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Here's the actual story about Judi Dench getting a fake 'tattoo' of Harvey Weinstein's name on her 'bum'

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Judi Dench

In the wake of a bombshell New York Times report that detailed decades of sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, a torrent of stories surrounding the man have come out.

And one of the strangest to make the rounds was about a time when Dame Judi Dench got a "tattoo" of Harvey Weinstein's name on her butt.

To be clear, the "tattoo" was fake, was part of a practical joke, and is long gone. But yes, it did actually happen.

The chatter started at the 2014 Britannia Awards, when Dench said that when she was younger, someone very famous told her she had no chance of making it in the film industry. That person told her her face wasn't "properly arranged." But decades later, she obviously proved them wrong, and she credited Weinstein for helping her career take off. Dench won the best supporting actress Oscar in 1999 for her work in "Shakespeare in Love," which was produced by Weinstein.

In the same speech, Dench said that she was so thankful to Weinstein, that she still has a tattoo of his name on her bum. 

Later in 2014, Dench told The Hollywood Reporter the more detailed story about a fake tattoo she used to trick Weinstein:

"I once said to [Weinstein], 'I have your named tattooed on my bum.' He laughed and was well, quite embarrassed, actually. It’s quite difficult to embarrass Harvey, but I did! And then, we went out to lunch, to the Four Seasons. Charlie Rose was there and I think my agent was there. Beforehand, I got my makeup lady to actually write Harvey’s name. [laughs] Then I brought it up at lunch and said, 'You know, I do have it on my bum' -- and then I actually got up and showed him! I’ve never seen a man more embarrassed and I’ve never let him forget it. [laughs] Perhaps I should have it done and really shock him!"

The "tattoo" apparently read: "JD loves HW."

There you have it.

As to the news of Weinstein's alleged history of sexual harassment, Dench, now 82, told The Sun:

"Whilst there is no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has helped and championed my film career for the past twenty years, I was completely unaware of these offenses which are, of course, horrifying. I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered, and whole-hearted support to those who have spoken out."

SEE ALSO: John Oliver mocks Harvey Weinstein's response to the sexual harassment accusations

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Nathan Lane says Harvey Weinstein attacked him at a birthday party for Hillary Clinton

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Nathan Lane Getty

Following the recent sexual harassment allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, which have led to the movie mogul being fired from his own company, more stories of Weinstein's behavior are trickling out.

Over the weekend, Broadway star Nathan Lane revealed on stage at the New Yorker Festival that Weinstein physically attacked him at a birthday party for Hillary Clinton in 2000, according to Page Six.

Lane was the emcee at the party — which was hosted by Weinstein, who is a longtime supporter of the Clintons — and after Lane told a comb-over joke about Rudy Giuliani, Weinstein allegedly threw Lane up against a wall.

"This is my f---king show, we don’t need you,” Weinstein then told Lane, the actor told the audience.

“You can’t hurt me, I don’t have a film career,” Lane said back at Weinstein. harvey weinstein

This is just the latest story to surface of Weinstein's behavior over the years. 

Following the bombshell New York Times story last week — in which actress Ashley Judd, and other women, went on record to speak out against Weinstein — a reporter said Weinstein once put him in a headlock, and a TV journalist alleged that he masturbated in front of her.

On Sunday, the board of The Weinstein Company released a statement stating it had terminated his employment.  

Business Insider contacted The Weinstein Company for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

SEE ALSO: Here's the actual story about Judi Dench getting a fake 'tattoo' of Harvey Weinstein's name on her 'bum'

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Nintendo learned from two huge mistakes with the Wii U to make the Switch a runaway success

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Nintendo's last console, the Wii U, was a failure. Nintendo's new console, the Switch, is a runaway success.

Nintendo Switch (Japan)

That simple fact is a major part of the reason that it was so, so hard to find the Nintendo Switch for much of 2017

"When you're coming off the launch of the Wii U system, and then your next hardware system is Switch, it's a challenge to know how many we should be ordering," Nintendo of America senior product marketing manager Bill Trinen told me in a recent interview ahead of the Nintendo World Championships in New York City. "What is the demand gonna be?"

Some context: The Wii U, in its entire lifetime, sold around 13 million units; the Switch is expected to reach 10 million units sold by March 2018 — one year after the launch of the console. There's a dramatic disparity in demand between the two consoles, and Nintendo wasn't able to adequately anticipate that change — thus, supply shortages. 

Indeed, the most important lessons Nintendo applied to the Switch come directly from mistakes made during the Wii U era. 

Nintendo Switch

For instance: Ease of use.

"If you look at the Wii U hardware system, just the system menu itself — the time that it took to boot that system up, to get into gameplay — was something that was a frustration for a lot of players early on, and actually became a hindrance," Trinen said. 

The Switch, on the contrary, is blessedly fast. 

"It's three button clicks and you're into the fun, so it's a really accessible menu," added Nintendo of America senior VP of sales and marketing Doug Bowser.

