On Paula Weinstein: poor, whittle, rich communist; she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and died that way

By RM

friday, june 21, 2024 at 11:18:00 p.m. edt
updated at 12:36 a.m., saturday, june 22, 2024

From the nyt a few months ago:

“Paula Weinstein, a movie producer, studio executive and political activist who became a fierce advocate for women in her industry, died on monday at her home in manhattan. she was 78.

“In the boy’s club of hollywood, ms. Weinstein was the rare female top executive: over her long career, she was president of united artists, a vice president of warner bros. and an executive vice president at 20th century Fox. she was just 33 when she was hired at Fox in 1978, and when she was promoted to vice president a year later, the los angeles times called her 'the highest-ranking woman in the motion picture industry.”

“Ms. Weinstein accepted the emmy award for the hbo movie Recount in 2008. she was an executive producer on the film, which was based on the 2000 presidential election.

“As Ken Sunshine, the veteran public relations consultant and longtime democratic activist, put it in a phone interview: 'unlike so many, she didn’t play at politics. to her, social and political change was paramount. she was the antithesis of a phony hollywood activist looking for good p.r. or a career boost. She was unique in a sea of pretenders.

“activism was the family business: her mother, Hannah Weinstein, was a journalist and speechwriter who in 1950 took her three young daughters to live in Paris and then london, fleeing the grim and punitive politics of the country’s McCarthy era. in britain, where the family lived for more than a decade, Hannah Weinstein produced movies and television series using blacklisted actors and writers like Ring Lardner Jr. and Ian McLellan Hunter.”

That blacklist sure was rough, wasn't it? Just pack up and head off to live in europe with three daughters (note that no husband is mentioned), and end up making a mint as producer of one of the most successful TV series of its era, The Adventures of Robin Hood (given a measure of quality by its team of blacklisted-but talented-writers). And evil begets evil. But we sure have been entertained all these years on our way to extinction!

-RM



N.S.: imdb.com provides virtually no information on the personal lives of Paula Weinstein or her mother, Hannah. And what "information" it provides, is bogus (on Hannah, 1911-1984): "heavily involved in new york city's leftist democratic [read: communist] circles until she was hounded by the house un-American activities committee because of her activism. she exiled herself in england where she became a prolific producer of television dramas."

How was she "hounded" by huac? imdb.com (Jon Hopwood?) provides no supporting facts.

Note, too, that Paula did not earn her way: One year after Fox hired her, a "rabbi" promoted her to veep.