Meryl Streep: No, I Didn't Know of 'Inexcusable' Weinstein Acts

One common refrain being heard about the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment debacle is that his behavior was the worst-kept secret in Hollywood. And that has left people wondering why prominent, longtime collaborators never spoke up. On Monday, none other than Meryl Streep addressed that very question. "Not everybody knew," she writes in a statement to HuffPo about the "inexcusable" behavior. She counts herself as among those who were in the dark. "I did not know about his having meetings in his hotel room, his bathroom, or other inappropriate, coercive acts," she writes, adding that the women who have come forward are "heroes." One of them, Rose McGowan, earlier declared, "Ladies of Hollywood, your silence is deafening," per US Weekly. Other developments:

• Back and forth, and back: After Jim Rutenberg in the New York Times wrote a column about Weinstein's "media enablers," Sharon Waxman of the Wrap accused the Times of being one of those enablers. She writes that the newspaper "gutted" a story she wrote about Weinstein as a Times reporter back in 2004, and she provides all the details. Which has Times reporter Nick Confessore wondering, "If Waxman had the goods on Weinstein, why not publish them in the media publication she has run for the last eight years?"

• SNL quiet: Saturday Night Live was notably silent about the scandal over the weekend, and the New York Times reports that jokes had been prepped, then ditched. When asked about the decision afterward, Lorne Michaels replied that it was a "New York thing," opening himself up to critics who think the story is being buried by entertainment bigwigs. (Donald Trump Jr. is one of those critics.)
• Weinstein stories: Vulture rounds up no fewer than 17 on-the-record stories about Weinstein's business antics and volatile temper when dealing with the media and others. One reporter recalls him shoving a colleague down steps when Weinstein didn't like a question.
• Few allies: That temper and brutish behavior might be why seemingly nobody has his back amid the scandal, reports the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper says the ill will goes back to Weinstein's first Oscar win for Shakespeare in Love, which his critics say "was as much a credit to Weinstein’s costly and bitterly fought Oscar campaign as to the film's merits." (It beat Saving Private Ryan.)