There’s no one better poised to spill the tea on Hollywood’s insidious sexual shenanigans than film producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas.
She was barely out of her teens when she joined the William Morris Agency as a secretary in the early ’80s.
“You know, people like Harvey Weinstein were not the anomaly, they were the norm,” she mused to Page Six, “It was the wild, wild West.”
Goldsmith-Thomas and Lopez first met in 1998 and have worked together on hits like “Maid in Manhattan” and “Hustlers.”Getty Images for Netflix
Goldsmith-Thomas has outrageous tales to tell after battling through Tinseltown’s boys’ club to become an agent and guiding the careers of stars including Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, and Madonna, before running Revolution Studios.
She’s now best known as Jennifer Lopez’s producing partner. The pair have collaborated on hits like “Hustlers” and “Maid in Manhattan,” as well as the upcoming “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
Goldsmith-Thomas has drawn on her own experiences for her debut novel, “Climbing in Heels” (out April 29), which follows three young women working at one of Hollywood’s biggest agencies.
It’s already being turned into a TV show by Darren Star, the man behind “Sex and the City” and “Emily in Paris.” (Goldsmith-Thomas is a consulting producer on the latter.)
The producer, seen with Lopez and the actress’ manager, Benny Medina and ex-husband Ben Affleck, said of the star, “People marginalize her.”The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
In one scene from the book, a male assistant is allowed to listen in on his boss having sex with actresses auditioning for a role.
“That was a story I had heard from a trainee who was allowed to listen in as his boss,” Goldsmith-Thomas recalled. “That was his bonus … his little treat. His boss let him listen in as he f–ked actresses.”
It was Lopez who pushed her pal to write, and the actress has been promoting the book with Goldsmith-Thomas.
“Not only did she give me a green light, but it was really ‘Shame on you for not doing this. This is what you wanna be and what you want to do,’” the producer said of her famous pal.
Goldsmith-Thomas joined the William Morris Agency in the early ’80s and lived through sex, drugs, and backstabbing.Courtesy of Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas
“We shouldn’t be limited by other people’s expectations of us. I think that’s happened to [Lopez] a lot. I think because she doesn’t do one thing, people marginalize her. And she’s extraordinarily talented. I can’t wait for people to actually realize what a great person she is. I mean, I think they do. It’s just there’s always a cabal of bullies … “
Like Jackie Collins before her, Goldsmith-Thomas has loaded the book with plenty of sex, drugs, and back-stabbing in Hollywood.
“It made me look back,” she said of her early days, when agents in Los Angeles would have their secretaries send cocaine cross-country in something called the “New York pouch that went back and forth to New York overnight.”
Lopez and Goldsmith-Thomas (far left) — seen at the 2018 premiere of “Second Act” with Ralph Macchio and his daughter Julia, Leah Remini, and Vanessa Hudgens — teamed up to run Nuyorican Productions.Marion Curtis / StarPix for STX Films
In remembering it all for the book, she added, “I realized how treacherous the climb.”
Among the potential pitfalls she avoided was being alone with Bill Cosby.
The comic, then one of William Morris’ biggest clients, threw a lunch for all the secretaries as a thank-you for the success of his hit sitcom “The Cosby Show.”
When the star asked the recent college graduate about her future plans, Goldsmith-Thomas said she would love to one day represent him.
Goldsmith-Thomas has worked with stars including Julia Roberts during her Hollywood career. She’s seen with a young Abigail Breslin, Roberts, and producer Lisa Roberts Gillan at the premiere of “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” in June 2008 in New York.Getty Images
Halle Berry and Goldsmith-Thomas have also produced movies together, including “Kidnap” and “Perfect Stranger.”Getty Images
“Later, I got a call from the executive secretary on the first floor saying, ‘Mr. Cosby was very impressed by you. And we’re going to give you contracts to sign, bring them over to his hotel, The Beverly Wilshire,” she recalled.
