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Seen a lot of "Why would you meet a Hollywood producer in his hotel room?" on Twitter this week, but not a good explanation of it. So:
When most people picture "meet in a hotel room," they picture a guy standing at the door, two beds and a TV behind him. Typical hotel room.
But! This is not what most Hollywood people think when they hear "hotel room meeting." Someone at Weinstein's level would have a suite...
Those suites are SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED for conferences, usually with a living/meeting area, sometimes even water coolers and A/V equipment
When you walk into one of those, you're seated at a table across from the guy, his (usually female) assistant handing you a water bottle
Many of the women attacked by Weinstein report that's exactly how it started - the assistant showed them in, they were greeted politely
Then unexpectedly, Weinstein would break apart the environment. The assistant would disappear, the interviewee asked to come to another room
What was happening in these cases was not women who ignored the loaded implications of "a hotel room" and proceeded anyway...
...but a producer who knew they expected him to have professional safeguards, who gave the IMPRESSION of safeguards... & then betrayed them.
If you read the stories, Weinstein couldn't have hurt as many people as he did if not for his team convincing the women it was safe.
I used to interview film people in hotel rooms. The bed was moved, a table brought in, a young woman assistant standing by the whole time
This is what they expected. By always attaching a sexual context to the idea of "hotel room," we add to the idea that it must be dangerous.
But always remember that in a Hollywood interview situation at that level, you often enter and leave a hotel room without ever seeing a bed.
