure them into keeping it out of the media. Those people, of course, deserve more criticism than others. But as celebrities and industry leaders speak out on the allegations and confirmed misconduct committed by Weinstein, anybody who claims (or carefully implies) total ignorance should be pressed to admit they at least knew something, because they almost certainly did.
In Dunham’s words, many in Hollywood made “calculations” when it came to Weinstein. Going forward, this conversation will only be productive if more people are able to admit as much.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
