OPINION: There is no need to feel sorry for Harvey Weinstein as he watches his marriage, his life, and his legacy crumble to dust in front of his eyes.
Here's a man who has made his own bed, smoothed the duvet and fluffed the pillows, and will now have to lie there and suffer, as the multitude of women he assaulted have suffered.
Unlike Bill Cosby, Weinstein did not need to drug his victims to get his sleazy way with them. As one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry worldwide, his method was simply to suggest (threaten) what their future could look like if they didn't agree to his advances - i.e, pretty bleak.
Tapes from a leaked sting run by the NYPD show how far he was willing to go to get his way even when a woman was plainly, vocally, and outwardly telling him no.
- The New Yorker releases audio of Harvey Weinstein 'confession'
- Harvey Weinstein's wife Georgina Chapman leaves him
On the occasions he didn't get his way, he reportedly cried like a giant baby, the powerful man exposed as the moral and emotional weakling he plainly was underneath. The leaked email he sent to Hollywood moguls pleading for help a couple of days back is so pathetic, it's funny in a grim kind of way.
New details overnight suggest he was helped by Miramax and Weinstein employees - his assistants, also mostly young women - who would schedule the meetings, and help deliver the hush ultimatums, to young actors who'd been pawed, humiliated and in some cases allegedly raped by Weinstein. Those employees are also victims of Weinstein's monstrosity, cowed into silence about the rumours that have plainly circulated Hollywood for decades.
There will be more from this story; it has "legs" as the saying goes. Much of it is already unpleasant to read; eventually we might start feeling a touch queasy as the details from abused and assaulted victims, many of them major Hollywood stars, start to pile up.
Don't be tempted to look away. Unlike almost every other case - Cosby, Harris, Assange, Polanski, Saville and so many more - in the sheer breadth of detail now emerging, the Weinstein case has the opportunity to teach us more about the misuse of power than any other.
I'm giving myself permission to grab the popcorn and enjoy his downfall. I hope those women get justice.
Alison Mau hosts RadioLIVE Drive, 3-6pm
