UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer sent a strongly worded memo late Wednesday to the agency’s nearly 1,000 staffers denouncing Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment and assault of of women and encouraging employees to come forward if they ever feel “uncomfortable, threatened or exposed” by sexual predators.
“We’ve all read the news. As a father, a husband, a colleague and a human being, I am disgusted. Harvey earned his demise,” Zimmer wrote. “And it should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone in our industry who believes moguls own their thrones. But I can say that I’m also proud …of the courageous women we represent who have strongly come forward…and of the culture of inclusiveness, tolerance and empowerment that we strive every day to build at UTA.”
Zimmer’s memo is an example of how widely the explosive Weinstein scandal is reverberating around the industry. Legal experts say the heightened awareness of the issue spurred in the past 12 months by the Weinstein revelations as well as the tumult at Fox News over sexual harassment is putting new pressure on businesses to react to allegations of hostile working environments, conditions that in some cases have been part and parcel of Hollywood culture for decades. Talent agencies in particularly have historically attracted highly ambitious and driven personalities.
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