Hollywood’s slimiest dude, Harvey Weinstein, gets a super slimy argument in his defense
Harvey Weinstein's attorney attempts to normalize the "casting couch," calls Jennifer Siebel Newsom a "bimbo" during L.A. sexual assault trial
Aux News Harvey Weinstein
The utter villainy of Harvey Weinstein seems to know no bounds. According to Variety’s reporting of Weinstein’s Los Angeles sexual assault trial, attorney Mark Werksman has launched a particularly vicious and nasty defense of the former film producer, which paradoxically includes painting his own client as an unattractive “beast” and normalizing the infamous “casting couch” process.
The most flattering image Werksman conjured was that of Weinstein as a man from humble beginnings who worked hard to create his empire. “With tremendous fame and fortune came fame of fortune seekers,” including women who had “consensual sex with Mr. Weinstein because they wanted to exploit their connection with Mr. Weinstein” or “sex in exchange for something with value.”
“Look at my client. He’s not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Do you think these beautiful women had sex with him because he’s hot? No, it’s because he’s powerful,” Werksman said, per Variety. “Transactional sex … it may have been unpleasant … and now embarrassing. [But] everyone did it. He did it. They did it.”
Normalizing a culture wherein women feel pressured to exchange sex in order to move up in the business seems like a shoddy defense, though it would surely be a great favor to Hollywood’s remaining predators should that argument succeed. “The sequel to the casting couch is the #MeToo trial,” Werksman proclaimed, saying of the women set to testify, “They will play the part of the damsel in distress with this beast.”
One of those women is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California governor Gavin Newsom. Variety reports that Werksman singled her out specifically, noting that Weinstein donated frequently to Newsom’s political ambitions over the years and even hosted the couple at his home: “She brought her husband to meet and party with her rapist. Who does that? He took money from his wife’s rapist for his political campaigns,” Werksman argued.
(One might compare the situation to Brad Pitt, a producer on the upcoming Weinstein exposé film She Said, who continued to work with Weinstein after being informed of his sexual misconduct towards two of his own partners. Perhaps Newsom didn’t know about his wife’s experience, or perhaps some men are willing to excuse such behavior if dollar signs are involved.)
Perhaps most egregiously, Werksman said that if Siebel Newsom hadn’t become a political figure and a voice against sexual harassment and assault, “She’d be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead.” Whether such outright cruelty will play well with the jury remains to be seen.
27 Comments
I don’t think anyone would be surprised by any slime ball shit Weinstein tries.the golden boy narrative around Pitt is bizarre. He was abusive towards Jolie and the kids and continued to work with her abuser. I’m sure a lot of that had to do with his substance disorder at the time, but Pitt tried to silence her with an NDA, and he is the one who dragged their stuff back into the public. And I know people change, Jolie herself obviously puts being a mother first compared to who she was in the early aughts. But it’s also silly to pretend that just because Pitt is sober now, he wasn’t capable of being abusive when he was using. And no, I’m not saying his career should be cancelled. I’m just saying it’s ok to recognize that he was at one time in his life, very abusive. And it doesn’t make Jolie a villain for having to open up about that.
The Pitt/Jolie stuff has N-O-T-H-I-N-G to do with this. Why are you bringing up something that has nothing to do with this?
We need to forgive Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for their friendships with Harvey Weinstein. We need to forgive MSNBC for letting Harvey Weinstein come on the air as a campaign surrogate for Hillary and talking about how awful and sexist Bernie Sanders is.
If I were sentencing him and he tried to use the “everybody does it” defense, I might try to send a message to let “everybody” know that they were putting themselves at risk for spending a very, very, very, very, long time in a very unpleasant prison.
Cosi fan tutte
The “everybody does it” defense is, of course, absurd, but Weinstein’s attorney isn’t normalizing the casting couch. Hollywood normalized the casting couch, that’s the fucking problem, that’s why Weinstein was doing what he was doing.
Except that not everyone does it.
And Weinstein didn’t do it because he had no choice.
He’s a 70-year-old bridge troll capable of making his own choices.
And he chose to rape and sexually assault dozens, maybe hundreds, of women.
Everyone in Hollywood does it. How many studios stopped working with CAA for helping Harvey? How many talented people dropped CAA as their talent agents for helping Harvey Weinstein rape?
Yeah, I find the “how else was he going to get laid?” defense particularly weak all around. Lots of people don’t look like George Clooney or Brad Pitt and still get laid. Lot of people who can’t get laid for one reason or another don’t resort to rape.It’s true that some people are attracted to powerful people. Weinstein could have entered into consensual relationships with women who were attracted to his power without actually holding the threat/promise of superstardom out as bait. Presumably his ex-wives were such women. Speaking of, I know not every marriage is a sexually fulfilling one, but it is especially hard to argue that someone’s looks are an insurmountable sexual handicap when you’re married. Have sex with your wife, and don’t rape anyone. Seems easy enough to me.
The good news is that, regardless of the outcome of this trial, Weinstein goes back to prison in New York until at least 2039.
