Academy expels Harvey Weinstein
News getting worse for producer amid sex assault charges
Harvey Weinstein, the embattled producer accused by some of Hollywood’s leading actresses of sexual assault, has been expelled by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group organizing the Oscars.
The board of governors, which includes Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg and Laura Dern, reviewed Weinstein’s membership during an emergency meeting Saturday. The board announced a vote “well in excess of the required two-thirds majority to immediately expel him.”
“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 behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over,” the Academy’s statement says. “What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society.”
Weinstein’s films include The King’s Speech, The Artist and Shakespeare in Love. All won best picture.
The Producers Guild of America has called a meeting for Monday to consider Weinstein’s expulsion.
Fallout from the scandal continues more than a week after an explosive New York Times investigation detailed decades of sexual harassment accusations against Weinstein, and The New Yorker released its own report, including allegations of rape and sexual assault.
Since then, other A-list actresses have come forward to share their own harassment stories involving Weinstein.
The Weinstein Company has fired him, and Weinstein’s wife, fashion designer Georgina Chapman, has left him. The producer’s brother, company co-founder Bob Weinstein, told The Hollywood Reporter he knew that Harvey was a philandering bully, but had no idea he was a predator: “I want him to get the justice he deserves.”
Over the weekend, British police launched an investigation as new allegations of assault in London were reported.
And there’s the possibility of new information going forward.
“We don’t know what’s going to come out tomorrow, much less next week. This is still in the news cycle because there is a constant stream of new revelations coming out,” says Mark Macias, head of crisis firm Macias PR. “He needs to go to rehabilitation, not only to get out of the news cycle but (to show) he’s trying to change his life.”