JUDY WOODRUFF: Since the Harvey Weinstein
story broke, there's been a new focus on sexual
harassment in the workplace.
This weekend, we learned FOX News reportedly
re-signed its then-top-rated host, Bill O'Reilly,
after he allegedly paid $32 million to settle
harassment allegations.
In finance, several employees were reportedly
forced out at Fidelity Investments, the mutual
fund giant.
And then two more developments today: The
California State Senate announced it is hiring
firms to investigate reports of a pervasive
culture of harassment there.
And then, back in New York, the state attorney
general launched a civil rights probe into
The Weinstein Company.
As it happens, this weekend, Jeffrey Brown
recorded an interview with actor Tom Hanks
about a new project, his first book, a collection
of short stories.
We're going to be airing that interview in
the coming days.
But in the course of that conversation, they
talked about the fallout from the Weinstein
scandal.
And Jeff asked whether Weinstein's behavior
was an open secret in Hollywood.
TOM HANKS, Actor: I think there was knowledge
amongst a certain group of people, mostly
who did business with Harvey Weinstein.
There are countless women who understood that
that is what happened.
And there were many people who said, well,
that's just Harvey being Harvey.
JEFFREY BROWN: How serious is it?
Is it about one person, one man, or is it
a culture?
TOM HANKS: You and I and even the likes of
the people on the Turner Classic Movies understand
that the idea of the casting couch that existed
in Hollywood is the part of both myth and
concrete reality.
Any place there is a boss with underlings
in any corporation or any industry, you have
a type of sexual politics that goes on that
can slide in between appropriate ethics and
decorum to, let's see, inappropriate behavior,
to the point of harassment and sexual predatory
behavior.
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, I mean, I think people
understand that.
But the larger question, is there a culture
of complicity in Hollywood, where women are
afraid to speak up because they will blacklisted,
men are afraid to speak up out of the same
fear, or they just think, well, this is the
way the system works?
TOM HANKS: I think there are people that said,
well, hey, this is how it works, pure and
simple, this is why I got into,it, and this
is why I have power, this is how it works,
and you have to understand that.
That doesn't carry the day.
Complicity, people who know, well, look, this
is how we do business, and that's what has
got to be done, I'm sorry it is like that,
so, beware, that is also present, without
a doubt.
But it doesn't carry the day.
There's also people that were afraid to speak
out who were victims that did not go forward,
that signed, negotiated settlement deals of
which a nondisclosure agreement was part and
parcel to it.
That also doesn't carry the day.
So, the dam has burst here in a big way.
And it is not just the halls of places like
Harvey Weinstein's office where this was standard
operating procedure.
And it is criminal, and it is -- it is -- it
is cause for termination.
It is also happening in every other corner
of not just my industry, but yours and throughout
all of America today.
JEFFREY BROWN: You think this is a kind of
tipping point.
TOM HANKS: Well, I think it absolutely is,
in which everybody is asking, women, what
do I put up with and when do I talk about
it, and men saying, I think we have to live
by a code of ethics that we need to think
and put down on paper.
Don't be surprised if there is going to be
a sign in front of every one of the studio
gates that will say, all people entering this
studio will obey this code of ethics, or they
will be escorted from the premises.
And that will all be about sexual harassment
and sexual predatory behavior.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we will have the rest of
Jeff's conversation with Tom Hanks about his
new book and his work in the coming days.