Weinstein is a powerful donor and surrogate for the Democrats. We need him out of prison and helping defeat Trump by 2024. Biden should pardon him because everyone knows Harvey is such good friends with Hillary Clinton and the Obamas.
We also have the pleasant memories of how Harvey Weinstein is not hot; and transactional sex with him was unpleasant and embarrassing.
Hillary Clinton had Harvey Weinstein go on MSNBC where they talked about how Bernie Sanders is too sexist so Harvey wouldn’t vote for him. Why is Hillary Clinton such good friends with so many rapists?
I keep thinking he’s dead, and then he pops up again like an unfunny version of the Crypt Keeper.
Really struggling to think of how that guy isn’t funny. Does he just forget to do puns?Crypt Keeper: Hello, boys and girls! Tonight’s Yuletide tale doesn’t care if you say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays!Stage Manager: Um…. CK? Do you mean boils and ghouls? And Crueltide tale? And Scary Christmas? And Happy Hell-idays?(Crypt Keeper stares at the Stage Manager in awkward silence)Crypt Keeper: NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEHHHHHH!
“It wasn’t actually sexual assault, you see, because it was really more a form of sexual blackmail.”
So I’m guessing as part of Werksman’s defense he’s going to bring in a bunch of women who slept with him purely “because he was powerful”, and who didn’t do it because they’d never be cast?Right?
Do you think these beautiful women had sex with him because he’s hot? No, it’s because he’s powerful,” Werksman said, per Variety.
Let’s hope this doesn’t backfire when the jury turns out to consist of twelve people who find Harvey Weinstein deliciously fuckable.
Doesn’t this rapist have a brother in the business? He must slapping himself for not getting so much transactional sex with up and coming young starlets.
He was accused of harrassment by one showrunner but apparently he eventually took her repeated NOs at face value
Since Weinstein is nothing but a criminal all the Oscars handed out as rewards for his criminal acts should be rescinded. The dude is supposed to have used his power to rape women daily, obviously he used it to rig Oscar campaigns. #Time’sup for his hirelings and his slime to pose as award-worthy!At least, that’s the honest response to his slimiest-ness.
“How else was he going to get laid?” By asking. Even if he’s a hideous beast (and I’ll not bother to contradict his own attorney), he had a position of power and all he really had to do was ask – in many of these cases he may not have heard “no.”Rape is not about getting consent. Ever. He wanted to force his grotesque self on attractive young women. He got off on their unwilling disgust. He’s more repulsive than his appearance.
this is what defense attorneys do in this country and they make appalling, gag-inducing amounts of money to do it. I’m watching the documentary about Keith Raniere and his attorney is doing more or less the same thing—what they did is just how things are; this was all consensual; and oh BTW how dare you take away the freedom of women to make their own (bad) decisions? All with a straight (and sometimes *outraged*) face. The best part is they’ll both make a ton of money from these futile defenses, their clients will still go to jail, and many people in sane society will want nothing to do with them, but hey at least they’re “principled” attorneys who feel that “everyone deserves a defense” ().
First of all, “everyone” doesn’t do it. A few did it. Most did not.Secondly, let’s suppose for the sake of argument that some actresses did decide on their own to sleep with him to get ahead. Those aren’t the ones in the suit. The ones in the suit are actresses who were NOT considering sleeping with him to get the job. And those actresses were uncomfortable, pressured, and assaulted by Harvey’s actions.So. Harvey’s argument hinges on the everyone does it line. But that argument has already been settled (hence his incarceration). Maybe if he only targeted willing women… maybe he could make that argument. But he targeted unwilling ones. And now he’s in jail. I realize that he’s grasping at straws. But saying “she was asking for it” is not exactly the best legal strategy.I’m reminded of the Jodie Foster movie “the accused”. That movie asks the question, “can a bimbo be raped?”. The answer is yes. She can.Harvey raped these women. And regardless of their character, he’s not allowed to do that.duh
Great Defense claiming Good’ol Harv wasn’t and isn’t Brad Pitt and all these Bimbo’s crying RAPE should all be charged with perjury as their intentions were all monetary as we’re all aware these hot hot girls were all together with their intentions, sure wish I were on that Jury and American Injustice is equivelant to this LEGAL SYSTEM called justice in CANADAR where WE the people are now in the grasp of the WOKE and have no say in Parliament as the leaders always answer a question with a question and make a mockery calling voters RACIST and MYSONOGIC if we dare question their agendas.
This is actually a very novel defense, based on Hollywood norms that most turn a blind eye to. Transactional sex has always been, and likely will be, a thing. Pretending it hasn’t happened is just foolish.
I work in customer service at a company and one day took a call from a prison officer looking to buy one of our products. After giving him prices and shipping costs, he said, “There’ll be some special information I need you to put on the box because it’s being sent to a prison. I work at the prison Harvey Weinstein is in, you know who that is? He’s a creep. Real creep. He has women visit him—never the same one, always verrrrry made up, high heels, lots of makeup, you know what I’m talking about? And he’s an asshole.”