Disney faces reckoning as heiress Abigail says Harvey Weinstein abuse was no secret

In the murk of the #MeToo movement, Disney, the largest entertainment producer in the world, seemed to come out relatively unscathed. 

In the years since, the company has fallen over itself to be more inclusive of diversity and women, taking its woke crusade so far that viewers are hard-pressed to find a new film or franchise that doesn’t have a face-smacking social justice message.

But its squeaky-clean image was soiled this week with the admission by maverick heiress Abigail Disney that not only did the company know about Harvey Weinstein’s prolific sexual abuse, it did nothing about it and may have even helped him pay off women who came forward.

‘It was an open secret. I mean, it wasn’t even a secret. Everyone knew what Harvey was about, and that was just fine as long as everybody saw it as, “well, this is just how business is done.” ‘Nobody had the moral clarity to step up and say, ‘well, not here. we don’t do it that way here,’ Abigail, Walt Disney’s black sheep great-niece, said. 

Her comments to Rolling Stone were published on Wednesday alongside others by Kaja Sokola, a former model who says Weinstein assaulted her in 2002 when she was 16. She is suing Weinstein and Disney, alleging that the company failed to stop him from harming her. Disney has, so far, been silent on her claims. 

Whether the company can be held liable for Weinstein’s conduct remains to be seen (Sokola’s case is still pending in New York’s Supreme Court), but Abigail’s remarks raise serious ethics questions for a company seems to have made its mission making the world a safer, fairer, woker place. 

‘Ms. Disney’s comment raises important questions. What did Disney know, and when did they know it? Did they receive reports of sexual misconduct?’ Gloria Allred, a prolific attorney who represented other Weinstein victims, told DailyMail.com on Friday.

‘If so, what action if any did they take? Did they do any investigation ? If so, what did it reveal? If they failed to investigate, why did they make that decision? 

‘If it was business as usual to protect Harvey Weinstein rather than protecting those who may have been victims the Disney company should admit it. 

‘Victims deserve the truth and a full accounting by Disney,’ she added. 

Sokola’s attorney Douglas Wigdor told DailyMail.com: ‘We are confident that Disney and others will be held accountable for enabling Harvey Weinstein to engage in predatory behavior and the harm done to Ms. Sokola. 

‘Ms. Disney should be applauded for her honesty and candor.’

Weinstein denies Sokola’s allegations, as he has those of every woman to have accused him of misconduct. 

Sokola is not only suing Weinstein but also The Walt Disney Company, claiming the company was aware of Weinstein’s misconduct and facilitated payments to women through its subsidiary, Miramax. 

‘Numerous employees and executives of Miramax and Disney were aware of Harvey Weinstein’s pattern of misconduct, but the companies that employed him utterly failed to supervise him, and they continued to empower him with their prestige and resources and allowed him to find more victims, including Kaja Sokola.

‘Were it not for the gross neglect of these individuals and companies and their failure to exercise reasonable care, Sokola would have been spared from Harvey Weinstein’s predatory conduct,’ her lawsuit reads. 

Disney was the parent company of Weinstein’s smaller film outlet, Miramax, between 1993 and 2010, when it sold the company to an investment firm. Weinstein and his brother launched the company together in a tribute to their parents – Miriam and Max. 

The 69-year-old sex offender remains in jail after being convicted of separate crimes in New York in early 2020. 

Sokola’s lawsuit describes how she arrived in New York as a fresh-faced teen model in 2002 and quickly met Weinstein, who promised her fame and success. 

She claims that he attacked her in his SoHo apartment, ‘ejaculating onto the floor’ within ten minutes of them arriving at the home. 

They stayed in contact and she was silent about the alleged incident for years to come.

It wasn’t until a wave of women came forward to accuse Weinstein of similar misconduct in 2017 that she Sokola contacted an attorney. 

At the time, her claim was too told to pursue due to New York’s then statute of limitations. However the laws recently changed to allow victims to take legal action against their abusers. 

Her legal team filed the lawsuit in 2019 as a result of that change and the case is still pending. 

It is one of the few outstanding allegations against Weinstein. It is unclear if Sokola reported her allegations to the police. 

She is now suing Weinstein along with his brother, Robert, Miramax, Disney Enterprises and The Walt Disney Company. 

It casts a dark stain on the woke new image Disney has been desperate to project. 

In the last year, the company has wiped all traces of anything remotely offensive from its projects. 

It ditched the roles of the seven dwarves in its remake of Snow White after Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage claimed it was ‘backwards’ to include them and recently injected a gay kiss into a remake of Toy Story. 

Minnie Mouse was given a Stella McCartney pantsuit to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disneyland Paris and the company is also weighing in on politics by swearing off Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill as homophobic. 

‘Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts,’ Chapek said in a statement in March. 

The law prohibits teachers from asking students about any sexual orientation or allowing discussion of any sexual orientation before a certain age. 

It was introduced and shepherded by Governor Ron de Santis as an antidote to the increasingly progressive mentality sweeping America’s public schools. 

Disney did not respond to requests on Friday about its alleged involvement in Harvey Weinstein’s misconduct. 

Abigail Disney has long been vocal in her criticism of her perceived failings of the company. 

In 2019, she lashed out Bob Iger’s $65million salary, calling it an ‘insane’ amount and more than 1,000 times more than the average Disney worker’s pay. 

‘When he got his bonus last year, I did the math, and I figured out that he could have given personally, out of pocket, a 15 percent raise to everyone who worked at Disneyland, and still walked away with $10 million.

‘So there’s a point at which there’s just too much going around the top of the system into this class of people who–I’m sorry this is radical–have too much money. There is such a thing,’ she said at the time.