January 10, 2024 • 29 mins
Don Simpson reigned over Hollywood after joining forces with his producing partner Jerry Bruckheimer in the 1980s. Around town, the studio executive-turned-producer’s addiction to sex workers and drugs was no secret — and for decades, he wielded his power in the industry to continue his nefarious and erratic ways.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show contains mature content and adult themes. It may
not be suitable for young audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
In twenty seventeen, Harvey Weinstein was outed as a serial
sexual abuser. Many brave women came forward and told their stories.
They exposed one of Hollywood's most powerful moguls as a
vicious sexual predator who operated horrifically and seemingly without consequences.
But Weinstein was standing on the shoulders of monsters. For
(00:36):
so many years, those monsters remained unchecked in Hollywood, shielded
by the millions of dollars they made for their studios.
Sex for fame is not new. In fact, it's as
old as Hollywood itself. Today we'll open the Variety Archives
and tell the story of blockbuster movie producer Don Simpson,
(00:57):
the dark princes of movie making. His magic touch for
producing hits gave him a license to prey on women.
This is Variety Confidential, the secret history of the casting
couch from Variety, the leading expert on the entertainment industry,
and iHeart Podcasts. I'm Tracy Patton. Today's episode Don Simpson,
(01:21):
Eighties Hits and Eighties Excesses with Me Today is Matt
Donnelley Variety's senior Entertainment and media writer, Hi Matt Welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Thank you so much for having me. You know, the
story of Don Simpson and all of his abuses is
so much to dig into. He was allowed to slide
for so many years because his movies made a ton
of money.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, it sure seems that way. Don Simpson and his
production partner Jerry Bruckheimer were a power team. They made
some of the most successful movies in Hollywood history, and
one of them was Flash Dance, which I really loved absolutely.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And their biggest hit was Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop
and if my math is correct, adjusted for inflation, that
earned over nine one hundred million dollars the world by
box office in today's value. They also, made, of course
Top Gun, the Tom Cruise classic in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yes, they really were a force in Hollywood. From nineteen
eighty three to nineteen ninety five, Simpson and Bruckheimer produced
ten films that made over three billion dollars. At a
time when Harvey Weinstein was rising to power, Simpson's excesses
and reckless behavior were enabled and covered up his films.
Turned actors like Tom Cruise and Eddie Murphy into household names.
(02:30):
But as Dawn's stature in town rose, so did his
dark side.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
You're talking about someone who was accused of sexual assault,
was a known drug abuser and had frequent angry outbursts
that cost fear among his staff and even his friends.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
And it all came to an end on January nineteenth,
nineteen ninety six, when he was found dead in his home.
Police found a cornucopia of prescription drugs, and his death
led to the investigation of two dozen doctors in Hallllwood.
So as we know, Don, along with Jerry Bruckheimer, became
a bonafide movie brand in the nineteen eighties. With films
(03:07):
centered around handsome, testosterone driven men placed in high octane scenarios.
Don and Jerry captured the zeitgeist of the MTV generation
with hit rock and roll soundtracks to match. For a time,
it seemed like Don and Jerry could do no wrong.
Don was suddenly one of the top producers in Hollywood.
(03:28):
Unfortunately for many left in his wake, he wielded that
power in extremely damaging ways. Behind the scenes. The success
of his film served as a clever vehicle for his
real interests, which a lot like Weinstein, focused mostly on
money and power.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So let's talk about Don Simpson's early life.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, well, he was born on October twenty ninth, nineteen
forty three, in Seattle. His father was a mechanic at
Boeing Aircraft. His mother was a homemaker. In nineteen forty five,
the family moved to Anchorage, Alaska. Friends from high school
remember Don's parents as pleasant and industrialist people. They were
church goers, but not fanatical.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
So we know that Don's career started an entertainment in
San Francisco. What happened during those early.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Years, Yeah, he did. After college, he went to work
for an advertising agency in San Francisco. His job was
to promote Warner Brothers movies in the Bay Area. His
work got noticed at the studio and Warner Brothers hired
him to work in the publicity department in Burbank. But
Don didn't fit into Warner's relatively corporate environment. He was
(04:32):
fired before the year was out. He was out of
work for three years. Eventually, his well connected friends recommended
him for a job at Paramount. He rose quickly through
the ranks. By nineteen eighty one, he was president of production.
At age thirty, three, Don was part of a changing
of the guard at Paramount and in Hollywood. Studio chairman
(04:53):
Barry Diller and Michael Eisner, its president and chief operating officer,
were also in their thirties. He started in television and brought
a more youthful and aggressive perspective into the movie business.
Don was also doing a lot of cocaine around this time.
It was an open secret at the studio, but he
was by no means the only high profile drug user
(05:15):
in Hollywood or even at Paramount. In the beginning, the
studio seemed willing to let his drug use slide, but
as Don's habit grew, it became a problem that was
too big to ignore. Eventually, he was fired by Barry
Diller and Michael Eisner, but.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Not quite fired. Don was given a producer deal in
the lot after his termination, and this is a common
occurrence in the industry, especially back then. It's a system
that allows disgrace producer as an opportunity to save face
and also earn income.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yes, and the screenplay they offered him was Flash Dance.
It was an improbable sounding story about a beautiful young
steel worker in Pittsburgh who wanted to be a Dancer,
but Don liked a challenge and his friend Jerry Bruckheimer
agreed to co produce. Jerry met in nineteen seventy three
through Jerry's first wife, Bonnie, who had worked with Don
(06:04):
at Warner Brothers. After Jerry and Bonnie split up, he
shared a bachelor pad with Don in Laurel Canyon. In
nineteen eighty three, they set up shop as Don Simpson
Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Flashdance cost seven million dollars to make.
It was released in nineteen eighty three and made ninety
five million dollars domestically. The partnership of Simpson and Bruckheimer
(06:28):
became an overnight success. High concept stories have plots that
can be described in a sentence. The plot for Top
Gun is hot shot Navy Pilot defies the odds, for example,
The industry's shift to high concept film started when Jaws
became a surprise hit in the summer of nineteen seventy five.
It was the first movie to gross over one hundred
(06:50):
million dollars that's half a billion dollars today. After Jaws,
studios demanded pictures that would make tens of millions at
the box office today. The goal is more than a billion.
