Saturday, September 23, 2017

"Tumult After AIDS Fund-Raiser Supports Harvey Weinstein Production"

NYT:
In May 2015, the entertainment producer Harvey Weinstein arranged for two items to be auctioned off at a fund-raiser for amfAR, a New York-based charity that works to cure AIDS.

The offers — a sitting with a famous fashion photographer and a package of tickets to a Hollywood film awards event and parties — came with a condition: $600,000 of the money raised at the auction, in Cannes, France, would go to the American Repertory Theater, a nonprofit playhouse that had done a trial run of “Finding Neverland,” a Broadway musical that Mr. Weinstein produced.

...

Mr. Weinstein, who is a longtime supporter of the AIDS organization and was a chairman of the 2015 event, said that he had done nothing wrong and that everyone benefited from the arrangement, which raised $309,669 for amfAR. “I honestly thought we were doing something fantastic for both sides,” he said in an interview. “We get money, they get money, and it’s all our money.”