A new book by Michael Schulman notes that disgraced Harvey Weinstein sought the advice of long-time friend Bill Clinton to “help him with his Oscar campaigns,” according to the New York Post.
Schulman’s book, “Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears,” cited former Miramax employees’ accounts of corrupt dealings surrounding the Academy Awards.
According to an excerpt from the book released to IndieWire, one anonymous Miramax employee claimed that Weinstein, 70, asked Clinton, 76, for input regarding promoting Billy Bob Thornton’s 1996 film “Sling Blade” and “tips on Thornton’s Oscar campaign.”
Thornton received a nomination for Best Actor a year later and won Best Adapted Screenplay for penning the script.
Schulman’s book quotes the Miramax source as saying: “I was so appalled that the president of the United States would spend half an hour with us on the phone. I lost all respect for him well before Monica Lewinsky, because I could see how much access the Clintons were giving to Harvey.”
Multiple reports note that Bill Clinton and Harvey Weinstein established a friendship after vacationing together at Martha’s Vineyard in the late 1990s.
Substantiating the claim of an unusually close relationship between Weinstein and the Clintons, Schulman noted that when Weinstein’s movie “Shakespeare in Love” launched an “Oscars crusade in 1998,” Hillary Clinton gave a speech congratulating Weinstein before the movie premiered.
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