WANTED: Where In The World Is Rick Schwartz?

In one of my favourite dreams, I’m walking through a field towards a prison.

I hear birds chattering and rejoicing in their freedom and then the metal thunk of the cage kills the sweet sounds and replaces them with a silence so dense that it feels like I’m moving through wet cement.

In the dream I’m smiling. I feel powerful. Justified.

I’m ushered down a hallway by invisible guards and directed towards a darkened cell.

Water drips relentlessly somewhere in the distance.

Plink.

Plink.

A figure emerges from the darkness, rolling slowly towards me on a wheelchair manoeuvred by frail, bony hands. His once robust and looming presence reduced to sagging folds of skin. Harvey Weinstein has folded in on himself somehow, bowed by the burden of his spectacular fall from grace. Any other creature as piteous and fragile as this would garner my compassion but this, this husk, this remnant of a human, this waste of life-force and creativity is a glorious sight. I am noticeably devoid of empathy.

“Hi Harvey,” I grin. “Still wanna be my Rock of Gibraltar?”

There is almost nothing left of the man who sits before me, eyes filled with hatred. He could no more be a pebble than a rock of any size.

I snap back to realty, still grinning. There is immense satisfaction knowing this serial predator is jailed, suffering, humiliated, dying. Withering away where he belongs, impotent and exposed.

But the satisfaction soon wanes. I cannot think of Weinstein without thinking of the men who aided and abetted him, the men who have so far sidestepped the spotlight of negative publicity, civil suits and prosecutions. The men who have keep a trove of secrets safe and use them to their advantage.

One of these men is Rick Schwartz, a lowly and ambitious assistant to Harvey Weinstein when I met him. Rick pretended to be my friend, made me feel safe and then lied to me to put me into an isolated and dangerous situation with a man he knew to be a sexual predator. How do I know he knew? Because he admitted it to me afterwards, apologized, and claimed to be wracked with guilt about it.

“Of all the girls we’ve done this to, you are the one that didn’t deserve it”. - Rick Schwartz

I remember his ashen face when he was summoned back to the hotel room after his boss’s failed attempt to rape me. He couldn’t make eye contact even as I eyeballed him with absolute fury and confusion.

This traitorous peon had talked with me all night, joked, laughed and danced. I thought I’d made a friend. There was nothing sleazy, no hint of what was coming.

That statement Schwartz made to me in the early hours of the morning in the lobby of the Majestic Hotel was a bomb that didn’t explode for a decade. I was too young to unpack it then. I had to grow older and wiser before the many layers of the admission could be revealed to me. I understand it now, and I’m so repulsed by it.

Schwartz admitted that there was a calculated effort to single me out, make me feel safe, convince me to join them in a remote location under false pretences and then abandon me to a rapist. He indicated that this was a pattern of behaviour that had happened many times before. “Of all the women we have done this to…”. We. A co-ordinated effort by multiple people regularly helped Harvey Weinstein get laid under any circumstances, no matter how many lies, manipulations or terrifying and violent situations the young girls and women were put through.

And yet Rick Schwartz and others have not been charged or sued, or even talked about in the press. Why?

Rick is an interesting character. A quick look at his instagram and you’ll see him cozied up to Leonardo DiCaprio, John Legend, Nicole Kidman, Jimmy Fallon and more. He has Hollywood influence, and yet, when given the opportunity to comment on his former boss and help his victims, Schwartz has remained conspicuously silent. He has never responded to any requests for a comment from lawyers, journalists, or even myself.

Rick’s silence speaks volumes. Not only did Schwartz help lure women to Harvey’s hotel rooms, he refused to speak up to corroborate us when we came forward. He could have been an ally. And yet, one journalist I spoke to for Vanity Fair is convinced it was Schwartz who tipped Harvey off about the New Yorker and Times stories back in 2018.

So why has Schwartz remained silent? What does he stand to lose? The famous friends and colleagues? His reputation? Money? Let's take a look:

Schwartz worked at Miramax for seven years, starting as an assistant to Weinstein and then being swiftly promoted to Senior Vice President of Production. He was an assistant in 1997 when I was assaulted in Cannes, and by 2000 is was an executive - a speedy ascent made possible by climbing on the backs of Harvey's victims.

In 2008, Schwartz founded Overnight Productions with his friend Jeremy Frommer. Notable films from Overnight include Black Swan and the cult-favorite Machete from Director Robert Rodriguez.

“Rick’s producing success comes not only from his impeccable creative taste, but also from his unsinkable integrity and compassion and humor — qualities too often lost in the numbers game of making movies.” - Nicole Kidman

Frommer and Schwartz clearly enjoyed each others company, for they then went on to found something called Jerrick Media in 2013, which seems to be the parent holding company for this tech venture, a publicly-traded company on the OTC. Schwartz isn’t listed in the governance section of Creat’d, but the companies are intertwined.

But he could have spoken up. He could have helped us. He could have given testimony and admitted his part in it. We’ve all done stupid things in our youth, made mistakes and trusted the wrong people. We’ve all made bad decisions. Learning from our mistakes, evolving and being accountable for them is proof that we are decent human beings. If Schwartz had come over from the Dark Side he would have been hailed a hero.

Instead he remains a mysterious and sinister figure, a young man who used young women and his access to a powerful predator to speedily climb the ranks of Miramax and gain access to Hollywood and riches in the entertainment and tech fields. Rick Schwartz clearly likes to remain in the dark… and that is why I’m writing this. So that his name, when Googled, is forever synonymous with his buddy Harvey, the convicted rapist who relied on Schwartz, among others, to bring him a steady supply of girls to prey on.

Why am I writing this? Because no one else has.

Interestingly, Jerrick Media Holdings also owns Vocal, a company with the goal, of providing, as Schwartz told TechCrunch “a more democratic way of looking at publishing,” where anyone can contribute their opinions and expertise without having to go through a complicated pitching and editorial process.

He’s not close enough to kick in the nuts and I can’t take him to court and demand a settlement, but I can still shine a light on his reprehensible history and hope that his powerful friends read this and think twice about keeping him on their dinner party lists.

Rick Schwartz deserves to be in jail with his buddy, swapping stories and reminiscing about the good old days when one would help the other rape women.

Adweek once reported that “Rick Schwartz believes you should be paid for your time and effort, and he realizes that's a novel idea in this start-up, free-content world”, so I’m taking his own advice and publishing this story right here on Schwartz’s own platform.

Hi Rick. Let's see if this makes it past the editorial board. :)