The cancel culture makes you want to forgive everyone for every dumb thing they ever did — just on principle.
But not Harvey Weinstein.
The Hollywood mogul faces a rape trial in January. He claims every sexual or romantic (if you can even use that word in relation to him) relationship he’s ever had, especially those out of the confines of his marriages, were consensual.
Maybe if there’s nothing voters can agree on these days, we can all agree that Harvey Weinstein is still a f**king a**hole. Even if he is now using a walker after a couple of back surgeries.
A “friend” of Harvey’s told CNN, “Is is health failing? Not in a life or death situation, but I think he’s breaking down.”
A far more embarrassing detail about Weinstein: “He Googles himself constantly,” CNN reports.
How about get back to us when it’s life and death?
Over the weekend, the NYT implied that Harvey is at the extreme end of the cancel culture spectrum, meaning that he’s not likely going to be forgiven anytime soon. (RELATED: Women Want To Put Mark Halperin ‘Under Quarantine’)
Hatred comes in shades of gray.
“There are varying degrees of cancellation. Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Harvey Weinstein and other men have been canceled for serial sexual assault or harassment; non-famous abusers and predatory media executives have been canceled as well,” wrote John McDermott. “The merely offensive (Roseanne Barr, Shane Gillis) are somewhere down the scale, adjacent to the provocative or clueless or callous (Dave Chappelle, Scarlett Johansson).”
To improve his already stinky optics, Harvey recently showed up to a comedy event in Manhattan and a bunch of women, including a female comedian, hammered him. His handlers — no, his babysitters — tried to fight back.
Thankfully they failed.
The comedian, Kelly Bachman, gained a boatload of Twitter followers and wrote a first-person essay for the NYT. Then she went on Samantha Bee‘s Full Frontal.
Saturday Night Live mercilessly mocked Harvey.
During the most recent “Weekend Update,” Michael Che cracked, “A 2,000 pound shark has recently been spotted swimming along the East Coast. Not to be confused with the 2,000 pound shark recently spotted at a comedy show.”
Che previously likened the allegations surrounding Weinstein to a “full season of Law & Order.”
Let’s hope author and former politician Hillary Clinton would agree that after some 80 women accused him of varying degrees of repulsiveness, including rape, Harvey has reached Bill Cosby-level bad.
Clinton took her sweet time to speak out on the matter. She waited until after The New York and NYT stories ran to say anything about one of her top donors. She was “shocked and appalled.” She ultimately said she’d donate the money he gave her to charity.
But don’t bet on her loyalties straying too far. In Ronan Farrow‘s book, Catch and Kill, Harvey tried to use Hillary to get his story killed. Turns out he didn’t need her — NBC News gladly took care of it. (RELATED: Hillary Clinton Caught Dining With Harvey Weinstein Weeks After Election Loss)
The BBC recently released an interview with Roweena Chiu, a Hollywood producer who says she wore two pairs of tights to buy her time to get away from Weinstein.
“My two pairs of tights bought time.”
Former Harvey Weinstein assistants Rowena Chiu and Zelda Perkins speak together for the first time about allegations against the movie mogul.
Weinstein’s lawyer has denied Chiu’s allegations. https://t.co/4Om4Y2Kpij#Newsnight | @maitlis pic.twitter.com/IX5yUgZOUV
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 5, 2019
Even CNN can’t quite agree that Harvey is a disgusting hot mess. In a story that ran Monday night, the network’s website ran a story with this headline: “Harvey Weinstein weakened but unwavering two years later.”
CNN’s President Trump-hating Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter didn’t bat an eye at the headline.
New must-read by @Chloe_Melas about an unrepentant Harvey Weinstein: “He’s combative, maintains he is innocent of any crime and is planning for a career comeback post-trial…”https://t.co/lRpg6VeUkr
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 4, 2019
HuffPost and New York‘s Yashar Ali took the reporter’s side.
“Can everyone who is posting screenshots of the bad headline on this excellent @Chloe_Melas story at least include a link so people can read what she worked hard on reporting out?” he asked.
By Tuesday, that headline had changed: “Harvey Weinstein combative and in denial ahead of rape trial, inner circle says.”
Now that’s more like it.
But why the headline making him look like a big, strong, linebacker of a man in the first place?