Top Gun Maverick grossed one point five billion dollars. For example,
Don and Jerry may not have invented high Concept, but
(07:11):
they recognized it as a moneymaker for the studio and
for themselves of course.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
So at this point Don is doing extremely well. With
that comes a lot of power, and with power, as
we've seen over and over again, comes access to a
lot of women, which brings us to the casting couch.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
We found a quote from Don in nineteen eighty six
denying allegations that there was a casting couch in Hollywood.
I'm the kind of guy you would look at me
and think I would fuck anything that walks, and it
is true I will. But the casting couch is such
horseshit that my partner and I laugh about it all
the time. I have never gotten laid less than while
(07:46):
in the movie business. He also said, they're taking advantage
of people, and the people who are being taken advantage
of aren't that bright. But anybody who thinks they can
fuck their way into this business is an idiot. But
there is evidence that what Don said was not true.
For example, Jules Shepherd, and actress who appeared in Return
(08:07):
of the Living Dead and other horror movies, claimed that
Don propositioned her during an audition. She said that at
a meeting in his office at Paramount, Don gave her
a choice. He said they could do coke and have
sex and she would probably get the part, or she
could go through the whole charade of auditioning and not
get the part. Ted Mann, who's written for television shows
(08:30):
like Homeland and Deadwood, was with Simpson in New York
when they were auditioning young women for a never made
TV version of Flash Dance. He said, the hallway outside
Simpson's hotel suite was lined with these girls. Every thirty
minutes or so, Simpson would come out, combing his wet hair.
I'd say, how was the last one, and he'd say
(08:52):
not bad.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Next.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
This went on for an entire day. There's also a
story that Don scheduled his film shoots to make make
it easier to hit on wannabe actresses. He told an
aspiring producer that sex scenes should be scheduled for the
last two days of production. That would give him extra
time to offer women the chance to audition for the
sex scenes. Chip Prosser, a screenwriter who worked for Simpson,
(09:16):
Bruckheimer said, Don showed him his pack of cards, a
stack of polaroids of nude women he'd photographed in his
office at Paramount. He told Prosser he'd convince the women
to pose nude by promising them a part in a movie.
He had an intense fear of rejection. He once compared
his and Jerry Bruckheimer's success in picking up women. Don said,
(09:38):
Jerry will ask nine women to sleep with him, and
nine will turn him down in a row. The tenth
woman says yes and he goes home with her. Me,
I ask one girl to go out with me and
she says no, and I want to go put my
head in the oven. His friend, the producer Michael London, said,
Simpson told me he hung out with hookers because he
couldn't bear to risk rejection. Call girls were a big
(10:01):
part of his life. Don's assistants had a tab in
his Rolodex labeled girls. The assistants were required to update
the women's names and phone numbers. But with all the
beautiful women available in Hollywood, why would someone as powerful
as Don Simpson pay for sex? Or as Charles Fleming,
Don Simpson's biographer put it, why with the casting couch.
(10:24):
Such a time honored institution, would any successful Hollywood producer
require the professional service of a hooker. Fleming suggests that
the moguls view sex workers as stand ins for women
who were out of reach before the men achieved power.
Producer Joel Silver told Fleming, it's the real revenge of
the nerds. Most of these guys were short, fat, ugly
(10:47):
kids who couldn't get laid in high school. Now they're
in control, and they're going to make everyone in the
world pay for what the world did to them. Simpson
himself repeated an old line, some times attributed to Clark Gable,
that you don't pay them to come, you pay them
to leave. As time went on, he got heavily into
(11:08):
s and m. In nineteen ninety five, four ex call
girls wrote a book titled You'll Never Make Love in
This Town Again. They devoted an entire chapter to Don
Don Simpson and education and pain. They said his serious
bondage games were like something out of Marquis de Sade.
In the book, Alexandra Daddock, whose professional name was Tiffany,
(11:31):
wrote that Don played a video for her when they
met for the first time. In it, he auditioned call
girls posing as actresses and then had sex with them.
He showed Dadig another tape in which a leather clad
dominatrix tortured a beautiful young woman. The scene was hardcore
debauchery that included a toilet, sex toys, and torture devices.
(11:54):
Dadig wrote, both women were prostitutes, but what Don and
the dominatrix did to this girl should have gotten them
both thrown in prison. Don could be as nervous about
dates with call girls as he was about dating non professionals.
Screenwriter Joe Esterhouse remembered partying with Don and Jerry in
New York, where they were planning a never produced sequel
(12:15):
to Flashdance. Don called an escort service and arranged dates
for the evening. Esterhouse said that during the half hour
wait for the women, Simpson guzzled a quarter bottle of gin.
It was pure nerves. He was like a little kid
waiting for his date to show up. Eventually, he became
one of the biggest clients of the infamous Hollywood madam
(12:37):
Heidi Flies. One former call girl said Heidiwood entice women
into taking dates at Don's house by promising them auditions.
She would allegedly say if you go on this trick,
you'll make ten thousand dollars, plus you'll meet Don Simpson
and he can put you in his next movie. In fact,
he did cast a few of Heidi's girls in bit
parts in the World of Drugs and Professional Sex, You'll
(13:00):
also find Mobsters. In its March thirty first, twenty twenty
two edition, The Telegraph in London reported that he once
crashed a car into the side of a house, which
left the car halfway stuck in the wall. Simpson blamed
his passenger, former Playboy centerfold Kathy Saint George, claiming she
had been behind the wheel, But Saint George was dating
(13:23):
a man with mob connections, and men claiming to be
mobsters turned up at Simpson's house. They ultimately extorted him
for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So the nineties are really when Don started having trouble
at work. I imagine that his addiction to drugs and
women were at the root of that.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Well, for one thing, he was the cliche of the
bad Hollywood boss. His tantrums were impossible to ignore. Petty
things would set him off. Don claimed his father was
physically abusive. None of his Alaska friends remember that, but
years later his mother was on the phone with one
of his assistants when she heard Don going off on
another assistant in the background. His mother admitted that she
(14:04):
used to put him in the closet when he lost
his temper. She said, pay no attention to his temper tantrums.
But his tantrums were impossible to ignore. Petty things would
set him off. He fired assistants because they put cream
in his coffee when he was dieting, or because they
served it black when he was not. He demanded perfect bagels.
