HOLLYWOOD ENDING

A sad tale of sex, lies, and power in Hollywood.

In 2002, Auletta published a profile of Harvey Weinstein in the New Yorker, portraying him as a “self-absorbed narcissist” who verbally and physically abused his employees. “Those who worked for Harvey,” the author discovered, “were daunted by his talent yet terrorized by his volcanic personality.” At the time, Auletta heard “whispers” that Weinstein sexually abused women but could not corroborate them. Fifteen years later, scores of women finally came forward, and Weinstein’s behavior made headlines in the New York Times, soon followed by an exposé in the New Yorker. In 2017, Weinstein was arrested on charges of criminal sexual assault and rape. Drawing on 12 hours of taped interviews with Weinstein for the New Yorker piece and several hundred interviews with employees and associates, including Weinstein’s brother Bob, Auletta expands his earlier profile, chronicling Weinstein’s volatile career as a movie mogul and recounting in dismal detail the “numbing sameness” of his abuse of women. “His game was not seduction,” writes Auletta, “but subjugation, and he sought out the vulnerable. His boastful, trophy mentality toward actresses has been noted by many, but he also prowled among his own staff.” His career began in Buffalo, where, in the 1970s, he became a concert promoter, honing his persona as “a money-obsessed entrepreneur and trickster in the making.” He partnered with Bob to create a distribution firm they called Miramax, combining their parents’ first names, and later a production firm, the Weinstein Company, which released many award-winning films including Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love. As the author shows, Bob was unable—and often unwilling—to rein in his “impulsive” brother as their business roiled in a cycle of near bankruptcy, success, and profligate overspending. Auletta’s deep familiarity with the film industry serves him well in depicting the making, marketing, and reception of the Weinsteins’ movies. Aiming to portray Weinstein as “more than a monster,” the author offers ample evidence that he is a sociopath.

An authoritative, sordid biography.