On April 25, the day that Harvey Weinstein’s New York sexual assault conviction was overturned, those who had been most vocal in the months following the former mogul’s implosion in 2017 were conspicuously silent. The X account of Time’s Up, the organization that raised $26 million in the wake of the Weinstein accusations, appeared to be a relic frozen in time. Its last post, from January 2022, was a retweet of a Movement for Black Lives missive about Martin Luther King Jr. Likewise, actresses who had embraced Time’s Up’s mission offered no commentary. Jessica Chastain was tweeting about her skin care routine, while Reese Witherspoon was gushing about a Tennessee Titans draft pick. It was as though Hollywood had already moved on from the industrywide reckoning that Weinstein’s downfall sparked.
By contrast, those with a personal stake in Weinstein’s fate — such as attorney Gloria Allred, who represented key prosecution witness Mimi Haley — were devastated. Allred called the decision “a significant step backwards for the #MeToo movement,” while Haley said during an April 26 press conference only that she would “consider” testifying at a new trial, citing the toll of the trial in 2020.
Between Weinstein and Bill Cosby, whose assault conviction was overturned in 2021, the criminal courts seem to be signaling that the #MeToo movement went too far. Couple that with the fact that the once mighty and ubiquitous Time’s Up, which was launched in the direct aftermath of twin Weinstein exposés in The New York Times and The New Yorker, faced its own ignominy when it surfaced that the group’s leadership had assisted high-profile men accused of sexual misdeeds, including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The organization, which counted Chastain and Witherspoon among its advisory board members, disbanded last year, transferring its remaining money to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. That group, whose messaging was once so entwined with the Weinstein narrative, also seems uninterested in the Oscar-winning producer’s stroke of good fortune. Though its pinned tweet from 2020 invokes Weinstein, the group — if it still exists — neglected to weigh in on the overturned conviction, nor did its founders Roberta Kaplan and Tina Tchen. It also has been absent from any notable litigation involving industry accusers. (The National Women’s Law Center, which houses TULDF, did release a statement in support of the accusers.)
The public, too, may have turned its attention. Universal’s “She Said,” which was based on Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s efforts to publish their story, was dead on arrival when it bowed in 2022, earning $14 million worldwide off a $32 million budget. And in recent weeks, as new details emerged about domestic violence allegations leveled by Angelina Jolie against ex-husband and “She Said” executive producer Brad Pitt, there has been barely a news ripple — a prospect that would have been unheard of six years ago.
All that has many wondering if Hollywood’s #MeToo moment over?
Nicole Page, who represented former Weinstein Co. whistleblower Lauren O’Connor, says her reaction to the ruling was “a mixture of shock and disgust.” She fears it will lay the groundwork for Weinstein’s efforts to overturn his rape conviction in California — and for others looking to challenge their sexual assault convictions.
“It’s probably going to be the new precedent for men like Weinstein and Cosby who have a large amount of money and a huge legal team,” Page says. “This just feels like another barrier. It’s like, ‘Oh, my God, how hard do we have to fight? How much do people have to give up?’”
Some Weinstein accusers lament that the #MeToo movement was hijacked by opportunists who showed little concern for their struggles. Louisette Geiss, who testified in the California case, asked TULDF to cover therapy sessions to emotionally prepare for the trial.
“They said, ‘Oh no, we don’t have anything for that. I’m like, ‘What the hell are you guys talking about? You have $26 million, and you guys can’t help me with $2,500?’” Geiss recalls. “Here I am out money because I’m trying to stop a guy who abused all of us. It just keeps going back to the constant abuse of the victims. And honestly, I’m just sick of it.”
Geiss’ frustration is echoed by Kaja Sokola, the only accuser to claim Weinstein sexually assaulted her when she was a minor. “As a survivor, it was disheartening to see that some leveraged the #MeToo movement for personal gain, rather than genuinely support it,” says the Polish model-turned-psychologist. “I’m angry and heartbroken that Weinstein continues to be protected by a broken justice system that retraumatizes victims and blames them for their abuse.”
Still, Early Sullivan’s Eric Anderson, who has worked both sides of the table as a former prosecutor on domestic violence cases and a current criminal defense attorney, believes that Weinstein’s overturned verdict may stand as a powerful symbol, but it doesn’t mean he will ultimately be absolved.
“Although a lot of people are panicking and saying that this proves that victims can’t be heard, that’s poppycock because the prosecution is still in a very strong position when it comes to a retrial of Harvey Weinstein. [Haley] is still as credible as ever.”
But Jennifer Bonjean, an attorney who has defended both Cosby and Weinstein, says appellate courts are correcting a media-fueled overreaction and that prosecutors improperly sought to “right the wrongs of misogyny for 100 years on the backs of these high-profile men.”
“There’s no Harvey Weinstein exception to the rule that he should be tried on the charges, and on the evidence of the charges, but not have a trial of his character,” Bonjean adds. “None of us could hold up to that. I hope these trial judges that are trying these #MeToo cases learn from these massive errors. It’s a huge expenditure of time and resources and they should be doing it right the first time.”
Geiss, for one, is irate that so-called bad-actor witnesses were introduced in the New York case in an effort to establish a pattern of behavior, leaving a conviction vulnerable to appeal. (New York typically does not allow such witnesses, but California, on the other hand, does.)
“As somebody who has really been a part of the judicial system through this process with Harvey, I find it egregious that the judge and the prosecutors and everyone involved in that case didn’t know ahead of time that they weren’t following their own systems and process and codes. I mean, how do you drag these women through this?” asks Geiss, who was the lead plaintiff in a Weinstein class action lawsuit. “I’ve listened to a lot of lawyers dissect what transpired. and they understand why it got appealed. And that alone should tell you something. How does this happen at this level with this high profile of a defendant?”
For his part, Weinstein was surprised but elated by the ruling, which his team wasn’t expecting until May 16. “We had kind of lost faith that there were judges out there who were willing to face public scrutiny for being the ones to let Harvey go,” Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer tells Variety. Weinstein is in regular contact with his two children from his marriage to Georgina Chapman. (His three children from his marriage to Eve Chilton do not speak to him.) Over a whirlwind six days, he has moved from his maximum security prison in Rome, N.Y., to Rikers Island to Bellevue Hospital, where he is being treated for multiple healthcare needs related to his heart stent, high blood pressure, diabetes and a spinal issue.
While Weinstein’s California conviction still stands, his legal team will use the New York ruling to seek a new trial in Los Angeles given that jurors there had been instructed to consider his New York conviction while weighing his guilt or innocence. In the meantime, his attorney Arthur Aidala is upbeat. He notes that “it was women who spearheaded the reversal” of Weinstein’s New York conviction, beginning with his colleague Diana Fabi Samson, who made the case that the appeal be heard by New York’s highest court. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, known for being a champion of women’s rights, granted that. Of the four judges who voted to overturn the conviction, three were women, including Jenny Rivera, also known as a fierce proponent of women’s rights. “The law was on our side,” says Fabi Samson. “And if you read the court’s majority decision, that’s clear. So I wasn’t shocked. I was just extremely relieved and happy that the court came to the right decision.”
(Gene Maddaus contributed to this report.)
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