(14:25):
An ex assistant said if his bagel was toasted too much,
he'd have a heart attack. If you got the wrong
kind of mustard, you were dead. It had to be frenches.
At the Regency in New York, he yelled at the
housekeepers because someone had pressed and starched his jeans. I
asked for fluff and fold. He screamed, how dare you
(14:46):
fluff and fold? He vandalized a hotel room during another tantrum.
A former assistant said he couldn't open the window, so
he just tossed a chair through it. In nineteen ninety,
a talent and told an interviewer that Don was egotistical
and megalomaniacal. He's irrational and out of control until he
(15:08):
gets his way, but everybody deals with him because they
have to. His movies make money. Many of the journalists
who try to report on Don Simpson found themselves on
the receiving end of threats and strong arm tactics. Courtesy
of names like private investigator Anthony Pelicano and, in the
words of journalist Charles Fleming, legendary rough litigator Burt Fields.
(15:31):
They became ubiquitous as enforcers for Simpson's take no prisoner's
approach to the entertainment industry, and the linkage between aras
has other significant figures who either began with Simpson or
whose careers were supercharged by his big spending ways. For decades,
event planner and pr consultant Peggy Siegel reigned as one
(15:52):
of New York's busiest entertainment movers and shakers until, as
Town and Country magazine put it in twenty nineteen, and
the old school power publicist fell off a cliff. That's
when Siegel's networking efforts on behalf of convicted sexual predator
Jeffrey Epstein put her in the crosshairs of the same media.
(16:13):
She had spent decades courting for her many Oscar competitor clients,
including most notably Harvey Weinstein. But before all of that,
in nineteen eighty three, Siegel was hired by Simpson to
launch his personal brand of celebrityhood via a series of
wildly extravagant parties in the Colorado ski resort of Aspen.
(16:34):
These star packed bacchanalls were fueled by unlimited amounts of cash,
top shelf champagne and pure Bolivian cocaine.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
There was a sexual harassment lawsuit as well that was
a big story for Variety and not nearly as prevalent
as they are today.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yes, and he was sued by a former assistant named
Monica Harmon in nineteen eighty nine. She alleged that she
was forced to schedule meetups with sex workers. She also
stated that he played porn videos in his office and
that he had used drugs in the office in front
of her. And on top of that, she claimed she
had to clean up coke in his office and his bathroom,
(17:12):
and allegedly he said things to her like you fucked
up again, you stupid bitch. You can't do anything right.
She claimed that Simpson's abuse caused her to lose sleep
and have headaches, muscular tension, and stress. She asked for
five million dollars in damages.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Which John could have easily paid off.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Correct, Yeah, I would say, But he played hardball. He
brought in Bert Fields, one of the big Hollywood fix
it lawyers. He also hired the notorious Hollywood private eye
Anthony Pelicano. Together they made the classic play against Monica Harmon.
They put her on trial. Pelicano found witnesses who said
(17:51):
Monica regularly used cocaine, and he found receipts from her
video store that proves she'd rented porn, which is obviously
not indicative of any wrongdoing, but I digress. Bert Fields
ran circles around Monica's attorneys in court. He also countersued Monica,
also for five million dollars. In the end, the case
(18:12):
was dismissed. They had become so successful that by nineteen
ninety they were able to negotiate a deal of mind
blowing proportions with paramount three hundred million dollars over five
years to make any five movies they chose. That's about
seven hundred million dollars today. In May that year, Dawn
told Variety columnist Army Archard, we feel this is our
(18:35):
best movie to date, but they went way over budget,
filming on location on NASCAR tracks. After its release in June,
Days of Thunder underperformed, with worldwide grosses under one hundred
million dollars, Paramount canceled its production deal with Simpson Bruckheimer.
Dawn took it very hard. He began to retreat to
(18:57):
his mansion in bel Air nine twenty one. Don and
Jerry signed with Disney in nineteen ninety five. They came
out with Crimson Tide, Dangerous Minds, and Bad Boys, all
big hits, but by then it was too late for
Don Simpson.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
So as Don's drug use began to take a toll
on his work and, most significantly, his relationship with Jerry Bruckheimer.
He did go to rehab and spend tens of thousands
of dollars in trying to get clean.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yes he did. He was in and out of the
Meninger Clinic in Kansas and the Hazleton Center in Minnesota
several times. He also tried the Betty Ford Center in
Palm Springs and AA. He also dabbled in Scientology. He
had worked with Tom Cruise, who was a member. In
an interview later, Don said that after spending thousands of
dollars and working for months on what scientology calls going clear,
(19:47):
he asked his counselor, I've almost gone clear. Why aren't
I happier? The counselor said he would be happy when
he went through OT three or achieved a third level
operating Thetan plateau. In other words, words, the goalpost had
been moved and the cost had gone up. Don said,
at that point, I realized it was a con. At
(20:09):
one point, he tried a very risky strategy for kicking
his addictions. He hired a physician, doctor Stephen Amerman, to
live on his estate and treat him full time. The
doctor's strategy was to prescribe drugs to manage Don's withdrawal symptoms.
One expert later called the strategy dangerously unorthodox. Doctor Amerman
(20:32):
was also a recovering addict. He had a serious relapse
that summer that ended with his death at Don's poolhouse
on August seventeenth, nineteen ninety five. The police report noted
that the scene had been sanitized, meaning evidence of drug
use had been removed or hidden. The autopsy found the
cause of death to be multiple drug intoxication. Toxicologists found
(20:56):
a deadly mix of cocaine, morphine, and valume in his system.
The death of doctor Amerman should have been a wake
up call for Don Simpson, but in retrospect the call
may have come too late. But it was a wake
up call for Jerry Bruckheimer. Four months later, he and
Don announced that they were closing Simpson Bruckheimer. It was amicable.
(21:19):
They would continue to work together on projects they already
had in the pipeline, but from that point forward they
would both become independent producers. In the fall of nineteen
ninety five, Don considered treatment for his addiction with a
doctor who specialized in using hormones to control mood disorders.
During a routine physical exam, the doctor found that Don
(21:41):
was in immediate danger of sudden heart failure. He warned
Don that his heart could stop beating at any moment.
When it happened, it would most likely be quote either
at the dinner table, on the can or when waking up.
