Inside Gwyneth Paltrow's secret war with Harvey Weinstein: Book reveals star's bitter battle against Hollywood predator
To the outside world, Gwyneth Paltrow and Harvey Weinstein were close. She affectionately called him 'Uncle Harvey' when talking about him to the press and the two always seemed to be laughing any time the camera caught them together at social gatherings. His film 'Shakespeare In Love' won her an Oscar, after all. Little did the world know that Paltrow had a huge role to play in bringing him down. 'New York Times' journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's new book 'She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement' has revealed how Paltrow was working behind the scenes helping the two journalists get information.
The book reveals that Paltrow had a "hair-raising" incident when Weinstein showed up at her house during a party and at the time he did not know that she was talking to them. She had hidden in her own bathroom and called them. “She [Paltrow] did play a much more active role than anybody’s ever known. But it was hair-raising for her, because Harvey Weinstein had been such an important influence," Twohey said in the book, adding, "Gwyneth Paltrow was one of Harvey’s biggest stars, and he had really presented himself as a godfather to her over the years." With Weinstein being such a powerful figure in Hollywood, many actresses had been scared to come forward, but they say, Paltrow was the first to talk to them.
She was determined to help them, Twohey said and that "Harvey Weinstein was [extremely scared], what the implications would be if his biggest star actually ended up going on the record.” She had revealed to them that he had been handsy with Paltrow when she was in her early 20s and had offered to "finish" things off "in the bedroom". When the allegations against the disgraced producer started emerging she agreed to go public with the incident. She had told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident which resulted in him telling Weinstein to back off and led to the producer "screaming" at Paltrow.
But Weinstein and Paltrow's relationship looked great for the cameras. She was dubbed the First Lady of Miramax and referred to Weinstein as "extraordinary" in her interviews. So what changed? The book says that it was the realization that Weinstein had used her name as a way to persuade his other victims. She had found out that he had told them that he would do for them what he had done to Paltrow's career. Weinstein who is awaiting trial on sexual assault and rape charges had denied claiming that he had sexual relations with the victims. Paltrow said she felt like an "assault weapon" and "like a tool in coercion of rape". She felt that she was "culpable in some way, even though it's completely illogical."