Lisa Bloom, the high-powered #MeToo victims attorney and daughter of feminist lawyer Gloria Allred, hatched a plan to ruin the reputation of actress Rose McGowan, one of nearly 100 women who accused movie tycoon Harvey Weinstein of rape.
Bloom’s six-point plan, detailed in an e-mail to Weinstein and reported at length on Mediaite, surfaced in a new book about his career as a sex predator and those who protected him.
Bloom, who built her legal career with lawsuits on behalf of the sisterhood, showed no compunction in trying to rescue Weinstein and using her knowledge of victims to do it.
The Book
She Said, by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, divulges Bloom’s detailed strategy for protecting Weinstein and attacking McGowan, using tactics that Bloom would likely denounce if perpetrated by anyone else.
Bloom wrote that she read a report about McGowan, “who truly comes across as a pathological liar.” She, the e-mail at Mediate shows, also let Weinstein know why she could help him. She knows how victims think because she has waged legal war on their behalf:
I feel equipped to help you against the Roses of the world, because I have represented so many of them. They start out as impressive, bold women, but the more one presses for evidence, the weaknesses and lies are revealed. She doesn’t seem to have much going on these days except her rapidly escalating identity as a feminist warrior, which seems to be entirely based on her online rants…. Clearly she must be stopped in her ridiculous, defamatory attacks on you. She is dangerous.
That passage raises the question of just how many of Bloom’s victim-clients were liars, but at any rate, she pleaded with Weinstein to become one his defenders, explaining how he can get McGowan to back off and recreate his image as a friend of women.
Bloom suggested that Weinstein contact McGowan to get a settlement and shut her up, the “key question” being “what does she want?”
As well, Bloom proposed a “counter[-]ops online campaign to push back and call her out as a pathological liar. A few well placed articles now will go a long way if things blow up for us down the line. We can place an article re her [being] discredited. We have all the facts based on publicly available information. This can begin simultaneous with #1.”
Next, Bloom wrote, would come a “cease and desist letter from me, warning her of the violation of agreement with you and putting her on notice of causes of action for CA claims of false light, invasion of privacy, defamation etc.”
After that three-pronged attack on McGowan, Bloom would then move to portray Weinstein as a friend of the sisterhood. That effort would include the creation of a “Weinstein foundation, focusing on gender equality in film, etc.”
Bloom also planned to manipulate Google search results for “positive reputation management.”
I Googled your name, and a few obnoxious articles pop up. I work with the leading reputation management company that can backlink to the positive articles to make a “firewall” which prevents negative pieces from ranking well on Google. Your first page of Google is key as 95% never go beyond the first google page. Let’s improve this.
The Times’ report about the book noted that “Bloom accompanied Mr. Weinstein on a surprise visit to the Times the day before the initial article was published, to present the journalists with information intended to portray several accusers — including Ashley Judd, the first actress to go on the record — as unreliable and mentally unstable.”
Bloom charged Weinstein $895 an hour, the Times reported.
Apology Not Accepted
Bloom has apologized for defending Weinstein, and thanked the authors for setting her straight.
But McGowan isn’t interested. “I do not accept your apology,” she wrote in now-deleted tweet that Mediaite captured. “You are a conniving, vicious abuse of the word woman. You who thought I would not stand. Tonight I rise. I rise in the name of all who’ve been silenced. I rise in the name of those who’ve been programmed to hate me and other truth tellers.”
“The evil that was perpetrated on me and others was mind bending and illegal,” she continued. “Lisa Bloom should be disbarred.”
Image of Lisa Bloom: Screenshot of ad at thebloomfirm.com
