One of the biggest questions buzzing around the ongoing scandal involving Harvey Weinstein is, “How could nobody know what was going on?” What about the assistants who led actresses and producers to his hotel room? The staffers who endured his abuse and more, day in and day out, for months and years? According to screenwriter Scott Rosenberg, “Everybody-fucking-knew,” however, that’s not quite true.
The New Yorker recently met with a group of women, former assistants and executives at Miramax and the Weinstein Company, and they claim that while Weinstein’s brash behavior was no secret, that is escalated into criminal acts, is something they can’t fathom.
“You feel a little bit like an idiot,” one said. “There were things you knew. Clearly there was also a strategy on his part. He could be flamboyant in his ‘People can know I’m a womanizer.’ But the idea that he took it to sexual assault or even rape was really well hidden.”
“But get away with what?” another woman asked. “At the time, you didn’t know this was happening. What you knew was that he was a bully, a screamer, a yeller, a thrower, a pig—not that he was a rapist.”
Meanwhile, select and anonymous staff members of The Weinstein Company have issued a statement saying they are “shocked and surprised” to learn about the allegations against Harvey Weinstein. “We had an idea that he was a womanizer who had extra-marital affairs. We did not know he was a violent aggressor and alleged rapist,” the statement says in part.
You can read the full statement below. Harvey Weinstein continues to deny all allegations of non-consensual sex.
