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Following the New York Times’ report of decades’ worth of sexual harassment allegations and cover-ups, successful movie producer Harvey Weinstein has been fired from the company he co-founded. And not only has Weinstein lost control of The Weinstein Company, the film studio he co-founded in 2005, he’s also started to lose the respect of many Hollywood A-listers–including one that previously called him a god.
After eight women stepped forward to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment, the producer’s frequent collaborator Meryl Streep released a statement condemning his actions as “inexcusable” and calling the women that have spoken out against him “heroes.” Streep worked on a number of films for Weinstein, including 2013’s August: Osage County and 2011’s The Iron Lady–the film that won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress. It was actually while accepting that award that Streep jokingly called Weinstein “God.”
Considering that she once referred to Weinstein as “God,” not that big of an exaggeration considering how much power the producer wielded in Hollywood up until recently, people have been wondering how Streep would address these accusations. Streep made her position clear in a statement released by her publicist Leslee Dart to The Huffington Post:
The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported. The intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are our heroes.
One thing can be clarified. Not everybody knew. Harvey supported the work fiercely, was exasperating but respectful with me in our working relationship, and with many others with whom he worked professionally. I didn’t know about these other offenses: I did not know about his financial settlements with actresses and colleagues; I did not know about his having meetings in his hotel room, his bathroom, or other inappropriate, coercive acts. And If everybody knew, I don’t believe that all the investigative reporters in the entertainment and the hard news media would have neglected for decades to write about it.
The behavior is inexcusable, but the abuse of power familiar. Each brave voice that is raised, heard and credited by our watchdog media will ultimately change the game.
