Bob Weinstein: My brother is without remorse, his behavior was ‘sick & depraved’
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Harvey Weinstein was kicked out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Saturday. The Academy had issued a statement last week, as the accusations were pouring out, that Weinstein’s behavior was disgusting and appalling and that the Board of Governors would be called to an emergency meeting this weekend to discuss whether or not Weinstein should be allowed to keep his membership. There was a crazy amount of hand-wringing about this, honestly. It seems that there were more than a few Academy members who were like “Academy membership has nothing to do criminal and/or gross behavior,” perhaps thinking rightly of all of the perverts, rapists and abusers who are dues-paying Academy members. But at the end of the day, the AMPAS did kick him out, saying that they want to “send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.” Sure.
As for the larger repercussions to The Weinstein Company, I couldn’t give a sh-t. But Harvey’s brother Bob Weinstein gives a sh-t. Bob is the new CEO, and he’s now in charge of the sinking ship that is TWC, which will likely be renamed and rebranded. Bob sat down for a lengthy, tricky interview with The Hollywood Reporter – you can read the full piece here. There’s a ton of stuff in here plus a lot of denial, and a lot of refusing to talk specifics about what was known and when. Some highlights:
He’s a father of daughters, peeps: “I find myself in a waking nightmare. My brother has caused unconscionable suffering. As a father of three girls I say this with every bone in my body — I am heartbroken for the women that he has harmed. I’m a fighter. For my entire adult life, I fought for the films I want to see the light of day. I have fought for my employees, who have dedicated their lives to achieving the vision of this company that me and my brother founded. But I cannot fight what is indefensible.
He didn’t know the extent of it: “The members of the board, including myself, did not know the extent of my brother’s actions. I know him on a personal level better than anyone. It’s hard to describe how I feel that he took out the emptiness inside of him in so many sick and depraved ways. It’s a sickness but not a sickness that is excusable. It’s a sickness that’s inexcusable. And I, as a brother, understood and was aware as a family member, that my brother needed help and that something was wrong. I was also the object of a lot of his verbal abuse — at one time physical abuse. And I am not looking for one bit of sympathy from anyone. I do not put myself in the category at all of those women that he hurt. But it’s a complicated situation when it’s your brother doing the abusing to you as well. I saw it and I asked him to get help for many years. And that’s the truth. He avoided getting the help. We begged him.
Harvey is without remorse: “This hurts, but I don’t feel an ounce of remorse coming from him, and that kills me too. When I heard his written, lame excuse… Not an excuse. When I heard his admission of feeling remorse for the victims and then him cavalierly, almost crazily saying he was going to go out and take on the NRA, it was so disturbing to me. It was utter insanity. My daughters all felt sick hearing this because we understood he felt nothing. I don’t feel he feels anything to this day. I don’t.
He barely even spoke to Harvey: “First of all, let me tell you something that people don’t know. For the last five years, I’ve probably talked to my brother ten times on any personal level. That’s the fracture that’s gone on… I actually was quite aware that Harvey was philandering with every woman he could meet. I was sick and disgusted by his actions. But that’s the extent of what [I knew]. I said, “Harvey, you’re just cheating. Why do you constantly cheat?” I could see it. But I wasn’t in the room with him. For me, I thought he was literally just going out there cheating in a pervasive way. It wasn’t like he even had a mistress. It was one after another and that I was aware of. But as far as being in a room and hearing the description in The New York Times? No way. No F-in way was I aware that that was the type of predator that he was. And the way he convinced people to do things? I thought they were all consensual situations.
He knew Harvey was a bully: “I’ll tell you what I did know. Harvey was a bully, Harvey was arrogant, he treated people like sh-t all the time. That I knew. And I had to clean up for so many of his employee messes. People that came in crying to my office: “Your brother said this, that and the other.” And I’d feel sick about it…. I would often counsel people and say, “You know what, you have a choice here. Leave. Leave, please leave.” I don’t know why some of them stayed. So I would just try to mend a broken fence. There is no mending this. This is not a broken fence. [But] I will not quit and leave the business that I built, rightfully so, and leave the films and filmmakers that I was involved in.
He didn’t leak the info: “That’s totally untrue. I could take a lie detector test on that. I didn’t and, you know, Harvey is suspicious of everybody. People that are liars — lying to his wife, to his children, to everyone — well, they have to turn around and say, “Who stabbed me?” It’s unbelievable that even to this moment he is more concerned with who sold him out. I don’t hear concern or contrition for the victims. And I want them to hear that. Harvey has no remorse whatsoever. I have spoken to him two times [since news broke], hoping to hear “Oh my God, what have I done?” I didn’t hear that. I heard a guy who still was fighting to get back and I was disgusted by it. Do you know how disgusted I am? I divorced my brother five years ago. Literally. And those that know me personally in this company understood how I could not take being around him on any level.”
[From THR]
Bob also says that Harvey assaulted him once and Bob didn’t go to the police, which he now regrets. I believe Bob about some things, like the idea that he “divorced” Harvey and that they had separate fiefdoms set up within TWC. I believe Bob knew all too well that Harvey was and is a bully and a womanizer. However, I think Bob also had some idea (if not a very good idea) that Harvey was abusing and harassing women for years. So, we’ll see.
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Photos courtesy of Getty.
Source: Bob Weinstein: My brother is without remorse, his behavior was ‘sick & depraved’
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