The New York Times reports that it has seen emails that show feminist attorney Lisa Bloom attempting to collude with The Weinstein Company (TWC) to discredit some or all of the women accusing TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein (who was fired over the weekend) of everything from sexual harassment to sexual misconduct.
Just as damning, the Times also reports that two TWC board members, including Harvey’s brother Bob, subsequently questioned Bloom’s competence, self-interest, and ability to be impartial. If these reports are true, they shed an entirely different light on Bloom’s weekend decision to resign.
The fallout between Bloom and the two board members apparently began on Thursday after Bloom suggested a tactic as old (and ham-handed) as former President Bill Clinton’s bimbo eruptions — to release photos of the accusers posing and smiling with Weinstein after his alleged sexual misconduct took place:
As the board convened an emergency phone meeting on Thursday evening to address the allegations, published in an investigation by The Times, Ms. Bloom sent an email to board members attacking the article. She outlined a plan that involved “more and different reporting,” including “photos of several of the accusers in very friendly poses with Harvey after his alleged misconduct.”
According to the Times, board member Lance Maerov blasted Bloom over the idea, “[P]ublishing pictures of victims in friendly poses with Harvey will backfire as it suggests they are exculpatory or negate any harm done to them through alleged actions.”
He added that Bloom was “fanning the flames and compounding the problem” and should “step away from the company.”
Due to a year-old miniseries deal she has with Harvey, Maerov openly questioned Bloom’s credibility and ability to be impartial, “You have a commercial relationship with TWC via a TV deal so how can you possibly provide impartial advice to Harvey or address this group with any credibility?”
The Times says that on Friday, as the fallout mounted, Bob Weinstein ripped into Bloom over her “poor counsel.”
“It is my opinion, that u are giving your client poor counsel,” he scolded. “Perhaps, Harvey as he stated in the NY Times, to the world, should get professional help for a problem that really exists.”
Bloom announced her resignation the following day, Saturday.
And so, what might have been seen as a principled resignation on the feminist attorney’s part (as more accusers with even more disgusting allegations came out against the embattled producer) is now the stuff of career implosions for Bloom. She not only looks like a leftwing feminist eager to sell out the cause and Weinstein’s alleged victims, she looks breathtakingly incompetent, like someone who is either in way over her head or so blinded by self interest (the miniseries deal) she only managed to make things worse.
Bloom has denied she ever sought to discredit Weinstein’s accusers, but after HuffPo asked her to back up that denial with proof she “declined to share the full copy of her emails with the board.”
While this does not excuse Bloom’s apparent sins, the emails written by Bob and Maerov look like to me as though they were written for public consumption. Which makes sense when you keep in mind that the TWC board has some explaining of its own to do.
While the company looks pro-active with the decision to fire Weinstein, how is anyone supposed to believe that no one on the board was aware of what was going on? Weinstein’s behavior was no secret in Hollywood, and then there are those alleged sexual harassment settlements, eight of them. Did the board not know about those?
Did Harvey’s brother Bob not know?
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