After the Harvey Weinstein trial began on Monday, Jan. 6 in New York, The Cut reached out to his publicist Juda Engelmayer for comment, and guess what? They sent a 57-page (Weinstein is also guilty of 57 violations) PowerPoint presentation entitled “The Proper Narrative for Addressing the Harvey Weinstein Case.” What the f*ck, right? The audacity of this disgusting man.
The presentation includes detailed research about Weinstein’s accusers, which covers text messages and photographs from them. Photos of some actresses “smiling, flirting” with Weinstein in public are also included, complete with Getty Images watermark. The actresses who continued to work with the producer are also in the photos. “We hope you will consider the fact that a large number of women with whom HW worked on a regular basis reported nothing close to a sexual assault,” as stated in the presentation. Meryl Streep was specifically mentioned.
But here’s where it gets tricky: The presentation insists that there is “no objective support” for any of the victims’ claims because there were “no witnesses” and “no physical injuries—even scratches.” Page 27 of the report is even entitled “5 Illustrations Why HW’s Accusers are not credible,” which includes a claim that a woman opening her door to Weinstein in her nightgown suggests that the sexual activity is consensual, according to his team.
There we go again—putting the blame on women’s clothes. So you’re telling me that whenever I’m in my nightgown, I’m asking for sex? Harvey and his team clearly don’t understand the definition of consent. This further perpetuates the idea that women are “asking for it.”
A woman’s choice of clothing has nothing to do with consent. “The fact that you’re aroused by someone wearing a particular type of clothing doesn’t give you a right to that person or to have sex with them,” writes The Independent. Weinstein putting the blame on women is old news and making this illustration just proves how he continues to silence women.
Weinstein’s team also continued to deny the charges in another illustration of the presentation. An anonymous woman who’s part of the New York criminal case allegedly kept in warm contact with Weinstein and asked him for favors. As stated in the presentation, it “show(s) a long term, loving, consensual relationship.”
His publicity team also wrote the section “Who Harvey Weinstein is” in the report, which shows his “good” deeds, benefit concerts, and charity donations. It also mentions the woke movies he had produced about sexual assault (ironically) and the LGBT community. On page 40, Weinstein is described as having a “huge heart.”
Weinstein is definitely going out of his way to establish himself as a good man, attacking these women’s credibility to prove his innocence. His team also swears he is a decent person incapable of such crimes. However, given the report’s aggressive insistence that Weinstein is a “nice” man would make sense for some people to doubt the victims’ claims. In fact, research shows that “human beings think more highly of good-looking individuals as well as those with admirable qualities like success and wealth.”
I think it’s funny that Weinstein relentlessly bragged about his status as the most important producer in Hollywood, but now he sways the public to view him as a weak man that deserves sympathy. Which, to be honest, is a not-so-convincing tactic. It’s absurd that the Hollywood producer still believes he’s going to walk out a free man—it’s the script he’s demanding but will (hopefully) never get.
Photo courtesy of @qsteph’s Instagram Account
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