The LA Times asks: so who has dared to defend Harvey Weinstein?

The answer?: "Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, actress Lindsay Lohan, actor Tony Denison, fashion designer Donna Karan and director Woody Allen rose to Weinstein’s defense despite a tidal wave of industry condemnation."

Of course, each of these has subsequently and awkwardly walked back their initial enthusiasm for defending Weinstein as more accusations piled on and were substantiated. But what we should really be talking about is the decades of silence across the entertainment industry which few brave souls tried to warn about years ago.



It was such an "open secret" that Courtney Love could say this back in 2005 at a red carpet appearance, though also worrying, "I'll get libeled if I say it...":

.@Courtney Love's advice in 2005: "If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a party at the Four Seasons, don't go." pic.twitter.com/I1Zq0WvVNM — HannahJane Parkinson (@ladyhaja) October 14, 2017

And when Hollywood sexual abuse survivor Corey Feldmen tried to talk generally about the Hollywood subculture of rampant sexual assault and pedophilia with cameras rolling on "The View" in 2013... well if you haven't seen it yet, it's definitely one for the historical record which should never be forgotten. Though Feldmen was speaking about his own dark experience involving other powerful film industry predators and not Weinstein in particular, the response he got from one well-known host is certainly indicative of what victims were and are up against.

“Are you saying they are pedophiles and that they are still in this business?” then-host Barbara Walters asked. “Yes,” Feldman replied.

Walters immediately tried to shut Feldmen down with, "You're damaging an entire industry!"

Shame on you, Barbara Walters.



Corey Feldman tried to warn us about sexual predators in Hollywood & you shamed him.#FridayThe13th pic.twitter.com/wWSjCe13ms — #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) October 13, 2017

And if it wasn't already clear by now, screenwriter Scott Rosenberg - who was made a star by Miramax - has just posted a revealing bit of prose in the form of an intense mea culpa to his Facebook page concerning what "everybody-fu*king-knew" for not just years, but for decades concerning Weinstein.

At Miramax Rosenberg wrote the popular movies "Beautiful Girls" and "Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead" and acknowledges that “they gave me my career” as part of that period when Harvey Weinstein was the center of a golden age for the indie film universe.

Excerpts from former Miramax screenwriter Scott Rosenberg's Facebook post, whose mentor was Weinstein throughout the 1990's and early 2000's:

So, yeah, I was there.

And let me tell you one thing.

Let’s be perfectly clear about one thing:

Everybody-fucking-knew.

Not that he was raping.

No, that we never heard. But we were aware of a certain pattern of overly-aggressive behavior that was rather dreadful. We knew about the man’s hunger; his fervor; his appetite.

There was nothing secret about this voracious rapacity; like a gluttonous ogre out of the Brothers Grimm.

All couched in vague promises of potential movie roles.

(and, it should be noted: there were many who actually succumbed to his bulky charms. Willingly. Which surely must have only impelled him to cast his fetid net even wider).

But like I said: everybody-fu*king-knew. And to me, if Harvey’s behavior is the most reprehensible thing one can imagine, a not-so-distant second is the current flood of sanctimonious denial and condemnation that now crashes upon these shores of rectitude in gloppy tides of bullshit righteousness.

Because everybody-fu*king-knew.

And do you know how I am sure this is true?

Because I was there.

And I saw you.

And I talked about it with you.

You, the big producers; you, the big directors; you, the big agents; you, the big financiers.

And you, the big rival studio chiefs; you, the big actors; you, the big actresses; you, the big models.

You, the big journalists; you, the big screenwriters; you, the big rock stars; you, the big restaurateurs; you, the big politicians.

I saw you.

All of you.

And more:

So, yeah, I am sorry.

Sorry and ashamed.

Because, in the end, I was complicit.

I didn’t say shit.

I didn’t do shit. Harvey was nothing but wonderful to me.

So I reaped the rewards and I kept my mouth shut.

And for that, once again, I am sorry.

But you should be sorry, too.

With all these victims speaking up…

To tell their tales.

Shouldn’t those who witnessed it from the sidelines do the same?

Instead of retreating to the cowardly, canopied confines of faux-outrage?

Doesn’t being a bystander bring with it the responsibility of telling the truth, however personally disgraceful it may be? You know who are.

You know that you knew.

And do you know how I know that you knew?

Because I was there with you.

And because everybody-fu*king-knew.



Harvey Weinstein and Screenwriter Scott Rosenberg. Image source Getty Images

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