Don ignored the warning and went to another doctor who
gave him a more hope full prognosis on Thursday, January eighteenth,
(22:04):
nineteen ninety six. Don had been holed up at home
for weeks. He met for three hours that day with
his lawyer, his agent, and his brother Larry to discuss
a potential new production deal in the works at Universal.
He was upbeat for a change. He felt good about
his prospects. Casey Silver, a former Simpson Bruckheimer development director,
(22:25):
was now head of development at Universal. Don had an inn.
The ball was in Casey's court and Don expected his
call at any minute. Later that day, he took a
call from James Toback, the screenwriter and director, who was
seeking advice on a script. The call lasted five hours,
Toback said later, we had this marathon, multi hour conversation,
(22:47):
after which he drifted into sleep. When Don woke up,
he grabbed a copy of the new biography of director
Oliver Stone and went into the master bath. His housekeepers
arrived around five o'clock. One of them found his body
on the floor next to the toilet. The biography of
Oliver Stone was lying at his feet.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And this is when staff at the house called Don's assistant.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yes Todd Morrero. He then phoned Don's lawyers, Jerry Bruckheimer
and probably others. We know that two of Don's attorneys
arrived at the house within minutes. Morrero eventually called nine
one one and EMS arrived in fifteen minutes. LAPD and
coroner investigators arrived later. Sixty three of the eighty bottles
(23:33):
of medication police found were prescribed by the late doctor
Stephen Amerman. The police report echoed the report on doctor
Amerman's death. The scene had been sanitized and decedent is
said to have histories of PCP and cocaine abuse, possibly marijuana.
There were thousands of mind altering prescription medications in the house,
(23:56):
but they found no illegal drugs. It seemed as though
someone had had removed them. There was no suicide note
or obvious trauma. The report stated it was a death
by natural causes. The entry under Special Circumstances read drug background.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Natural causes, but the actual cause of death was released
later correct Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
It was cocaine use in the presence of myocardiofibrosis that
may have induced fatal arrhythmia. Myocardiofibrosis is a thickening of
the heart muscle walls. The toxicology report found traces of
unisom Adaracs, Vistail, Librium, Valium, compizine, Xanax, decrel, and Teagan.
(24:38):
In Don's blood, cocaine was also detected. Much later, someone
listened to the messages on Don's answering machine. One was
from Casey Silver at Universal. He had decided to green
light Don's production deal. It was the call Don had
been waiting for. It came in around four pm, an
hour before his body was found. Variety's obituary for Don
(25:02):
Simpson ran on Monday, January twenty ninth. It read, in part,
for Simpson, success was trouble spelled backward by all accounts.
Simpson was a complex man, extolled by his friends for
his intelligence, amazing recall of information, and unconditional loyalty. But
he also indulged privately in excesses that led to the
(25:23):
diminution of his productivity and strained his partnership with Bruckheimer. Bruckheimer, however,
remained loyal to Simpson. Later that day, the most powerful
people in Hollywood gathered to mourn at Morton's, a restaurant
catering to the rich and famous in West Hollywood. It
could have been an Academy Awards after party for all
(25:43):
his abuse and dysfunction, Hollywood revered, rewarded, and enabled the
late mogul Don Simpson. So, Matt, looking back on all
of this, why do you think this reckless, predatory behavior
was condoned and even reward.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I think all the evidence is there in his biography.
He was an incredibly lucrative movie and cash machine, and
even if you look at how long it took the
relationship with Bruckheimer to deteriorate, I think that this, given
the time and the incredible success, it was very hard
to say no or to turn away from someone like Don,
with his influence and clearly his relationships with filmmakers.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I mean, really, when it comes down to it, it's
about men and power. The euphemism the casting couch, the
fact that it even exists speaks volumes that we have
a specific phrase for this, and it's passed down through
the decades.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
I'll say, one that's used quite casually and used to
be a punchline as opposed to mcgrave's seriousness. What's also
really interesting about Don Simpson, specifically to me, is that
he went on the record and addressed the casting couch,
even going so far as to debunk it, which is
sort of like an apex level of predatory behavior where
you say, oh, this thing is ridiculous, you know, to say, quote,
(26:59):
I've never gotten laid less than while working in the
movie business. That is gas lighting and horror to another level.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And it's almost like Harvey Weinstein was standing on the
shoulders of Don Simpson in a certain way. I think overall,
what they do have in common is the fact that
they used their.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Power absolutely and you know, with Harvey, I would say
that any Mirror, Maax or Weinstein Company film could only
hope to gross as much as movies like Bad Boys
or Top Gun or any of these incredible hits. But
what Harvey had influence over specifically was prestige awards, which
led to, you know, such better careers for women. What
also really broke my heart about the Don Simpson story
(27:39):
is take a movie like Flash Dance, which you said
you loved and so so many women and so many
people love from that era, to then pretend you're adapting
it into television and see the halls full of women
who are hopeful that they might get to take on
this character who was empowered and different from many portrayals
of mainstream women on screen. At the time like that
just to me seems not just cruel but also really predatory.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Because he kept making money and he was the big guy,
He's the important guy. They just let it happen, and
then probably to this day that happens.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Well, hopefully not, but I'm sure it does. I'll tell
you one thing though, no one went to Morton's to
raise a drink to Harvey after he after he fell.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
And there's another thing. This is sort of an aside,
but it's important to this, is that there's been questioning
lately in the research I've come across. Has Hollywood moved
on from me too?
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah. I think that there's a lot of people speculated
that after the initial rush, that the pendulum would swing
back the other way and you would see a lot
of things play out in courts of law, because again,
so many of these accusations are past statutes of limitations.
But what was really interesting to me recently is the
Julia Armand case, who came forward as an accuser of
Harvey Weste but not just him, but in a lawsuit
(28:51):
named the Walt Disney Company and telen AGENCYCAA as complicit
in his abuse too. That's a really interesting development, and
I think the evolution of me too is that it's
not just enough to name and shame your abuser, but
also to hold accountable the systems that help them.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
On that note, Matt, thank you so much for being
here today and adding all your great perspectives and insights
my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Variety Confidential is a production of Variety Content Studio and
iHeart Podcasts. It was produced by Sidney Kramer, John Ponder,
and Tracy Patton and written by John Ponder, Tracy Patton,
and Steve Gatos, with additional research by Karen Mizoguchi. Executive
producers are Dea Lawrence and Steve Gatos. Variety Confidential is recorded, edited,
(29:39):
and mixed at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Recording engineer,
editor and mixer Charles Carroll
This show contains mature content and adult themes. It may
not be suitable for young audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
In twenty seventeen, Harvey Weinstein was outed as a serial
sexual abuser. Many brave women came forward and told their stories.
