It would appear that brothers of a fucked up feather flock together, amirite? Almost two weeks after decades of sexual assault and sexual harassment accusations were lobbed at Harvey Weinstein, his brother Bob had his own harassment allegation to deal with. Not long after, Ronan Farrow dropped his heavyweight piece on the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and followed it with information about Weinstein employing spies to get dirt on those speaking ill of him. Today, Farrow drops his third piece in this saga, which specifically unpacks how Harvey's brother Bob paid women from his personal account in lieu of the women coming forward.
"Weinstein also hid the payments underwriting some of these settlements," Farrow writes. "In one case, in the nineteen-nineties, Bob Weinstein, who co-founded the film studio Miramax with his brother, paid two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, roughly six hundred thousand dollars today, to be split between two female employees in England who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault. The funds came from Bob Weinstein’s personal bank account—a move that helped conceal the payment from executives at Miramax and its parent company, Disney, as well as from Harvey Weinstein’s spouse."
Bob Weinstein didn't deny the payments, either, although it sounds like he thought he was being a "good brother" by protecting Harvey from what he considered were "affairs."
"Regarding that payment, I only know what Harvey told me, and basically what he said was he was fooling around with two women and they were asking for money," Bob Weinstein told Farrow. "And he didn’t want his wife to find out, so he asked me if I could write a check, and so I did, but there was nothing to indicate any kind of sexual harassment."
Likely story, but with the Weinstein Company being aware of the allegations, it's hard to believe Harvey's brother knew nothing of this situation. Either way, it gets way deeper than their brotherly fuckery; check out the full story over at the New Yorker.
