Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence

by Ken Auletta Narrated by Jonathan Coleman

Overview

A vivid biography of Harvey Weinstein-how he rose to become a dominant figure in the film world, how he used that position to feed his monstrous sexual appetites, and how it all came crashing down, from the author who has covered the Hollywood and media power game for The New Yorker for three decades

Twenty years ago, Ken Auletta wrote an iconic New Yorker profile of the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was then at the height of his powers. The profile made waves for exposing how volatile, even violent, Weinstein was to his employees and collaborators. But there was a much darker story that was just out of reach: rumors had long swirled that Weinstein was a sexual predator. Auletta confronted Weinstein, who denied the claims. Since no one was willing to go on the record, Auletta and the magazine concluded they couldn't close the case. Years later, he was able to share his reporting notes and knowledge with Ronan Farrow; he cheered as Farrow, and Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, finally revealed the truth.
 
Still, the story continued to nag him. The trail of assaults and cover-ups had been exposed, but the larger questions remained: What was at the root of Weinstein's monstrousness? How, and why, was it never checked? Why the silence? How does a man run the day-to-day operations of a company with hundreds of employees and revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and at the same time live a shadow life of sexual predation without ever being caught? How much is this a story about Harvey Weinstein, and how much is this a story about Hollywood and power?
 
In pursuit of the answers, Auletta digs into Weinstein's life, searching for the mysteries beneath a film career unparalleled for its extraordinary talent and creative success, which combined with a personal brutality and viciousness to leave a trail of ruined lives in its wake. Hollywood Ending is more than a prosecutor's litany; it is an unflinching examination of Weinstein's life and career, embedding his crimes in the context of the movie business, in his failures and the successes that led to enormous power. Film stars, Miramax employees and board members, old friends and family, and even the person who knew him best-Harvey's brother, Bob-all talked to Auletta at length. Weinstein himself also responded to Auletta's questions from prison. The result is not simply the portrait of a predator but of the power that allowed Weinstein to operate with such impunity for so many years, the spiderweb in which his victims found themselves trapped.

Editorial Reviews

JULY 2022 - AudioFile

Twenty-four hours spent tracking Harvey Weinstein’s rise and fall may be more than enough for many listeners. Jonathan Coleman is an accomplished narrator, but his pace is deliberate, each detail carefully underscored, as if he were telling a story fresh and new. In fact, much of what’s revealed here has been reported already. Thoroughly researched, the narrative goes from birth to prison, cites every movie Weinstein ever produced, every abuse on record. Coleman, a new voice to audiobook listeners, is steady and unfaltering, expressive, and easy on the ear. He will surely be heard often in times to come. This is an insightful, fascinating biography, but one devoted to a thoroughly repellent human being. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

One of The New Yorker’s and Esquire's Best Books of 2022

“A thoughtful, probing book . . . nuanced in ways missing from the screaming-headline revelations of the story as it unfolded . . . the insoluble riddle of how so much good and evil could reside in one man is the abiding mystery that gives this book its fascination. . . . If he had done nothing else, Ken Auletta deserves great credit for forcing his readers to confront the fact that evil does not thrive in a vacuum and that Harvey Weinstein, as bad as he was, had far too much help along the way.” —The Daily Beast
 
“Legendary media reporter Auletta was on to Weinstein as a violent bully and abuser in 2002, calling the producer a ‘self-absorbed narcissist’ in a profile for The New Yorker . . . Auletta’s new book has marinated over the years and benefits from 200 interviews to paint a fuller and darker picture of Weinstein . . . Among one of America’s keenest observers of power, from Wall Street to Hollywood.” —The National Book Review

“Exhaustively reported and utterly enraging, Hollywood Ending is a damning look at Hollywood’s history of corruption and complicity.” —Esquire

“Excellent . . . The world turned a blind eye, Auletta explains, in large part because of the perception that Weinstein’s contributions to the industry outweighed his transgressions.” —Bloomberg, The 10 Best Books for Your Summer Reading List

