HOLLYWOOD MOGUL HARVEY WEINSTEIN TO FACE CHARGES.
NEW YORK• Law enforcement officials say Harvey Weinstein is expected to surrender to authorities Friday morning to face criminal charges in a months-long investigation into allegations that he sexually assaulted women.
The two officials said the criminal case involves allegations by Lucia Evans, a former actress who was among the first women to speak out about Weinstein. The case would be the first criminal charge against the film producer since scores of women began coming forward to accuse him of harassment or assault, triggering a cascade of accusations against media and entertainment figures that has become known as the #MeToo movement.
A grand jury has been hearing evidence in the case for weeks.
The precise charges Weinstein is expected to face weren’t clear. Weinstein’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, declined to comment. Weinstein has said repeatedly, through his lawyers, that he did not have nonconsensual sex with anyone.
Evans told The New Yorker in a story published in October that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex during a daytime meeting at his New York office in 2004.
Weinstein was fired from the company he co-founded and expelled from the organization that bestows the Academy Awards last fall.
The revelation comes on the same day that legendary star Morgan Freeman was named as an alleged sexual harasser who preyed on young producers, reporters and others.
The 80-year-old Oscar winner is being accused by at least eight women of sexually inappropriate behaviour, CNN revealed.
In his decades-long career, Freeman has starred in Driving Miss Daisy, Shawshank Redemption, Se7en and Million Dollar Baby.
In addition, he has become a popular voiceover actor. On Wednesday, he was named as the voice on Vancouver’s Translink, but that decision has now been cancelled.
Freeman apologized Thursday afternoon, saying he was sorry for making women feel “uneasy.”
“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy,” Freeman said in a statement obtained by Variety.
One young production assistant told CNN she thought she’d snared the job of her dreams in Going In Style, starring Freeman, Sir Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.
It turned into months of harassment from Freeman lifting her skirt along with other bad behaviours. Arkin even told the star to stop, she says.