Harvey Weinstein Sexual Misconduct Scandal

The New York Times published a landmark investigative report by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey on October 5, 2017, detailing decades of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Shortly after, Ronan Farrow published a detailed piece in The New Yorker further exposing the abuses. These reports won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2018.

In February 2020, a New York court convicted Weinstein of third-degree rape and a first-degree criminal sexual act, sentencing him to 23 years in prison. He was later convicted in Los Angeles on additional sexual assault charges in 2022, resulting in another 16-year sentence. These convictions effectively ensure he will spend the rest of his life incarcerated.

While the phrase 'Me Too' was coined by activist Tarana Burke years earlier, actress Alyssa Milano used Twitter to encourage victims to tweet the hashtag in the wake of the Weinstein allegations. This caused the hashtag to go globally viral, demonstrating the massive, systemic scale of workplace sexual harassment. It quickly spread beyond Hollywood to nearly every industry.

Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob co-founded Miramax in 1979, which produced Oscar winners like 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Good Will Hunting.' They later left to found The Weinstein Company in 2005. Following the 2017 scandal, The Weinstein Company declared bankruptcy and its assets were sold to Lantern Capital Partners.