Rebukes of Weinstein continue; brother says business will continue
NEW YORK — The chorus of Hollywood stars denouncing film producer Harvey Weinstein echoed across the Atlantic on Friday, even as his brother said the embattled production company that bears both their names insisted business was “continuing as usual.”
Bob Weinstein, cochairman of The Weinstein Co. issued a statement saying the company wasn’t shutting down or exploring a sale following allegations that cofounder Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted dozens of women. The statement mentioned a slate of three upcoming films — “Polaroid,” ”Paddington 2” and “War with Grandpa” — and said: “Business is continuing as usual as the company moves ahead.”
The public pressure increased on the one-time movie mogul, with Oscar winners and former Weinstein colleagues Emma Thompson and Quentin Tarantino airing their displeasure, and more actresses coming forward to describe harrowing hotel encounters with the movie mogul.
“I don’t think you can describe him as a sex addict — he’s a predator. There’s a difference,” Thompson, who starred in the Weinstein produced film “Brideshead Revisited,” said on BBC Two’s “Newsnight.” “What he’s at the top of the ladder of is a system of harassment and belittling and bullying and interference.”
Some 30 women — including actresses Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow — have spoken out recently to say Weinstein sexually harassed or sexually assaulted them. Weinstein was fired Sunday by The Weinstein Co. Harvey Weinstein has denied any nonconsensual sexual conduct with any women.
Thompson said she had only “business contact” with Weinstein but recalled his “bullying behavior.” The actress said there are “many” men in Hollywood in the Weinstein vein and asked: “Does it only count if you really have done it to loads and loads and loads of women or does it count if you do it to one woman, once? I think the latter.”
More actresses took to social media to describe uncomfortable past meetings Weinstein had requested with them in hotels.
Minka Kelly said on Instagram on Friday that after meeting Weinstein at an industry party, he invited her to his hotel room. Uncomfortable with that, they instead met at a hotel restaurant, joined by an assistant who left shortly afterward.
Kelly said Weinstein suggested he’d give her “a lavish life filled with trips around the world on private planes” if she agreed to be his girlfriend. She declined, saying she wanted to keep things professional, and excused herself. He allegedly responded: “I trust you won’t tell anyone about this.”
Claire Forlani, who starred in “Meet Joe Black,” said she also felt regret for not speaking up sooner about multiple meetings in her 20s with Weinstein, a man she recalled requested massages and whom she called in a tweeted statement a “master manipulator.”
“I had two Peninsula Hotel meetings in the evening with Harvey and all I remember was I ducked, dived and ultimately got out of there without getting slobbered over, well just a bit,” she wrote. He bragged about the actresses he had slept with “and what he had done for them.”
Pushback against Weinstein and his company also came after Showtime said it will not move forward with an Oliver Stone drama in development, “Guantanamo,” unless The Weinstein Co. was removed as a producer.