{"id":425978,"date":"2026-02-14T21:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425978\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T21:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:17:13","slug":"as-harvey-weinsteins-publicist-i-talk-to-him-most-days-i-like-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425978\/","title":{"rendered":"As Harvey Weinstein\u2019s publicist I talk to him most days. I like him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYes, yes, Harvey, I know,\u201d said Juda Engelmayer as he opened the door of his office, wireless headphones in, phone in hand, rolling his eyes theatrically. \u201cYes, Harvey, I\u2019ll try.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the 72nd floor of the Empire State Building, Engelmayer has created a niche: the publicist who takes on clients so nuclear that no one else will touch them. <\/p>\n

The \u201cHarvey\u201d on the phone was the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who calls him most days from prison. Taking the job was a \u201ccalculated\u201d decision, said Engelmayer. \u201cI thought it was a good way that I could propel myself and make myself a better-known PR person.\u201d<\/p>\n

It worked. In the years since, 56-year-old Engelmayer has headed crisis communications for Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/a> (50 months in prison for two prostitution-related charges); the \u201cfake heiress\u201d Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey<\/a>, four years for eight theft-related charges, then 18 months fighting deportation) and the leader of the \u201corgasm cult\u201d, Nicole Daedone<\/a> (awaiting sentencing for a forced labour conspiracy).<\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/p>\n

Anna Delvey posed as a wealthy heiress to infiltrate New York\u2019s high society<\/p>\n

TIMOTHY A CLARY\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Engelmayer is currently attending a federal court in Manhattan where the Alexander brothers<\/a> \u2014 Tal, Oren and Alon \u2014 are being tried on sex trafficking charges. While he has been taking notes to fire out press releases each night, the alleged victims have testified that they were drugged and raped, sometimes by more than one of the brothers \u2014 estate agents and socialites from Florida \u2014 at once. The brothers claim all the incidents were consensual.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who think I\u2019m good at what I do and there are people who think that I\u2019m a horrible human being,\u201d Engelmayer said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re looking for someone who\u2019s unabashed and willing to go [in to] bat for you on an unpopular issue, I\u2019m going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are the dark arts of PR \u2014 and Engelmayer is their overlord. <\/p>\n

How Weinstein hired me<\/p>\n

In November 2017, a month after the first New York Times and New Yorker investigations into Weinstein were published, Engelmayer received a call from the media mogul\u2019s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman. Engelmayer\u2019s former boss, Ronn Torossian, had turned down the job and recommended him instead. \u201cI had to sit down with my [adult] children and my wife [now ex] and ask them if they would mind if I did this. I said, \u2018I know it could negatively affect us, I can get cancelled and doxed [posting online private information about him]. But it\u2019s gonna be monumental.\u2019\u201d Two months later, Engelmayer had signed a contract. <\/p>\n

The issue was \u201ctense\u201d \u2014 few others wanted to go near it. \u201cBut when you work for a guy like that, in a case like that, the media calls you right away and I don\u2019t have to go begging,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was really a way of getting my name out there. It helped propel me into a world that I wasn\u2019t in beforehand.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Film<\/p>\n

Weinstein with Engelmayer, right, outside court in 2020<\/p>\n

LUCAS JACKSON\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

Weinstein was found guilty<\/a> in a Los Angeles court of rape and two sexual assaults involving an actress and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2022; in a New York retrial last year, he was found guilty on one charge of sexual assault but acquitted on another a year after his first conviction was overturned. <\/p>\n

Today Engelmayer acknowledges that Weinstein is a \u201cbully\u201d who \u201cabused his power, who abused position, who made people feel bad\u201d. However, he maintains that \u201cnone\u201d of the incidents he was accused of were non-consensual. \u201cWould I say that any of these people [clients] are totally innocent? It\u2019s the wrong word to use. Are they responsible for their actions? Yes. Did they do bad things? Yes. Did they make really poor choices? Absolutely. Are they people I want to trust my daughter with? No. But did what they do fit the charge? No.\u201d <\/p>\n

Does he like Weinstein? \u201cI do!\u201d said Engelmayer. The two talk most days. Weinstein, he said, also spoke regularly to \u201chis sons, his daughters\u201d (he has three children with his first wife and two with his second). According to Engelmayer, people still ask Weinstein to review their scripts. \u201cBut producing is not a big thing for him [any more],\u201d he said. \u201cI think he wants to write a memoir.\u201d <\/p>\n

So how do you solve a PR problem like Weinstein<\/a>? Well, he\u2019s certainly going to try. Weinstein has limited access to the internet each day and on a daily basis he wants Engelmayer to correct stories which he believes are inaccurate \u2014 specifically the most recent Epstein files, in which an FBI document contained a claim that Epstein<\/a> \u201ctold [an accuser] to give Weinstein a massage\u201d. It is what Weinstein was calling about the day we met. \u201cHe\u2019s like: \u2018Get to those reporters and tell them I wasn\u2019t there, I didn\u2019t do that, I don\u2019t want to be associated with that,\u2019\u201d said Engelmayer. <\/p>\n

More broadly, Weinstein is on a mission for his \u201clegacy to be protected\u201d. He recently conducted his first sit-down interview from his jail cell, which will be broadcast before the Oscars ceremony on March 15. \u201cHe wants people to acknowledge that he had a positive impact on Hollywood,\u201d Engelmayer said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t believe he was a criminal.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2022 Hadley Freeman on Weinstein: Oh I see \u2014 he\u2019s just a playboy again<\/a><\/p>\n