“And I went into the bathroom, I was really excited getting ready — oh my God, I felt seen, I felt really seen. And my friend who worked for the president of the agency happened to be there. I told her and she said, ‘Don’t do it’. I said, Why? She said, ‘Don’t do it.’
“Now she didn’t say anything bad would happen … there was just something about the way she said it that frightened me enough that I didn’t go.”
Goldsmith-Thomas recalled a female colleague steering her away from disgraced comic Bill Cosby.©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection
Goldsmith-Thomas’s debut novel “Climbing in Heels” follows three young women as they embark on careers at a Hollywood talent agency.Courtesy of Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas
Cosby, now 87, went on to be accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women. He was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault in 2018, but the conviction was later overturned, and he was released from prison in 2021. He has denied all allegations involving sex crimes.
Goldsmith-Thomas lived through regular harassment at work. “I mean the guys in the mail room, they’d go, ‘Hey, could I have a little keppy?’ — meaning, ‘Can I have a little [oral sex]?’ I’d go, ‘How can you ask me that? We’re friends’ … ‘Well, you don’t ask, you don’t get,’ they’d say.”
The men in charge had been in power since the ’60s, she said. “When it really was ‘Mad Men,’ when it was, ‘Hey honey, get on your knees.’ So while they slapped the hands of the bad boys, they secretly loved them, congratulated them. and lived through them.
Lopez narrowly missed out on an Oscar nomination for “Hustlers,” which Goldsmith-Thomas produced. They’re seen with producer Jessica Elbaum, director Lorene Scafaria (second from right), and Benny Medina at a 2019 screening in New York.Getty Images for STXfilms / Alexander Wang
“And certainly not every man was like that. But many were. I remember there were a lot of agents that would make fun of this one trainee who was gay. Meanwhile, they would call him at night for favors.”
Goldsmith-Thomas also witnessed abuses of power toward actresses looking to break into the business.
“There was a casting couch just to get to the agency,” she said. “An actress would come in and the casting director would ask me… ‘Is she fun? Is she tall? Is she sexy?’ Well, she looks fine. I can’t tell. And then I’d close the door, and I didn’t know what happened after that, but it was a cabal of people.”
Asked whether the impact of the #MeToo has so far made a lasting change in Hollywood, Goldsmith-Thomas said, “1000%. And it hasn’t just changed it for the men, I think it’s changed it for everybody. Everybody is watching themselves in a way that they didn’t [back then] — and good for them because it was unbelievable when you look back.”
Keke Palmer and Goldsmith-Thomas at the “Hustlers” premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.Getty Images
It was Goldsmith-Thomas’ husband, Dan, who said she had to see Lopez in a movie — and she immediately became desperate to sign the actress and singer. Fate took a hand in 1998 when they met at a Broadway performance of the musical “Cabaret” starring the late Natasha Richardson (a friend of Goldsmith-Thomas) and connected “on a very visceral level.”
“Jennifer is extraordinary because here’s a dancer who became an actor, who became a singer, who became a global brand, who is probably one of the biggest stars on earth and she’s incredibly kind,” said the producer who’s currently working on Lopez’ new movie “Office Romance” co-starring “Ted Lasso” heartthrob Brett Goldstein,
“I felt when I worked with Jennifer that I had a partner — that she put her shoulder next to mine and we’d push. It sounds funny, but the sky wasn’t the limit; it was a resting place.”
The producer has been with Lopez through the star’s many romances, including with Alex Rodriguez.Getty Images for TIFF
She remains exceedingly protective of the star, who went through a very public split from her fourth husband, Ben Affleck, last summer.
“Sometimes when I see things that are written about her, I want to call everybody and go, ‘Gosh, you guys have it so wrong. You have it so wrong, she’s such a girl’s girl,’” the producer said. “And she’s the least judgmental person.”
While Goldsmith-Thomas gets irked, Lopez, she said, “doesn’t get mired” in gossip stories.
“She won’t say, ‘Yeah, they’re awful.’ Sometimes I just want her to go. ‘Yeah. They suck!’