“Longtime New Yorker media reporter Auletta delivers a compelling, assiduously reported, full-formed biography of Weinstein, from his Queens youth all the way to his trial, conviction, and 2020 sentencing . . . A definitive, unblinking account of a tragic chapter in American movie history.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Beyond its gripping portrait of a gifted producer, profligate businessman, serial rapist and likely sociopath, Auletta's magisterial account is a definitive report of corruption, commerce and complicity in America's dream factory. Judicious, vivid, utterly engrossing.” —Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies and winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“It is impossible to read Hollywood Ending without an escalating sense of dread and fury. Ken Auletta offers a riveting account of the ascent and savagely abusive behavior of one of the movie industry’s most powerful figures. And he meticulously documents a story that’s equally disturbing: the dismal pattern of willful ignorance, complicity and cover-up among film producers, financiers, executives, lawyers, and actors who, with just a bit of courage, could have put a stop to Harvey Weinstein’s sociopathic assaults against so many women.” —Martin Baron, Executive Editor (Retired), The Washington Post
 
“You think you know everything about the deplorable Harvey Weinstein? You don’t. The incomparable Ken Auletta delivers revelation after revelation.” —Graydon Carter, editor, Air Mail

Library Journal

06/01/2022

Journalist Auletta (Greed and Glory on Wall Street) has plenty to say about Harvey Weinstein. While preparing his 2002 profile on Weinstein for Vanity Fair, Auletta uncovered stories of sexual assault but was stymied by lack of on-the-record victim testimony. He makes up for lost time with a year-by-year biography that presents Weinstein not merely as a sexual abuser but a toxic narcissist who physically and psychologically mistreated employees and ignored financial limitations to feed his craving for public acclaim. Weinstein was enabled by an industry where his aberrant behavior was excused by influence and success. In spite of its unflinching criticism of its subject, this book is no hatchet job. Auletta acknowledges Weinstein's tremendous drive and effect on Hollywood and probes the psychology that might lie behind his actions. This gives his portrait of Weinstein vital depth. Well-researched and packed with detail—possibly too packed for some readers, who may find the thorough recounting of Weinstein's assaults, boardroom wars, and trial procedures results in information overload. VERDICT As a comprehensive account of the rise and fall of the Weinstein name, Auletta's volume is a critical text and worthy of sitting beside Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor's She Said.—Kathleen McCallister

JULY 2022 - AudioFile

Twenty-four hours spent tracking Harvey Weinstein’s rise and fall may be more than enough for many listeners. Jonathan Coleman is an accomplished narrator, but his pace is deliberate, each detail carefully underscored, as if he were telling a story fresh and new. In fact, much of what’s revealed here has been reported already. Thoroughly researched, the narrative goes from birth to prison, cites every movie Weinstein ever produced, every abuse on record. Coleman, a new voice to audiobook listeners, is steady and unfaltering, expressive, and easy on the ear. He will surely be heard often in times to come. This is an insightful, fascinating biography, but one devoted to a thoroughly repellent human being. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2022-04-26
A sad tale of sex, lies, and power in Hollywood.

In 2002, Auletta published a profile of Harvey Weinstein in the New Yorker, portraying him as a “self-absorbed narcissist” who verbally and physically abused his employees. “Those who worked for Harvey,” the author discovered, “were daunted by his talent yet terrorized by his volcanic personality.” At the time, Auletta heard “whispers” that Weinstein sexually abused women but could not corroborate them. Fifteen years later, scores of women finally came forward, and Weinstein’s behavior made headlines in the New York Times, soon followed by an exposé in the New Yorker. In 2017, Weinstein was arrested on charges of criminal sexual assault and rape. Drawing on 12 hours of taped interviews with Weinstein for the New Yorker piece and several hundred interviews with employees and associates, including Weinstein’s brother Bob, Auletta expands his earlier profile, chronicling Weinstein’s volatile career as a movie mogul and recounting in dismal detail the “numbing sameness” of his abuse of women. “His game was not seduction,” writes Auletta, “but subjugation, and he sought out the vulnerable. His boastful, trophy mentality toward actresses has been noted by many, but he also prowled among his own staff.” His career began in Buffalo, where, in the 1970s, he became a concert promoter, honing his persona as “a money-obsessed entrepreneur and trickster in the making.” He partnered with Bob to create a distribution firm they called Miramax, combining their parents’ first names, and later a production firm, the Weinstein Company, which released many award-winning films including Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love. As the author shows, Bob was unable—and often unwilling—to rein in his “impulsive” brother as their business roiled in a cycle of near bankruptcy, success, and profligate overspending. Auletta’s deep familiarity with the film industry serves him well in depicting the making, marketing, and reception of the Weinsteins’ movies. Aiming to portray Weinstein as “more than a monster,” the author offers ample evidence that he is a sociopath.

