{"id":124279,"date":"2017-10-16T20:05:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T00:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=124279"},"modified":"2017-10-16T20:09:07","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T00:09:07","slug":"weinstein-co-overwhelmed-by-backlash-may-be-up-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/16\/weinstein-co-overwhelmed-by-backlash-may-be-up-for-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Weinstein Co., overwhelmed by backlash, may be up for sale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Harvey<\/a>
Harvey Weinstein was fired last week by the film production company he helped create. The allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Weinstein span decades and include many of the film industry’s leading actresses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK\u2014The Weinstein Co., besieged by sexual harassment allegations against its namesake and co-founder, may be putting itself up for sale.<\/p>\n

The company said Monday that it will receive an immediate cash infusion from Colony Capital and is in negotiations for the potential sale of all or a significant portion of the company responsible for producing films such as \u201cDjango Unchained,\u201d \u201cThe Hateful Eight\u201d and \u201cLion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colony Capital, the private-equity arm of Colony NorthStar, was founded by Thomas Barrack, a close adviser to President Donald Trump. Barrack chaired Trump’s presidential inaugural committee.<\/p>\n

Harvey Weinstein was fired last week by the film production company he helped create. The allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Weinstein span decades and include many of the film industry’s leading actresses.<\/p>\n

The backlash has been severe as more women go public with their interactions with Weinstein.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement in the U.S. and Europe are taking a new look at past allegations.<\/p>\n

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revoked his membership, as has the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has got to be a fire sale,\u201d said Richard Levick, chairman and CEO of crisis-management firm Levick International. He added that while he doesn’t think anyone would be interested in buying the Weinstein name, they might be interested in \u201cbuying the pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amazon Studios, the growing film arm of Amazon, cut ties with the Weinstein company last week. Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore and director David O. Russell scrapped an untitled Amazon Studios series that was being produced by The Weinstein Co.<\/p>\n

Showtime has threatened to pull out of an Oliver Stone drama in development, \u201cGuantanamo,\u201d because Weinstein Co. is a producer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stink from this is so substantial that it makes almost anyone to try to defend them to become an untouchable,\u201d Levick said.<\/p>\n

Word of a potential sale comes just three days after Bob Weinstein, who helped found the company with his brother, Harvey, said that a sale was not an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased to invest in The Weinstein Company and to help it move forward,\u201d Colony said Monday. \u201cWe will help return the company to its rightful iconic position in the independent film and television industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Colony will have to weigh a sale price against \u201cbrand liability,\u201d Levick said. This includes unknown things such as how many more women may come forward.<\/p>\n

The list of women alleging harassment and assault by Harvey Weinstein continues to grow. More than 30 women, including actresses Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow \u2014 have spoken out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014The Weinstein Co., besieged by sexual harassment allegations against its namesake and co-founder, may be putting itself up for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":124288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-damian-j-troise","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}