They exposed one of Hollywood's most powerful moguls as a
vicious sexual predator who operated horrifically and seemingly without consequences.
But Weinstein was standing on the shoulders of monsters. For
(00:36):
so many years, those monsters remained unchecked in Hollywood, shielded
by the millions of dollars they made for their studios.
Sex for fame is not new. In fact, it's as
old as Hollywood itself. Today we'll open the Variety Archives
and tell the story of blockbuster movie producer Don Simpson,
(00:57):
the dark princes of movie making. His magic touch for
producing hits gave him a license to prey on women.
This is Variety Confidential, the secret history of the casting
couch from Variety, the leading expert on the entertainment industry,
and iHeart Podcasts. I'm Tracy Patton. Today's episode Don Simpson,
(01:21):
Eighties Hits and Eighties Excesses with Me Today is Matt
Donnelley Variety's senior Entertainment and media writer, Hi Matt Welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Thank you so much for having me. You know, the
story of Don Simpson and all of his abuses is
so much to dig into. He was allowed to slide
for so many years because his movies made a ton
of money.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, it sure seems that way. Don Simpson and his
production partner Jerry Bruckheimer were a power team. They made
some of the most successful movies in Hollywood history, and
one of them was Flash Dance, which I really loved absolutely.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And their biggest hit was Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop
and if my math is correct, adjusted for inflation, that
earned over nine one hundred million dollars the world by
box office in today's value. They also, made, of course
Top Gun, the Tom Cruise classic in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yes, they really were a force in Hollywood. From nineteen
eighty three to nineteen ninety five, Simpson and Bruckheimer produced
ten films that made over three billion dollars. At a
time when Harvey Weinstein was rising to power, Simpson's excesses
and reckless behavior were enabled and covered up his films.
Turned actors like Tom Cruise and Eddie Murphy into household names.
(02:30):
But as Dawn's stature in town rose, so did his
dark side.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
You're talking about someone who was accused of sexual assault,
was a known drug abuser and had frequent angry outbursts
that cost fear among his staff and even his friends.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
And it all came to an end on January nineteenth,
nineteen ninety six, when he was found dead in his home.
Police found a cornucopia of prescription drugs, and his death
led to the investigation of two dozen doctors in Hallllwood.
So as we know, Don, along with Jerry Bruckheimer, became
a bonafide movie brand in the nineteen eighties. With films
(03:07):
centered around handsome, testosterone driven men placed in high octane scenarios.
Don and Jerry captured the zeitgeist of the MTV generation
with hit rock and roll soundtracks to match. For a time,
it seemed like Don and Jerry could do no wrong.
Don was suddenly one of the top producers in Hollywood.
(03:28):
Unfortunately for many left in his wake, he wielded that
power in extremely damaging ways. Behind the scenes. The success
of his film served as a clever vehicle for his
real interests, which a lot like Weinstein, focused mostly on
money and power.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So let's talk about Don Simpson's early life.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, well, he was born on October twenty ninth, nineteen
forty three, in Seattle. His father was a mechanic at
Boeing Aircraft. His mother was a homemaker. In nineteen forty five,
the family moved to Anchorage, Alaska. Friends from high school
remember Don's parents as pleasant and industrialist people. They were
church goers, but not fanatical.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
So we know that Don's career started an entertainment in
San Francisco. What happened during those early.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Years, Yeah, he did. After college, he went to work
for an advertising agency in San Francisco. His job was
to promote Warner Brothers movies in the Bay Area. His
work got noticed at the studio and Warner Brothers hired
him to work in the publicity department in Burbank. But
Don didn't fit into Warner's relatively corporate environment. He was
(04:32):
fired before the year was out. He was out of
work for three years. Eventually, his well connected friends recommended
him for a job at Paramount. He rose quickly through
the ranks. By nineteen eighty one, he was president of production.
At age thirty, three, Don was part of a changing
of the guard at Paramount and in Hollywood. Studio chairman
(04:53):
Barry Diller and Michael Eisner, its president and chief operating officer,
were also in their thirties. He started in television and brought
a more youthful and aggressive perspective into the movie business.
Don was also doing a lot of cocaine around this time.
It was an open secret at the studio, but he
was by no means the only high profile drug user
(05:15):
in Hollywood or even at Paramount. In the beginning, the
studio seemed willing to let his drug use slide, but
as Don's habit grew, it became a problem that was
too big to ignore. Eventually, he was fired by Barry
Diller and Michael Eisner, but.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Not quite fired. Don was given a producer deal in
the lot after his termination, and this is a common
occurrence in the industry, especially back then. It's a system
that allows disgrace producer as an opportunity to save face
and also earn income.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yes, and the screenplay they offered him was Flash Dance.
It was an improbable sounding story about a beautiful young
steel worker in Pittsburgh who wanted to be a Dancer,
but Don liked a challenge and his friend Jerry Bruckheimer
agreed to co produce. Jerry met in nineteen seventy three
through Jerry's first wife, Bonnie, who had worked with Don
(06:04):
at Warner Brothers. After Jerry and Bonnie split up, he
shared a bachelor pad with Don in Laurel Canyon. In
nineteen eighty three, they set up shop as Don Simpson
Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Flashdance cost seven million dollars to make.
It was released in nineteen eighty three and made ninety
five million dollars domestically. The partnership of Simpson and Bruckheimer
(06:28):
became an overnight success. High concept stories have plots that
can be described in a sentence. The plot for Top
Gun is hot shot Navy Pilot defies the odds, for example,
The industry's shift to high concept film started when Jaws
became a surprise hit in the summer of nineteen seventy five.
It was the first movie to gross over one hundred
(06:50):
million dollars that's half a billion dollars today. After Jaws,
studios demanded pictures that would make tens of millions at
the box office today. The goal is more than a billion.