As anyone who's used the Switch can confirm, Bowser isn't making that up — it's, by far, the fastest console available today. The Switch wakes up and shuts down more like an iPad than a game console, which makes it feel amazingly modern.

"With Switch being something that you can take with you, it made it really important that you could play it instantly," Trinen said. "That to me is an example of a direct lesson from the Wii U era, where Nintendo said, 'That's something we're gonna zero in on and make a dramatic improvement on.'"

Splatoon 2

Bowser pointed out another major lesson that Nintendo took from its recent past — an issue that caused major problems for the Wii U, that Nintendo planned ahead for with the Switch. 

It may sound obvious in hindsight, but the major problem was an inconsistent cadence of new games. There were great games on the Wii U, of course, but there wasn't a steady stream of new games to keep people interested.

"We had a glut [of game releases] up front, and then kind of went dry for quite some time," Bowser said. "From a first-party perspective at least, we were very intentional and deliberate about Switch. We launched with "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," which obviously was incredibly successful, drove hardware, and brought a bunch of new people into the franchise. And then followed that with 'Mario Kart,' straight through the series of games we've released since then." 

Ever since the Switch launched back in March 2017 alongside a new "Legend of Zelda" game, Nintendo has followed with near-monthly major game launches: "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe," "ARMS," and "Splatoon 2" (among others). 

"That's been a really important lesson that we've applied that seems to have worked," Bowser said. 

Super Mario Odyssey

Perhaps most importantly of all, Nintendo's demonstrating an ability to adapt — to listen to its fans and respond. It may sound small, but it's a crucial change for a company that's notorious for being tight-lipped. 

"Our goal is to delight our players," Bowser said. "We want people to have access to our hardware, to our content, and have great experiences. So we actively read the market and try to understand what those trends are, and make sure we're adjusting accordingly."

That philosophical change is evident in the recent news that Nintendo is taking the NES Classic Edition console out of retirement after discontinuing it earlier this year. And it's embodied by the Switch — a console that's existence is essentially a response to the failures of the Wii U. 

As Bowser concisely put it: "We are responding. We're listening."

SEE ALSO: Here's what you need to do to find Nintendo's $80 mini Super Nintendo

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12 famous actors who have publicly praised and thanked Harvey Weinstein, and what they are saying now

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jlaw and weinsteinFamed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein — under fire for sexual harassment allegations unearthed by the New York Times, spanning decades — also happens to be one of the most praised people in Hollywood.

Weinstein has been thanked about 34 times in Oscar speeches, according to a 2015 Vocativ study — although it's likely the number has risen in the past two years.

Meryl Streep even referred to Weinstein as "God" in her 2012 Golden Globes acceptance speech.

But Streep has since condemned the producer, calling Weinstein's alleged behavior "inappropriate," "disgraceful," and "inexcusable" in a statement released Monday.

But besides Streep, and a handful of other actors who have spoken out, there has been a notable silence in Hollywood. 

"Ladies of Hollywood, your silence is deafening," actress Rose McGowan tweeted on Friday.

The "silence" McGowan is referring to isn't imagined. Many in Hollywood are refusing to comment on the accusations made against the producer, according to an article published by The New York Times Sunday.

The Times reportedly reached out to 40 people in the entertainment industry, from Thursday to Saturday, and nearly every single person declined to speak on the record.

One publicist for an "A-list actress" reportedly told the Times that were wasn't an "upside" for her client to provide a comment, "since she did not have a movie to promote."

Claudia Eller, a Variety editor who spoke to the Times, said she believed that "there is still a lot of fear" when it comes to admonishing the producer, because the question of whether or not Weinstein is "really done" has yet to be answered. 

On Sunday, Weinstein was fired from The Weinstein Company, which he helped found with his brother Bob Weinstein. And since then, a few more voices have spoken out (like Kevin Smith, who said he was "ashamed").

But many have not — yet. Superstars from Jennifer Lawrence to Christoph Waltz have publicly praised Weinstein. Will they now publicly disavow him, as Streep has done?

Here are 12 famous actors who publicly praised and thanked Weinstein:

SEE ALSO: Harvey Weinstein says he's taking a leave of absence after sexual harassment allegations surface

Gwyneth Paltrow

Paltrow thanked Weinstein during her acceptance speech for her first Academy Award win in 1999. Paltrow won the award for best actress for her performance in "Shakespeare in Love."

"I would like to thank Harvey Weinstein, and everyone at Miramax films for their undying support of me," Paltrow said.

Gwyneth Paltrow did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.



Meryl Streep

“I want to thank God: Harvey Weinstein. The punisher. Old Testament, I guess," Streep said while accepting the Golden Globe for her role in "The Iron Lady."

While Weinstein once received high praise from the actress, Streep has since condemned the producer in a statement she released Monday, in which she called the producer's behavior "disgraceful."

