Lisa Bloom came under intense criticism for her work with Harvey Weinstein, and now the celebrity attorney says taking on that role was a “colossal mistake.”
“I can see that my just being associated with this was a mistake,” Bloom said in an interview with BuzzFeed. “All I can say is, from my perspective, I thought, ‘Here is my chance to get to the root of the problem from the inside. I am usually on the outside throwing stones. Here is my chance to be in the inside and to get a guy to handle this thing in a different way.’”
“I thought that would be a positive thing, but clearly it did not go over at all,” she said.
When the New York Times published its report about the sexual harassment allegations made against Weinstein, Bloom was listed as a lawyer advising him, and she was quoted as calling him an “old dinosaur learning new ways.”
Given her reputation for standing up for women, including representing Janice Dickinson in her rape case against Bill Cosby and Blac Chyna in her revenge porn case against Rob Kardashian, Bloom was criticized for taking the side of a man accused of victimizing women.
Bloom’s mother, noted attorney Gloria Allred, condemned the decision in a statement at the time. “Had I been asked by Mr. Weinstein to represent him, I would have declined, because I do not represent individuals accused of sex harassment,” she said, adding that she would be willing to represent any of Weinstein’s accusers “even if it meant that my daughter was the opposing counsel.”
“There is definitely a rift with my mother now,” Bloom told Buzzfeed.
A few days after the initial report, Bloom announced on Twitter that she had resigned as Weinstein’s adviser. She told Buzzfeed that she was not aware of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct when she joined his team, and was “absolutely shocked” by subsequent revelations in a New Yorker article alleging that the producer had raped at least three women.
“I am not an actress…this may be something that they knew about, but I did not,” she said. “Before all this became public, there were plenty of people who thought he was a great guy. So we have to be careful about looking at things in hindsight. I think many people who worked with him did not know.”