"The Last Flower"
"What do you see?"
After a short silence, she spoke, "He can't control himself. He's that kind of guy. He is the predator. "This kind of thing happens all the time, constantly tempting, not doing it once and stopping, not having this proclivity for a while." This is a continuous hunt for women. Whether they agree or disagree. "Does everyone know that he is—in your words—'preying' on women?"
"Of course, everyone knows."
"When everyone around him saw this happening, did anyone stand up against it?"
"Nope."
The above dialogue comes from Ronan Farrow's documentary work The Hunt: Lies, Surveillance and Conspiracy to Protect the Hunters, and, of course, from stark reality. Ronan Farrow is a well-known American journalist, former NBC News program anchor and reporter, and current writer for The New Yorker magazine. Perhaps many people have not heard his name, but almost no one is unaware of the ugly reality he uncovered through his reporting - Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault. In 2017, Ronan Farrow won the magazine a Pulitzer Prize for journalism for his reporting in The New Yorker exposing the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal. The book is based on the author's two-year news coverage of the Weinstein incident.
In 2017, after the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal was exposed, many women who had been sexually assaulted or sexually harassed launched the "Me Too" movement on social platforms, so the two simplest words were filled with women's courage to try to protect other women. In this book, we can see how the inequality of power structure relations completely crushes the weak, we can see how structural forces work together to complete the hunt for women, but these are not the most important, and most importantly, we can know that nothing can destroy women's courage, and even if they are "hunted", they can never be stifled. These victimized women, who bravely stood in the spotlight and reopened their wounds, because they believed, and knew, that they had made a big difference in the world today.
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The following is from Ronan Farrow's "The Hunt" and is abridged
01. Just because I'm a lingerie model, do I have to be on the wrong side?
The people involved were scared and many refused to talk to me. But there are still some people who are willing to try. I'm also pursuing the only case against Weinstein that went into the criminal justice process.
Gutiérrez sent me a message almost immediately. "Hello, my lawyer said you want to contact me. What do you want to ask? She wrote. I'm a reporter for NBC News, and I'm looking for material for the Today Show story I'm doing. I would like to be able to make it clearer on the phone, if you don't mind. I replied. Can you be a little bit clearer, what 'I'm doing' is? She sent another message.
I immediately realized that Ambra Gutiérrez was not stupid. "It involves allegations made by another person—possibly several people—that may be a bit like your previous allegations, the one that the NYPD opened an investigation in 2015." If I could talk to you, it could be of great benefit to others who made accusations. She agreed to meet the next day.
When I arrived at the Gramercy Tavern, Gutierrez was already sitting in a corner of the back, her whole body tense and motionless. "I always arrive early." She said. I didn't know enough about her. I found that she was well-organized and very intelligent. That day in the tavern, she seemed a little nervous. "I want to help," she spoke with an Italian accent and a slight trembling, "it's just that I'm in a bit of a difficult situation." "It wasn't until I said that another woman had accused Weinstein on camera, and more people were thinking about doing so, that she started telling her story.
In March 2015, Gutiérrez's modeling agent invited her to a reception at the Radio City concert hall. At the reception, Weinstein stared unabashedly at Gutiérrez from the other end of the room. He walked up to her, greeted her and told her and her agent several times that she looked like actress Mila Kunis. After the reception, Gutierrez's modeling agency emailed her saying Weinstein wanted to have a business meeting with her as soon as possible.
The next evening, Gutierrez arrived at Weinstein's office at the Grand Hotel Tribeca with her portfolio of models. She sat on the couch with Weinstein looking at her portfolio, and he began staring at her breasts, asking if they were real. Gutierrez said Weinstein then lunged at her, touched her breast, and tried to put his hand on her skirt despite her resistance. Finally he withdrew and told her that his assistant would give her a ticket to "In Search of Neverland" that night. He said he would see her at the show. Gutiérrez was only 22 years old at the time. "Because of past trauma," she told me, "I take being touched very seriously." She remembers meeting Weinstein, her whole body trembling involuntarily, and she stopped in front of a bathroom and cried. Later, she hailed a taxi to the agent's office, where she couldn't help but cry again. She then went with her agent to the nearest police station. She remembers saying Weinstein's name to several police officers at the police station, and one of them said, "He's him again?" That night, she didn't go to the show, for which Weinstein called her angrily. She answered the phone next to agents from the police department's Special Victims Unit, who listened in on the phone and decided to make a plan: Gutierrez pretended to agree to go to the show the next day and meet with Weinstein. They would install a wiretap on her and take advantage of the opportunity to extract a confession. "Of course it was a scary decision," she said, "and I didn't sleep well all night." "Anyone who takes such a risk to expose something important is bound to weigh between egoism and altruism. In some cases, the two are actually consistent. But this time, it was almost unprofitable. In both law and profession, Gutiérrez will face doom. She just wanted to stop Weinstein from doing this again. "Everyone says this guy can completely ban me," she said, "and I'm willing to risk it because this guy shouldn't do this to anyone again." The next day, Gutierrez met Weinstein at the Church Bar at the Grand Hotel Tribeca. A team of plainclothes police monitored their every move. Weinstein complimented her unabashedly. He kept praising her for being beautiful. He told her that if she wanted to make friends with him, she could help her get acting jobs, and he also named several well-known actresses and said that he had done the same for them. Gutiérrez's accent clearly needs to be improved, and he says classes can be arranged.
