Ghislaine Maxwell: soldi, potere e perversione

Interviews with ALL these "ex" friends of Ghislaine coming out now? Hmmm, where were they when all this stuff was going down? Now all of a sudden every ex friend of hers wants to tell their story. Pretty sure these people were either involved or knew what was going on! SO many "ex" friends talking out NOW 🙄. Give me a break, they knew and are just as disgusting as her. They even say they saw "signs" but did nothing. Seriously?! These are people that knew her VERY well and they're just now coming out saying stuff? They knew the whole time and were probably a part of the whole thing. They're just "finally" speaking out now to make themselves seem innocent.

There are literal records of people who visited Epstein's island. Until they are made public and every single name mentioned in them investigated rigorously, this will be one of the most blatant misuses of power that the general public has been made aware of, and then ignored.

Make no mistake. This entire saga is no more an indictment of the people responsible than of the people who take it with a proverbial grain of salt.

We know these crimes persist. There are more billionaires with islands and resorts and ranches and they will not persist with their monstrous crimes.

This isn't a success. This is a sad proclamation that we can do nothing to affect change to how the rich and powerful choose to live.

I struggle with parts of this case. I do not struggle with anything that has to do with 14 yo girls. However I do struggle with aspiring models, actresses & massage therapists acting completely shocked at being propositioned for sexual favors in return for money. The Jeffrey Epstein version interviews Annie Farmer's sister who was/is an artist & was receiving gifts, being put up in mansions to nothing but her art, etc & then at a certain point was propositioned for sex...ran in to a room and barricaded her self & left...but then allowed her younger sister to go there & surprise surprise the same thing happened

I guess my heart is black because it seems like anyone with half a brian & a bit of savvy would not accept any of these "gifts" w/o assuming there would eventually be a quid pro quo & at some point the giftee would want something in return.

Of course I'm only speaking of the women that are of age(which varies drastically from state to state & country to country. In fact 16 is the age of consent in most states in the USA). Maybe my ego is low? But did these women think that they were so amazing that people were just going to sponsor their careers, academic goals at the tune of thousands of dollars because they were so smart and interesting? The world is FULL of people doing very demeaning things for far less money.

These docs also put their finger in the scale by showing old photos of these women either years prior to the incident, or when they have no makeup on & look their absolute youngest.

I also would not be surprised if the reason we don't hear about all of the other "friends" of JE/GM is because there are secret settlement negotiations going on with them to keep their names out of the media.

Toward the end of the "Documentary" I found it very rich for an Attorney w/Jeffrey Boice's history to say something to the effect of "...these people need to be heard, powerful people can't...blah blah..."...Boice was one of the attorneys that AMBUSHED Tyler Shultz(the main whistleblower of the Theranos case)at his grandfather George Shultz's home in an attempt to force him to recant & sign NDA documents. An event that basically wrecked Tyler's relationship with his grandfather.

I realize attorneys are going to do attorney things & are essential(esp being questioned by police in ANY facet. ALWAYS say you want an attorney present...no matter what). But it's a little cringe when Attorney's that mostly have represented the uber wealthy bang the table for the little guy

Anyway in the zeitgeist of our times, there is no way a documentary delving in to this case &/or subject matter can even dip its toes in the balanced waters. The closest they came here was reading some of the cross examination & immediately calling it "rough" or "harsh" when I'm sure everyone of those attorneys would have taken the exact same plays from that playbook had they been retained by the other side.

I liked the small bit that talked about Ghislane's background. Being an American I wasn't as familiar with her as I'm sure people from the UK are. But nothing else was really illuminating if you've even just barely been following the heels of coverage this case has gotten(seems like the media almost trying to make up for dropping the ball on the original JE conviction?)

All that said I give this a 2/5...on par with one of the better episodes of the crappy, paint-by-numbers American true crime shows like "Dateline" & "48hrs"

This was a film about the young girls Maxwell delivered to Epstein. But there was more going on.

There was an island, there were powerful people flying to the island. Girls were groomed and provided for these powerful and wealthy people.

It left out the other powerful people affected - with the exception of a prince Andrew.

The documentary focused on Ghislaine, going from past to present. It discussed her family life, her father who died (fell of yacht) and how after his death, huge discrepancies in his companies' finances were revealed, including his fraudulent misappropriation of the Mirror Group pension fund.

More could have been done to honestly explore her interesting childhood, her upbringing (father Jewish, mother protestant), career with her father, what she was like growing up etc.

It was shallow and focused somewhat on her life of glamour without delving into the details of her repulsive psyche. It offered no insight or truth.

I suppose for anyone who hasn't been following anything to do with Jeffery Epstein much would find this hot gossip and juicy news. In some areas maybe but all up alot of the documentary besides some small easy to find information on her own case is just rehashing old news. I think its very fair to say you dont really need to watch this to know whats going on which is quite disappointing because there should be so much more to say. The quality of the documentary is good for it does have, it explains things well and still keeps things interesting. I would have rated this higher if it didn't feel like one of those doccos that was just made for the sake of making. From a Journalist prospective I believe more effort could have been involved.