Quentin Tarantino says he knew about Harvey Weinstein's abuses

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino had the goods on Harvey Weinstein decades ago -- and could have done more to stop his abusive behavior.

That's what Tarantino, one of Weinstein's most frequent directorial collaborators, admitted Thursday in a mea culpa of a New York Times interview. He knew -- because his own girlfriend had been abused by him.

“I chalked it up to a ’50s, ’60s-era image of a boss chasing a secretary around the desk,” Tarantino said. “As if that's OK. That’s the egg on my face right now.”

Despite having that cartoon stuck in his head, the director also admitted he was "shocked and appalled" when his then girlfriend, the actress Mira Sorvino, told him exactly what she told the New Yorker in an article published last week: that Weinstein had given her an unwanted massage, chased her around a hotel room and shown up at her house after midnight.

The only difference is that Sorvino told Tarantino this in 1995.

"He was infatuated with her, he horribly crossed the line," Tarantino said. He said nothing to Weinstein, believing the fact that he and Sorvino were dating would prevent any further incidents.

And yet, as other reports of Weinstein's behavior filtered through to him over the years, Tarantino continued to work with the predatory producer. Weinstein produced Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and every other major Tarantino picture; he threw Tarantino an engagement party earlier this month.

The director did speak out at the time -- but just once. When one unnamed actress complained of Weinstein's advances, Tarantino says he confronted the producer -- who offered a "weak apology" for the incident.

Tarantino called on the men of the entertainment business to do more to speak out against this kind of behavior -- to go beyond apologies and brief statements. Unfortunately, the analogy he chose was problematic in itself.

Hollywood, Tarantino said, was used to "operating under an almost Jim Crow-like system that us males have almost tolerated."

Perhaps the director should have stopped at a statement he made earlier in the interview: "anything I say now will sound like a crappy excuse."

We couldn't have put it better.