Messy Divorce for Film Exec Bob Weinstein

Bob Weinstein Image by Getty Images

By Renee Ghert-Zand April 9, 2012

While Harvey Weinstein has had cause to shep nakhes lately, his brother Bob seems to be having nothing but tsoris.

Word hit the press on the first day of Passover that movie producer Bob Weinstein’s wife Anne Clancy Weinstein, a former book editor, has filed for divorce and is seeking an order of protection. She wants the latter because she “fears bodily harm” — presumably at the hands of her husband.

The New York Daily News reports that Mrs. Weinstein rushed to state court in New York on Friday last week following “a family battle on Wednesday [that] turned ugly.”

In a typical he said-she said scenario, the producer claims that his wife was reacting to a family intervention designed to get her to deal with a drinking problem. “I can categorically state that there was no abuse. Any claim of abuse is irresponsible and frivolous,” said Don Sloane, the professional interventionist hired by Mr. Weinstein.

Mrs. Weinstein’s lawyers, Bonnie Rabin and Harriet Cohen, attacked Sloane’s account. “This is a reckless and irresponsible statement which is wholly false. It is from Bob Weinstein’s paid agent who does not know our client at all,” they said. “After today’s court appearance, she is now safe with her children.”

Bob and Anne Weinstein, who were married in 2000, own and live in a large home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and have a son and a daughter. Mr. Weinstein, head of Dimension Films, first a unit of Miramax and later of the Weinstein Company, has two daughters from a previous marriage. One of them, Sara, was reportedly present at the alleged intervention.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO