The time I met Harvey Weinstein is not going to make the national news.
I was then, as I am now, a Salt Lake Tribune reporter, in the main gallery of the Salt Lake Art Center (now the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art), covering the pre-party for the 1998 Sundance Film Festival’s opening-night film, “Sliding Doors,” which was released by Weinstein’s Miramax Films.
Geoffrey Gilmore, then the festival’s director, introduced me to Weinstein. We had the minimum required amount of small talk between a Hollywood power player and a newspaper reporter not employed by the Times (New York’s or L.A.’s). He pointed to my Wallace & Gromit necktie and commented that his producer friend Jake Eberts was working with W&G’s creators, Aardman Animation, on their first feature film (“Chicken Run”). We shook hands and that was that.
Because I was two things Weinstein wasn’t interested in — male and over 30 — my story ended differently than so many we’ve heard in the past few weeks did.
Since The New York Times’ first story broke on Oct. 5, more than 50 women (as compiled by Slate) have gone public with their stories. They tell of unwanted sexual advances, requests for massages or incidents where Weinstein exposed himself or masturbated in front of women. A few of the women — including the actors Rose McGowan, Asia Argento and Lysette Anthony — say he raped them. (Weinstein, through spokespeople, consistently has denied engaging in nonconsensual sex with anyone.)
The accumulation of accusations has laid waste to Weinstein’s career. He was fired from soon-to-be-renamed The Weinstein Company, which is busily scrubbing his name from projects the company produces (including “Project Runway” and the upcoming “Yellowstone,” now being filmed in Utah). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled him from its membership. Criminal investigations have been reopened in New York and London, two of the locations where he has been accused of rape or sexual assault.
The revelations have opened up a nationwide conversation about sexual harassment and sexual assault. This weekend, actor and activist Alyssa Milano started a social media avalanche with one hashtag — #MeToo — that allowed thousands to open up about the fact that they have been harassed or assaulted. It was a wake-up call for men who may have been oblivious to the depth of the problem until they saw a cascade of friends and colleagues among those speaking out.
Many prominent actors and filmmakers have denounced Weinstein, including men who owe their careers to his clout — Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Quentin Tarantino among them. Kevin Smith, who sold his debut “Clerks” to Weinstein’s Miramax Films, went further, pledging that all future residuals to his films released through Miramax or Weinstein Company would be donated to the nonprofit Women in Film.
The question still to be answered: What happens now?
Weinstein has been taken down, but many other men who have committed similarly abhorrent acts are still in positions of power and influence — not just in Hollywood, but across industries, in academia and the White House. (Do we have to play the “Access Hollywood” tape again, just to remind everybody?) Will people come forward with the stories that will hold those people to account?
What about the institutions that have condoned such behavior for so long? The motion-picture academy has booted Weinstein, but (as John Oliver pointed out last Sunday) Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby and Mel Gibson are still members — and, at next year’s Oscars, Casey Affleck (who has faced harassment accusations) will be giving out the Academy Award for Best Actress.
There will be more Harvey Weinsteins, and when the next one is exposed, the pattern of denouncements and calls for action will be repeated. Same for the next one, and the next one, and the one after that.
Rooting out abusers is a worthy endeavor, but it’s not enough. The changes necessary are systemic, not only to stop individual culprits but to clear out the atmosphere that allowed them to flourish.
The first step is for people — not just those who have been harassed and assaulted, but those who have seen it happen to others — to speak up and speak out. Silence is the abuser’s best friend, and it must stop.