"The behavior is inexcusable, but the abuse of power familiar. Each brave voice that is raised, heard and credited by our watchdog media will ultimately change the game,” Streep wrote.



Ben Affleck

"Harvey Weinstein, who believed in us, and made this movie," Affleck said nervously while accepting his Oscar for best screenwriting with Matt Damon in 1997. 

The pair won the award for their breakout hit "Good Will Hunting."

Ben Affleck did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Harvey Weinstein's name will reportedly be taken off movie and TV projects

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Harvey Weinstein Andreas Rentz Getty final

Life after Harvey Weinstein has begun at The Weinstein Company. 

The producer, who launched TWC with his brother Bob in 2005, after they left Miramax, has had the biggest names in Hollywood attached to his projects.

But following a story in the New York Times last week, which surfaced decades of sexual harassment allegations from the likes of Ashley Judd, his name is suddenly disappearing from upcoming projects.

Deadline reports that The Weinstein Company is currently taking Weinstein's name off any TV series he has an executive producer credit on, and is planning to wipe his name from upcoming movie releases.

Project Runway LifetimeThis followed a flood of calls The Weinstein Company received from TV executives who wanted to distance their shows from the controversy.

The purge will begin Wednesday with Lifetime's "Project Runway," the first Weinstein Company-produced show to air after the sexual harassment allegations, according to Deadline. Shows "Six" on the History Channel and "Scream" on MTV will also take off the credit.

It's unclear which movie titles will take out Weinstein's name, but seeing the influence his name had on the movies he backed, which often led to Oscar nominations and wins, it's a good guess all Weinstein Company movies will take out his name. 

The Weinstein Company board fired Weinstein on Sunday. According to Deadline, the company will soon be meeting with ad agencies to discuss a company name change.

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Movie theaters are being pummeled by a surprisingly poor Blade Runner performance (AMC, RGC, CNK)

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Blade Runner 2049 Warner Bros

Movie theater stocks are getting hammered after the poor performance of Blade Runner 2049.

The movie was the best performing film on its opening weekend but pulled in much less than expected. The 35-year-later sequel to "Blade Runner" was expected to make between $45 - $55 million on its opening weekend but only grabbed $31.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

AMC Entertainment was down 6.74%, Cinemark was down 3.56% and Regal was down 3.99%. The movie missed estimates by as much as $23.5 million, but the Monday drop in stock price for the cinemas wiped about $303.23 million of value from the three companies.

The movie was received well by fans and critics but was about 2.5 hours long and catered to fans of the original movie. According to Cinemascore, only 14% of the weekend's watchers were under 25.

The movie cost about $150 million to make and market, according to Box Office Mojo. Its predecessor brought in $32.8 million in its lifetime, and was the second most popular movie on its opening weekend, coming in under the blockbuster E.T. 

The movie theaters Monday drop just continues their 2017 declines. Cinemark is down 8.5% this year, Regal is down 27.98% this year and AMC is down 59.18% this year.

Read more about "Blade Runner 2049's" opening weekend here.

amc stock price

SEE ALSO: 'Blade Runner 2049' wins the weekend box office but shockingly underperforms

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Harvey Weinstein sent an email to Hollywood power players begging for their help hours before he was fired

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Harvey

On Sunday, Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was fired from his position at The Weinstein Company, which he cofounded — but he didn't go quietly.

Now there's proof that Weinstein fought to keep his job.

On Monday afternoon, Janice Min, The Hollywood Reporter's former top editor, tweeted an email Weinstein sent to powerful people in Hollywood asking for a second chance, hours before he was fired.

"Whether it be in a facility or somewhere else, allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance," Weinstein reportedly wrote. "A lot of the allegations are false as you know but given therapy and counseling as other people have done, I think I'd be able to get there."

Min also tweeted that Hollywood power players like Ron Meyer, David Zaslav, and Jeffrey Katzenberg refused to support Weinstein.

Weinstein's swift fall from grace has come at the hands of a New York Times report, published on Thursday, which exposed Weinstein's alleged history of sexual harassment against multiple women for decades, including actress Ashley Judd.

Before Weinstein's firing on Sunday, he took a leave of absence from the company. But he was hoping to return, as he clarified in a response to The Times.

In the email uncovered by Min, Weinstein indicated that he wanted to fight to stay in the company:

"We believe that what the board is trying to do is not only wrong but might be illegal and would destroy the company. If you could write this letter backing me, getting me help and time away I need, and also stating your opposition to the board firing me, it would help me a lot. I am desperate for your help."

You can read the full email here, in Janice Min's Tweet:

SEE ALSO: 12 famous actors who have publicly praised and thanked Harvey Weinstein, and what they are saying now

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How Harvey Weinstein built the $150 million Hollywood empire that just fired him

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harvey weinstein serious

Harvey Weinstein has been ousted from his own company after a bombshell New York Times report detailed nearly three decades of inappropriate behavior towards women in Hollywood.

