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Harvey Weinstein: Oscars academy holds emergency meeting Bob Weinstein says he wants brother Harvey 'to get the justice he deserves'
(about 9 hours later)
The board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is to hold an emergency meeting on Saturday morning to discuss action against Harvey Weinstein as the sexual harassment scandal surrounding the Hollywood producer deepens. The movie executive Bob Weinstein has launched an extraordinary attack on his elder sibling, the disgraced Harvey Weinstein, insisting he had no idea about “the type of predator that he was” and saying he is sickened by his “depraved” sibling’s apparent lack of remorse over decades of alleged sexual misconduct.
The 54-member board made up of leading actors, directors and executives including Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Steven Spielberg may choose to expel Weinstein from the academy, following the exposure of sexual harassment and rape allegations against him going back decades. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the younger Weinstein who cofounded Miramax and The Weinstein Company (TWC) said: “I want him to get the justice that he deserves.”
The Oscar awarded to the producer in 1999 for his work on Shakespeare In Love may also be considered for nullification, according to reports. Later on Saturday, the board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was due to hold an emergency meeting to discuss potential action against the elder Weinstein, 65, who since the first accusations emerged last week has faced allegations of sexual misconduct from more than two dozen women and three of rape.
The British Academy Film Awards (Bafta) has suspended the Weinstein’s membership, and the organisers of the Cannes film festival said they were dismayed by the allegations. Police forces in the US and the UK have announced that they are investigating allegations. Weinstein has apologised for elements of his past behaviour but unequivocally denied any allegations of non-consensual sex. He has also said he hopes to get a second chance.
Since the first accusations emerged last week, Weinstein has faced allegations of sexual misconduct from more than two dozen women, and three of rape. In a statement issued after the New Yorker detailed allegations of rape, the TWC board said it was “shocked and dismayed” and “committed to assisting with our full energies in all criminal or other investigations of these alleged acts”.
Police forces in the US and the UK have announced that they are investigating allegations made against the mogul, who has apologised for elements of his past behaviour but unequivocally denied any allegations of non-consensual sex. He has also said he hopes to get a second chance. Sallie Hofmeister, a spokesperson for Harvey Weinstein, said: “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein. With respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.”
The scandal, which could lead to criminal action, has destroyed Weinstein’s reputation as one of Hollywood’s leading executives, which he acquired as a co-founder of the Miramax and Weinstein Company studios. The scandal has destroyed Harvey Weinstein’s reputation as one of Hollywood’s leading executives, which he acquired as a co-founder of the Miramax and Weinstein Company studios. The producer of Oscar-winning films The Artist and The English Patient, and patron to directors Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh, he was dropped by the TWC board soon after being placed on indefinite leave earlier this week, while he underwent therapy.
The producer of the Oscar-winning films The Artist and The English Patient, and patron to Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh, was dropped by the firm’s board soon after being placed on indefinite leave earlier this week while he underwent therapy. Bob Weinstein, 62, told the Hollywood Reporter he had barely spoken to his brother in almost five years.
His brother and co-founder, Bob Weinstein, was forced to deny reports on Friday that the company or its board were trying to find a buyer, saying it was “business as usual”. “I could not take his cheating, his lying and also his attitude toward everyone,” he said. While he said he was aware his brother was “philandering with every woman he could meet”, he insisted he had little idea about the alleged predatory harassment that has come to light.
“Our banks, partners and shareholders are fully supportive of our company,” he said in a statement. “I have a brother that’s indefensible and crazy,” he said. “I find myself in a waking nightmare. My brother has caused unconscionable suffering. As a father of three girls I say this with every bone in my body – I am heartbroken for the women that he has harmed.”
The US banking giant Goldman Sachs had earlier confirmed it was exploring options for its near $1m (£752,000) stake in the Weinstein Company. Bob Weinstein insisted TWC could survive, despite widespread predictions it will be forced to close or sell parts or all of the business. “There is a plan to come out on the other side,” he said.