Weinstein went to the bathroom halfway through, and when he returned, he suddenly urged Gutierrez to go to his penthouse with him. He said he wanted to take a shower. Gutiérrez refused his request, fearing that he would do something to him again or discover the bugging device on him. Gutiérrez was bent on escaping the clutches of the devil, but he could not escape. Finally, Weinstein led her upstairs and toward his room. At this time, plainclothes police can no longer follow. To add insult to injury, her phone also happened to run out of power at this time. She kept the phone in her bag as instructed by the police while recording it for later use. Weinstein's anger grew and he ordered her into the room. Gutiérrez was terrified, begging and wanting to leave. While the two were tugging and pulling, Weinstein admitted to doing something to her the day before: the complete confession was recorded in such dramatic circumstances.
Gutierrez kept pleading, and he finally showed kindness and took her downstairs with him. The police, on the other hand, no longer hid their identities, went straight to Weinstein and said they wanted to interview him. Weinstein could have faced charges of third-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in prison. "We had a lot of evidence," Gutiérrez told me, "and everyone said to me: 'Congratulations, we stopped a beast.'" ’”
But suddenly, gossipy tabloids began to carry information about Gutiérrez's possible prostitutes in the past. The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. began to make the same point. Martha Bashford, the head of Vance's sex crimes squad, questioned Gutiérrez, and according to two law enforcement officials, Bashford questioned her about Berlusconi and her personal sex history, revealing unusual hostility. The district attorney's press office officer later told The New York Times that it was a "normal, typical interrogation" to prepare for future cross-examinations. However, law enforcement insiders disagree. "They treated her as if they were Weinstein's defense attorney." One of them once said that to me. "It was so weird," Gutiérrez recalled the interrogation, "and my reaction was: 'What's the connection?' I don't understand. Just look at the evidence. On April 10, 2015, two weeks after Gutierrez charged Weinstein with police, the district attorney's office announced that they would not prosecute Weinstein. Privately, law enforcement staff argued that the district attorney's office was behaving strangely. Vance staff have been receiving regular updates about Gutiérrez's past, but have never revealed the source. One staff member described to me that what happened was a bit like Weinstein personally infiltrating Vance's office. At the time of the Gutierrez incident, Weinstein's legal team was extremely politically influential. Several members of Weinstein's legal team have donated to Vance's campaign. In the months following Vance's decision not to sue, he received a donation of $10,000 in re-election campaign funds. After the district attorney made the decision not to prosecute, Gutiérrez began to waver and then began to worry about his future again. "I can't sleep, I can't eat." She described the situation to me. When Weinstein relied on tabloid connections to discredit Gutierrez as a liar, she felt that history was repeating itself. She believes that the rumours that she had worked as a prostitute in Italy arose because she had testified in the Berlusconi corruption case. She said Berlusconi used his power to slander her. Slut shaming seems to be a global language.
The Beautiful Legend of Sicily seemed to be "just because I'm a lingerie model or something, I have to be the wrong one," Gutiérrez said, "and people keep saying to me, 'Maybe it's because of the way you dress.'" (She was wearing professional clothes to meet Weinstein, who was wearing thick tights because of the cold weather.) Her reputation plummeted. "My work depends on my image, and my image is completely destroyed." She said. No one auditioned for her again.