The film producer and cofounder of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company built an empire from scratch out of Buffalo, New York. 

A behemoth in the media industry, he became a major fundraiser to the Democratic party, positioning himself as a liberal lion and champion of feminism.

But these ideals have come up against the reports he harassed women for years, roiling public opinion and leading to his firing Sunday.

Here's a look at Weinstein's career over the past 30 years.

SEE ALSO: The Department of Justice is allegedly investigating Harvard's admissions practices

Weinstein was born in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in 1952 to parents Miriam and Max.

He and his brother Bob grew up in small two-bedroom apartment in "a lower-middle-class housing development called Elechester," Bob wrote in Vanity Fair.

Both Harvey and Bob had a passion for the movie business that started when they were kids in Queens going to the Mayfair movie theater to see foreign films.

Weinstein left Queens to attend college at the University of Buffalo. He stuck around in Buffalo to start a concert promotion business called Harvey and Corky Productions.



He bought the Century Theater in downtown Buffalo, and began showing movies when the theater wasn't being used for concerts.

His younger brother, Bob, moved to Buffalo to join him.



Together, in 1979, they created the small independent film distribution company Miramax, a portmanteau of their parent's names: Miriam and Max.

"Miramax virtually created the art house boom in the 1990s by turning offbeat and inexpensive movies like 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Shakespeare in Love' into mainstream hits," wrote the New York Times.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Harvey Weinstein reportedly tried to intimidate his employees into silence in the days before he was fired

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Harvey Weinstein Jamie McCarthy Getty final

When things started getting hot for Harvey Weinstein, he reportedly turned to a reliable strategy: intimidation.

The movie producer, who has now been fired from The Weinstein Company following numerous sexual harassment allegations, tried to intimidate staffers into not cooperating with the independent investigation against him, according to Variety.

This follows years of stories (many just coming out now) of bullying by Weinstein toward those who dared to stand up against the infamously temperamental studio mogul.

Since the story in the The New York Times last week, which revealed the three decades of alleged sexual harassment by Weinstein, The Weinstein Company board has hired John Kiernan, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, to investigate those claims.

TWC fired its cofounder on Sunday.

Business Insider contacted The Weinstein Company to comment but did not receive an immediate response. However, a TWC representative told Variety “Mr. Weinstein unequivocally denies these allegations” of intimidating staffers to not cooperate in the investigation.  

SEE ALSO: 12 famous actors who have publicly praised and thanked Harvey Weinstein, and what they are saying now

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There's a simple reason that Nintendo can't keep up with demand for the SNES Classic and other consoles

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There's not much to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition, Nintendo's new $80 retro console. 

So why's it so hard to find one to buy?

Super NES Classic Edition

When retailers started taking pre-orders of the device in August, they reached their fill almost immediately. When the game machine hit stores late last month, many consumers went home disappointed. And it looks like few, if any, retailers have been able to restock their shelves. 

The situation has started to resemble those for Nintendo's Switch and Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition, both of which were in short supply after the company released them. 

If you're thinking there's some kind of conspiracy that's keeping the consoles out of your hands, that just isn't case, Nintendo of America senior VP of sales and marketing Doug Bowser told Business Insider in an interview on Saturday. Instead, the problem boils down to much more mundane issues, he said

"We try to do the best we can with forecasting and anticipating demand, and to put a plan in place" said Bowser, who was in New York for the 2017 Nintendo World Championships, a fan event that pits players against each other in a variety of the company's games. But, he added, "if you see a steep ramp-up in demand, it takes some time to catch up." 

And it's not something that can be solved quickly.  

"When you think about procurement of parts, procurement of manufacturing facilities, getting [production] ramped up — that takes some time to respond," he said. 

nintendo switch launch

Supply issues have been a repeated and persistent problem for Nintendo in 2017. 

The $60 NES Classic was nearly impossible to find before it was discontinued in April. Nintendo is putting the console back into production in 2018 — a direct response to overwhelming demand.

Meanwhile, the Switch has been short on supply until recently. It's still not as simple as walking in to your local Best Buy and picking one up, although Bowser said the situation should improve.

"You'll see a lot stronger supply as we float through the remainder of our fiscal year," he said.

Bowser had a similarly hopeful message for fans still trying to buy an SNES Classic. 

"We're really focused on trying to get as much SNES to the market as possible," he said. He added: "You'll see a much stronger flow of product than you did on NES. Lesson learned from the past!"

SEE ALSO: The mini $80 Super Nintendo has already been hacked to play hundreds of games

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Radio thrives as a place for music discovery despite the streaming threat

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Although it seems like streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are dominating the music scene, the 2017 edition of Nielsen's Music 360 report found that 49% of people still discover new tunes via good ol' fashioned AM/FM radio. As you can see in this chart from Statista, that compares 27% who use online music services.

Music discovery is one of the largest ways music streaming services have tried to differentiate themselves. Spotify created "Discover Weekly" playlists to present listeners with a tailored list of songs every Monday. 

