USC Rejects Weinstein’s $5 Million Endowment For Women Directors

Another brick in Harvey Weinstein’s crumbling wall of influence has fallen. The University of Southern California (USC) announced on Wednesday that they will reject the movie mogul’s $5 million dollar endowment that was meant to create scholarships for female directors.

“The USC School of Cinematic Arts will not proceed with Mr. Weinstein’s pledge to fund a $5M endowment for women filmmakers,” according to the school.

Shortly after news broke of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment toward women, the Miramax co-founder mentioned his endowment to USC as some kind of proof that he really loves women.

“It will be named after my mom and I won’t disappoint her,” Weinstein said.

The university’s decision came shortly after one of their students, Tiana Lowe, began a Change.org petition demanding they reject the cash.

“In short, he’s doing what guilty men throughout history have done to avoid taking ownership of their actions: blaming a pervasive culture, deflecting focus and buying moral absolution,” Lowe wrote in the petition. “As a woman at USC, the prospect that my university might sell an indulgence to ease Harvey Weinstein’s non-existent guilt saddens me.”

She added, “I’d like USC to finally muster the moral spine to refuse Harvey Weinstein’s blood money in exchange for its soul. We are blessed with the expansive and charitable Trojan family. We don’t need this money. What we need is some damn principles.”

The petition only reached 200 signatures, but USC eventually made the right call and rejected his offer.

A longtime pusher of progressive politics, Weinstein put up a front as some champion of women’s rights. Not only did he donate $100k to Planned Parenthood, but also marched alongside feminists during the so-called “Women’s March” shortly after Trump became president. Weinstein’s endowment to USC was just another attempt to keep that front standing as the walls crumbled all around him.