02. I could have run away, but I didn't, so I felt responsible
For months, insiders have been telling me that Italian actress Aisha Argento can provide a story about Weinstein. The day I spoke to Arquite, I also exchanged messages with Argento. Argento was frightened, his voice trembling all the time. After several lengthy and emotional interviews, she told me that Weinstein had violated her while they were working together. According to her, in 1997 she was invited to a party hosted by Miramax at the Cape Edan Roque Hotel in Antibes, on the French Riviera.
She remembers the staff saying to her, "Oh, we're getting there too early," and then turned away, leaving her and Weinstein alone. At first, Weinstein showed concern for her and praised her work. Then he left the room. When he returned, he was wearing a bathrobe and holding a bottle of lotion. "He asked me to give him a massage. I was like, 'Hey, man, I'm not a fucking fool,'" Argento said to me, "but now in retrospect, I was a fucking fool." ”
Argento said that after she reluctantly agreed to give Weinstein a massage, he lifted her skirt and forced her to spread her legs, despite her repeated requests to him to stop. "This scene won't stop," she told me, "it's a nightmare." "Later she stopped saying no, but pretended to enjoy it because she thought it was the only way to end this sexual assault." I didn't want to," she said to me, "I said 'no, don't, don't'... It's so weird. A tall, fat man wants to eat you. It's a horrible fairy tale. Argento insisted that she wanted to tell all about her intricacies, and she said she hadn't physically rebelled against him, much to her regret for years.
"I felt responsible for being a victim," she said, "because I was a tough woman, and I could have kicked him in the lower body and run away." But I didn't. So I feel responsible. She described the unexpected event as "horrific trauma." Argento said that later "he kept contacting me." She described his behavior as "almost a form of stalking." For months, Weinstein seemed enchanted and offered her expensive gifts. To complicate matters, Argento eventually succumbed to his further pursuits, and gladly accepted them.
"He spoke as if he was my friend and really appreciated me." Over the next few years, she had sexual encounters with him from time to time. They had sexual contact again a few months after her alleged sexual assault, just before the release of "Too Mad at Heart." "I felt like I had to," she said, "because my movie was coming out and I didn't want to anger him." She felt that if she didn't obey Weinstein, the latter would ruin her career. Years later, when she was raising her children on her own as a single mom, Weinstein offered to hire a babysitter for her. She confessed that she felt "obligated" to submit to his sexual harassment.
For many victims of sexual assault, the complex reality is that these crimes are often committed by their bosses, family members and people who cannot see each other again. Argento told me that she knew of someone who would use the fact that they continued to contact each other to attack the credibility of his allegations. She gave several reasons for herself to keep in touch with Weinstein. She was terrified and exhausted by his stalking. The initial assault gave her a sense of powerlessness every time she met Weinstein, and this continued for years. "When I saw him, I felt small, stupid, weak." She was on the verge of breaking down as she struggled to explain it all, "after the rape," she said, "he won." ”
"The Girl with a Bright Future"
Argento has more conflicts than any other party. In an environment where the popular belief that victims should be saints or be treated as sinners, the women who came forward that summer were just a group of ordinary people. Acknowledging that everyone, including Argento, did a brave deed, doesn't mean you can understand any choices they made in the years that followed. Long before the scandal erupted, Argento had been targeted. Everyone involved in the story endured the pain of social discrimination, and in Italy, the case of Gutiérrez has shown that gender discrimination is more severe in cultural settings. After Argento filed charges against Weinstein, the Italian media labeled her a "prostitute."