Engelmayer has about 14 clients. Many are in prison awaiting trial; some have been sentenced; others are in \u201cpotential legal trouble\u201d. \u201cThey are not all major-crazy people,\u201d he said. \u201cSome are just low-key crazy.\u201d He is driven, he continued, by a \u201cpassion for idealism\u201d. \u201cI started realising that legal cases are no longer just tried in the courtroom, they\u2019re tried in the court of public opinion, too.\u201d In the US, jurors are instructed not to read the news each night but there are no reporting restrictions during criminal proceedings. \u201cIf you\u2019re entitled to a defence, you should also be entitled to a public defence, too.\u201d However, he refuses to take on any case related to minors because he \u201ccan\u2019t defend the charges being put in court\u201d. <\/p>\n

Would he represent Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a>? \u201cI\u2019m not interested. Don\u2019t want to get involved.\u201d The former prince has denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u2018Money and power let you get away with things\u2019\"Juda<\/p>\n

In the lobby of the Empire State Building<\/p>\n

SHURAN HUANG FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n

Engelmayer was born on the Lower East Side of Manahattan, his mother a secretary, his father a journalist and later a rabbi. \u201cI was cynical from day one,\u201d said Engelmayer. It was a lesson he learnt after the children in his school tried to alert their parents that the principal was \u201cfondling\u201d students. The allegations never went anywhere.<\/p>\n

Later, Engelmayer was expelled for \u201cmouthing off all the time\u201d. However, the board of directors were reliable advertisers in his father\u2019s newspaper. His father made a call to them, who then called the principal \u2014 who reinstated Engelmayer. \u201cI learned that it\u2019s about who you know, it\u2019s not necessarily what they do,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that if you have money, power and influence, it doesn\u2019t matter, you can get away with it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Engelmayer graduated from the City University of New York in English and journalism, going on to work for the speaker of the New York assembly, Sheldon Silver, who was later convicted on corruption charges, serving six years in prison, where he died in 2022. \u201cShelly was a great mentor of mine,\u201d said Engelmayer. \u201cHe was such a savvy politician.\u201d Then followed stints in the press office of politicians and non-profit organisations. Between 1998 and 2013, he also owned Kossar\u2019s Bialys, a bagel shop in Manhattan. <\/p>\n

In 2000, Engelmayer moved into crisis communications, first at Howard Rubenstein Public Relations, working for clients including the Israeli foreign ministry, and Torossian\u2019s 5WPR, where his clients included Vitali Klitschko, the Ukrainian former boxer and mayor of Kyiv, and evangelical Christian ministers who were under federal investigation for practising the \u201cgospel of prosperity\u201d. <\/p>\n

Engelmayer clearly finds a thrill in his proximity to power. \u201cI like being in the middle of [things],\u201d he said . \u201cNot a lot of people have that kind of access or have the opportunity to be there with people in power like that and have them address you and know who you are. I found that to be just fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Influencing juries? I\u2019m not saying that\u2019<\/p>\n

In 2016, he founded HeraldPR, but it was only after his association with Weinstein that he became notorious. His clients generally pay between $10,000 and $30,000 each month. The skill, he said, was targeted messaging: understanding what the client wants to achieve and who the audience is to ensure that. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Alexander brothers, for example, getting into The Washington Post and having the world care about their issues is not going to help me. I\u2019m looking more at: if there\u2019s a conviction, can we get a potential pardoning, so you want to appeal to the Washington DC crowd. If you want to believe that a jury might be reading news every night when they\u2019re not supposed to, you want to get news that\u2019s local, so that they can see the narratives in there, potentially. But you can\u2019t influence a jury, so I\u2019m not saying that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Tal, Alon and Oren Alexander in a court sketch from a hearing last month<\/p>\n

JANE ROSENBERG\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

During trials, he\u2019s brazen, sending out press releases each night. Last year he was reprimanded by Judge Diane Gujarati for one of his posts which depicted a swastika superimposed over the justice department\u2019s logo. Engelmayer claimed he did not choose the image himself. <\/p>\n

The publicist also employs influencers. \u201cYou look for key placements, people who have a certain amount of followers,\u201d he said, paying them between \u201c$5,000 to $100,000\u201d for a series of videos supporting his client\u2019s case. \u201cIt\u2019s a whore\u2019s world.\u201d <\/p>\n

At home in Teaneck, New Jersey, Engelmayer said his social life was more active than ever. \u201cI get a little bit of hate mail here and there, but for the most part people are more fascinated by my job. People are gawkers.\u201d His marriage of 29 years, however, recently ended. \u201cBecause of Harvey!\u201d he said, cracking into laughter. \u201cNo, no, joking.\u201d His new girlfriend is a physical therapist whom he met on the dating app Bumble.<\/p>\n

In his spare time he watches Star Trek and goes to a shooting range \u2014 he owns seven handguns and has a carry permit for \u201c38 different states\u201d, including New York and New Jersey. <\/p>\n

His job has further \u201cconfirmed\u201d his cynicism. \u201cI don\u2019t like the way the world works,\u201d he said with a smile, lip curling. \u201cBut I\u2019ve learnt how to use it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYes, yes, Harvey, I know,\u201d said Juda Engelmayer as he opened the door of his office, wireless headphones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-425978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}