Top Gun Maverick grossed one point five billion dollars. For example,
Don and Jerry may not have invented high Concept, but
(07:11):
they recognized it as a moneymaker for the studio and
for themselves of course.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
So at this point Don is doing extremely well. With
that comes a lot of power, and with power, as
we've seen over and over again, comes access to a
lot of women, which brings us to the casting couch.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
We found a quote from Don in nineteen eighty six
denying allegations that there was a casting couch in Hollywood.
I'm the kind of guy you would look at me
and think I would fuck anything that walks, and it
is true I will. But the casting couch is such
horseshit that my partner and I laugh about it all
the time. I have never gotten laid less than while
(07:46):
in the movie business. He also said, they're taking advantage
of people, and the people who are being taken advantage
of aren't that bright. But anybody who thinks they can
fuck their way into this business is an idiot. But
there is evidence that what Don said was not true.
For example, Jules Shepherd, and actress who appeared in Return
(08:07):
of the Living Dead and other horror movies, claimed that
Don propositioned her during an audition. She said that at
a meeting in his office at Paramount, Don gave her
a choice. He said they could do coke and have
sex and she would probably get the part, or she
could go through the whole charade of auditioning and not
get the part. Ted Mann, who's written for television shows
(08:30):
like Homeland and Deadwood, was with Simpson in New York
when they were auditioning young women for a never made
TV version of Flash Dance. He said, the hallway outside
Simpson's hotel suite was lined with these girls. Every thirty
minutes or so, Simpson would come out, combing his wet hair.
I'd say, how was the last one, and he'd say
(08:52):
not bad.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Next.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
This went on for an entire day. There's also a
story that Don scheduled his film shoots to make make
it easier to hit on wannabe actresses. He told an
aspiring producer that sex scenes should be scheduled for the
last two days of production. That would give him extra
time to offer women the chance to audition for the
sex scenes. Chip Prosser, a screenwriter who worked for Simpson,
(09:16):
Bruckheimer said, Don showed him his pack of cards, a
stack of polaroids of nude women he'd photographed in his
office at Paramount. He told Prosser he'd convince the women
to pose nude by promising them a part in a movie.
He had an intense fear of rejection. He once compared
his and Jerry Bruckheimer's success in picking up women. Don said,
(09:38):
Jerry will ask nine women to sleep with him, and
nine will turn him down in a row. The tenth
woman says yes and he goes home with her. Me,
I ask one girl to go out with me and
she says no, and I want to go put my
head in the oven. His friend, the producer Michael London, said,
Simpson told me he hung out with hookers because he
couldn't bear to risk rejection. Call girls were a big
(10:01):
part of his life. Don's assistants had a tab in
his Rolodex labeled girls. The assistants were required to update
the women's names and phone numbers. But with all the
beautiful women available in Hollywood, why would someone as powerful
as Don Simpson pay for sex? Or as Charles Fleming,
Don Simpson's biographer put it, why with the casting couch.
(10:24):
Such a time honored institution, would any successful Hollywood producer
require the professional service of a hooker. Fleming suggests that
the moguls view sex workers as stand ins for women
who were out of reach before the men achieved power.
Producer Joel Silver told Fleming, it's the real revenge of
the nerds. Most of these guys were short, fat, ugly
(10:47):
kids who couldn't get laid in high school. Now they're
in control, and they're going to make everyone in the
world pay for what the world did to them. Simpson
himself repeated an old line, some times attributed to Clark Gable,
that you don't pay them to come, you pay them
to leave. As time went on, he got heavily into
(11:08):
s and m. In nineteen ninety five, four ex call
girls wrote a book titled You'll Never Make Love in
This Town Again. They devoted an entire chapter to Don
Don Simpson and education and pain. They said his serious
bondage games were like something out of Marquis de Sade.
In the book, Alexandra Daddock, whose professional name was Tiffany,
(11:31):
wrote that Don played a video for her when they
met for the first time. In it, he auditioned call
girls posing as actresses and then had sex with them.
He showed Dadig another tape in which a leather clad
dominatrix tortured a beautiful young woman. The scene was hardcore
debauchery that included a toilet, sex toys, and torture devices.
(11:54):
Dadig wrote, both women were prostitutes, but what Don and
the dominatrix did to this girl should have gotten them
both thrown in prison. Don could be as nervous about
dates with call girls as he was about dating non professionals.
Screenwriter Joe Esterhouse remembered partying with Don and Jerry in
New York, where they were planning a never produced sequel
(12:15):
to Flashdance. Don called an escort service and arranged dates
for the evening. Esterhouse said that during the half hour
wait for the women, Simpson guzzled a quarter bottle of gin.
It was pure nerves. He was like a little kid
waiting for his date to show up. Eventually, he became
one of the biggest clients of the infamous Hollywood madam
(12:37):
Heidi Flies. One former call girl said Heidiwood entice women
into taking dates at Don's house by promising them auditions.
She would allegedly say if you go on this trick,
you'll make ten thousand dollars, plus you'll meet Don Simpson
and he can put you in his next movie. In fact,
he did cast a few of Heidi's girls in bit
parts in the World of Drugs and Professional Sex, You'll
(13:00):
also find Mobsters. In its March thirty first, twenty twenty
two edition, The Telegraph in London reported that he once
crashed a car into the side of a house, which
left the car halfway stuck in the wall. Simpson blamed
his passenger, former Playboy centerfold Kathy Saint George, claiming she
had been behind the wheel, But Saint George was dating
(13:23):
a man with mob connections, and men claiming to be
mobsters turned up at Simpson's house. They ultimately extorted him
for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So the nineties are really when Don started having trouble
at work. I imagine that his addiction to drugs and
women were at the root of that.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Well, for one thing, he was the cliche of the
bad Hollywood boss. His tantrums were impossible to ignore. Petty
things would set him off. Don claimed his father was
physically abusive. None of his Alaska friends remember that, but
years later his mother was on the phone with one
of his assistants when she heard Don going off on
another assistant in the background. His mother admitted that she
(14:04):
used to put him in the closet when he lost
his temper. She said, pay no attention to his temper tantrums.
But his tantrums were impossible to ignore. Petty things would
set him off. He fired assistants because they put cream
in his coffee when he was dieting, or because they
served it black when he was not. He demanded perfect bagels.
(14:25):
An ex assistant said if his bagel was toasted too much,
he'd have a heart attack. If you got the wrong
kind of mustard, you were dead. It had to be frenches.
