Harvey Weinstein

At 72 years old, Harvey Weinstein has this physical status:

Harvey Weinstein (born March 19, 1952) is an American film director.

Miramax, he and his brother Bob Weinstein co-founded many hit independent films, including Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1991), The Crying Game (1994), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998).

Weinstein received seven Tony Awards for a variety of plays and musicals, including The Producers, Billy Elliot the Musical, and Osage County.

After leaving Miramax, Weinstein, and his brother Bob, Robert founded The Weinstein Company, a mini-major film studio.

He served as a co-chairman alongside Bob from 2005 to 2017. Following sexual harassment charges against Weinstein, he was barred from his employment and booted from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in October 2017.

Over eighty percent of women had filed lawsuits against Weinstein by October 31, the most recent of which had been denied.

The #MeToo movement and several other forms of sexual harassment charges against and dismissals of influential men around the world have surfaced, coined the phrase "Weinstein effect."

Weinstein was arrested in New York on May 25, 2018 and released on bail after being charged with rape and other crimes.

Early life

Weinstein was born on March 19, 1952, in the Flushing section of Queens, New York City, to diamond cutter Max Weinstein (1924–1976) and his wife, Miriam (née Postel; 1926–2016). His family is Jewish, and his maternal grandparents immigrated from Poland. In New York City, he and his younger brother, Bob, were working together in a housing co-op named Electchester. Weinstein graduated from John Bowne High School and attended the State University of New York at Buffalo. As Harvey & Corky Productions in Buffalo throughout most of the 1970s, Weinstein, his brother Bob, and Corky Burger produced rock concerts as Harvey & Corky Productions in Buffalo. Frank Sinatra, The Who, Jackson Browne, and the Rolling Stones were among the top acts to visit Buffalo by Harvey & Corky Productions. Jonathan A. Dandes, Weinstein's longtime colleague, followed him to Buffalo and has described Weinstein as "aggressive" and "consumed" in company matters.

Personal life

Weinstein has been married twice. In 1987, he married Eve Chilton, and the couple divorced in 2004. They had three children: Remy (previously Lily; born 1995), Emma (born 1998), and Ruth (born 2002). Georgina Chapman, an English fashion designer and actress, married him in 2007. They have a daughter and a son. Following the sexual harassment charges, Chapman announced on October 10, 2017 that she was leaving Weinstein. They reached an agreement in January 2018 and divorce was announced in July 2021.

Weinstein was involved in issues such as gun control, hunger, HIV, juvenile diabetes, and multiple sclerosis research. He served on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City-based non-profit that focuses on poverty, until October 2017, and co-chaired one of its annual benefits. He was critical of the United States' lack of universal healthcare.

Weinstein has long been a long-server and contributor to the Democratic Party, as well as President Barack Obama's campaigns and presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. He was a fan of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and in 2012 he hosted an election fundraiser for Obama at his Westport, Connecticut home.

Weinstein was also involved in the fashion industry. He created Project Runway, the fashion reality show, bringing together designers Michael Kors, model Heidi Klum, and editor Nina Garcia. He was instrumental in Halston's revival, collaborating with Tamara Mellon, Sarah Jessica Parker, and stylist Rachel Zoe. He granted the opportunity to revive the Charles James brand. Celebrities were encouraged to wear Marchesa (his ex-wife's name) at least once if they were in a Weinstein film. Madonna's W.E., Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter, and Tom Ford's A Single Man were all involved in fashion-themed films, including Madonna's W.E., Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter, and Thomas Ford's A Single Man. More than a dozen Vogue covers featured actors from Weinstein's films.

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Career

Weinstein and his brother formed Miramax, an independent film distribution firm named after their parents Miriam and Max in the late 1970s, using funds from their concert promotion company. The company's first films, which included Paul McCartney's Rockshow, were mainly music-oriented concert films.

Miramax gained the rights to two British films of benefit shows shot for Amnesty International in the early 1980s. The Weinstein brothers converted the two films into a single film suitable for the American market after working closely with Martin Lewis, the original film's producer. In May 1982, The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was released, and Miramax's first film was Miramax's first success. The film earned substantial sums of money for Amnesty International, and Amnesty International was credited with helping to raise the film's profile in the United States. The Weinsteins gradually based on this success in the 1980s with arthouse films that attracted critical notice and modest commercial success.

Harvey Weinstein and Miramax gained notoriety in 1988 with the introduction of Errol Morris' film The Thin Blue Line, which chronicled Randall Dale Adams' struggle, and why he was sentenced to death in prison for the wrongfully guilty inmate. Adams' name was announced and national coverage for Miramax soon after the fact. Miramax's 1989 launch of Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape helped the company become America's most profitable independent studio.

Miramax also released two arthouse films, Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Forger, his Wife & Her Lover, and Pedro Almodóvar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! The MPAA rating board awarded an X-rating for these films, effectively ending nationwide availability for these films. Weinstein has filed a lawsuit against the MPAA over the rating system. His case was later dismissed, but the MPAA released the NC-17 rating two months later.

Miramax continued to expand its library of films and directors until 1993, when the Weinsteins were awarded $80 million for Miramax's ownership. The brothers signed the arrangement, which in turn cemented their Hollywood fame and also guaranteed that they would remain at the helm of their company. Miramax also distributed Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, its first blockbuster, and sold the famous independent film Clerks in the United States.

Miramax received the Best Picture Award in 1997 with the triumph of The English Patient. Pulp Fiction was nominated in 1995 but it was defeated by Forrest Gump. This was the start of a string of critical achievements for Good Will Hunting (1997) and Shakespeare in Love (1998), with both films winning numerous awards, including several Academy Awards.

The Weinstein brothers left Miramax on September 30, 2005, to form The Weinstein Company, with several other media executives, producers Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, and Colin Vaine, who had successfully operated the production department at Miramax for ten years. Michael Moore took court action against the Weinstein brothers in February 2011, charging that they owe him $2.7 million in income for his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), which he said were denied to him by "Hollywood accounting tricks." Moore dropped the case for an undisclosed settlement in February 2012.

An examination of Academy Award acceptance speeches from 1966 to 2016 found that Weinstein had been thanked or lauded in 34 speeches—as many times as God, but second only to Steven Spielberg (with 43 mentions).

Harvey Weinstein was fired from The Weinstein Company on October 8, 2017, after a long list of sexual harassment charges was revealed to the public on October 8. The Weinstein Company filed for bankruptcy after months of unsuccessful attempts to sell the company or its library, with Lantern Entertainment acquiring all funds in 2018. On July 16, 2018, the firm was decommissioned, and its website was updated shortly thereafter.

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