Disney-ABC TV Begins Layoffs, Restructuring
Update: Harvey Weinstein's Contract Permitted Sexual Harassment, So Long as He Reimbursed the Company for Any Settlements His Behavior Forced Them to Pay Out

O happy day!

But the cuts are smaller than expected.

Disney/ABC Television Group has begun laying off employees, part of a long-anticipated restructuring and reallocation of resources at the Walt Disney Company’s non-sports broadcast and cable television arm.

A source tells Variety that the company began notifying affected employees Thursday morning. The volume of employees impacted is said to be significantly lower than the 10% workforce cut that had been speculated when news broke of the layoff plan six weeks ago.

Note this is non-sports, so it's not about ESJWPN, although, of course, ESJWPN already went through a major round of cuts back in April.

The article notes, as many do, that cord-cutting is responsible for a lot of this.

But I'd like to think we all did our own little part too.

In other media news:

The Producers Guild of America has called an emergency meeting to decide if Harvey Weinstein should be permitted to remain a member. The expectation is that they'll decide to eject him.

Rose McGowan confirms what she previously only (strongly) hinted at -- that when she previously claimed to have been raped by a Hollywood executive, she meant Harvey Weinstein.

She also launches a series of accusations at Jeff Bezos for ignoring her warnings and "bailing out" Weinstein. Frankly, I don't understand this part of her screed and I'm not at all certain I'm even getting the gist of her accusations right. She's calling out Bezos for something, though.

At the Daily Signal, Katrina Trinko writes about the very superficial nature of Hollywood's version of "feminism," where everything seems to be about donating to Planned Parenthood and nothing seems to be about sanding up to men accused of rape.

And at Instapundit, sci-fi writer John Ringo says that progressive Hollywood women cannot blame their actual tormentors like Harvey Weinstein, and, knowing their own guilt in not publicly accusing such people, transfer their anger and venom to people they don't even know and don't even live within fifty miles of them -- conservative men.

Given "associative sorting" in industries, dating and marriage, and even zip codes, with people only associating with their close kin as far as culture and ideology, it does seem likely that the chief victimizers of wealthy white liberal feminists are, get this, wealthy white liberal men -- I'm not sure they even know more than five or six conservative men or the Trump Voters they all seem to be so scared of, knowing them only through that actor who did a really great job portraying one on Law & Order:SVU those fifteen times.

Oh, and one more thing:

What?

Speaking of associative sorting. Now this is some really demographically precise associative sorting:

Harvey Weinstein's wife is leaning on Huma Abedin

Harvey Weinstein’s estranged wife, Georgina Chapman, is leaning on fellow scorned spouse Huma Abedin after announcing that she is leaving the movie mogul.

....

Chapman and Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s top aide, have known each other for some time because of Weinstein’s numerous fundraising events for the former presidential hopeful. Plus, the Clintons rented a Hamptons house next door to Weinstein and Chapman’s Amagansett estate for three summers.

Apparently they all summered together on Sex Crime Cove.

Well I'm done for the night -- but LauraW has a rebuttal to my demand that she apologize for thinking Ben Affleck is cute.

(Look, when that posts, bear in mind it's meant to be funny, and not a genuine defense of Affleck, okay?)

WOW: Big breaking news from TMZ: Harvey Weinstein's contract with the Weinstein Company specified that sexual harassment would not be grounds for his termination, so long as he paid the costs of settlements the company paid out of his own pocket.

Harvey Weinstein may have been fired illegally by The Weinstein Company, a company that wrote a contract that said Weinstein could get sued over and over for sexual harassment and as long as he shelled out money, that was good enough for the Company.

TMZ is privy to Weinstein's 2015 employment contract, which says if he gets sued for sexual harassment or any other "misconduct" that results in a settlement or judgment against TWC, all Weinstein has to do is pay what the company's out, along with a fine, and he's in the clear.

According to the contract, if Weinstein "treated someone improperly in violation of the company's Code of Conduct," he must reimburse TWC for settlements or judgments. Additionally, "You [Weinstein] will pay the company liquidated damages of $250,000 for the first such instance, $500,000 for the second such instance, $750,000 for the third such instance, and $1,000,000 for each additional instance."

The contract says as long as Weinstein pays, it constitutes a "cure" for the misconduct and no further action can be taken. Translation -- Weinstein could be sued over and over and as long as he wrote a check, he keeps his job.

Yeah, I don't think a mere change of name is going to do it, guys.

I really have to think that this exposes the company to additional suits against itself for essentially making sexual assault into a swear jar offense, so long as he wasn't arrested or convicted of a crime.

posted by Ace at 07:08 PM

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