LOW BRO!
Bob Weinstein ‘ashamed he is my brother’ Like kissing ‘Jabba the Hutt,’ says actress OSCAR BOUNCES HARVEY
BOB WEINSTEIN has no sympathy for his disgraced brother and business partner Harvey — whom he claims has no “remorse” in the wake of a spiraling sexual harassment and assault scandal.
A former British employee came forward Saturday to say she was raped by Harvey Weinstein, as actresses Melissa Sagemiller and Eva Green joined the dozens who claim to be victims of the pervy producer’s unwanted advances.
But the movie mogul’s brother said he was completely blindsided by the accusations.
“No f----’ way was I aware that that was the type of predator that he was. And the way he convinced people to do things? I thought they were all consensual situations,” Bob Weinstein told The Hollywood Reporter.
The 62-year-old co-founder of the troubled company bearing the siblings’ surname says he is caught in a “waking nightmare.”
“This hurts, but I don’t feel an ounce of remorse coming from him, and that kills me too. When I heard his admission of feeling remorse for the victims . . . it was so disturbing to me,” the younger Weinstein shared in the interview.
He called his brother’s reaction to the allegations a “lame excuse.”
“I’m ashamed that he is my brother, to be honest,” Bob Weinstein added. “And I am ashamed that these are his actions.”
Harvey, 65, released a statement last week saying he was aware, “the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize.”
The belated concession brought little relief to a one-time employee who broke a 25-year silence Saturday, telling The Mail on Sunday that the studio head raped her in the basement of his London offices in 1992.
“He was incredibly well-connected, powerful and important – and I was just a nobody,” the woman told the British newspaper. “I was mortified and ashamed. I didn’t tell anyone.”
She tried to fight Weinstein off, but he “just ripped my clothes away and pushed me, threw me down.”
English actress Lysette Anthony also stepped out of the shadows Saturday to identify herself as the woman whose rape allegations prompted Scotland Yard to launch a probe of Weinstein.
In an interview with the Times of London, Anthony said Weinstein showed up at her home one morning in the late 1980s.
It was about 10 a.m., and the encounter quickly turned violent, she said.
“He pushed me inside, rammed me up against a coat rack,” said
Harvey has no remorse whatsoever. BOB WEINSTEIN
Anthony, who appeared in the Woody Allen film “Husbands and Wives.”
“He was trying to kiss me and shove inside me.”
Anthony said she tried to fend off Weinstein but he overpowered her. “Finally, I just gave up,” she said. Weinstein has been accused of rape by at least four women in the U.S., allegations he has denied. Dozens more say he sexually harassed or assaulted them.
The NYPD said it has opened an investigation into possible assaults perpetrated by Weinstein in New York.
The once-mighty hitmaker, sequestered away at a rehab facility in Arizona, was voted out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Saturday.
Despite rumors about his involvement, Bob Weinstein denied masterminding The New York Times exposé last week that led to his brother’s ouster from The Weinstein Co.
On Saturday, he also said his brother was trying paint himself as the victim.
“People that are liars — lying to his wife, to his children, to everyone — well, they have to turn around and say, ‘Who stabbed me?’ It’s unbelievable that even to this moment he is more concerned with who sold him out,” said Weinstein.
“I don’t hear concern or contrition for the victims. And I want them to hear that. Harvey has no remorse whatsoever.”
He also claims he “divorced” himself from his brother five years ago because he could not handle being around him “on any level.” The future of the company the pair founded in 2005 after spliting from Miramax is up in the air in light of the scandal.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported The Weinstein Co. board was talking with buyers and no longer planned to hold the company as an independent entity rebranded with a new name.
TMZ.com reported that the disgraced movie mogul plans to crash the company’s Tuesday board meeting by phone and challenge his termination.
Bob Weinstein and other board members have claimed the allegations had “come as an utter surprise.”
Even more accusations against Harvey surfaced on Saturday.
Sagemiller described a 2000 encounter eerily similar to incidents involving other accusers. The 43-year-old actress said Weinstein invited her to his hotel room while she was filming “Get Over It.”
The bathrobe-clad producer blocked the door to the suite and forced Sagemiller to kiss him before she could leave. “He sort of held my head and made me kiss him, and then he’s like, “OK, you can go now. That’s all I wanted,’ ” she told HuffPost. “His lips were peeling. He was like Jabba the Hutt. He was like a lizard that was molting. It was so disgusting.”
Green, star of “Penny Dreadful,” said she had a run-in with the mogul in Paris years ago.
“He behaved inappropriately and I had to push him off,” she told Variety.“I got away without it going further, but the experience left me shocked and disgusted.”
He was like a lizard that was molting. It was so disgusting. MElISSA SAgEMIllER