At the Regency in New York, he yelled at the
housekeepers because someone had pressed and starched his jeans. I
asked for fluff and fold. He screamed, how dare you
(14:46):
fluff and fold? He vandalized a hotel room during another tantrum.
A former assistant said he couldn't open the window, so
he just tossed a chair through it. In nineteen ninety,
a talent and told an interviewer that Don was egotistical
and megalomaniacal. He's irrational and out of control until he
(15:08):
gets his way, but everybody deals with him because they
have to. His movies make money. Many of the journalists
who try to report on Don Simpson found themselves on
the receiving end of threats and strong arm tactics. Courtesy
of names like private investigator Anthony Pelicano and, in the
words of journalist Charles Fleming, legendary rough litigator Burt Fields.
(15:31):
They became ubiquitous as enforcers for Simpson's take no prisoner's
approach to the entertainment industry, and the linkage between aras
has other significant figures who either began with Simpson or
whose careers were supercharged by his big spending ways. For decades,
event planner and pr consultant Peggy Siegel reigned as one
(15:52):
of New York's busiest entertainment movers and shakers until, as
Town and Country magazine put it in twenty nineteen, and
the old school power publicist fell off a cliff. That's
when Siegel's networking efforts on behalf of convicted sexual predator
Jeffrey Epstein put her in the crosshairs of the same media.
(16:13):
She had spent decades courting for her many Oscar competitor clients,
including most notably Harvey Weinstein. But before all of that,
in nineteen eighty three, Siegel was hired by Simpson to
launch his personal brand of celebrityhood via a series of
wildly extravagant parties in the Colorado ski resort of Aspen.
(16:34):
These star packed bacchanalls were fueled by unlimited amounts of cash,
top shelf champagne and pure Bolivian cocaine.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
There was a sexual harassment lawsuit as well that was
a big story for Variety and not nearly as prevalent
as they are today.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yes, and he was sued by a former assistant named
Monica Harmon in nineteen eighty nine. She alleged that she
was forced to schedule meetups with sex workers. She also
stated that he played porn videos in his office and
that he had used drugs in the office in front
of her. And on top of that, she claimed she
had to clean up coke in his office and his bathroom,
(17:12):
and allegedly he said things to her like you fucked
up again, you stupid bitch. You can't do anything right.
She claimed that Simpson's abuse caused her to lose sleep
and have headaches, muscular tension, and stress. She asked for
five million dollars in damages.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Which John could have easily paid off.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Correct, Yeah, I would say, But he played hardball. He
brought in Bert Fields, one of the big Hollywood fix
it lawyers. He also hired the notorious Hollywood private eye
Anthony Pelicano. Together they made the classic play against Monica Harmon.
They put her on trial. Pelicano found witnesses who said
(17:51):
Monica regularly used cocaine, and he found receipts from her
video store that proves she'd rented porn, which is obviously
not indicative of any wrongdoing, but I digress. Bert Fields
ran circles around Monica's attorneys in court. He also countersued Monica,
also for five million dollars. In the end, the case
(18:12):
was dismissed. They had become so successful that by nineteen
ninety they were able to negotiate a deal of mind
blowing proportions with paramount three hundred million dollars over five
years to make any five movies they chose. That's about
seven hundred million dollars today. In May that year, Dawn
told Variety columnist Army Archard, we feel this is our
(18:35):
best movie to date, but they went way over budget,
filming on location on NASCAR tracks. After its release in June,
Days of Thunder underperformed, with worldwide grosses under one hundred
million dollars, Paramount canceled its production deal with Simpson Bruckheimer.
Dawn took it very hard. He began to retreat to
(18:57):
his mansion in bel Air nine twenty one. Don and
Jerry signed with Disney in nineteen ninety five. They came
out with Crimson Tide, Dangerous Minds, and Bad Boys, all
big hits, but by then it was too late for
Don Simpson.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
So as Don's drug use began to take a toll
on his work and, most significantly, his relationship with Jerry Bruckheimer.
He did go to rehab and spend tens of thousands
of dollars in trying to get clean.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yes he did. He was in and out of the
Meninger Clinic in Kansas and the Hazleton Center in Minnesota
several times. He also tried the Betty Ford Center in
Palm Springs and AA. He also dabbled in Scientology. He
had worked with Tom Cruise, who was a member. In
an interview later, Don said that after spending thousands of
dollars and working for months on what scientology calls going clear,
(19:47):
he asked his counselor, I've almost gone clear. Why aren't
I happier? The counselor said he would be happy when
he went through OT three or achieved a third level
operating Thetan plateau. In other words, words, the goalpost had
been moved and the cost had gone up. Don said,
at that point, I realized it was a con. At
(20:09):
one point, he tried a very risky strategy for kicking
his addictions. He hired a physician, doctor Stephen Amerman, to
live on his estate and treat him full time. The
doctor's strategy was to prescribe drugs to manage Don's withdrawal symptoms.
One expert later called the strategy dangerously unorthodox. Doctor Amerman
(20:32):
was also a recovering addict. He had a serious relapse
that summer that ended with his death at Don's poolhouse
on August seventeenth, nineteen ninety five. The police report noted
that the scene had been sanitized, meaning evidence of drug
use had been removed or hidden. The autopsy found the
cause of death to be multiple drug intoxication. Toxicologists found
(20:56):
a deadly mix of cocaine, morphine, and valume in his system.
The death of doctor Amerman should have been a wake
up call for Don Simpson, but in retrospect the call
may have come too late. But it was a wake
up call for Jerry Bruckheimer. Four months later, he and
Don announced that they were closing Simpson Bruckheimer. It was amicable.
(21:19):
They would continue to work together on projects they already
had in the pipeline, but from that point forward they
would both become independent producers. In the fall of nineteen
ninety five, Don considered treatment for his addiction with a
doctor who specialized in using hormones to control mood disorders.
During a routine physical exam, the doctor found that Don
(21:41):
was in immediate danger of sudden heart failure. He warned
Don that his heart could stop beating at any moment.
When it happened, it would most likely be quote either
at the dinner table, on the can or when waking up.
Don ignored the warning and went to another doctor who
gave him a more hope full prognosis on Thursday, January eighteenth,
(22:04):
nineteen ninety six. Don had been holed up at home
for weeks. He met for three hours that day with
his lawyer, his agent, and his brother Larry to discuss
a potential new production deal in the works at Universal.