According to the report, the main reason people are such radio fans is because of the DJs – one thing online streaming services would have a hard time replicating. 

 

 Chart of the Day 10/9

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The latest 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' trailer is here and it looks epic

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The latest "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" trailer is here, and it looks amazing. Rey is training with Luke, Finn is taking on Captain Phasma, and Chewbacca has a surprise passenger.

The movie is scheduled to hit theaters December 15, 2017.

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The new 'The Last Jedi' trailer may give away a major spoiler

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the force awakens 2 lucasfilm

The new trailer for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" went online Monday night, and it didn't disappoint.

Luke teaching Rey the ways of the force! Porgs! But the biggest moment is Kylo Ren flying his ship towards what looks to be the command ship General Leia is in ... and about to fire on it. Did we just get a major spoiler? (Hope not.)

A new poster for the movie was also revealed Monday.

Here it is:

the last jedi poster lucasfilm
"The Last Jedi" is directed by Rian Johnson ("Looper") and will see the return of "The Force Awakens" stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, and Oscar Isaac alongside the legendary members of the original trilogy, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016. It will mark Fisher's final film performance.

Advance online tickets are now available.

Watch the trailer below. "The Last Jedi" opens in theaters December 15.

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Apple reportedly scrapped an Elvis Presley biopic following the Harvey Weinstein allegations (AAPL)

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harvey weinstein

Apple has pulled out of plans for a video series about Elvis Presley's life, according to a report from Deadline, following allegations of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein, whose firm The Weinstein Company (TWC) was producing it.

On Thursday, The New York Times published a bombshell report alleging that the legendary Hollywood power player had settled with at least eight women over several decades over allegations of sexual harassment.

Weinstein has since been fired from the company he founded, and Hollywood is reeling from the exposé.

The Elvis Presley biopic series being produced by TWC was, Deadline reported, still in its early stages. There were also allegedly potential plans to expand the format to subsequently cover the likes of Michael Jackson and Prince.

TWC is now reportedly talking to other networks that had bid on the show before Apple secured it.

Apple did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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Stephen Colbert mocks Harvey Weinstein's apology, and calls his behavior 'monstrous'

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Stephen Colbert

Since The New York Times published a bombshell report last week filled with sexual harassment accusations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, most late-night hosts had kept quiet — until Monday. 

"The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert didn't hold back in his jokes about Weinstein. “If you’re not familiar," Colbert said, "Harvey Weinstein is responsible for 'The English Patient,' 'Good Will Hunting,' 'Shakespeare in Love,' and other movies your mom liked in the '90s."

Colbert mentioned that Weinstein was fired from his own company over the scandal, and that more stories are coming out, including one from a TV journalist who told the Huffington Post that Weinstein pleasured himself in front of her and ejaculated into a potted plant. 

“Pro tip: If you ever have dinner at Harvey Weinstein’s house, avoid the fresh basil,” Colbert said. “And after the salad’s been served, when he comes around the table, that’s not a pepper grinder he’s holding. Get out of there.”

Colbert called Weinstein's behavior "monstrous" and mocked his apology to the New York Times, in which he blamed his upbringing in the '60s and '70s for his behavior. Colbert also mentioned that Weinstein's lawyers called him an "old dinosaur learning new ways."

“Okay, A: That’s no excuse.” Colbert said. “B: Dinosaurs did not touch themselves in front of the employees. The T-Rex’s arms were way too short.”

Then Colbert, like John Oliver on Sunday night, addressed the one-year anniversary of the Donald Trump "Access Hollywood" tape being leaked, and how President Trump dismissed it as “locker room talk” yet again over the weekend.

“Mr. President, saying ‘locker room’ does not excuse it,” Colbert said. “That’s like Harvey Weinstein saying ‘Masturbating into potted plants? That’s green house talk.'”

Colbert wasn't the only only host to connect Weinstein with Trump.

After a Twitter fight over the weekend with Donald Trump Jr. over the matter, Jimmy Kimmel mentioned that Hillary Clinton has now unknowingly accepted campaign dollars from two men accused of sexual misconduct: Harvey Weinstein (a longtime supporter of the Democratic party) and Donald Trump (he donated to her 2008 campaign).

You can watch Colbert's monologue below:

SEE ALSO: Harvey Weinstein sent an email to Hollywood power players begging for their help hours before he was fired

Join the conversation about this story »

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A top fashion designer is under fire after calling Harvey Weinstein a 'wonderful' person and saying his accusers may have asked for 'trouble'

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Karan Weinstein

People are slamming fashion mogul Donna Karan for defending film producer Harvey Weinstein after multiple sexual harassment accusations were made against him

"Are we asking for it by presenting all the sensuality and all the sexuality?" Karan said in a red carpet interview with the Daily Mail on Sunday. "And what are we throwing out to our children today, about how to dance and how to preform and what to wear? How much should they show?" 

