Harvey Weinstein didn’t receive the support he was banking on when he penned a desperate email to friends and fellow Hollywood power players asking for help in light of the mounting sexual harassment allegations against him.
One of the email’s recipients was Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and CEO of DreamWorks Animation and a longtime friend of Weinstein’s. Katzenberg penned a scathing response, which he passed on to The Hollywood Reporter.
″You yourself, in your quotes, have acknowledged that you have behaved inappropriately…so it seems to me we are now down to degrees of horrible,” he wrote. “You have done terrible things to a number of women over a period of years. I cannot in any way say this is OK with me…It’s not at all, and I am sickened by it, angry with you and incredibly disappointed in you.There appear to be two Harvey Weinsteins…one that I have known well, appreciated and admired and another that I have not known at all.”
Katzenberg offered to provide advice on how to make amends but criticized Weinstein’s handling of the situation so far.
“You are continuing to make a horrible set of circumstances even worse,” he said.
Weinstein had emailed a handful of people on Sunday, hours before he was terminated by his namesake company.
“My board is thinking of firing me,” he wrote, according to Janice Min, a strategist at Eldridge Industries and part owner of The Hollywood Reporter. “All I’m asking, is let me take a leave of absence and get into heavy therapy and counseling. Whether it be in a facility or somewhere else, allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance. I am desperate for your help.”
The New York Times published a bombshell report Thursday detailing Weinstein’s alleged abuse of a host of actresses, including Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan, as well as some former staffers. More than a dozen other women followed suit, including three who accused him of rape. Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie also came forward Tuesday with their own stories of alleged harassment.
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