“If you could write this letter backing me… it would help me a lot…
With all due respect, I need the letter today”
Embattled film producer Harvey Weinstein reached out in quiet desperation to A-list stars and Hollywood execs begging them to save his job.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Weinstein, who was fired from his own company on Sunday, sent a flurry of emails to top Hollywood execs and studio heads, saying, “I am desperate for your help.”
The emails were sent to “high-level Hollywood executives at the studios, networks and talent agencies,” according to THR.
Other sources claim Weinstein reached out in desperation to a former U.S. president and a high-profile rapper and his wife for help.
Weinstein, who must have known his job was in jeopardy, promised he would take a leave of absence and seek therapy for his decades long predatory behavior towards women.
“My board is thinking of firing me,” the email began.
“All I’m asking, is let me take a leave of absence and get into heavy therapy and counseling. Whether it be in a facility or somewhere else, allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance. A lot of the allegations are false as you know but given therapy and counseling as other people have done, I think I’d be able to get there.”
He pleaded with his friends to write a letter stating their opposition to the board firing him.
The letters were to be sent to his private Gmail address, and they “would only go to the board and no one else.”
Weinstein added that he believed “what the board is trying to do is not only wrong but might be illegal and would destroy the company.”
“With all due respect, I need the letter today,” he concluded.
It isn’t clear if any of his friends responded to his desperate pleas.
CNN points out that Weinstein’s friends, the Obamas and the Clintons, “remain mum” on their support for him, at least publicly.
Former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton received thousands of dollars in donations from Weinstein indirectly through the Democratic National Committee.
On Sunday, Weinstein was unceremoniously terminated from the company he co-founded with his brother Bob in 2005. Sources say the Hollywood mogul believes his brother was in on his dramatic downfall.
