{"id":95333,"date":"2022-04-21T09:32:56","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T04:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/harvey-weinsteins-cronies-are-still-making-big-money-in-hollywood\/"},"modified":"2022-04-21T09:32:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T04:02:56","slug":"harvey-weinsteins-cronies-are-still-making-big-money-in-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/harvey-weinsteins-cronies-are-still-making-big-money-in-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey Weinstein’s Cronies Are Still Making Big Money in Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"
Shortly after Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a sexual predator in October 2017, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched a civil rights investigation into The Weinstein Company. Four months later \u2014 with the goal of publicly identifying Weinstein\u2019s enablers and ensuring that his survivors would be compensated \u2014 the AG\u2019s office filed a lawsuit that offered a blistering assessment of Weinstein\u2019s inner circle, singling out Harvey\u2019s brother, Bob Weinstein, TWC management, and the TWC board for \u201cfailing to investigate or stop [Harvey Weinstein\u2019s abuse].\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Still, in the wake of The Weinstein Company\u2019s collapse, many of Weinstein\u2019s victims feel cheated out of proper remuneration, while several of his alleged enablers have walked away from the rubble virtually unscathed. And, thanks to shady deals that allowed some TWC insiders to quietly pocket projects from the company\u2019s 250-title library as it was headed for bankruptcy, those insiders may wield more power and reap more profit in Hollywood today than they did before Harvey\u2019s downfall.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Former Weinstein Company COO David Glasser, for example, is an executive producer of\u00a0 <\/span>Yellowstone<\/span><\/i>, the most watched show on linear cable, which is well on its way to spawning a billion-dollar franchise thanks to numerous spin-offs. And, in a plot twist that few have noticed, the bulk of TWC\u2019s assets \u2014 including the lucrative <\/span>Scream<\/span><\/i> franchise \u2014 passed through or landed in the hands of former TWC board member Tarak Ben Ammar, through a series of deals and transactions that the press largely ignored. <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> has learned that Ben Ammar currently enjoys a sizable ownership stake in Spyglass Media Group, a company launched in March 2019 by former MGM CEO Gary Barber and Lantern Entertainment \u2014 the outfit that ultimately prevailed in acquiring TWC\u2019s library for $289 million. (Ben Ammar even demanded $4.8 million in finder fees dating back to 2011 for projects he worked on while a TWC board member, which he said was promised verbally by Harvey Weinstein, according to emails that <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> has reviewed. A senior TWC officer pushed back on paying him but wrote to another executive that Ben Ammar had persisted and \u201cgot it from Lantern,\u201d a claim Ben Ammar denies.) A press release at the time of the Spyglass launch noted that \u201cstrategic investors include Eagle Pictures,\u201d but never mentioned that Eagle is a shell company for Ben Ammar\u2019s Paris-based Quinta Communications.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Though Spyglass turned around and sold the bulk of those holdings to Lionsgate for an undisclosed sum \u2014 likely much higher than what it had paid \u2014 it held onto about a dozen titles, including <\/span>Scream<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Short Circuit<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Spy Kids<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>Project Runway<\/span><\/i>. When the <\/span>Scream<\/span><\/i> reboot opened last January in the No. 1 spot at the box office, en route to a $140 million worldwide haul, Ben Ammar shared in the proceeds. Not only that, last year, Bob Weinstein told a bankruptcy court that he is owed $2.3 million in profits generated by the movie <\/span>Scream 4<\/span><\/i>. That matter remains unresolved. Bob Weinstein did not respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am not a bad guy,\u201d Ben Ammar tells <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>. \u201cDespite losing all of my company\u2019s initial investment into TWC and having substantial unpaid debt owed by TWC to my companies, I stayed on as a TWC board representative to help the company consummate the sale of substantially all of its assets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that abusers, and those complicit in that abuse, are still working and thriving in this industry, while the survivors of that abuse struggle to get work, is completely backwards,\u201d says Weinstein survivor Sarah Ann Masse, who was part of a class-action suit against The Weinstein Company that settled in January 2021 for a relatively paltry $17 million. The deal was widely criticized given that the lawyers involved received more money (around $30 million in fees) than the victims, and no single Weinstein accuser received more than $500,000, according to sources. \u201c[The Weinstein case] is just one of many examples of folks profiting off of harm, facilitating abuse, and then gleefully continuing on with their business and creative endeavors,\u201d Masse says, \u201cwhile survivors are ignored, pushed out, and left to struggle with the long-term impacts of their abuse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Masse is not the only one outraged by the fallout of the Weinstein scandal. The fact that, four years after Harvey\u2019s reckoning, many of the men who shielded or failed to stop him are still getting rich in the film and television business, sometimes off of the very projects that had been part of the TWC library before it landed in bankruptcy court, has prompted a number of the mogul\u2019s victims to speak out about what they see as a miscarriage of justice. <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> has talked with a dozen of the women harmed by Weinstein\u2019s misconduct and reviewed previously undisclosed emails surrounding the company\u2019s dismantling. The picture that emerges is one of a messy bankruptcy proceeding and an industry eager to continue working with people who propped up a tormentor.<\/span><\/p>\n Says Weinstein survivor Louisette Geiss, the lead plaintiff in the class-action suit, \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why the survivors got so little. Not only were we harassed and raped and lost jobs, but then we were abused and raped on the final deal.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As Attorney General Schneiderman was<\/b> carrying out his investigation in the fall of 2017, a heated battle for TWC assets was in full swing behind the scenes, with Bob Weinstein and other TWC insiders, including Ben Ammar and David Glasser, doing what they could to extract as many titles as possible from the scrap heap to ensure a secure post-Weinstein future for themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sources say the TWC board initially aligned with Tom Barrack \u2013 the private equity investor who was senior adviser to Donald Trump\u2019s presidential campaign and served as the chairman of his inaugural committee \u2014 who made a move to acquire the reeling company for $216 million, a price tag that was well below market value. In response, the consortium of banks holding TWC debt balked, as did the company\u2019s female staff, who vocally opposed getting out from under Harvey Weinstein only to be owned by a Trump pal. The Barrack deal fell apart, leaving the company one step closer to bankruptcy.<\/span><\/p>\n