A number of women have accused Harvey Weinstein, an Academy Award-winning American film producer, of sexually abusing them. He and his brother Bob co-founded the entertainment business Miramax, which went on to produce a number of commercially successful independent movies like “Pulp Fiction,” “Clerks,” “The Crying Game,” and “Sex, Lies, and Videotape.” They were able to gain a lot of publicity as a result and work out a contract with the Walt Disney Company. He received an Academy Award in 1998 for producing the motion picture Shakespeare in Love. The Weinstein Company, formed by the two brothers, went on to produce numerous critically and commercially successful films, including “The Reader,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Artist,” and “Silver Linings Playbook.” Weinstein was accused of sexually harassing or assaulting numerous famous actresses, models, and workers at his two businesses in October 2017. Many of the victims have come forward to substantiate the claims, despite the fact that his spokespeople have insisted that all of the accusations are untrue. After that, he lost his job as co-chairman of his own business.
Early Childhood & Life
On March 19, 1952, Harvey Weinstein was born into a Jewish household in Flushing, Queens, New York. His mother, Miriam Weinstein (née Postel), eventually worked as the receptionist for her sons’ business, Miramax, while his father, Max Weinstein, was a diamond cutter.
He is the oldest child of his parents and has a brother named Bob. The two of them grew up in the New York City housing cooperative known as Electchester. The brothers’ desire to work in the film industry was fueled by their Saturday afternoons spent watching movies in theaters.
He graduated in 1973 from the State University of New York at Buffalo after attending John Bowne High School in Flushing.
The career of Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein started a concert promotion company with his brothers Bob and Corky Burger after receiving his diploma, started screening concert films, and bought a theater in downtown Buffalo. Throughout the 1970s, rock concerts were independently produced by Harvey & Corky Productions frequently.
The two brothers founded the modest independent cinema distribution business Miramax, which was named after their parents Miriam and Max, in the later 1970s with the money made from their concert promotion company. One of their earliest releases was the 1980 concert video “Rockshow” by Paul McCartney and Wings.
Early in the 1980s, the business acquired the rights to two British movies produced for Amnesty International and combined them into one picture that was adapted for an American audience. Their first financially successful endeavor, “The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball,” was released in May 1982 and significantly increased the amount of money donated to Amnesty International.
The firm published a series of indie films in the years that followed, several of which received positive reviews from critics and enjoyed a modest level of box office success. Following the popularity of Errol Morris’ 1988 documentary “The Thin Blue Line,” which led to Randall Dale Adams’ release after he was wrongfully convicted of murder and given the death penalty, Miramax received widespread media attention.
With the release of Steven Soderbergh’s drama “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” in 1989, the business cemented its position as the most prosperous independent studio in America. However, the MPAA gave the art-house movies “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” and “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!” X-ratings that year, prompting Weinstein to sue the rating agency in vain.
Following the release of “The Crying Game” in 1993, the Walt Disney Company made a $80 million offer to the Weinsteins to purchase Miramax. The two brothers kept running their business after the acquisition.
He distributed the well-liked indie movie “Clerks” as well as the Quentin Tarantino-helmed blockbuster “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. While “Pulp Fiction” had been nominated for a “Academy Award for Best Picture,” the production firm didn’t actually win the award until 1997 with “The English Patient.”
He went on to produce other films that were nominated for Academy Awards in the years that followed, including “Good Will Hunting,” “The Cider House Rules,” “The Lord of the Rings: I and II,” “The Aviator,” and “Finding Neverland.” The “Academy Award for Best Picture” was won by the movies “Chicago” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”
The Weinstein brothers and numerous other media figures with ties to Miramax, including the filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, as well as Colin Vaines, departed Miramax in September 2005 and started the production firm known as “The Weinstein Company.” He produced movies from his new firm, including “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist,” which won the Academy Award, as well as “The Reader,” “Inglourious Basterds,” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” which received a nomination.
Allegations of sexual assault
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey charged Harvey Weinstein with sexually assaulting a number of women over the course of the previous three decades in an exposé that was published on October 5, 2017 in “The New York Times.” According to the story, he settled with actresses Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan in 1996 and 1997, as well as with Italian model Ambra Battilana in 2015 and numerous female Miramax and Weinstein Company employees.
The New Yorker published an audiotape that was secretly recorded in which Weinstein admitted to molesting model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez on October 10, 2017, and claimed that Weinstein had raped or harassed 13 women, raping three of them. Many famous people, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Judith Godrèche, and Katherine Kendall, have come out to accuse Weinstein of making unwanted sexual advances. Weinstein’s spokespeople have refuted all of the allegations.
He was let go by the board of The Weinstein Company, where he had served as co-chairman alongside his brother since 2005, in October 2017. Georgina Chapman, his second wife, made her choice to divorce him at about the same time.
Recognition & Achievements
Harvey Weinstein received the “Academy Award for Best Picture” in 1998 for directing the movie “Shakespeare in Love.”
He has been nominated for 16 Primetime Emmys for executive producing “Project Runway” and has won seven Tony Awards for his theatrical plays.
In 2004, he was named an honorary Commander of the “Order of the British Empire,” and in 2012, the French Consulate in New York City granted him a Chevalier of the “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.”
Personal Legacy & Life
Eve Chilton, Harvey Weinstein’s assistant, and he were married for the first time in 1987. As a result, the pair had three kids: Remy, Emma, and Ruth. 2004 saw his divorce from Chilton.
He wed the English actress and fashion designer Georgina Chapman in 2007, and the couple has two children: India Pearl, a daughter, and Dashiell, a son.
He is an activist who promotes funding for studies into life-threatening conditions like AIDS, type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. He also sits on the board of the charitable Robin Hood Foundation.
He frequently criticizes the absence of universal health care and gun control regulations in the United States and is an outspoken supporter of the Democratic Party.
Harvey Weinstein’s Net Worth
A $25 million movie producer, studio executive, and admitted rapist, Harvey Weinstein is an American. Weinstein’s net worth was reported to be $300 million during the height of his fame. This assessment was mostly based on The Weinstein Company’s value prior to the global sexual scandals of 2017. In October 2017, Georgina Chapman, his spouse, filed for divorce. Harvey received a sentence of 23 years in jail in March 2020.
Trivia
At a ceremony in Buffalo in 2000, he was awarded an honorary SUNY Doctorate of Humane Letters.
In 2008, Harvey Weinstein contributed to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and in 2012, he hosted a presidential election fundraiser. However, several lawmakers, including Senators Al Franken, Patrick Leahy, and Martin Heinrich, refused his support after he was accused of sexual harassment and gave his campaign donations to organizations that support women.