Karan, best known as the creator of DKNY, described Weinstein and his wife, fashion designer Georgina Chapman, as "wonderful people." She said that Weinstein was being treated as a "symbol," and that he has done some "amazing things." 

Backlash against Karan's comments was swift. 

"Guess what Donna Karan? YOU are the one 'asking for it' because we women won't be buying/wearing your clothes anymore," reads one comment on Karan's Facebook page. "You're a f-n disgrace."

donna k

"I need a fashion consultation. What should I wear if I want a man to corner me in a hallway and jack off into a potted plant?" reads another, alluding to an allegation against Weinstein. 

On Monday, Karan released a statement saying that her remarks were taken out of context and that she believes  "sexual harassment is NOT acceptable and this is an issue that MUST be addressed once and for all regardless of the individual."

However, many people are still threatening to boycott Karan and the DKNY brand. 

"What kind of person would risk their brand by defending a pervert who just got fired from his OWN company?" reads a comment on DKNY's Facebook page. "Won't be buying anything from this brand ever again."

"I didn't 'ask for it' when I was assaulted," reads another. "And won't EVER ask for DKNY again."

The Weinstein Company announced Sunday that Weinstein had been fired from the company he cofounded following numerous sexual harassment allegations. Last week, the New York Times reported that the film production company's cofounder had settled lawsuits by at least eight women over sexual harassment claims.

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Harvey Weinstein has donated over $1 million to Democrats since 2000 – here are some of the biggest names

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Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is one of the Democratic Party's most prolific donors.

Since the 2000 election cycle, Weinstein has donated nearly $1 million in his own name in addition to collecting and providing roughly $1.5 million as a part of "bundled" donations, which the Center for Responsive Politics defines as contributions provided by "people with friends in high places who, after bumping against personal contribution limits, turn to those friends, associates, and, well, anyone who's willing to give, and deliver the checks to the candidate."

Top Democrats including former President Barack Obama, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand have all received contributions from Weinstein, the Hollywood mega-executive who co-founded Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company.

On Thursday, The New York Times reported on Weinstein's decades of alleged sexual misconduct. The Times reported that Weinstein pressured younger women into giving him massages and asked them to watch him bathe, among other harassment. By Friday, Weinstein was suspended from his company, the Associated Press reported.

Almost immediately, Democrats began facing pressure to return their donations from Weinstein. So far, a number of prominent Democrats already have.

BuzzFeed reported that, as of Friday afternoon, 10 Democratic senators have donated campaign contributions from Weinstein to charity. They include Sens. Chuck Schumer, Martin Heinrich, Patrick Leahy, Richard Blumenthal, Kamala Harris, Booker, Warren, Gillibrand, and Franken. Many of the charities were either national or local nonprofits focused on combating sexual violence.

The Democratic National Committee, which received more than $300,000 from Weinstein since 2000, decided to donate more than $30,000 to left-leaning political groups that support Democratic female candidates.

Editor's Note: The donations included are all of Weinstein's contributions to candidates in federal elections and national political organizations since 2000.

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Morgan Freeman talks Pussy Riot, the keys to longevity, and his new National Geographic show

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The Story of Us With Morgan Freeman

In Morgan Freeman's new National Geographic show, "The Story of Us," he travels the globe interviewing a multitude of people, including a few famous public figures, to shed light on the common bonds of the human experience. 

Business Insider spoke to Freeman and the show's producers, James Younger and Lori McCreary, at a hotel suite in New York City.

We discussed Freeman's interviews with Bill Clinton and Nadya Tolokno of Pussy Riot for the series, his personal keys to longevity, and the show's mission to, as Freeman put it, "reduce the amount of tension between people who don't know each other."

("The Story of Us" premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST on National Geographic.) 

John Lynch: Mr. Freeman, your interviewing in the series is incredible and really the driving force of the show, as opposed to a voiceover narration. What made that face-to-face element the best way to tell these stories?

Morgan Freeman: Eye contact. Eye contact is part of any storytelling interview. Interviewing someone and having eye contact, you get much more information because the eyes talk, too. And going and sitting down with these people also gives it more legitimacy. 

James Younger: I've done lots of work with documentaries where there isn't an on-camera interviewer. As a producer, you sort of sit behind the camera lens and ask a bunch of questions, and that is an eye-to-eye conversation. But there's something different about having Morgan on camera. Because he is Morgan, people tend to look at him and don't think about the cameras, so it ends up becoming a very human conversation, a much stronger emotional connection. And Morgan's so great at, you know, I guess, being an actor. He's quite good at figuring out how to get people into these emotions.

Lori McCreary: Drawing people out too. He draws people out in a way that sometimes we don't even know where it's going to go, and we get more information than we expected.

Freeman: Well, actually, the secret to all of it is listening.

Lynch: Your passion to enlist in the US Air Force is a touchstone throughout the series. At one point in the show, you speak to an American drone strike officer who told you he regretted his service. Did that conversation change your perspective of the modern military at all?

