It’s amazing how vividly certain references are being thrown into context in the wake of Harvey Weinstein‘s outing as an alleged serial sexual harasser.
While many reports on Weinstein’s alleged decades of abuse have mentioned that the big-shot producer’s antics were an open secret in Hollywood, it’s not until you actually go back over the many pop culture moments referring to the Miramax exec that you really start to understand how open of a secret it was.
There were the references in 30 Rock and Entourage, and the line from Seth MacFarland at the 2013 Oscars. Now, check out this conversation between Gwyneth Paltrow and David Letterman, on Letterman’s Late Show back in 1998.
Paltrow talks for a bit about how she’s missing Thanksgiving day to be on Letterman’s show, and he responds:
“Are you here of your own free will? Did someone coerce you to be here?”
Paltrow answers:
“Do you count Harvey Weinstein as a coercer?”
Their conversation on Weistein and his notorious pushiness continues for a couple minutes, and Paltrow looks visibly uncomfortable.
And yet, it’s taken nearly two decades since that conversation on a very popular late night talk show for the open secret to become openly acknowledged. Paltrow is among the many women in the film industry who’ve come forward with allegations that Weinstein mistreated them.
The Weinstein scandal is shaking a lot of trees in Hollywood right now; it remains to be seen whether significant cultural change is brought about through the sharing of so many experiences of harassment, intimidation, coercion and abuse. Here’s hoping.
