Jessica Mann stunned a New York courtroom in 2020 when she described her encounters with Harvey Weinstein – and his "very bad" hygiene.
The co-founder of the Miramax entertainment company and The Weinstein Company film studio was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, having produced films such as "Pulp Fiction" and "The Crying Game."
He also became the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement after women began to go public in 2017 with accounts of his behavior. The 70-year-old is serving a 23-year sentence after his 2020 conviction in New York for raping an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulting a production assistant at his apartment in 2006. The jury convicted Weinstein on the charge of third degree rape, based on Mann’s disturbing testimony.
Recently, author Ken Auletta has written a new book titled "Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence," which explores Weinstein’s early years before fame, his rise to power and eventual downfall. Auletta spoke to film stars, Miramax employees, old friends and family members, including brother Bob Weinstein. Auletta said he also exchanged several emails with Weinstein in prison and covered his trial.
Attorneys for Weinstein did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment concerning the book.
In Auletta’s book, Weinstein’s alleged victims described how they found him repellent. Mann, in particular, gave graphic descriptions at a Manhattan courthouse where she claimed Weinstein smelled of "poop" and had blackheads scattered across his back with an "uncomfortable" texture. Mann claimed she witnessed his "deformed and intersex" genitalia when he raped and sexually assaulted her in early 2013. Mann also claimed he had extreme scarring, and she once found evidence that he was using a drug that would induce an erection.
"Harvey had some notion in his head that his body was attractive," Auletta told Fox News Digital. "I remember the district attorney passed around pictures… and the jurors barely looked at them. They just showed them to the next person. They were that disgusted. They had no interest in looking at these pictures. I remember I kept looking at Harvey. He would just sit in his chair without expression. Sometimes he fell asleep."
"[Based on the accounts], he really thought he was God’s gift, a Don Juan," Auletta added.
Auletta said he confronted Weinstein back in 2002 over rape allegations for his New Yorker profile. Auletta said that his first impression of Weinstein was that of "a beast."
"I came within inches of nailing him on assaulting women, but I couldn’t get any of the women to talk to me," Auletta explained. "And he denied it. He said, ‘These are all consensual affairs.’ But when the New York Times and the New Yorker exposed him in 2017, I was applauding. However, I still had a series of questions. What made Harvey become this monster? How did he get away with this for years? Who enabled him to do this? Didn’t people know he was abusing women? Why did they keep silent about it? … I wanted to explore what happened in Harvey’s home that helped him shape who he became."
Auletta claimed that growing up, Weinstein’s domineering mother, Miriam, would scream and shame her son in front of his friends. Her criticism would often focus on his body. In the early ‘80s, Weinstein began to pack on the pounds.
"I’m not certain what impact it had on his relationship with women," Auletta explained. "I found no evidence that in his early years he raped women. I think that occurred after he became powerful. But people would say he was very much a replica of his mother. His friends were hesitant to stop by his house because Miriam yelled constantly. She wanted to be constantly in control and micromanaged through yelling. That was a pattern that Harvey followed when he launched his production company… He was constantly abusing people verbally."
