Some background.
Sharon Waxman, a former New York Timeser, wrote a piece pointing out that the Times had the story on Harvey in '04 and killed it. She mentioned that Harvey Weinstein's pressure campaign had included, "having Matt Damon and Russell Crowe call me directly to vouch for Lombardo "
The New York Times denied everything. And Deadline ran an "interview" with Matt Damon featuring a variety of softball questions and constant mentions that Matt is the "father of four daughters."
The Deadline post doesn't link to Waxman's article, but does link to a Times attack on her. It throws a few smears around. And reads like a press release.
Here's an actual exchange.
DEADLINE: This has been a difficult past few days…
DAMON: This would have been a difficult past couple of days even if my name hadn’t been dragged into it. I am not the story here. The story is these women and what happened to them. So if I’m experiencing this discomfort, it hardly bears mention. There are some real victims here and they are being incredibly brave. Hopefully, them going through this experience right now will help them heal. They are who we all should be thinking about.
If anyone involved in this had any sense of shame... and also let's not forget that Matt Damon is the father of four daughters.
In the past few days, the media has been full of mentions of Harvey Weinstein's victims being afraid of his media power and of how effective he was at planting negative stories. And we're seeing it in action.
Harvey Weinstein may have fallen, but business as usual continues in the industry.