I thought that Prince Andrew would surely win the award for the most ill-judged interview of the year, but there’s a new contender – Harvey Weinstein.
The man accused of sexual assault by over 80 women has given an interview to the New York Post from his hospital bed in which – far from being apologetic or humble – he appears angry that his true talent is being ignored.
Reading this narcissistic attempt at re-writing history, you wonder what planet Whacky Weinstein is living on.
Prince Andrew (left, in his BBC interview last month) and Harvey Weinstein (right, in court in New York in January) are contenders for the most ill-judged interview of the year
Prince Andrew truly believed the public would buy the ludicrous assertions that he ‘can’t sweat’ after military service in a combat zone and ‘doesn’t know where the bar is’ in a legendary London nightclub as cast iron proof he didn’t have sex with a teenage girl in a friend’s bathroom.
Now – making an equally ludicrous attempt to salvage his reputation – Harvey Weinstein tell us that, far from being an alleged rapist and serial groper, he has spent his career promoting women in the film business, working tirelessly on their behalf.
Harvey says his important legacy is being ‘forgotten’ and that he has made more movies directed by and about women than anyone else – and his promotion of the female sex goes back 30 years, long before it was fashionable.
It’s true he paid Gwyneth Paltrow a huge sum (over $10million) to star in an independent move – View from the Top – far more than her male counterparts.
That’s the same Gwyneth Paltrow who subsequently said he tricked her into going to his hotel room when she was 22 and tried to force her to give him a massage.
The truth is, Harvey would have promoted men, women or performing dogs in his movies if they were talented and would ensure the end product would win awards (boosting his ego) or do great business at the box office.
Prince Andrew speaks in an interview with BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis last month
Surely he’s not expecting us to believe he promoted women because he was a committed feminist?
If that’s his bizarre fantasy, then it’s a weird kind of feminist that adopts the same pattern of predatory behaviour over and over again.
Over 80 women have come forward with allegations of serious sexual assault going back decades, and their stories show that Weinstein’s behaviour always falls into a familiar pattern.
First, he generally picks on someone less important, he is the one in control. Secondly, he promises women promotion, a part or a job they wanted.
Thirdly, he persuades them to enter his space, his luxury hotel room, where he is usually semi-naked and they are fully clothed because they were expecting to talk business and then they discover all he wanted was quick sex, some form of relief. That was the job on offer.
Watching the terrific TV series The Loudest Voice detailing the same predatory behaviour by the Fox Network’s former CEO Roger Ailes (played brilliantly by Russell Crowe), it’s clear that so many powerful men have no idea that their actions are anything to complain about.
The discrepancy between what men think is ‘normal’ behaviour and what women find repugnant and unacceptable is what the trial of Harvey Weinstein is all about.
He has never shown any remorse, and this latest interview is a blatant attempt at sanitising his image before the trial on charges of raping one woman and forcing another to perform oral sex on him starts on January 6.
Weinstein is so arrogant, his own lawyers knew nothing about this chat with the press – just as Andrew didn’t clear his damaging TV interview in advance with either his mother or his former wife.
Harvey Weinstein arrives at the New York Supreme Court on December 11
Egotistical, blinkered men always think they know best, but others see them differently. Times have changed, but these stupid blokes haven’t cottoned on.
Weinstein has already brokered a deal with dozens of the women bringing civil cases for damages against him.
Their allegations of historic sexual assault and harassment will never be acknowledged.
The insurers for his bankrupt film company are offering $25million to broker a deal in which Mr Weinstein does not have to admit guilt (or even pay with his own money) and none of his fellow executives have to be held accountable as ‘enablers’.
It is very unsatisfactory and will not bring closure to many of those involved, but it’s probably all they are going to get when faced with the formidable army of lawyers and advisors protecting this powerful man.
This bizarre Harvey Weinstein interview, conducted just days after a court appearance when he shuffled in clutching a walking frame with tennis balls on the legs was another blatant attempt to milk sympathy.
Sadly, all his attempts at PR are doomed to failure, swiftly exposed as stage managed charades.
Gwyneth Paltrow said Weinstein (pictured together in 1999) tricked her into going to his hotel room when she was 22 and tried to force her to give him a massage
He was photographed shortly afterwards shopping without the frame, and the court doubled his bail after it emerged his electronic tag had been ‘mishandled’ on numerous occasions.
Following the disastrous New York Post interview, 23 of his victims – including Rosanna Arquette and Ashley Judd – accused him of ‘trying to gaslight society’.
They added: ‘He will be remembered as an unrepentant abuser who took everything and deserves nothing’.
The lawyer for one of the women who will testify at the upcoming rape trial said the interviews ‘shows his complete failure to accept responsibility’
Weinstein thinks he can bully his way out of court and restore his reputation by parading his awards and his previous cinematic triumphs. Post #MeToo, that won’t wash.
Maybe he better move to Italy where opera fans have given Placido Domingo a 22-minute standing ovation at La Scala in spite of sexual harassment allegations which have seen the superstar singer banned from concert halls all around the world and in the USA.
Weinstein clearly thinks he has done nothing wrong, which makes me wonder if sexual harassment remains a difficult concept for some men to grasp?
That’s what I was thinking after a famous bloke spent several minutes stroking my back last Friday night. I moved, his hand followed. In the end I went home. Old habits (and old men) never change.