Harvey Weinstein Arrested for Rape

Harvey Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Company, has been arrested and charged with first-degree rape, third-degree rape and a first-degree criminal sex act in a New York court, stemming from two separate incidents. Weinstein surrendered his passport and posted $1 million bail.

When Weinstein surrendered himself to police in New York, he walked into the station house with three books under his arms, one a biography of Elia Kazan. I’m assuming he wanted some hope that he wasn’t the biggest piece of s**t in the history of Hollywood by reading about a guy who named names for the House Un-American Activities Committee. Sorry Harv, as much as Kazan sucked, you’re still worse.

The New York Times reported some statements from Weinstein’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, who seems to living on a different planet from the rest of us.

Mr. Brafman said he would “move quickly” to dismiss the charges, calling them “constitutionally flawed and factually unsubstantiated.”

“I anticipate that the women who have made these allegations, when subjected to cross-examination — in the event we get that far — will not be believed by 12 people,” Mr. Brafman said. He continued, “Assuming we get 12 fair people who are not consumed by the movement that seems to have overtaken this case.”

Mr. Brafman also drew a distinction between bad conduct and criminal conduct.

“My job is not to defend behavior — my job is to defend criminal behavior,” he said. “Mr. Weinstein did not create the casting couch in Hollywood.”

My guess is that, like in the Bill Cosby trial, the prosecution will bring in other women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct to testify on his pattern of behavior. As long as they ask Rose McGowan to stay home, Harvey is probably in trouble.

It’s probably hubris that caused Weinstein to think he could get through this by going to adult day camp for a few weeks and then coming back and making movies again. If he was a smart man, he’d have moved all his money to an offshore account in the Cayman Islands and moved himself into Roman Polanski’s guest house the day Ronan Farrow’s report on him broke.

There’s going to be a lot of takes about Weinstein and his arrest, but the best take came from Twitter humorist Krang T Nelson, and I can’t top it.