Harvey Weinstein Pal Will Fight Hollywood Sexual Harassment
#MeToo is swiftly being assimilated by Hollywood as another insincere cause. Much like celebrities fly private jets to Davos to lecture us on global warming, Harvey Weinstein's pals in an industry where 'everyone knew' will now fight sexual harassment.
Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and More Stars Fight Against Sexual Harassment With Time's Up Movement
Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Shonda Rhimes and more than 300 other women are taking a stand against sexual harassment and assault in the entertainment industry by launching Time's Up—a movement that aims to promote equality and safety in the workplace.
Can they do it in Davos? Or Harvey's hotel room? And can there be a role for Lisa Bloom?
In addition to Witherspoon, Rhimes and Streep, Jennifer Aniston, Katie McGrath and J.J. Abrams, Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), ICM Partners (ICM), Paradigm Talent Agency, United Talent Agency (UTA), and William Morris Endeavor (WME) are among the founding donors.
Of course they are.
Come on down, CAA.
Creative Artists Agency took the unusual step of issuing a public apology to anyone “the agency let down” following a New York Times story about Harvey Weinstein’s “complicity machine,” which details how the powerful mogul “commanded enablers, silencers and spies” to keep his alleged sexual misconduct a secret.
The story describes how agents and managers across Hollywood sent actresses to meet Weinstein alone in hotels and advised them to keep mum when things went wrong. It singles out one of the most powerful agencies, CAA, where “at least eight talent agents” were told that Weinstein had harassed or menaced female clients — but the agents continued to arrange these private meetings.
That appears to be a reference to an account from Canadian actress Mia Kirshner, who said CAA set up a meeting with Weinstein in New York, ostensibly to discuss a film about the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Instead, he wanted to exchange sex for career opportunity, the newspaper reported.
Kirshner said she discussed the Weinstein encounter in 1994 with her primary agent, Lisa Grode, who sounded shocked, and, subsequently, with her talent manager, John Carrabino, and his boss, Sandy Gallin.
“I was told to forget about it; it was pointless to do anything about this,” Kirshner told the New York Times, adding, “I was very disappointed by them.”
Grode and Carrabino declined comment; Gallin is deceased.
Asked by the Times if he knew about Weinstein’s alleged harassment, CAA Partner Bryan Lourd declined comment, citing client confidentiality. Weinstein stormed into Lourd’s office to complain about an article that Ronan Farrow, an agency client, was writing for The New Yorker article. Lourd reportedly tried to arrange a meeting, which apparently didn’t happen.
And now CAA will be funding the fight against that very thing.