JUST LIKE REAL LIFE

Priestley’s Private Eyes’ punch has a familiar ring to it

Private Eyes

Returns Sunday, Global

TORONTO Jason Priestley says it’s merely a coincidence that the upcoming return of Private Eyes is reminiscent of recent headlines surrounding the Canadian actor.

Canadian heavyweight boxing champ George Chuvalo guest stars in Sunday’s episode on Global, as the detective duo played by Priestley and Cindy Sampson investigate whether a match between female fighters was fixed.

At one point, Priestley’s character sucker-punches his former manager, bringing to mind the actor’s admission last December that he once clocked disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein at a Miramax party after the Golden Globes.

“That was just dumb, blind luck, I guess,” Priestley said with a laugh when asked if the Private Eyes episode was a wink and a nod to his Weinstein story.

The former Beverly Hills, 90210 star first shared his Weinstein experience on Twitter in response to a post about Mira Sorvino allegedly losing a role in The Lord of the Rings film series because of a smear campaign orchestrated by the producer, whose career was derailed by numerous allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.

Priestley, a Vancouver native who boxed for several years, said he made the admission in a bid to clarify the situation during a Twitter exchange.

“I don’t want my situation with Harvey to ever be a distraction,” Priestley said. “I feel like acts of violence against women are detestable and they need to be dealt with ... I feel like what happened between Harvey and (me) was trivial — and I don’t want a trivial act … between two men to ever trivialize the importance of what needs to be dealt with between Harvey and a bunch of women.”

In the new batch of episodes of Private Eyes, which is shot in Toronto, Matt Shade and Angie Everett (Priestley and Sampson) settle into new personal relationships as well as their partnership in the agency. “This show is especially gratifying for me,” Priestley said.