Freeman: No, not at all. The military. It's a necessary evil. I put it in those terms because we just launched our eleventh aircraft carrier. No other country in the world has more than one, and we have eleven. My feeling about the military is, as I said, it's a necessary evil. We don't need what we got. Personally, I think we'd do a lot better dealing with home, infrastructure, education. Look at Puerto Rico. We claim not to be able to deal with that? Horse-pucky.

Lynch: What can you tell me about the filming of your interview with Nadya from Pussy Riot? How did that come about?

Younger: I'm not quite sure how we got in touch with her. It was through a contact who knew her. What's really interesting about her is how she's so adaptable. She's kind of a self-professed troublemaker. Whatever's going wrong, she's going to say something about it. She's in the US now, and she's found a whole bunch of other stuff to get engaged with. She's a motivator of people. She's one of these people who is a magnet, attracts other people who feel the same way.

Freeman: Yeah. It's a certain kind of extant courage. There are people who think things are wrong. And then there are people who have an absolute need to say it, to stand up and say, "That's wrong!" She's one of those. And I love the name. It makes a point.

Lynch: At another point in the show, a homeless man in London says he recognizes you by your voice. As a viewer, it sort of felt like a "voice of God" moment, as people have described your voice. How does it feel to know that your voice spans the globe in that way?

Freeman: I don't think about it.

Younger: You know, what I think was interesting about that conversation was not really that it was Morgan's voice, but that Morgan addressed him by his name. I'm sure he knew Morgan was a famous Hollywood actor, but to be spoken to made him feel human. Someone who goes around with this mess of outgrown hair and doesn't have a name to the millions of people that have walked past him in his life, he's just an object, an animate object. To feel human like that...

McCreary: Yeah, when Morgan called him Stuart, you saw this...

[Pause.]

Lynch: Definitely, it was a moving moment. On another note, what can you tell me about your extended conversation with Bill Clinton for the series? What did you all take away from it?

McCreary: Well, it's always great to talk and listen to Bill. Some days are better than others in America these days, depending on what's going on in the news, and I think all of us just came in thinking, "Okay, we're going to have an interview." And then two hours later, all of us felt buoyed up. He has a historical perspective, a world perspective about what's going on, not only here but around the world, that is so hopeful. That Martin Luther King quote...

Younger: "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." We started making this series before all the events of the last year, and we were making a film about tribalism, about how we all lock ourselves into different beliefs. And it was sitting down with President Clinton when he really crystallized that being about "The Story of Us," and the story of them. And that we are always stronger when us can expand and include them. So that was a powerful thing.

Lynch: Mr. Freeman, at 80, doing this show and going across the world in such a rapid production, you're still spry, and you're killing it...

McCreary and Younger: [laughs]

Lynch: ... what's your secret to longevity in your life and career?

Freeman: Discipline. Exercise, part of your discipline. How you eat, part of your discipline. I try not to overeat. One of the things that I discovered somewhere back down the line was that eating, for us particularly here, has become a habit, not necessarily a need. So if you try to keep it down to need, it's going to be much better for you. You know there are more obese people in the US than probably anywhere else? Because we can feed them. And in the time in history when everybody had a job, an actually physical job to do — you get up in the morning, and you get your hoe or your axe or your saw, or whatever the tool it is that you're using, and you use it. And then at noon, you stop using it and refuel, and then you use it some more, and then you go home, and you refuel. Aha! Now, let's say you get up in the morning, and you brush your teeth, you comb your hair and put on a suit. And you go and sit down at a desk. You haven't used up anything, comparatively. 

McCreary: And you're refueling, even though you don't need it. 

Younger: I once sat down at a bus stop in Oakland when I was about 20, and there was a guy sitting there, waiting for the bus, older man, probably 75 years old. And he just turned and looked at me and said, "You want to know what the secret to happiness in life is? ... Comfortable shoes." 

All: [laughs]

Lynch: I'm 23, but I can attest to that. Well, I really found the show...

Freeman: Oh, wait a minute. There's one more secret to longevity: Genes. 

McCreary: Jeans? Oh, genes. Not Levis. 

Freeman: No, not blue jeans.

Lynch: Fantastic. Well, I found the show really moving and captivating. What do each of you hope to communicate through the show, for the viewers who experience it?

Freeman: The point of the show, the point of telling people about people, is so that we can, on some level, reduce the amount of tension between people who don't know each other. 

Younger: We live in a time of increasing tribalism. We, humanity, got to where we are now because of tribalism, because we knew how to group together and do things together as communities. And now, we're in this phase where the all tribes are bumping up against each other, and we've got all this tension. And so we've got to get over that, this phase of tribalism, without losing our local culture. So the series is really about that. How do we get to know each other so we don't have that animosity between cultures. 

