Catch And Kill by Ronan Farrow

Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
Published by Little, Brown ISBN 9780316486637
Hardcover, $30, 464 pages

With the Harvey Weinstein trial going on in New York City right now, Ronan Farrow's book, Catch and Kill is a timely read.

Farrow was working as an investigative journalist for NBC News after his afternoon MSBNC show was cancelled. In Catch and Kill, he details how he and his NBC News producer Rich McHugh spent months tracking down women who said that they had been sexually assaulted by mega- Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

They tracked down women, like actress Rose McGowan, who had written cryptic tweets about being sexually assaulted by a studio head, and got them to tell their stories on tape. Farrow went to Noah Oppenheim, the executive in charge of the Today show, and Oppenheim encouraged him to keep digging.

But soon that stopped. When Weinstein heard what Farrow was doing, he exerted his considerable influence with the top people at NBCUniversal to put a stop to Farrow's investigation. Farrow also discovered that he was being followed by two shady guys hired by Weinstein to see what he was up to.

Farrow and McHugh eventually were told to stop their investigation, even though they had more than enough evidence to bring the women's allegations to air. Oppenheim, who had been supportive of Farrow, told him they didn't have enough evidence, but he was free to take his story to a print publication.

Which is what Farrow did. David Remnick at The New Yorker magazine welcomed Farrow, and he and his team worked with Farrow to vet all of the evidence, and  published a damning piece in the magazine that went on to eventually win Farrow the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.

Farrow also recounts working on stories about Matt Lauer's sexual abuse allegations that got Lauer fired from Today, as well as the publisher of The National Enquirer 's cozy relationship with Donald Trump. The title of the book, Catch and Kill comes from the Enquirer's policy of paying sources for information about Trump's extramarital affairs, then hiding the evidence in a safe, thereby "killing" the story before the 2016 presidential election.

Reading Catch and Kill, you are astonished at how the circle of wealthy, powerful men who commit these heinous acts intersect, and the people (mostly, but not all, men) who rally around them (including supposedly reputable law firms) to protect them. It will anger you, and rightfully so.

And you will feel anguish for the women who suffered greatly, first after bring assaulted by these men, and then being victimized again after coming out in public with their experiences. The #MeToo movement that enveloped the world came about from the far too many brave who women spoke out on social media about their experiences.

Catch and Kill is well-written, and fast-paced, feeling almost like one of your favorite fictional thrillers. Unfortunately, it isn't fiction, but reality. I highly recommend it.

Farrow also has a podcast that delves deeper into his book. You'll find it here.

Friday 5ive- January 24, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week. It was a quiet week, not much going on except for work and a quick trip to Wegmans in Brooklyn.

1) Today is Lunar New Year's Eve (otherwise known as Chinese New Year) and Williams-Sonoma has a lovely display in their store in Columbus Circle. Their dishes looked so enticing, if I had the room for them I would have been tempted.

2) I also visited the new Nordstrom store on 57th Street. It is massive, and if you want to catch a glimpse of fashionistas, head over there. There some very stylish people in that store, working and shopping there. The Beauty Floor is huge, and gives Bloomingdale's a run for its money. This display of bathing suits caught my eye as the escalator stopped on the 2nd floor.

I wasn't sure what to make of this next one- is it a vest or a dress? 

3) The Sign of the Week comes from Mel's Burgers, with a nod to Britney Spears.

4) We watched two Oscar-nominated movies this week. First up was The Irishman, starring Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci and directed by Martin Scorcese. I liked the first hour and the last hour, the hour-and-a-half in-between I found repetitive. They could have cut 90 minutes out of the three-and-a-half hour running time and I would have liked it much better. Joe Pesci was fantastic, and Ray Romano held his own against these veteran actors. 

We also watched Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Leo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt both deserve all the accolades they have received for their acting, and I liked Margo Robbie and Margaret Qualley's performances as well. Tarantino really dropped the viewer into 1969 Hollywood, and every detail seemed perfect. My biggest complaint was the gratuitously violent ending. As usual, Tarantino way overdid it, and that ruined the movie for me.  (If you watch it, turn off the movie when the intruders break in. Email me, I'll tell you the ending.) Like his Inglorious Basterds, he rewrites history, but while that type of violence works in a war movie, I found it overkill here- actual overkill. I'm not a fan of violent fairytales. 

5) I read Ronan Farrow's book about his investigations into the Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer's sexual harassment cases, Catch and Kill. He takes the reader step-by-step into working on his investigative reporting on women accusing mega-Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of rape and sex abuse. He and his producer followed leads, and had several woman willing to go on camera and talk about their experiences. Executives at NBC were at first willing to let Farrow investigate, but pressure from Weinstein and his lawyers flowed down to Farrow and his producer and they had to take the story to The New Yorker magazine. It's a riveting read, with corporate intrigue and Eastern European spies, and topical since Weinstein is currently on trial this week in New York City. 

I followed that intense book with a lighter one- Gigi Levangie's upcoming Been There, Married That, about a woman married to a Hollywood producer who decides he wants a divorce. It's a real skewering of Hollywood, and Levangie knows of what she writes as she is the former wife of uber-producer Brian Glazer (Ron Howard's producing partner). It's hilarious and sometimes inappropriate (and not for everybody), but if you watch the Real Housewives of  Orange County, you'll love this. (I don't watch those shows, but I find this book very funny- Levangie has a great sense of humor.) It publishes February 11th. 

We're supposed to get a lot of rain tomorrow, so it's looks like I'll get a lot of reading done (after work on Saturday, that is). Have a great week, all!