Spurring #MeToo with what she said

The story of how two reporters uncovered Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct may now be made into a movie

Jodi Kantor (left) and Megan Twohey detail their investigation of Weinstein in their new book, She Said. PHOTO: MARTIN SCHOELLER

In the final days before The New York Times (NYT) published its 2017 expose of widespread sexual misconduct allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein, articles began appearing in Hollywood trade publications about the very reporters pursuing the story.

In one, Weinstein was quoted as saying he was not aware of the investigation. "The story sounds so good, I want to buy the movie rights," he quipped.

He was right about one thing. The NYT reports by Jodi Kantor, 44, and Megan Twohey, 43, which went on to change the conversation on sexual harassment and assault and help ignite the #MeToo movement, may now be made into a movie.

The film rights have been bought by production companies Plan B, Brad Pitt's outfit, and Annapurna.

Twohey thinks Weinstein might have planted those early stories in a last, desperate attempt to undermine reporters looking into him.

"He was trying to downplay that an investigation of that kind was so fictional that it would make a good movie," she says over the telephone from Britain, where she and Kantor are on a book tour.

"And actually, he may now turn out to be right."

In their new book, She Said, Kantor and Twohey take readers behind the scenes of how they broke the story of Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct over decades.

They interviewed women who described how they were manipulated into silence, unearthing a pattern of how those who tried to speak up were discredited and had their careers destroyed.

Weinstein, who denies the allegations, is due to stand trial next month on charges of rape and sexual assault. Separately, he has reached a tentative US$25 million (S$34 million) settlement with more than two dozen of his accusers.

She Said is part of a wave of books and films in step with #MeToo that have coalesced two years into the movement's stride.

It comes out alongside Catch And Kill by Ronan Farrow, whose reporting on Weinstein won the Pulitzer Prize alongside Kantor and Twohey's work for NYT; and memoirs such as What Is A Girl Worth by former gymnast Rachael Denhollander, the first to accuse USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse, and Know My Name by Chanel Miller, the victim of the 2015 Stanford University sexual assault case.

Onscreen or coming soon are Unbelievable, a Netflix mini-series about a serial rape investigation in Washington and Colorado; and Bombshell, a movie about the women who exposed Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.

"In some ways, everything has changed and nothing has changed," says Twohey of where #MeToo is today. "There is no question that there was this massive cultural shift that took place, that this story was part of. Women were scared to come forward with their stories and now they felt emboldened to do so."

"Two years later, there continues to be a lot of confusion and questions over whether or not we are adequately addressing the complaints of victims," she continues.

"There is agreement from both accusers and accused that there have not been adequate reforms in place for vetting these complaints and ensuring that everyone receives fairness and due process in terms of assigning accountability."

She Said reveals for the first time the drama around the investigation that never made it into the final report, from Kantor and Twohey's first hushed conversations with actresses such as Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow, to the secret source who slipped them records that proved cover-ups.

It also details the tactics that Weinstein's team used to try and thwart the investigation - including hiring an Israeli intelligence firm called Black Cube to surveil and derail reporters and sources, something which Farrow explores in depth in Catch And Kill - and the involvement of prominent feminist lawyer Gloria Allred and her daughter Lisa Bloom in concealing Weinstein's behaviour.

The book also tracks how psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford came to publicly accuse Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, testifying at his Senate confirmation hearing last year that he had attacked her at a party when they were teenagers.

Dr Ford was both lauded and villainised for her testimony. She received death threats and was forced to relocate.

Yet many have said that her coming forward inspired them to do the same, including Miller and Ms Rowena Chiu, a former assistant of Weinstein's who has accused him of attempting to rape her in 1998. Weinstein maintains they had a consensual relationship.

Ms Chiu had initially declined to be interviewed when Kantor approached her in 2017, as she had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

She was one of 12 women who had been part of Kantor and Twohey's reporting and whom they invited to a gathering this year at Paltrow's house. The women present ranged from Dr Ford to former McDonald's worker Kim Lawson, who filed a sexual harassment complaint against the fast-food giant.

It was a group interview that also served as a metaphor for what has been happening on a larger scale with #MeToo, says Kantor.

"Women have come together to tell these stories and we have been able to see patterns we were never able to see clearly before, but also to make contrasts. The women in that group had very different experiences in coming forward. We could hear them learn from one another."

For the reporters, who are both married - Kantor has two children and Twohey has a young daughter - the work is unending.

One of the first stories they dove into after finishing She Said was that of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in prison while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking. It echoes the Weinstein story, notes Twohey, in that it was not just about an individual predator, but a wider circle of enablers that allowed him to cover his tracks.

Both stress that they are journalists, not activists. While blanket phrases such as "Believe women" have caught on in the activist community, Kantor and Twohey want the book to demonstrate the meticulous fact-checking and due diligence that goes into ensuring a news story is watertight.

Twohey jokes: "When I was starting out as a reporter many years ago, my editor had a saying above his desk that read, 'If your mother says she loves you, check it out.'

"In the debate about this, the question wasn't about what Harvey Weinstein had done. It was about what the response should be."

Kantor adds: "We want all of our work, and especially the book, to send the message that facts matter and journalism matters, and that even in this time, if it feels like the very notion of truth is collapsing, it is still possible for facts to guide social change."

• She Said ($25.95) is available at Books Kinokuniya.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 17, 2019, with the headline Spurring #MeToo with what she said. Subscribe