An authoritative, sordid biography.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176475081
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

PROLOGUE
The Gray Concrete Carpet
 
  
Once, he exuded power. Films he produced and distributed garnered 81 Academy Awards and 341 Oscar nominations. Only Steven Spielberg was thanked more often from the awards stage. He boasted of his friendships with Presidents Clinton and Obama, and of the famous actresses he claimed to have bedded. Inside the office, he terrified the four assistants who serviced his needs, and he bellowed at most of his executives. Outside the office, he flashed a dazzling, capped- toothed smile while strolling hundreds of red carpets, trailed by clicking cameras, often accompanied by his second wife, fashion designer Georgina Chapman, who dressed some of the stars lit by the paparazzi flashes. He was that rare Hollywood figure known instantly by his first name: Harvey.

The gray concrete sidewalk Harvey Weinstein crossed daily in the winter of 2020 was not a red carpet, but a gauntlet. Waiting for him to arrive at the criminal court building at 100 Centre Street were armed police officers and metal police barricades corralling a throng of reporters who did not adhere to the respectful protocols of a Hollywood opening. Because of his recent back surgery, when his black Cadillac Escalade braked in front of the New York State Supreme Court building, Harvey had to be helped out of the back seat by two burly men. He slowly shuffled in black orthopedic shoes toward the building’s entrance a hundred or so feet away on a four-wheel walker, trailed by his team of lawyers and public relations advisers. Harvey did not pause and rarely looked up to respond to shouted questions or to smile for the cameras. Once inside the building, he dutifully emptied his pockets and passed through a metal detector. An elevator whisked Harvey and his entourage to the fifteenth floor, where he passed a second gauntlet of cameras and reporters before entering courtroom 1530 for his criminal trial for predatory rape and sexual assault.



Harvey’s world—the world in which he was in charge—was upended forever over a few days in early October 2017, when The New York Times and The New Yorker publicly proclaimed that he was a sexual beast, and the Weinstein Company fired him. Seven months later, Harvey was indicted by a grand jury convened by the Manhattan district attorney. Now as he entered the courtroom, he faced a criminal trial that threatened to place him behind bars for the rest of his life. For eight weeks, beginning on January 6, 2020, Harvey walked this concrete carpet Monday through Friday.

He now dressed more like a midwestern businessman out of a Sinclair Lewis novel than a Hollywooe power broker—drab, boxy suits; white shirts with crumpled collars; and dull, slightly askew ties. He looked miserable. He had lost at least seventy-five pounds, his pallor was gray, and his scruffy stubble beard failed to camouflage the crevices and lines of his swollen face.


In court, Harvey would settle into a low-backed leather chair, flanked by his five lawyers at a table facing Judge James M. Burke on his elevated platform. His prosecutors, assistant district attorney and Special Counsel to the D.A. Joan Illuzzi and her deputy, Meghan Hast, deputy chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit, were seated at a table to his right, close to the twelve-member jury box. Every day, about one hundred twenty-five journalists and spectators crammed into the courtroom; more reporters and spectators often waited outside to enter or for a chance to verbally assail Harvey and his lawyers.

Assistant district attorney Illuzzi would say more than once that Harvey’s walker was “a prop” to elicit sympathy, a view widely shared by his detractors and not a few members of the press. In truth, Harvey Weinstein was not well. After a car accident in 2019, he had been dragging his right foot for a solid year, and his back was operated on days before the trial began to ease pain and correct spinal stenosis and drop foot. The operation was not successful. He also suffered from high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, chronic diabetes, a weak heart, and he was receiving what his lawyer described as “shots in his eyes” to treat macular degeneration. In all, Harvey had prescriptions for twenty different medications.


Harvey had been indicted on five counts of assault and rape of three women: Miriam Haley (formerly Haleyi), a production assistant at the Weinstein Company; aspiring actress Jessica Mann; and established actress Annabella Sciorra. Woven throughout the prosecution case was the assertion that Weinstein abused his power as head of Miramax, and later the Weinstein Company, to entrap aspiring actresses, models, and women on his staff. After he coerced sexual access, sometimes brutally, they kept silent, shamed or fearful he would sabotage their careers. They wanted to be in the movie business, and he was not only their biggest but often their only connection.

