If you’re among the ever-dwindling number of Oscars viewers this year, here’s some food for thought from Yashar Ali on just how far Hollywood has come in the #MeToo era:
1. Lots of controversy around the #Oscars this year but I'm surprised no one has brought up that someone many people see as part of Harvey Weinstein's complicity machine is being called out. The co-producer of the Oscars this year, Donna Gigliotti
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
2. As many of you know, I have written a bunch of stories about Weinstein over the past 16 months. I've gotten to know over two dozen Weinstein survivors through my reporting. When I told 8 of them that Gigliotti was producing the #Oscars they were horrified and upset
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
3. Background: Donna Gigliotti was an executive at Miramax for many years before she left and produced Shakespeare in Love with Weinstein and that year they won the Oscar for Best Picture but that's not why she's part of the Weinstein complicity machine. pic.twitter.com/2q9yzwE5Ly
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
4. After Weinstein's history of predation was revealed in several investigations, there were a lot of questions about who knew what and when. People who didn't know anything were unfairly blamed but Donna Gigliotti knew about Harvey's predation and knew a lot.
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
5. That's why Weinstein survivors were horrified to learn that she is producing the Oscars this year. In 1998, Gigliotti was told about Weinstein's behavior explicitly by Zelda Perkins. This is from an investigation by @jodikantor @susandominus @mega2e https://t.co/NQK3mkzoZw pic.twitter.com/Tdr2QSPDN3
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
6. Remember, Donna Gigliotti wasn't an assistant or a lowly executive, she was about to win an Oscar for best picture but as Zelda Perkins explains it, she couldn't be bothered after recommending a lawyer and she certainly wasn't going to call out Weinstein's predation.
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
7. Donna Gigliotti acknowledged to the Times that Zelda Perkins told her about Weinstein's predation. She then says she didn't speak to Weinstein for years after the #Oscars
Yet, she went back to work with him as President of his company in 2010? https://t.co/NQK3mkzoZw pic.twitter.com/IAUQljdPWJ
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
8. Here's why I'm bringing this up, there still hasn't been a full accounting of what Weinstein did and there hasn't been any real justice for the women who had to deal with this monster for so many years. If you think the entertainment business has changed, you're wrong
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
9. All the Weinstein stuff has been swept under the red carpet and people have moved on. Except all the women who had their careers and lives destroyed by Harvey continue to suffer.
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
10. All of the women I spoke to have not seen their careers recover after the monster who destroyed their lives was finally exposed. They wondered, what they have to do to be put in a position of power like Gigliotti as they look at mounting bills and dried up job offers?
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
11. The Donna Gigliotti's of the world knew for decades what Weinstein was about and did nothing. What are the consequences for that kind of behavior? If you're a Weinstein survivor you look at this situation and say: the consequences are you get to produce the #Oscars
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
12. I'm posting this now because I just found out that she was co-producing the #Oscars a couple days ago and I'm frustrated I didn't check sooner.
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
13. You want to talk about access journalism in Washington?!? Also talk about it in Hollywood. I see lots of folks in entertainment attacking White House reporters, yet they are silent on their own industry where all of this abuse continues and few have been held accountable
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 25, 2019
And they have the gall to think they’re in any position to lecture the rest of us on morality.
Hollywood hasn't learned a damn thing. https://t.co/PDi4ZXtxy5
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) February 25, 2019
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