Hollywood was buzzing this week when insiders noticed that a self-published autobiography by jailed ex-movie mogul Harvey Weinstein popped up for sale on Amazon.
The memoir, “Harvey Weinstein: My Story,” for $7.99 a pop, was actually released earlier in May, but it got some traction when the Hollywood newsletter Puck noticed it was for sale and then wondered if it was legit.
Turns out it’s not. Apparently the “autobiography” was penned by two other inmates serving time in the same LA facility as Weinstein.
A forward to the book by the publisher, the Prisons Foundation, reportedly reveals: “At this point, I must point out in the interest of full disclosure that our receiving this autobiography came in a circuitous way… It was mailed to us from the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, the prison in California housing Weinstein. But it was not mailed to us by Weinstein himself.”
Reports said that the authors befriended Weinstein in jail and that he relayed his story to them since he can’t publish a book himself amid his ongoing legal battles.
But Weinstein’s reps told Page Six on Friday that his Los Angeles attorney filed for an injunction and a cease-and-desist demanding the tome be taken down, and not be called an “autobiography.” By Friday evening, the book was taken off Amazon.
Weinstein is serving 23 years on sexual assault and rape charges in New York, and is also facing an upcoming trial for alleged sex crimes in Los Angeles. He’s denied all charges.
A source stated that Weinstein “knows about” the faux autobiography, but hasn’t read it.
His New York attorney, Arthur Aidala, said the book bruhaha: “It’s definitely not an autobiography,” and added that if Weinstein were to publish a book, “knowing Harvey, if he was going to do something like this, it would be on a bigger, more grand scale.”
If any publisher would touch it, that is.
Sources said the origins of the book, “Harvey has made some quote- unquote friends while he’s been incarcerated. When you’re in prison, you talk a lot, and there is not that much to do.”
The fake autobiography certainly seemed to be pro-Weinstein. It said on its back cover: “Many people in the movie field are lucky if they get a single Academy Awards nomination. Do you know how many of them Weinstein received? Not three, not 35, but 350. And do you know how many Oscars? A total of 80 in virtually every category. Eighty first-place wins. In this book, Weinstein not only tells of his unconventional (some say ‘inappropriate’) methods but of the accusations that inevitably followed his success.”
The book also said of the fallen producer: “He took chances in his professional and personal life. He weighed the odds and moved forward without hesitation. The results were astounding.”
Meanwhile, New Yorker writer Ken Auletta is publishing a Weinstein biography for Penguin that comes out Jul. 12. Weinstein won’t likely be too happy with that tome either.
One insider who read the phony prison “autobiography” told us of the content: “It has really gross details of sexual exploits,” comparing the writing to Penthouse.
But Aidala also mentioned that Weinstein would never put out a book now himself since, “He wouldn’t stack the deck against himself before he gets into a sex assault trial” in Los Angeles.
