ACADEMY OUSTS WEINSTEIN AS MORE WOMEN SPEAK OUT
los angeles — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled Harvey Weinstein on Saturday, vowing that the era of “shameful complicity in sexually predatory behaviour” in the movie industry was over.
An emergency meeting of its 54-member board of governors, which includes stars such as Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Laura Dern, voted “well in excess of the required two-thirds majority”, it said in a statement.
“We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behaviour and workplace harassment in our industry is over.”
As Weinstein’s expulsion was announced, the London-based
Sunday Times reported on a fifth alleged rape victim, British actress Lysette Anthony, who was said to have reported the 65-year-old to the Metropolitan Police last week.
Anthony, 54, who appeared in Woody Allen’s 1992 film Husbands and Wives, told The Times that Weinstein attacked her in the 1980s. On Thursday, American actress Rose McGowan became the fourth woman to accuse the 65-year-old of raping her. —
What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences