Brad Pitt reportedly threatened Harvey Weinstein with a ‘Missouri whooping’ years ago
The Kansas City Star
Years ago, after Harvey Weinstein allegedly put his hands on Brad Pitt’s then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow in an unwanted way, Missouri native Mr. Pitt threatened the movie producer,” People reports.
Ms. Paltrow described her encounter with Mr. Weinstein to The New York Times, one of many women who have accused him of sexual misconduct over the years in a scandal that has rocked Hollywood.
Ms. Paltrow was 22 years old when Mr. Weinstein hired her for the lead role in the 1996 movie “Emma.” Before shooting began, she told The Times, Mr. Weinstein summoned her to his suite at the Peninsula Beverly Hills for a work meeting.
At some point, Mr. Weinstein put his hands on her and suggested they go into the bedroom for massages.
“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she toldThe Times.
Ms. Paltrow, who began dating Mr. Pitt after meeting on the set of “Se7en,” told him what happened.
A source tells People magazine that Mr. Pitt confronted Mr. Weinstein at a Hollywood party and threatened to give him a “Missouri whooping.”
“Brad threatened Harvey,” the source tells People. “He got right in his face, poked him in the chest and said, ‘You will not ever do this to Gwyneth ever again.’
The source described Mr. Pitt as a “young guy in Hollywood taking a chance” at hurting his career by threatening such an important kingpin.
“He’s one of the only men in Hollywood who stood up and said something. That’s a fact,” the source said.
On Tuesday, a YouTube user posted part of Ms. Paltrow’s interview with David Letterman in November 1998 as she was promoting the Weinstein-produced “Shakespeare in Love.”
That would have been about three years after her run-in with Mr. Weinstein in the hotel room. Mr. Letterman asked Ms. Paltrow whether she was making the appearance “of her own free will. Has someone coerced you into being here?”
“Do you count Harvey Weinstein as a coercer?” Ms. Paltrow said, laughing.
“Harvey Weinstein is a, I don’t know whether he’s in some kind of organized crime now,” Mr. Letterman said. “But he used to be like some kind of junior mob kind of guy. He was like in the mob auxiliary … and now he’s like a big powerful film gu..”