She Said

Kantor and Twohey’s first chapter opens with a phone call featuring one of Weinstein’s best-known accusers: actor and feminist activist Rose McGowan. Kantor exchanged emails with McGowan after the actor tweeted about being raped by a Hollywood producer. McGowan was hesitant to talk, even off the record. After Kantor assured McGowan that she had a successful record of exposing gender discrimination and forcing policy changes, McGowan agreed to speak with her via phone. The actor described how Weinstein assaulted her in a hotel room in 1997 during the Sundance Film Festival. Afterward, she contacted an attorney and received a $100,000 settlement from Weinstein. However, McGowan never obtained a copy of the paperwork, which made it difficult for Kantor to corroborate her account—a standard practice in investigative journalism. A copy of the settlement agreement would make it difficult for Weinstein to deny the accusation.

In consultation with her editor, Rebecca Corbett, Kantor determined to investigate the possibility of other assaults. Corbett recommended that Kantor partner with reporter Megan Twohey, who had investigated accusations of harassment and assault against then presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In April 2017, another pair of New York Times reporters broke a story on Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly’s history of sexual harassment. This story marked a turning point in reporting on harassment: Advertisers left O’Reilly’s show, and Fox fired him. The O’Reilly story provided a “playbook” for Kantor and Twohey to move ahead with their own investigation. They went on to uncover a pattern of behavior, find more victims, and report on systemic sexual harassment in the entertainment world.

Kantor and Twohey struggled to get Weinstein’s victims—specifically actors—to speak to them. They also began to contact some of his former Miramax employees, many of whom dismissed his behavior. Actor and feminist activist Ashley Judd, however, was willing to speak to Kantor. As with McGowan, Weinstein had tricked Judd into meeting him in a hotel room, where he harassed her until she managed to escape. Judd’s information marked a turning point in the investigation because she revealed that there was a group of actors who knew about and feared Weinstein’s behavior. If the reporters could identify other victims who were willing to go on –the record, Judd would speak out too.

Through a variety of Hollywood contacts, Kantor and Twohey tracked down other victims and eventually spoke with Oscar-winning actor Gwyneth Paltrow. She revealed that Weinstein sexually harassed her in a hotel room in the 1990s. Her then boyfriend, actor Brad Pitt, confronted Weinstein, who later threatened to blacklist Paltrow. Like Judd, Paltrow hoped to expose Weinstein, but she feared going on the record could harm her company, Goop. She did, however, provide the reporters with new leads.

Their investigation led them to Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, an Italian model who reported Weinstein to the NYPD after he groped her in 2015. No charges resulted, and Gutierrez did not respond to Kantor and Twohey’s requests to speak. Eventually, Corbett questioned how the reporters would get the various victims to speak on the record. The two realized that they needed written proof and legal and financial records supporting the women’s accounts to publish the story.

Kantor and Twohey recount their search for written evidence of Weinstein’s transgressions. Twohey obtained the name of a former Miramax employee who suddenly left the company in 1990. The woman told the reporter that she was unable to speak about her dispute with the company, noting that the problem had reached a resolution. Clearly, this woman had signed a settlement agreement. This encounter revealed that Weinstein’s record of harassment and assault extended beyond Hollywood actors to include women employed at his companies.

Further digging led Kantor to two former Miramax assistants, Zelda Perkins and Rowena Chiu. Both women were targets of Weinstein’s harassment forced out of the company and into settlement agreements after Perkins confronted Weinstein for harassing Chiu. This time, Kantor was able to view a copy of Perkins’s 1998 settlement agreement. Her contacts also led to a meeting with another of Weinstein’s victims, Laura Madden, whom Weinstein also assaulted in a hotel room. Madden’s story confirmed a specific pattern of behavior. More significantly, she did not receive a settlement or sign a non-disclosure agreement, leaving her free to speak out.

Meanwhile, Twohey uncovered more about a mysterious complaint against Miramax filed in 2001 with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and she contacted famed feminist attorney Gloria Allred about the matter. Unbeknownst to the Times reporters, Allred had negotiated multiple settlements between Weinstein and her clients, allowing perpetrators of harassment and assault to continue their abuse. The authors explain the legal apparatus related to settlements, suggesting that it provides a system for silencing victims, covering up sexual harassment, and perpetuating victimizers’ behavior.