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Report: Lisa Bloom Offered to Share 'Sexual History' of Weinstein Accuser as Opposition Research

Lisa Bloom (L), lawyer for Montia Sabbag, speaks regarding the alleged attack on her client's character after accusations that Sabbag attempted to extort comedian Kevin Hart during a press conference held at The Bloom Firm September 20, 2017 in Woodland Hills, California. The scandal stems from a provocative video taken in Las Vegas last month where both Hart and Sabbag are seen. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Lisa Bloom, left, and Montia Sabbag hold press conference over Kevin Hart scandal / Getty Images
October 26, 2017

Several former clients of Lisa Bloom are publicly castigating the lawyer, who recently advised disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, for seemingly caring more about money and publicity than civil rights, a cause she once championed with previous clients.

Bloom, the daughter of prominent women's rights attorney Gloria Allred, resigned as an adviser to Weinstein two days after the New York Times published its bombshell story on the film producer earlier this month, but her decision to work with Weinstein in the first place raised eyebrows. Among those who were surprised by the decision was NBC investigative reporter Ronan Farrow, who saw advising Weinstein as standing in contrast to Bloom's history of defending alleged victims of sexual harassment.

Less than a week after the Times story, which detailed nearly three decades of sexual harassment complaints against Weinstein, was published, Farrow published a bombshell exposé  in the New Yorker that included audio of Weinstein admitting to a model that he previously groped her.

Bloom ultimately resigned as Weinstein's adviser before Farrow's piece was published, but she tried to kill Farrow's story months earlier, according to a new report from the Daily Beast.  The lawyer revealed to Farrow she had "opposition research" on the sexual history of actress and Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan. The actress initially conducted an on-camera interview with Farrow, but later withdrew because she feared she would be sued for violating a non-disclosure agreement signed as part of a previous settlement with Weinstein.

"I don't know if you've talked to Rose McGowan, but we have files on her and her sexual history," Bloom told Farrow, according to knowledgeable sources inside and outside NBC.

Since the release of Farrow's piece, McGowan has nonetheless alleged publicly that the movie mogul raped her at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.

McGowan was also not happy about Bloom's defense of Weinstein and wrote an 1,100-word Facebook post that slammed the lawyer.

"Your very name makes my stomach clench with a stressed tightness that takes my breath away. As does your mercenary act of depravity," the actress wrote on her Facebook page in a strongly-worded indictment of Bloom. "Did you think of how it would affect victims to see you champion a rapist? How it felt to those you once 'fought for,' for them to know that you used them. You remember them right? They were the victims of assaults, women you'd previously helped. You lied to those hurt women and hid your true character. You wanted a shortcut to fame."

Farrow, who is working on another Weinstein exposé, according to a Page Six, was originally doing the investigative report for NBC, but executives pulled the plug and he took his piece to the New Yorker. Bloom reached out to Farrow back in January and said that she heard he was working on an investigative piece on non-disclosure agreements in Hollywood and offered to put him in contact with several actress-clients. Contacts close to both parties said Farrow was originally open-minded about Bloom's help, but began to suspect she was trying to phish for clues about his investigation. He did not take advantage of her help.

For weeks, Bloom did not tell Farrow she was working on behalf of Weinstein and that she had been strategizing for months with Weinstein's legal team. Her intentions soon became clear, and she admitted her affiliation to Farrow, according to the Daily Beast.

Bloom had appeared more than once on his short-lived MSNBC show, "Ronan Farrow Daily," and she had been a vocal defender of Farrow's sister, Dylan, and his mother, Mia, in February 2014 when Dylan Farrow published an open letter in the New York Times alleging that Woody Allen had sexually assaulted her when she was 7 years old.

Yet no sooner had Farrow divulged to Bloom his interest in Weinstein than executives at NBC and Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency, Farrow's professional representatives, began to receive a barrage of calls and letters, as the movie mogul (a longtime pal of NBC Universal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer and others at the company he'd done business with) sought to wield every ounce of leverage to stop Farrow's investigation.

Since the revelations of Weinstein's misconduct became public, Bloom has been barraged with criticism from former clients—such as comedian Kathy Griffin, former Fox News commentator Tamara Holder, and others—who claim she cares more about money, publicity, and mingling with celebrities than justice for victims of sexual assault.

Holder hired Bloom last fall after she formally complained to Fox News that the company's Latino Vice President Francisco Cortes had sexually assaulted her in February 2015. Bloom led the legal team that won Holder a settlement reportedly approaching $3 million, and Fox News publicly acknowledged the incident. Still, Holder had a rocky relationship with Bloom and was concerned that she was more focused on the nearly million-dollar payout from her settlement than the actual case, which she said included thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenses.

Griffin fired Bloom over the weekend after she hired her earlier in the summer to help navigate her career after a controversial photo shoot in which the comedienne held a fake, severed head of President Donald Trump. The controversy caused her to lose her job as a co-host of CNN's annual New Year's Eve program with Anderson Cooper and hurt her comedy career. She unleashed on Bloom in an interview with the Daily Beast on Sunday, alleging that she was "fame-whoring" and that she charged astronomical legal fees.

Allred was even critical of her daughter for being an adviser to Weinstein, noting she would have "declined" the offer to defend him.

"Had I been asked by Mr. Weinstein to represent him, I would have declined, because I do not represent individuals accused of sex harassment," Allred declared in a press release. "I only represent those who allege that they are victims of sexual harassment."