The bank’s announcement came as questions circulate about what the independent film studio’s board may have known about Weinstein’s actions. Weinstein often became emotional, the Reporter said. He and his brother, he said, ran separate companies so many of the people Harvey Weinstein did business with – actors, actresses – he had never met. He declined to discuss specifics of the case, including claims that the TWC board of directors were aware of settlements with several of his brother’s accusers.
The list of female stars to go public with allegations of sexual impropriety against the 65-year-old continued to grow on Saturday, with the British actor Alice Evans alleging he made a “sinister advance” towards her. “The members of the board, including myself, did not know the extent of my brother’s actions,” he said.
Writing in the Telegraph, she suggested that her refusal to respond led to her and her husband, Ioan Gruffudd, never being considered for a Weinstein film again. “I know him on a personal level better than anyone. It’s hard to describe how I feel that he took out the emptiness inside of him in so many sick and depraved ways. It’s a sickness but not a sickness that is excusable. It’s a sickness that’s inexcusable. And I, as a brother, understood and was aware as a family member, that my brother needed help and that something was wrong.”
The US actor Rose McGowan, one of the first women to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment, tweeted on Thursday that he had raped her. He also said he believed the Academy should expel his brother. Its 54-member board, made up of leading actors, directors and executives including Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Steven Spielberg, was meeting to consider that question on Saturday. The Oscar awarded to the producer in 1999 for his work on Shakespeare In Love may also be considered for nullification, according to reports.
She made a series of claims in several tweets to Amazon’s founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos. The British Academy Film Awards (Bafta) has suspended Weinstein’s membership, and organisers of the Cannes film festival said they were dismayed.
“I told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof, she wrote. Bob Weinstein said he was aware of some aspects of his brother’s behavior.
Amazon said its studio head Roy Price had been put on leave of absence “effective immediately” and that it was reviewing its options for the projects it has with The Weinstein Company. “I’ll tell you what I did know,” he told the Reporter. “Harvey was a bully, Harvey was arrogant, he treated people like shit all the time. That I knew. And I had to clean up for so many of his employee messes. People that came in crying to my office: ‘Your brother said this, that and the other.’ And I’d feel sick about it.”
McGowan’s disclosure followed accusations from stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and the British model Cara Delevingne. Weinstein also said he was a victim of his brother’s abuse, including physical abuse.
British actor Kate Beckinsale has also alleged that Weinstein sexually harassed her when she was 17 and then hampered her career. she declined several invitations to work on Miramax productions over the following years, a move that prompted Weinstein to threaten her, she said. “I do not put myself in the category at all of those women that he hurt,” he said. “But it’s a complicated situation when it’s your brother doing the abusing to you as well. I saw it and I asked him to get help for many years. And that’s the truth. He avoided getting the help. We begged him.
Sophie Dix, an English actor who was on the brink of a career in the British film industry in the 1990s, told the Guardian her trajectory was “massively cut down” after an alleged assault by Weinstein in a London hotel. Dix, who was 22 at the time, described the incident as “the single most damaging thing that’s happened in my life”. “This hurts, but I don’t feel an ounce of remorse coming from him, and that kills me too. When I heard his written, lame excuse … Not an excuse. When I heard his admission of feeling remorse for the victims and then him cavalierly, almost crazily saying he was going to go out and take on the NRA [National Rifle Association], it was so disturbing to me. It was utter insanity.
Condemnation has been heaped on the producer as more stories of his allegedly predatory behaviour have emerged, with figures from showbusiness to politics describing their horror and disgust at the scandal. “My daughters all felt sick hearing this because we understood he felt nothing. I don’t feel he feels anything to this day. I don’t.”
The filmmaker Alexander Payne told the Press Association on Friday that Weinstein was a “bully and a thug” who was “asking for” his downfall. Bob Weinstein denied leaking information that contributed to the New York Times report that launched the scandal: “I didn’t and, you know, Harvey is suspicious of everybody. It’s unbelievable that even to this moment he is more concerned with who sold him out.”
The former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton commended the women who had spoken out, telling the BBC such behaviour “cannot be tolerated anywhere”. Weinstein said his brother should never be allowed back into the film industry.
“He lost his rights,” he said. “He didn’t lose his rights to be rehabilitated as a human being. But as far as being in this town again? I mean, give me a break.”