03. I built a bridge over it, and one day you will do the same
Other women mentioned in the report also reacted. Some people feel pain, others rejoice. But all said they felt relieved. McGowan, who had been uneasy for months, thanked me. "You broke in with a dazzling flaming sword. Fucking fucking amazing," she wrote, "you've done so much for all of us." You are brave. ”
Annabella Sarah also sent me a message on the day the story was published: "You did something incredible to not only expose him, but also convey to the public the pain of all the women who have experienced and have been going through those pains." "When I called her back, she explained that she was one of those women who had been going through those pains. The first time we called, she stared out the living room window at the East River, struggling to tell her story. "I was thinking, 'This is the moment you've been waiting for all your life...'" She suddenly panicked, "and I started shaking," she recalled, "I just wanted to hang up." ”
In fact, she says, she hasn't been able to speak out about Weinstein for more than 20 years. She lived in fear of him, and she slept with a baseball bat next to her bed. She said Weinstein violently raped her and sexually harassed her several times in the years that followed. In the '90s, Sarah starred in Weinstein's New York Night Moon, which she said led her to "Miramax's circle." With so many shoots, events, and dinners since then, it's hard to imagine life without Weinstein's ecosystem. At a dinner party in New York, she recalled, "Harvey was there and I got up to leave." Harvey said, 'Oh, I'll send you away.' Harvey had driven me before, so I didn't think much about anything special – I just expected to be sent home." Weinstein said goodbye to Sarah in the car, and she went upstairs to her apartment. She was home alone, and a few minutes after returning home, she was ready to go to bed when she heard a knock on the door. "It wasn't too late," she said, "and it wasn't midnight, so I opened the door a crack to see who was outside." And he pushed the door open. At this, Sarah stopped. The next story seemed to make her difficult to tell. Weinstein "walked in as if he had walked into his own apartment, as if the place belonged to him, and then he began to unbutton his shirt." So he knew exactly what he wanted to do. I was wearing pajamas. I didn't wear much." He walked around the apartment, and it seemed to Sarah to check if there were anyone else in the room.
Sarah told me that the recording of Gutiérrez during the police entrapment operation "really touched me." She remembers Weinstein doing the same when he forced her and pushed her into the bedroom. "Come here, hurry up, stop making trouble, what are you doing, come here." She remembered what he said. She also pretends to be calm. "It's impossible," she told him, "you have to get out." You have to leave. Get out of my apartment. "He pushed me onto the bed and pressed me down," Sarah recalled with difficulty, "and I kicked and yelled. But Weinstein locked her hands over her head with one hand and forced her to have sex. The stories that were eventually published in The New Yorker are factuals and comply with the law. We didn't try to convey the real, cold-hearted ugliness that we felt when we heard Sarah's violent rape experience. We heard her. Her memories in intermittent sobs. You've heard Annabella Sarah struggle to tell her story, and that story will remain in your heart forever. In the weeks and months following the rape, Sarah didn't tell anyone about it. She never told the police about it. "Like most women, I was ashamed of what happened," she admitted. I resisted. But I still blame myself, why open the door? Who opens at that time of night? I was embarrassed by this. I feel sick. I felt like I had messed things up. "She became depressed and started losing weight. Her father didn't know about the rape but was worried about her health and urged her to find help, and she did go to a psychiatrist, but she said: "I didn't even tell the psychiatrist about it." It's so sad. ”
Like many others, Sarah suspected Weinstein of retaliation. She said she felt her life affected almost immediately. "I didn't work from 1992 until 1995," she says, "and I kept getting negative feedback: 'We heard you're hard to get along with, we've heard this or that.' I think it's all Weinstein's ghosting." Actress Rosie Perez told me: "She started acting weird and started to live in seclusion. It doesn't make sense. She was talented and just as popular, made one hit movie after another, and then suddenly disappeared from the circle, why is this? As a fellow actress, I am saddened to see that her career has not developed to the level it should have. Perez was one of the first to mention her rape allegations with Sarah. Over time, Sarah confided in a small group of people. Perez said she heard from an acquaintance about what Weinstein had done at the London hotel and asked Sarah what had happened. Sarah told Perez about the rape that had occurred in her apartment, and Perez cried when she heard this, because she had been sexually assaulted by relatives when she was a child. "I said: 'Oh, Annabella, you have to call the police.' She said: 'I can't call the police. He's ruining my career. ’”
"Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always"
Perez told Sarah about her sexual assault to encourage her to tell her story. "I told her: 'I've been struggling with sewage for years. It's a ordeal, and maybe saying everything is your lifesaver. Grab it and climb out. "I said, 'Honey, sewage never goes out. But after I made everything public, it turned into a puddle, I built a bridge over it, and someday you will be the same. ’”
Based on the author's news stories from late 2016 to early 2019, the book condenses more than 200 interviews with sources, hundreds of pages of contracts, emails and text messages, and dozens of hours of audio recordings. The author was able to complete the investigation of this story and finally publish it, on the one hand, because of the author's persistence and unremitting efforts, and on the other hand, from the relay follow-up report of the incident by media peers. They provided each other with clues and information, and in the face of obstacles, repression and threats, they still adhered to the principles of professional integrity and justice, and finally completed an objective, rigorous and impartial report on the incident together. Those big, true stories may be "captured", but they will never be stifled. 🔈 "Hunting" is also available today on WeChat Reading Exclusive Debut Welcome to subscribe~
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