"The Weinstein Company is Dead"

Welcome to a brand new week at SteynOnline. I spent part of my weekend with one of my favorite shows, "Justice with Judge Jeanine", on which both the Judge and I were preoccupied with the question of whether Harvey Weinstein, under investigation for rape and sexual assault by both the NYPD and Scotland Yard, will finally be getting justice. I was particularly disturbed by the New York cops making the Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez wear a wire - putting her at risk of certain physical assault had Weinstein discovered it - and then the sleazy DA, Cyrus Vance, mysteriously deciding to drop the case. From Breitbart News:

"This woman, this Italian woman was twice traumatized. The first time was when Weinstein attacked her and touched her breast, as she said. So she goes to the police, and they wire her, so she has to go back and meet with him and do it all again. And then some dirty stinking rotten corrupt prosecutor, having put her through that, won't actually take the case any further.

I'd like to emphasize that point, because a similar thing happened to a friend of mine. You go to the cops because a powerful man assaulted you. So they wire you and send you back to be exposed to your attacker's pathologies all over again. And then the big powerful guy manages to make his problem go away, through a few no doubt entirely coincidental campaign-finance donations to the DA. It's corruption all the way down:

And this is what the real issue here is. Until a week ago, this guy was still powerful enough to get NBC to drop jokes about what he'd done on 'Saturday Night Live.'"

Now the good news:

"This guy's company is dead, you know, Judge," he continued. "There's never going to be a film that says 'The Weinstein Company presents' ever again - because that company is dirty. Going and giving your money, giving eight bucks to go and watch a Weinstein movie is like buying blood diamonds from the Congo or Liberia. That big glamorous Hollywood night out is paid for with physical assaults on young women all over the planet going back to 1982."

Correction: 1980. Paula Wachowiak now claims Weinstein pulled his standard hotel-room routine on her during his first movie The Burning, released in 1981. Absent someone from his middle-school play coming forward that seems likely to be the earliest recorded incident, which means his modus operandi was unvarying for his entire career.

Hollywood seems to be reaching the same conclusion as I did with Judge Jeanine. The Weinsteins have abandoned the plan to change the company's name to The Non-Weinstein Company or some such, and seem to think they have a choice between selling the business outright or shutting it down. I would bet on the latter. If they simply sell the company to another company, there will still be "a Weinstein catalogue", in the sense that all the serial rapist's films will be grouped together. If they just shut down, the catalogue can be broken up, and individual films can be sold hither and yon, until nobody remembers that once upon a time they were all Weinstein films.

At any rate, here's what Judge Jeanine and I had to say. Click below to watch:

It was a busy weekend for me. Apart from joining Judge Jeanine, I dusted off one of Harvey Weinstein's biggest hits, starring two of his staunchest supporters, and I also celebrated the centenary of a one-hit songwriter whose one hit is very dear to my heart. And I also launched the latest in our series of audio adventures, Tales for Our Time - a classic tale of derring-do amid the turrets and taverns of Ruritania: The Prisoner of Zenda. You can find Episode One (with my intro) here, with Episode Two here and Three here. If you were busy over the last 48 hours or so, I hope you'll check out one or two of these weekend amusements, because they're just as good on Monday morning.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, by the way, we'll have another video edition of Mark's Mailbox, in which I answer questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet. Mark's Mailbox, Tales for Our Time and much of our other content are made possible through the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club, for which we are profoundly grateful. One additional advantage that membership confers is the right to enjoy free-ish range in our comments section. So, if you disagree with anything Jeanine or I said above, please have at it below. And do join us tonight for Part Four of The Prisoner of Zenda.

For more information on The Mark Steyn Club, see here - and don't forget our new Gift Membership.