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<\/a>Harvey Weinstein has been kicked out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (Al Seib \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p><\/div>\n
by\u00a0Josh Rottenberg
\nLos Angeles Times<\/p>\n
mbattled film mogul Harvey Weinstein \u2014 a once-dominant force in\u00a0the Academy<\/a>Awards who rewrote the rules of Oscar campaigning \u2014 has been expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in response to mounting allegations of sexual harassment and assault against him.<\/p>\n The film academy\u2019s 54-member board of governors, which includes such industry luminaries as\u00a0Steven Spielberg<\/a>,\u00a0Tom Hanks<\/a>, Kathleen Kennedy and\u00a0Whoopi Goldberg<\/a>, voted in an emergency meeting on Saturday morning to remove Weinstein from the organization\u2019s ranks in an unprecedented public rebuke of a prominent industry figure. The move marked the latest blow in Weinstein\u2019s stunning downfall and, in symbolic terms, amounts to a virtual expulsion from Hollywood itself.<\/p>\n In removing Weinstein from the organization\u2019s ranks, the academy\u2019s board said in a statement, \u201cWe do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over. What\u2019s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society. The Board continues to work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all Academy members will be expected to exemplify.\u201d<\/p>\n The board noted that its members had \u201cvoted well in excess of the required two-thirds majority\u201d to immediately eject Weinstein.<\/p>\n A representative for Weinstein told The Times he would not be commenting on his expulsion.<\/p>\n Since reports of Weinstein\u2019s alleged misconduct toward dozens of women first surfaced in the New York Times on Oct. 5, the academy had been under increasing pressure to take action against him. A petition on Change.org demanding his ouster gathered more than 140,000 signatures from the general public. On Tuesday, the National Organization for Women joined the calls for Weinstein\u2019s removal, stating, \u201cA sexual predator doesn\u2019t deserve the privilege of an academy membership \u2014 and all the opportunities to wield outsize power that come with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Twenty-one members of the film academy\u2019s board are women \u2014 as is its chief executive, Dawn Hudson \u2014 and in recent years the organization has taken steps to dramatically increase the number of women in its historically overwhelmingly male ranks.<\/p>\n In the past several days, a number of academy members expressed their feelings both privately and publicly that Weinstein had no place in the film industry\u2019s most prestigious organization. CBS Films President Terry Press, who regularly battled Weinstein on the awards trail during her tenure as a marketing executive at DreamWorks, vowed in a Facebook post to quit the academy if he was allowed to remain. \u201cThe idea that anyone would give him a second chance or entertain the notion that he can change is beyond absurd,\u201d wrote Press.<\/p>\n Even Weinstein\u2019s brother, Bob \u2014 with whom he ran Miramax Films and then\u00a0Weinstein Co.<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 said in an\u00a0interview published Saturday<\/a>\u00a0in the Hollywood Reporter that he felt the academy should expel him, adding that he planned to write a note to the group to that effect.<\/p>\n But within the academy some wrestled with the decision, fearing that it could set a precedent that would require the academy to police its members\u2019 behavior going forward. As many have pointed out in recent days, other Hollywood figures who have come under attack for their treatment of women and other behavior that could be seen as violating what the academy now calls \u201cethical standards of conduct\u201d \u2014 including Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski and Mel Gibson \u2014 remain members of the academy in good standing.<\/p>\n The academy\u2019s bylaws give the board of governors free rein to expel members \u201cfor cause,\u201d but that power has very rarely been exercised. The last member to be banished from the group was actor Carmine Caridi, who was booted in 2004 for sharing promotional copies of films that were later pirated. Sources close to the academy say that other members had been more quietly suspended in years past for selling their tickets to the\u00a0Oscars<\/a>\u00a0ceremony, but nothing ever rose to the level of attention surrounding Weinstein.<\/p>\n The academy\u2019s move follows the British Academy of Film and Television Arts\u2019 decision earlier this week to suspend Weinstein\u2019s membership. The Producers Guild of America is set to hold a meeting on Monday morning to decide whether to take similar action.