This afternoon I opened Instagram on my telephone. What I noticed made my pores and skin crawl.
A black-and-white picture of convicted intercourse offender Harvey Weinstein gazing me, with the headline in all caps: “The Rikers Interview.”
I used to be shocked. I could not imagine that any publication, not to mention one as extremely thought to be The Hollywood Reporter, would characteristic a person so disgraced, so deplorable, and so rightly shunned from the business by which he made his title.
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I do know there’s lots of irony in writing about an interview that I do not suppose ought to have occurred.
However in my work as an leisure journalist, it wasn’t one thing I believed I might ignore. I clicked the hyperlink to seek out the complete interview on THR’s web site, and as I scrolled down and browse with furrowed brows, I felt my blood shortly approaching a boiling level.
I do not know what I anticipated from this interview. I should not have been shocked that Weinstein really cried “Woe is me,” complaining that his legacy was being tarnished and that lots of his former A-list Hollywood pals have been reducing off contact with him.
However within the 12 months 2026, only a few days after Worldwide Girls’s Day, I struggled to maintain my composure at my desk as I learn the feedback he made out of jail simply two months in the past.
This interview passed off in January, when THR editor-in-chief Maer Roshan traveled to New York’s Rikers Island, the place Weinstein is imprisoned.
Various issues turn into abundantly clear on this interview. First, Weinstein appeared to suppose issues have been going very well. “You want to get this out shortly,” Weinstein instructed interviewer Maer Roshan as he was wheeled out of the room.
This isn’t right
On November 25, 2024, Metro launched This Is Not Proper, a marketing campaign to sort out the brutal epidemic of violence towards girls.
With the assistance of our companions at Girls’s Help, This Is Not Proper goals to shine a light-weight on the enormity of this nationwide emergency.
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It offers Prince Andrew a sense after his dialog with Emily Maitlis, when he apparently felt like every part had gone easily.
And second, the 73-year-old appears to have a tenuous relationship with accountability. He goes to nice lengths to emphasise that he’s deeply sorry for dishonest on his wives (each) and apologizes to the ladies who filed expenses towards him “basically” by saying, “I should not have been with them within the first place.” I deceived them.’
However he additionally denies that he’s a rapist or that he has sexually assaulted a lady. As a substitute, he tries to say that he was some sort of lothario who flirted slightly an excessive amount of, regardless of greater than 100 girls making accusations towards him.
“Have I handed a few of these girls in useless? Have I overplayed my hand? Sure. Was I pushy or overly seductive? Sure to all that. Look, I ought to by no means have dated the folks I dated. I used to be married to a beautiful lady who had no concept what I used to be doing. I have been mendacity this entire time. I used my employees inappropriately to cover these items. However have I ever sexually assaulted a lady? No. I by no means did that,” he mentioned.
In 2023, Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in jail for rape and sexual assault. He continues to disclaim the allegations.
He was beforehand convicted in 2020 on expenses of legal sexual act within the first diploma and rape within the third diploma, carrying a 23-year sentence, however that conviction was overturned 4 years later.
The 2025 retrial led to a blended verdict. He was discovered responsible of a first-degree legal sexual act towards one lady, and acquitted of sexual assault expenses involving one other lady. The third cost resulted in a mistrial.
A lot has been mentioned about how Weinstein managed to evade accusations and silence his accusers, and the individuals who enabled him to take action. At one level, Roshan requested him, “You mentioned your employees helped you cowl. A few of them introduced younger girls to your room, absolutely understanding what awaited them there. Do not they deserve some accountability for that?’
What to do when you’ve got been raped
In case you have lately or prior to now been a sufferer of rape and are in search of assist, assist is on the market.
In case you have lately been raped and are nonetheless at risk, name 999 and ask for the police. In any other case, step one is to go someplace the place you might be secure. For those who want to report your rape to the police, name 999 or the police non-emergency line on 101. Typically there will likely be an Unbiased Sexual Assault Advocate (ISVA) available that will help you make a report and even after you will have made a press release, you may nonetheless resolve to withdraw from the legal proceedings at any time. For those who plan to go to the police, if attainable, don’t wash your garments and don’t bathe, bathe or brush your enamel. For those who do change, hold the garments you have been carrying in a plastic bag. These steps will assist you to protect any DNA proof the attacker left in your physique or clothes. For those who do not wish to contact the police, Rape Disaster encourages you to speak to somebody you belief about what occurred; or you may name one of many many rape and sexual assault hotlines within the UK. Anybody aged 16 and over can contact Rape Disaster’ 24/7 assist line by calling 0808 500 2222 or beginning a web-based chat. In case you have been injured, it’s best to go to the closest emergency room for medical remedy. If you’re unhurt, you may go to the closest Sexual Assault Referral Middle (SARC). The NHS has info on the place to seek out the closest heart right here. In case your rape is historic, you may nonetheless entry assist, together with from the police. There isn’t any time restrict for submitting a report and your account can nonetheless be used as proof.
Learn extra right here.
He started his reply with, “No. There is just one one who is responsible. That is me… It is all my accountability.’ However as a substitute of leaving it at that, he mentioned, “But when somebody invitations you to their lodge room in the midst of the night time, you already know what’s on the agenda.”
No. A lady has the appropriate to say no to a person’s advances at any time. As we have all heard because the MeToo motion made waves around the globe, there have been younger girls within the business who felt like they’d no alternative however to simply accept invites to lodge rooms for conferences, out of worry that they’d hinder their probabilities of advancing of their careers.
This doesn’t imply that they have been conscious or accepted that they’d be subjected to sexual advances. There’s by no means an excuse.
In keeping with Weinstein, actresses comparable to Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie are a part of a ‘membership’ that wished to destroy him. No, Weinstein. You’ve gotten destroyed your self.
A lot progress has been made because the MeToo motion started, however there’s nonetheless a lot extra to realize. Individuals who criticize the truth that this interview exists have each proper to take action.
One factor I do take away from it, except for the wrath of poker, is that Weinstein has discovered nothing in any respect from his fall from grace practically a decade after the allegations first appeared in The New York Instances and The New Yorker.
Despite the fact that I did not know what to anticipate from this interview once I began studying it, on reflection I ought to have identified to not anticipate something higher.
Not from this unrepentant monster.
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