The porter was suspicious. "Do you know those guys who were out there earlier?" He asked Ronan Farrow, the son of Hollywood icons Mia Farrow and Woody Allen. "Two guys in the car, smoking in front of the car, all the time."
Farrow, a reporter for NBC News, suspected that it was paparazzi of the gossip site "TMZ." "If they come back, I'll bring them a coffee," he said. The porter rolled his eyes. "Ronan, always you. You move in, address is everywhere, now I have no peace."
Farrow describes the scene from August 2017 in his new book "Catch and Kill". Later, he often saw the men themselves in a parked silver Nissan.
The mysterious men were not paparazzi, as it turned out. But private detectives - a Russian and a Ukrainian, by the Israeli security firm Black Cube on the then 29-year-old Farrow scheduled.
AP
Reporter and Hollywood icon: Farrow with his mother, actress Mia Farrow
Why was a private sneaking service conducted by former Mossad agents interested in the son of Woody Allen? Who commissioned Black Cube?
It was, this is considered secure today, Harvey Weinstein.
At the time, Farrow was in the toughest research of his young career - a research that would eventually fuel the #Metoo movement: several women who accused the film producer Weinstein of molesting her had discreetly entrusted Farrow.
Two years later: Weinstein, 67, since then accused by more than 80 women and charged in three cases, awaits his trial. Farrow and two New York Times reporters have become known as revelers, receiving the Pulitzer Prize for their reports and triggering an avalanche. Several powerful men have fallen in the same way as Weinstein.
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Affair or rape? New allegations against former NBC star Matt Lauer
In "Catch and Kill", which appeared in the US last week, Farrow traces his research as a gripping thriller.
In doing so, he makes clear in which circles Weinstein frequented, a coterie of media makers, politicians, lawyers. The book is full of New York VIPs: Donald Trump, ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani, National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, TV executives Noah Oppenheim and Andrew Lack (NBC News), Fox News founder Roger Ailes, Society Lawyer David Boies. Even later accused financier Jeffrey Epstein, who took his life in custody in August, plays a minor role.
REUTERS
Confidant and Cleaner: National Enquirer publisher David Pecker
Weinstein was a dreaded stripper in this roped party: he could initiate or terminate careers with the blink of an eye. He was well connected, not only in Hollywood and in the media and lawyers scene, but also in high politics, above all as one of the US Democrats' mega-spenders.
Farrow and producer Rich McHugh had no idea which wasp nest they nailed when they suggested to NBC a report on Hollywood's "occupation couch".
As a result, a name came up time and again: Weinstein. But the longer they had researched, Farrow writes, the more stones NBC put in their way. He had also suspected that he was being shadowed, that his cell phone had been hacked, and that the women he wanted to interview had been harassed.
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Star lawyer David Boies, here with the alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre
Black Cube has confirmed that Weinstein used the detective agency on Farrow and the women. The order was negotiated by Weinstein's lawyer Boies, according to Farrow, to "prevent negative reporting." Boies had previously defended ex-vice president Al Gore and won the legalization of same-sex marriage. He currently represents alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.
Weinstein was also protected by the National Enquirer, Farrow said. The producer was just one of many celebrities whose machinations cut corners by "buying" informants - a practice known as "catch and kill" that also benefited Trump. In doing so, a medium buys the exclusive rights to a story - in order not to publish it.
During his research, Farrow repeatedly felt Weinstein's influence.
- Former New York governor George Pataki, a Republican, spoke with Weinstein about Farrow's ongoing research.
- Hillary Clinton's team had previously expressed concerns over the Weinstein research before a well-agreed interview with the former Foreign Minister on another topic.
- The lawyer Lisa Bloom, who had herself appeared as a women's rights activist, Farrow on behalf of Weinstein and had the Hollywood producers for countermeasures advised. Bloom now describes her commitment to Weinstein as a "colossal mistake".
REUTERS
Cover-up denied: NBC headquarters in Rockefeller Center
Shortly before the scheduled release NBC stopped the tartar research. Farrow flew out and switched to the New Yorker. He printed his report in October 2017 - five days after the New York Times published its own revelations.
In his book, Farrow also discusses the allegations at this time - and these are allegedly closely linked to the allegations against NBC star Moderator Matt Lauer, who was fired in November 2017 in the wake of the MeToo revelations.
In "Catch and Kill" Farrow makes more details on the allegations public. A former NBC employee accuses Lauer of having raped her. Weinstein, writes Farrow, knew that and blackmailed NBC management to stop Farrow's report.
NBC denied the recent allegations that they had not covered up the allegations against Lauer. Lauer himself stated that he had had a "consensual" affair with the employee.
According to information from the magazine "Us Weekly" Lauer wants to have left the past behind. He hopes for a "TV comeback".
