Sumith Prasad
Maria Schrader’s ‘She Said’ revolves around The New York Times’ investigation reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who investigates the rape and sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Upon discovering the experiences of several survivors, Jodi and Megan investigate the involvement of the executives of Miramax, the production company co-founded by Weinstein, in settling negotiations with the survivors.
Jodi’s leads lead her to Irwin Reiter, who worked for Weinstein at Miramax and The Weinstein Company. As the biographical film depicts the significance of Reiter’s assistance to Jodi, one must be eager to know more about the real-life Reiter. Well, here’s what we can share about the former Weinstein employee!
Who is Irwin Reiter?
Irwin Reiter was an accountant who had been working with Harvey Weinstein since 1989. When Weinstein co-founded The Weinstein Company in 2005, he joined the company and served as the executive vice president for accounting and financial reporting. He was reportedly described as the company’s “institutional memory.” Since Reiter did the producer’s books, Jodi wanted to know about the settlements Weinstein had done with the survivors.
During their meeting, Reiter asked Jodi an astounding question: “why are you asking about ancient history when Weinstein had committed so many more recent offenses against his own employees?” according to Jodi and Megan’s eponymous source text of the film, leading the reporter to the recent offenses committed by the producer. When Jodi asked for more information about the recent offenses, Reiter told her about “a young development executive who read scripts and another who had worked at The Weinstein Company while in business school,” as per Jodi and Megan’s book.
However, Reiter didn’t offer a completely comprehensible account of what really happened in The Weinstein Company. But the information he shared with Jodi helped her and Megan to evaluate the credibility of the other information they had garnered. According to the same book, Reiter even confronted Weinstein through e-mail about the accusations against the producer.
“Reiter wanted to [stop Weinstein’s behavior]. He was no longer just afraid for the company: He was starting to fear for the safety of female employees and was troubled by the idea of the boss hurting women in his own employ,” Jodi and Megan added. When Jodi and Megan’s investigation progressed, their superiors at the Times wanted to publish an article but the duo wanted any sort of documents that would be a strong piece of evidence against Weinstein. Reiter told Jodi about a memo written by a junior executive named Lauren O’Connor.
According to Jodi and Megan’s book, Jodi gave an account of an actress with whom Weinstein tried to have sex without consent to Reiter. Upon reading the same, Reiter let the reporter read Lauren’s memo. “After all of his indignation, his fruitless attempts to intervene, and the moments when he had thrown up his hands, the accountant was finally doing something irrevocable to stop his boss,” Jodi and Megan wrote about Reiter’s decision to let Jodi read the memo in the source text of the film.
Irwin Reiter is Now the Chief Financial Officer of Bleecker Street Media
Irwin Reiter eventually left The Weinstein Company. In November 2018, Reiter launched a consulting firm and signed a deal with Lantern Entertainment to be the latter’s non-exclusive consultant to be involved in finance, accounting, and participation reporting. In addition to Jodi, Reiter also spoke with Ronan Farrow for the latter’s The New Yorker story titled ‘Harvey Weinstein’s Secret Settlements.’ He questioned the NDAs Weinstein allegedly made his survivors sign as part of their settlement.
“A forever N.D.A. should not be legal. People should not be made to live with that. He’s created so many victims that have been burdened for so many years, and it’s just not right,” Reiter told Farrow. In May 2021, Reiter graduated in Law. In November 2022, he was admitted to the bar to practice as a lawyer. Although Reiter was cautious about communicating with Jodi in 2017, he became one of the significant voices against Harvey Weinstein by 2022. In an op-ed published in Los Angeles Times in November 2022, Reiter admitted to having “misgivings about coming forward” against Weinstein.
“Seeing his defense in court, I can tell you Weinstein hasn’t changed one bit: He has used intimidation for decades against women to try to discredit and silence them. It shouldn’t have worked for as long as it did,” Reiter wrote in the same op-ed. Reiter currently works as the Chief Financial Officer of Bleecker Street Media, a film distribution company. He seemingly continues to live in New York City. Reiter recently attended the premiere of ‘She Said’ with his son Matthew Reiter as well.
Read More: Rowena Chiu Now: Where is Weinstein Survivor Now?
