- A new book from the two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment story includes a previously unreported letter from Bob Weinstein, his brother and business partner, asking him to seek help for his “misbehavior.”
- “You have brought shame to the family and your company through your misbehavior,” Bob, who told reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey that he mistakenly saw his brother’s harassment as a sex addiction, wrote.
- Bob also wrote that he knew Harvey’s response was “to blame the victims, or to minimize the misbehavior in various ways,” and if he thought “nothing is wrong with your misbehavior so in this area then announce it to your wife and family.”
- Kantor and Twohey are largely credited for reporting that sparked the #MeToo movement, and “She Said” also details how a whistleblower at The Weinstein Company alerted the journalists to Harvey’s routine harassment of junior female employees and actresses.
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A previously unreported letter from Harvey Weinstein’s brother and business partner Bob reveals that he faced family scrutiny for his sexual harassment two years before it was first reported in The New York Times.
In “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement,” Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey publish Bob’s letter in full, which urges Harvey to get medical treatment for what Bob told the reporters he mistakenly thought was a sex addiction.
“You have brought shame to the family and your company through your misbehavior,” Bob wrote. “Your reaction was once more to blame the victims, or to minimize the misbehavior in various ways. If you think nothing is wrong with your misbehavior so in this area then announce it to your wife and family.”
In his first extensive comments since the story broke, Bob told Kantor and Twohey that he “surrendered” in his attempts to intervene in his brother’s abuse. Due to his own struggle with substance abuse, he concluded that Harvey had a sex addiction, but “got worn out” of trying to stop him.
The disgraced producer is set to face trial in 2020 for charges of sexual assault and rape, which he previously pleaded not guilty to, stating that he has never had nonconsensual sex.
In "She Said," Kantor and Twohey write that Irwin Reiter, an accountant who worked under Harvey for decades, provided them with an internal memo from The Weinstein Company that described Harvey's routine harassment of junior female employees and actresses.
A former Miramax assistant, Rowena Chiu, also goes on the record for the book, explaining that she received a settlement in 1998 after she says Harvey assaulted her in a hotel room. Chiu told Kantor and Twohey that she struggled with depression and attempted to commit suicide in the 20 years where she stayed silent, not even telling her husband about the abuse, due to a restrictive non-disclosure agreement.
The book also explains the process of working with sources like actress Gwyneth Paltrow, how lawyers like prominent victims' rights attorney Gloria Allred profited from negotiating settlements for Harvey's accusers, and how campaigns to silence high-profile accusers like Rose McGowan were orchestrated.
Kantor and Twohey's reporting is credited with sparking the #MeToo movement, and the book includes interviews with the movement's prominent figures, including Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.
The book is set for release on September 10.
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