According to The Daily Beast, which published an extensive story dealing with former Harvey Weinstein attorney Lisa Bloom’s machinations, Bloom contacted NBC’s Ronan Farrow with information that she thought would discredit Rose McGowan, one of Weinstein’s chief accusers.
As The Daily Beast reports, Farrow was in the midst of his investigation of Weinstein when Bloom contacted him, allegedly saying, “I don’t know if you’ve talked to Rose McGowan, but we have files on her and her … history.”
Farrow had already interviewed McGowan, an interview that was not published as McGowan feared violating a non-disclosure agreement from a $100,000 settlement from Weinstein.
Asked by The Daily Beast about the interaction, Bloom responded, “I don’t have any comment on anything related to Harvey Weinstein. I am not authorized to answer any further questions to any reporter about Harvey Weinstein.”
The Beast also notes, “Especially damaging was a New York Times report that after the newspaper published its Oct. 5 blockbuster about the now-fired studio chief, Bloom had contacted the board of TWC, according to leaked emails, to suggest releasing ‘photos of several of the accusers in very friendly poses with Harvey after his alleged misconduct.’”
After Bloom very publicly disassociated from Weinstein, McGowan expressed her contempt, writing on Facebook:
Your very name makes my stomach clench with a stressed tightness that takes my breath away. As does your mercenary act of depravity. Did you think of how it would affect victims to see you champion a rapist? How it felt to those you once “fought for,” for them to know that you used them. You remember them right? They were the victims of assaults, women you’d previously helped. You lied to those hurt women and hid your true character. You wanted a shortcut to fame.
The Beast illuminates the circuitous method Bloom used to ferret out whether Farrow was indeed investigating Weinstein:
The calls started when Bloom phoned him out of the blue early this year, ostensibly to offer leads for an investigation she heard he was pursuing for NBC News. “I’ve heard you’re working on a story involving NDAs in Hollywood,” Bloom said, according to the sources. “I know a lot about that,” she added, mentioning that she could put Farrow in touch with several of her actress-clients including Angela White, aka the model and reality-television star Blac Chyna, who was preparing a tabloid-ready lawsuit against ex-fiancé Rob Kardashian and his notorious TV family.
Farrow was reportedly initially reluctant to confess anything to Bloom. He was unaware that she was involved with Weinstein, but ultimately acknowledged to Bloom that he was investigating Weinstein and swore her to secrecy.
The Beast reports what happened next:
Yet no sooner had Farrow divulged to Bloom his interest in Weinstein than executives at NBC and Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency, Farrow’s professional representatives, began to receive a barrage of calls and letters, as the movie mogul (a longtime pal of NBC Universal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer and others at the company he’d done business with) sought to wield every ounce of leverage to stop Farrow’s investigation.
Weinstein attorney Charles Harder, Hulk Hogan’s former lawyer who famously helped bankrupt Gawker Media, was especially aggressive, threatening to sue Farrow personally, in what one recipient of Harder’s letters (which listed Bloom as his co-counsel) described as a campaign to discredit the messenger.