J.K. Rowling Compares Neil Gaiman To Harvey Weinstein As ‘Sandman’ Author Faces More Sexual Assault Claims
(Updated Jan 14 with Neil Gaiman blog statement) More sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman that emerged Monday have seen J.K. Rowling offer a chilling and insightful comparison for The Sandman writer.
Not long after New York magazine published its detailed cover story on multiple new and old claims against Gaiman by multiple women, the Harry Potter creator took to social media to give some opinionated context of her own.
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No stranger to controversy, criticism and accusations of being transphobic for her strident views on gender identity and the transitioning of minors, Rowling pinned initial reactions to allegations against the once acclaimed Gaiman to incarcerated rapist Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo outburst against the much-accused Pulp Fiction producer.
“The literary crowd that had a hell of a lot to say about Harvey Weinstein before he was convicted has been strangely muted in its response to multiple accusations against Neil Gaiman from young women who’d never met, yet — as with Weinstein — tell remarkably similar stories,” Rowling wrote this morning on X in the second of two missives on Gaiman.
Similar to Weinstein, Gaiman has not only been incriminated for attacks on women but also of using NDAs and payoffs to silence his alleged victims. Also, like Weinstein, as well as Bill Cosby, Danny Masterson and others who have faced justice over the past few years for rape and assault, the reports from unassociated women about Gaiman appear to reveal a duplicated M.O.
Building on information and elements originally put forth last summer in Tortoise Media’s six-part podcast Master: The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman, New York‘s often explicit article “There Is No Safe Word” by Lila Shapiro spoke with eight women in total, three who had never gone public. The alleged attacks, some of which are said to have occurred with Gaiman’s son nearby against women in their late teens to early 20s, took place in the much older Gaiman’s upstate Empire State home. Other incidents occurred in New Zealand when he, then-spouse and Dresden Doll member Amanda Palmer and their child were under Covid lockdown.
Calling previous accusations consensual and denying any assaults, the CAA-repped Gaiman has not addressed the new claims, which are complicated in the eyes of some by the NDAs and apparent ongoing communications with the author by several of the women.
(UPDATE, Jan 14 PM: In a long January 14 entry on his personal blog, Gaiman wrote: “As I reflect on my past – and as I re-review everything that actually happened as opposed to what is being alleged – I don’t accept there was any abuse. To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.
He added: I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. I’m not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can’t accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn’t do.)
Both Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video have projects with the award-winning Gaiman, such as a second season of Sandman and the now 90-minute finale episode of Good Omens. While Gaiman stepped back from showrunning Good Omens last September as the first round of allegations against him emerged, neither streamer responded Monday to requests from Deadline for comment on the new claims. If, either of them do get back to us, this post will be updated.
Currently under medical supervision awaiting a new East Coast criminal trial on multiple sex crimes, Weinstein was quickly shunned and condemned by the industry after a late 2017 New York Times exposé on the decades of abuse and rape he had inflicted upon young women in and out of Hollywood. In 2023, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison after a Manhattan jury found the former studio chief guilty of raping actress Jessica Mann and sexually assaulting production assistant Miriam Haley. A panel of New York appeals court judges threw out the conviction in April of last year, ruling 4-3 that prosecutors had erred by allowing the testimony of other Weinstein accusers whose claims were not being tried.
Convicted on sex crimes in Los Angeles in 2022 and sentenced to 16 years, the still-imprisoned Weinstein faces a number of civil trials on both coasts. Last reported to be suffering from leukemia and suing the state of New York for $5 million over so-called “deplorable conditions” at Rikers Island jail (it’s a jail buddy), a new East Coast trial date has not been set.
The unspecified calendar is partially due to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office indicating further indictments are coming against Weinstein. No charges have been made against Gaiman by authorities in the U.S., New Zealand or the American Gods scribe’s native UK as of yet.
Full disclosure: New York Magazine is owned by Vox Media, which Deadline’s parent company PMC has had an ownership stake in since 2023.
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