McCreary: I think there's some kind of human instinct to be with people that look like us, that like the same things as us, which is what James is talking about in terms of tribalism. And I think our show really highlights, instead of that instinct, the human spirit that is an outgrowth of these clashes we have because of our instincts. And the human spirit is what can take us out of that and into reconciliation in Rwanda, or in Bosnia. When I look at what happened in Rwanda or Bosnia, and then I think about how amazing their reconciliations are, then I look at America, and I think, okay, there's hope, there's definitely hope for us. If those countries can go through what they did and come out the way they did, then maybe we can also do the same. 

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Martin Scorsese goes nuclear on Rotten Tomatoes in a scathing column

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martin scorsese

Rotten Tomatoes has had its share of directors who have publicly voiced their hatred of the review aggregator site. And now you can add a living legend to the list.

In a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter that went online Tuesday, Martin Scorsese ripped into the popular site.

Voicing his displeasure with the box-office culture the movie industry has become since the 1980s, the Oscar-winning director then shifted to the industry scapegoat, Rotten Tomatoes.

Though general audiences use the site often to gauge what movies are getting "fresh" reviews from a collection of critics (or "rotten" ones), most filmmakers — especially the old guard — don't get the attraction.

In March, director/producer Brett Ratner called the site a "the destruction of our business," and now Scorsese has added that it's "set a tone that is hostile to serious filmmakers."

"They rate a picture the way you’d rate a horse at the racetrack, a restaurant in a Zagat’s guide, or a household appliance in Consumer Reports," Scorsese wrote, also calling out CinemaScore, which does exit polling of wide releases on opening weekends. "They have everything to do with the movie business and absolutely nothing to do with either the creation or the intelligent viewing of film. The filmmaker is reduced to a content manufacturer and the viewer to an unadventurous consumer."

And Scorsese wasn't done.

mother movie paramount"Even the actual name Rotten Tomatoes is insulting. And as film criticism written by passionately engaged people with actual knowledge of film history has gradually faded from the scene, it seems like there are more and more voices out there engaged in pure judgmentalism, people who seem to take pleasure in seeing films and filmmakers rejected, dismissed and in some cases ripped to shreds."

The criticism to Rotten Tomatoes comes when the site is at its zenith. Studios market movies using "fresh" Rotten Tomatoes scores all the time, and this past summer Sony purposely held the review embargo of its release "The Emoji Movie" to just hours before Thursday preview screenings, so its eventual "rotten" score (for a day or so it was at 0%) wouldn't affect its box office. The movie earned a surprising $24.5 million its opening weekend.  

"Good films by real filmmakers aren’t made to be decoded, consumed or instantly comprehended," Scorsese went on, highlighting the work of Darren Aronofsky's "Mother!," which received a "F" through CinemaScore.

"They’re not even made to be instantly liked. They’re just made, because the person behind the camera had to make them."

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What 'everybody knew' about Harvey Weinstein should have been enough for him to face consequences

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Harvey Weinstein Jamie McCarthy Getty final

I believe stars like Meryl Streep and George Clooney when they say they didn't know the extent of Harvey Weinstein's misbehavior behind closed hotel room doors.

When a scandal like this happens, we often hear that "everybody knew" what the offender had been up to, but the real story is more that everybody knew some fragments of what he'd been up to, and not necessarily the worst ones.

But we should consider whether Weinstein's public misbehavior — the stuff everybody really did know about — should have been unacceptable enough for him to face consequences years ago.

As The New Yorker's Ken Auletta wrote in 2002: "Those who have been witness to his outbursts, public and private, describe not a lovable rogue but, rather, a man with little self-control, whose tone of voice and whose body language can seem dangerous; at times, he appears about to burst with fury, his fists closed, his teeth clenched, his large head shaking as he loses the struggle to contain himself."

There are endless stories about Weinstein's volcanic temper and abuse towards all sorts of people — assistants, waitstaff, actors, other producers. Last week, Vulture collected 17 of them, spanning decades. He once threw Nathan Lane against the wall at Hillary Clinton's birthday party, according to Lane, because he didn't like a joke Lane had told about Rudy Giuliani.

"In Hollywood, everyone seems to have a favorite Harvey tirade," Vanity Fair wrote in March 2011. "The time he told The New York Observer he was 'the f------ sheriff of this f------ lawless piece of s--- town.' The time he screamed at Terry McAuliffe, then chairman of the Democratic Party, over some now forgotten bit of political trivia: 'You motherf-----! I'll rip your balls off!' (Weinstein denies this happened.)"

If a man behaved the way Weinstein behaved in public, shouldn't have been possible to deduce that he was up to something even worse in private?

In the coming weeks, there will be a lot of necessary discussion of why powerful predators like Weinstein get tolerated in entertainment and other industries. One possible step to contain private abuse is to better police publicly abusive behavior — to recognize that the stereotypical 'phone-throwing boss' is likely to misbehave in all sorts of unseen ways if his public abuse is tolerated.

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