<\/p>\n During his years at the helm of Miramax and Weinstein Co., Weinstein\u2019s films \u2014 including such hits as \u201cPulp Fiction,\u201d \u201cThe English Patient,\u201d \u201cThe Artist\u201d and \u201cThe King\u2019s Speech\u201d \u2014 racked up more than 300 Oscar nominations. He himself took home a best picture statuette in 1999 for producing \u201cShakespeare in Love.\u201d Weinstein\u2019s ability to mint awards nominations was so renowned that, in 2003, when he had a hand in four of the five best-picture nominees, The Times wrote that the ceremony should be renamed \u201cthe Harveys.\u201d<\/p>\n A 2015 analysis by the website Vocativ found that Weinstein was second only to Steven Spielberg in the number of times he had been thanked in Oscar acceptance speeches. (God ranked sixth.)<\/p>\n But beneath the surface, the brash, fiery-tempered outsider from Queens had long rankled many in the academy. His aggressive, spare-no-expense style of campaigning for his films sometimes stirred animosity and created a kind of arms race with other distributors, and he was accused on a number of occasions of starting whisper campaigns against rival films. (\u201cWhat can I say?\u201d Weinstein once said, professing his innocence. \u201cWhen you\u2019re Billy the Kid and people around you die of natural causes, everyone thinks you shot them.\u201d)<\/p>\n Some in Hollywood had used the platform of the Oscars not to thank Weinstein, but to make sharp digs at him. In 2002, at the 74th Oscars, Nathan Lane, presenting the award for animated feature, quipped, \u201cGosh, up until now I thought \u2018Monsters, Inc.\u2019 was a documentary on the Weinsteins.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2013, host\u00a0Seth MacFarlane<\/a>, after announcing the nominees for supporting actress alongside actress Emma Stone, said, \u201cCongratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with The Times on Saturday, actress\u00a0Kate Winslet said she had deliberately avoided thanking<\/a>\u00a0Weinstein from the Oscars stage when she won the lead actress award for \u201cThe Reader\u201d in 2009 due to his \u201cdisgraceful behavior\u201d during the film\u2019s production.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember being told, \u2018Make sure you thank Harvey if you win,\u2019\u201d Winslet said. \u201cAnd I remember turning around and saying, \u2018No I won\u2019t. No I won\u2019t.\u2019 And it was nothing to do with not being grateful. If people aren\u2019t well-behaved, why would I thank him?\u201d<\/p>\n Among the academy\u2019s board, several members have worked on Weinstein projects over the years, including Laura Dern, who starred in Miramax\u2019s \u201cCitizen Ruth\u201d; screenwriter Larry Karaszewski, who co-wrote and produced Weinstein Co.\u2019s \u201cBig Eyes\u201d; and governor-at-large Reginald Hudlin, who produced Weinstein Co.\u2019s \u201cDjango Unchained.\u201d Christina Kounelias, a governor for the academy\u2019s public relations branch, and David Linde, who serves on the executives branch, both worked at Miramax earlier in their careers.<\/p>\n Other academy members have worked on movies that have gone head to head against Weinstein\u2019s films at the Oscars, including Hanks and Spielberg, who respectively starred in and directed \u201cSaving Private Ryan.\u201d That film was beaten out for the best picture prize in 1999 by \u201cShakespeare in Love\u201d in what is still regarded as one of most bitterly fought contests in Oscars history.<\/p>\n Over the years, a few board members had aired less than warm feelings toward Weinstein, including producer and former studio executive Bill Mechanic. Speaking of Miramax\u2019s bullying tactics to author Peter Biskind in the 2004 book \u201cDown and Dirty Pictures,\u201d Mechanic said, \u201cBad behavior doesn\u2019t get punished in this business, and theirs certainly doesn\u2019t. People just ignore it and say, \u2018They\u2019re good at what they do,\u2019 which they are.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking of the Weinstein revelations this week on the talk show \u201cThe View,\u201d Goldberg made a plea for women to stop taking payouts in exchange for keeping silent about harassment. “We need to start talking to our sisters and say, \u2018You do not have to take this,\u2019\u201d Goldberg said. \u201c\u2019Your career does not rise and fall on this. Because if you take this, people are going to assume that you\u2019re OK with the behavior.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Hanks \u2014 who famously almost never has an ill word to say about anyone \u2014 told\u00a0the New York Times<\/a>\u00a0this week, \u201cI\u2019ve never worked with Harvey. But, aah, it all just sort of fits, doesn\u2019t it? … I\u2019m not the first person to say Harvey\u2019s a bit of an ass.\u201d<\/p>\n