Harvey’s team believed their defense was formidable. Sex with these women was consensual, his lawyers insisted. They pounded the jury with evidence that both Haley and Mann, on whose testimony the case pivoted, kept in touch with Harvey after his alleged assaults, sending him emails, asking for jobs and favors, and eventually engaging in voluntary sex with him. Sciorra did not maintain contact, but the defense hit back hard at her for being unable to identify the year—1993 or 1994—in which the rape occurred, suggesting that she had lied. Two of the three other female witnesses who would testify also sought favors from Harvey after he allegedly abused them. And given the flood of negative publicity about Harvey over the two years since the stories broke, the defense claimed he was robbed of a presumption of innocence because it was not easy to locate jurors who did not have an opinion about Harvey Weinstein. Just over one third of the approximately six hundred potential jurors screened by Judge Burke in the courtroom prior to the trial were excused when they said they could not be “impartial.”


This was understood by all to be a watershed trial. Typically in sex-crime cases, law enforcement chooses not to prosecute if there is no forensic evidence and no contemporaneous police reports. This case was even more challenging because there was email evidence that the victims not only kept in touch with their abuser but in some cases had consensual sex with him after being assaulted. By pursuing this case, District Attorney Cyrus Vance was seeking to enlarge opportunities to prosecute sex crimes. To the #MeToo movement and many others enraged by the abusive behavior of powerful men—Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes, Bill Cosby, Les Moonves, Bill O’Reilly, Matt Lauer, Russell Simmons, Kevin Spacey, USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar,
R. Kelly, among many others—the trial was seen as a reckoning, a call to justice for victims of sexual assault everywhere.

On February 25, after a trial that lasted twenty-two days over two months and was followed by twenty-six hours of jury deliberation over five days, the jury foreman rose and declared that his colleagues found Weinstein guilty of two of the five counts.

The packed courtroom went silent, then it abruptly flooded with two dozen armed court officers, four of whom stood directly behind Harvey at the defense table. The officers inched closer to him as Judge Burke announced that he was remanding the defendant to the prison on Rikers Island. Before Harvey was lifted by his arms and taken by two court officers out a side door, the judge set sentencing for two and a half weeks later, on March 11.

On that day, Judge Burke announced that he was sentencing Weinstein to twenty-three years in prison. Harvey’s head dropped to his chest. He did not unleash his famous temper. Instead, he feebly responded, as if he could not believe this was happening to him, “But I’m innocent.” He said this to his lawyers three times.

It was a long, dark road to this point. Innocent is a word few others would use to describe Harvey Weinstein, in this or any other context. Championing good movies and exhibiting good behavior did not always overlap in Hollywood, but Harvey broadened the chasm between the two. How extreme that divide was in the motion picture industry is one of the questions this book explores. The pressing question is how, and why, he was enabled, decade after decade, by the silence or shuttered eyes of so many in Hollywood, including so many of those who worked for him, to get away with sexually abusing women. To understand this culture of silence, it’s necessary to take a close look at the architecture of collusion, both intentional and unwitting, that he built at his companies.


Those who worked for Harvey were daunted by his talent yet terrorized by his volcanic personality. After a long day in the office, staff members would sometimes repair to a bar for a recuperative drink to ponder the source of Harvey’s frightening rage. As Amanda Lundberg, who started working at Miramax in 1988 and in her ten years there rose to worldwide head of public relations, put it, “We used to say of his home,  ‘They  must  have  done a number on those kids.’ Shocked by Harvey’s behavior, a former intimate confided, “He’s like someone who’s been raised by wolves.”

But upbringing can only explain so much. Harvey’s life offers confirmation of the Greek philosopher’s adage popularized by George Eliot, “Character is destiny.” Just as Richard Nixon or Donald Trump drowned in the currents of malice and paranoia that overwhelmed their judgment, Harvey Weinstein was unable to tame the demons that warped his behavior and will shape his legacy: One, his ferocious rage, which erupted without warning, alienating colleagues and competitors. Two, his predatory sexual compulsions, which he indulged and successfully masked for decades. Three, his promiscuous spending on films and expense accounts, nearly bankrupting his companies. And four, his unhinged, Shakespeare-worthy relationship with his younger brother, Bob Weinstein, which gyrated from an impregnable partnership to screaming matches, stony estrangements, and, at least once, bloody blows.

Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of crimes prompted by his raging impulses and his unquenchable need to dominate. But the question his staff asked still lingers, rooted in one of the great films Harvey loved and hoped to emulate. Orson Welles spoke of his creation, Charles Foster Kane, as being burdened by an “enraged conviction that no one exists but himself, his refusal to admit the existence of other people with whom one must compromise, whose feelings one must take into account.”

What is Harvey Weinstein’s Rosebud—a loss, a lack, that explains what came after? Is there an explanation for a life lived as he has? Any such search begins in the Flushing, Queens, home where Harvey was raised.

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