First off, let’s get clear on one thing: I feel like I need a shower, or something, after reading Ken Auletta’s book about Harvey Weinstein. Interestingly titled Hollywood Ending, I received a copy of it from Penguin Group/Penguin Press and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. Mr. Auletta wrote an article for New Yorker Magazine about twenty years ago, back when Harvey was pretty much at the top of his power. Back then, the big revelations were about hw angry and volatile, occasionally violent, Harvey was to many people, including voth his employees and people with whom he was collaborating on projects. Back then, when asked about the rumors/stories about him, Harvey denied everything. Since no one was willing to speak on the record about him, it wasn’t until much  later when Mr. Auletta shared his notes with Ronan Farrow, that Farrow’s account (along with work by Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor) broke the story wide open. Today, Harvey is in jail (finally)) 

For anyone who might think this is all rumor and innuendo, the last TWENTY percent is notes and documentation. TBH I was relieved, because after reading that far, I was sick of the whole sordid story. And it isn’t like these revelations really changed things. Auletta himself concludes that “Perhaps “believe women” faces a steep uphill climb.”

Some people think Harvey truly believed that he never raped or sexually abused the 100 or so women who spoke out to say he did just that. Some people think that he was “…a sociopath, unable to comprehend the suffering of others, or to distinguish right from wrong.” For those who think it’s all just gossip, evidence for this story being true is reinforced by one “… of Harvery’s closest childhood friends, Alan Brewer, believes Harvey’s “assaulting of women has less to do with sex than with control, dominance.” And for anyone who might think the activities between him and women were not solely his doing, her  is how one of his attorneys describes him: “ “Harvey is a sociopath. He is not someone who thinks he did anything wrong and is burdened by a heavy conscience. He believes that if a woman wants something from him, even if he pins her down and rapes her, he thinks it is a consensual act.” He is making a trade: what he wants in return for what she wants.””

So. He is in jail. Some of us are relieved. Some think “It’s about f&%$ing time. And Ken Auletta is a good storyteller and writer. Four stars.