DAMON DISHES ON WEINSTEIN
Pleads ignorance to serious allegations
Hold the sugarcoating, please. Actor Matt Damon had strong words to share about disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein during a “Good Morning America” interview yesterday morning.
“When people say everybody knew, yeah, I knew he was an (expletive),” Damon said in the sit down with Michael Strahan. “He was proud of that. That's how he carried himself. I knew he was a womanizer. I wouldn't want to be married to the guy, but that's not my business, really. But this level of criminal sexual predation is not something that I ever thought was going on. Absolutely not.”
Damon worked directly with Weinstein and his then-company Miramax during the '90s, while making flicks like “Good Will Hunting” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” He has repeatedly distanced himself from the Hollywood producer since the scandal broke.
“You had to spend five minutes with him to know he was a bully, he was intimidating,” Damon continued. “That was his legend. That was his whole M.O.”
The Cambridge native, who has been feeling some heat because of his formerly close ties to Weinstein, asserts he had no idea about what was allegedly happening to the close to 60 women who have gone public with sexual misconduct accusations against Weinstein. However, he did say he was aware of Gwyneth Paltrow's experience, where Weinstein allegedly invited her to his hotel suite and suggested they head to his bedroom for massages.
“I knew the story about Gwyneth from Ben (Affleck) because he was with her after Brad (Pitt) …,” Damon said. “I never talked to Gwyneth about it. Ben told me, but I knew that they had come to whatever agreement or understanding they had come to. She had handled it.”
Of course, Affleck has garnered his own slew of allegations after speaking out against Weinstein on Twitter. Included in the social media storm: a throwback clip of him grabbing actress Hilarie Burton’s breasts on MTV's “TRL,” as well as a Twitter accusation from makeup artist and author Annamarie Tendler, who claims he touched her tuchus at a 2014 Golden Globes party.
Affleck aside, Damon is adamant that he never personally witnessed any hanky panky.
“If there was ever an event or something that I was at, in public with Harvey, and he was doing this kind of thing and I missed it? And there's some woman who was somehow assaulted, and it was at the Golden Globes, and I somehow missed it? Then I'm sorry,” he said.