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“I don’t remember ever feeling pressure like that from other studios. “It all began with Harvey,” said one publicist with a client in the film. Weinstein strong-armed the movie’s talent into participating in an unprecedented blitzkrieg of press. “We used to joke that working at Miramax was like working at a tiny labor camp with a nice lobby.” “We hadn’t yet had the situation where the grubby little people from New York dared to threaten the kings of Hollywood,” said Gill, describing Miramax’s method of campaigning as hand-to-hand combat in the form of screenings, parties, and nonstop publicity.
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Given what we now know about Weinstein’s alleged treatment of his leading lady, the tonal change in Paltrow’s performance from wounded to strong feels cheapened, said two former Miramax executives who worked on the film. The studio wanted a version where Paltrow’s character appeared more empowered than devastated, a conclusion that would leave the audience hopeful. Madden re-shot one key scene, of Viola tearfully saying good-bye to Shakespeare at the end of the film. In the late 1990s, Weinstein was at the height of his power in Hollywood, but during the smooth, $25 million production of Shakespeare in Love, supervised by Miramax production chief Meryl Poster and producer Donna Gigliotti, he had little cause to wield it. Paltrow, making the fifth of nine films she shot for Weinstein, played Viola Joseph Fiennes was Shakespeare Judi Dench played Queen Elizabeth. In Shakespeare in Love, director John Madden told the fictional tale of the Bard of Avon, who, while struggling to write what would become Romeo and Juliet, falls in love with Viola de Lesseps, the daughter of a wealthy merchant.
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Four years later, the actress would be holding the best-actress Oscar she won that March night and thanking “Harvey Weinstein and everybody at Miramax Films for their undying support of me.” During the meeting, Paltrow alleged, Weinstein put his hands on her and suggested they head to his bedroom for a massage, which Paltrow declined. In an October New York Times story that furthered the deluge of accusations against Weinstein, Paltrow said that when she was 22, she reported for a meeting with the producer at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel to discuss her first starring role, in his 1996 film Emma. “The individual achievements are still remarkable, but you can’t possibly look at it through the same lens anymore. president at the time of the Shakespeare in Love win.
#OSCAR WINNER FOR SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE MOVIE#
“The movie is still great,” said Mark Gill, Miramax’s L.A. Long a pet topic of Oscar obsessives and industry insiders, it is impossible to revisit the 1999 Oscars and not see the campaign now as Weinstein’s bully masterpiece. We know now that those memorable 1999 Oscars hid a darker story, one most of the world learned of this fall as more than 79 women (as of press time) came forward accusing Weinstein of sexual misconduct. That his talky little Shakespearean romance won against the pricey studio war epic changed the awards forever. That Weinstein’s film was in the hunt at all against such finely calibrated Oscar bait was proof that his signature innovation-bringing the rough-and-tumble style of political campaigns to the staid and clubby Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences-could work. It was March 21, 1999, the night Shakespeare in Love won the Academy Award for best picture, an honor many thought rightfully belonged to its stiffest competitor, Steven Spielberg’s $70 million World War II drama, Saving Private Ryan. At long last, the boorish New Yorker was basking in the recognition of the Hollywood establishment. The hulking studio head loomed behind his producers as they spoke, before he elbowed Ed Zwick out of the way to grab the microphone. Harvey Weinstein was rocking on his heels, a crumpled Oscar speech hanging from his tuxedo-pants pocket, his golden statuette placed on the stage floor like a cumbersome suitcase.