He was upbeat for a change. He felt good about
his prospects. Casey Silver, a former Simpson Bruckheimer development director,
(22:25):
was now head of development at Universal. Don had an inn.
The ball was in Casey's court and Don expected his
call at any minute. Later that day, he took a
call from James Toback, the screenwriter and director, who was
seeking advice on a script. The call lasted five hours,
Toback said later, we had this marathon, multi hour conversation,
(22:47):
after which he drifted into sleep. When Don woke up,
he grabbed a copy of the new biography of director
Oliver Stone and went into the master bath. His housekeepers
arrived around five o'clock. One of them found his body
on the floor next to the toilet. The biography of
Oliver Stone was lying at his feet.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And this is when staff at the house called Don's assistant.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yes Todd Morrero. He then phoned Don's lawyers, Jerry Bruckheimer
and probably others. We know that two of Don's attorneys
arrived at the house within minutes. Morrero eventually called nine
one one and EMS arrived in fifteen minutes. LAPD and
coroner investigators arrived later. Sixty three of the eighty bottles
(23:33):
of medication police found were prescribed by the late doctor
Stephen Amerman. The police report echoed the report on doctor
Amerman's death. The scene had been sanitized and decedent is
said to have histories of PCP and cocaine abuse, possibly marijuana.
There were thousands of mind altering prescription medications in the house,
(23:56):
but they found no illegal drugs. It seemed as though
someone had had removed them. There was no suicide note
or obvious trauma. The report stated it was a death
by natural causes. The entry under Special Circumstances read drug background.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Natural causes, but the actual cause of death was released
later correct Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
It was cocaine use in the presence of myocardiofibrosis that
may have induced fatal arrhythmia. Myocardiofibrosis is a thickening of
the heart muscle walls. The toxicology report found traces of
unisom Adaracs, Vistail, Librium, Valium, compizine, Xanax, decrel, and Teagan.
(24:38):
In Don's blood, cocaine was also detected. Much later, someone
listened to the messages on Don's answering machine. One was
from Casey Silver at Universal. He had decided to green
light Don's production deal. It was the call Don had
been waiting for. It came in around four pm, an
hour before his body was found. Variety's obituary for Don
(25:02):
Simpson ran on Monday, January twenty ninth. It read, in part,
for Simpson, success was trouble spelled backward by all accounts.
Simpson was a complex man, extolled by his friends for
his intelligence, amazing recall of information, and unconditional loyalty. But
he also indulged privately in excesses that led to the
(25:23):
diminution of his productivity and strained his partnership with Bruckheimer. Bruckheimer, however,
remained loyal to Simpson. Later that day, the most powerful
people in Hollywood gathered to mourn at Morton's, a restaurant
catering to the rich and famous in West Hollywood. It
could have been an Academy Awards after party for all
(25:43):
his abuse and dysfunction, Hollywood revered, rewarded, and enabled the
late mogul Don Simpson. So, Matt, looking back on all
of this, why do you think this reckless, predatory behavior
was condoned and even reward.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I think all the evidence is there in his biography.
He was an incredibly lucrative movie and cash machine, and
even if you look at how long it took the
relationship with Bruckheimer to deteriorate, I think that this, given
the time and the incredible success, it was very hard
to say no or to turn away from someone like Don,
with his influence and clearly his relationships with filmmakers.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I mean, really, when it comes down to it, it's
about men and power. The euphemism the casting couch, the
fact that it even exists speaks volumes that we have
a specific phrase for this, and it's passed down through
the decades.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
I'll say, one that's used quite casually and used to
be a punchline as opposed to mcgrave's seriousness. What's also
really interesting about Don Simpson, specifically to me, is that
he went on the record and addressed the casting couch,
even going so far as to debunk it, which is
sort of like an apex level of predatory behavior where
you say, oh, this thing is ridiculous, you know, to say, quote,
(26:59):
I've never gotten laid less than while working in the
movie business. That is gas lighting and horror to another level.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And it's almost like Harvey Weinstein was standing on the
shoulders of Don Simpson in a certain way. I think overall,
what they do have in common is the fact that
they used their.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Power absolutely and you know, with Harvey, I would say
that any Mirror, Maax or Weinstein Company film could only
hope to gross as much as movies like Bad Boys
or Top Gun or any of these incredible hits. But
what Harvey had influence over specifically was prestige awards, which
led to, you know, such better careers for women. What
also really broke my heart about the Don Simpson story
(27:39):
is take a movie like Flash Dance, which you said
you loved and so so many women and so many
people love from that era, to then pretend you're adapting
it into television and see the halls full of women
who are hopeful that they might get to take on
this character who was empowered and different from many portrayals
of mainstream women on screen. At the time like that
just to me seems not just cruel but also really predatory.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Because he kept making money and he was the big guy,
He's the important guy. They just let it happen, and
then probably to this day that happens.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Well, hopefully not, but I'm sure it does. I'll tell
you one thing though, no one went to Morton's to
raise a drink to Harvey after he after he fell.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
And there's another thing. This is sort of an aside,
but it's important to this, is that there's been questioning
lately in the research I've come across. Has Hollywood moved
on from me too?
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah. I think that there's a lot of people speculated
that after the initial rush, that the pendulum would swing
back the other way and you would see a lot
of things play out in courts of law, because again,
so many of these accusations are past statutes of limitations.
But what was really interesting to me recently is the
Julia Armand case, who came forward as an accuser of
Harvey Weste but not just him, but in a lawsuit
(28:51):
named the Walt Disney Company and telen AGENCYCAA as complicit
in his abuse too. That's a really interesting development, and
I think the evolution of me too is that it's
not just enough to name and shame your abuser, but
also to hold accountable the systems that help them.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
On that note, Matt, thank you so much for being
here today and adding all your great perspectives and insights
my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Variety Confidential is a production of Variety Content Studio and
iHeart Podcasts. It was produced by Sidney Kramer, John Ponder,
and Tracy Patton and written by John Ponder, Tracy Patton,
and Steve Gatos, with additional research by Karen Mizoguchi. Executive
producers are Dea Lawrence and Steve Gatos. Variety Confidential is recorded, edited,
(29:39):
and mixed at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Recording engineer,
editor and mixer Charles Carroll
Host
Tracy Pattin
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