As detailed abuse allegations againstHarvey Weinstein

continue to surface every day, the entertainment community and

film fans alike are being forced to ask themselves big questions

about how we all should respond.BY ANTHONY BREZNICAN

What Does

Harvey’s

Fall Mean?

M

in a court of law that, asThe New Yorker

alleges, he sexually assaulted women, he

should be in prison. At the time this story was

going to print, a cascade of complaints against

him became an avalanche (see sidebar), with

A-listers like George Clooney, whoseConfes-

sions of a Dangerous Mind Weinstein produced,

declaring the allegations “indefensible,” and

Meryl Streep, who won an Oscar for the Wein-

stein Company filmThe Iron Lady, calling his

actions “disgraceful” before Gwyneth Paltrow

and Angelina Jolie came forward with their

own horror stories about working with him.

Movie lovers, meanwhile, have a new ques-

tion to ask: Can they separate the art from the

artist? Or, in this case, the producer who

“MY HEART WAS RACING AND I WAS VERY SCARED. I PULLED MY ARM

away finally and headed to the door.” That was actress and aspiring

screenwriter Louisette Geiss, recounting on Oct. 10 how she escaped

an alleged sex assault by Harvey Weinstein in his hotel room at the

2008 Sundance Film Festival. At a press conference with her lawyer,

Gloria Allred, Geiss described being lured to Weinstein’s room under

the pretense of pitching a film. The pitch, she says, ended when the

mogul excused himself to go to the bathroom, then emerged naked,

promising the possibility of a deal in exchange for watching him per-

form a sex act. Her story matches a slew of other allegations against

Weinstein, who has since been fired as head of The Weinstein Com-

pany. As story after story broke, he first stood accused of multiple acts

of sexual abuse—before he was ultimately accused of outright rape.

Weinstein, 65, once a titan among titans in an industry full of them,

has seen his life and career implode seemingly quickly after what

appears to be a professional lifetime of abuse. If it’s possible to prove

NEWS STORY

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12 EW.COM OCTOBER 20/27, 2017