Harvey Weinstein has complained he feels like “the forgotten man” and that his “pioneering” work championing movies directed by and about women has been “eviscerated” in the wake of multiple sexual assault allegations against him.
The 67-year-old producer, once one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, has faced accusations of sexual assault and harassment from dozens of women.
Ahead of the start of his rape trial, Weinstein gave an interview to the New York Post.
He spoke while recuperating in hospital after spinal surgery and said that he was doing the interview to prove he was not exaggerating the claims about his ill health.
He appeared in court last week using a walking frame.
The New York Post reported that Weinstein showed little sign of remorse for the actions he is accused of.
“I feel like the forgotten man,” he told the paper.
“I made more movies directed by women and about women than any filmmaker, and I’m talking about 30 years ago. I’m not talking about now when it’s vogue,” Weinstein said. “I did it first. I pioneered it.”
“It all got eviscerated because of what happened,” Weinstein said. “My work has been forgotten.”
Weinstein said he got Gwyneth Paltrow a pay deal of US$10 million in 2003 for the movie View From the Top, which made her the highest-paid female actor in an independent film.
Paltrow has accused him of harassment.
He also said that his production company championed social causes, including buying the distribution rights for the documentary Paris is Burning, about drag culture in the French capital, and Transamerica.
“I want this city to recognize who I was instead of what I’ve become,” he told the Post.
Douglas Wigdor, the lawyer representing three of Weinstein’s alleged victims, said that it was not possible to feel sorry for Weinstein “while he sits perched in an executive private hospital suite and asks New Yorkers to recognize his prior accomplishments, which justifiability have been overshadowed by his horrific actions.”
“Mr Weinstein’s latest public relations stunt on the eve of his criminal trial provides even more motivation to continue to prosecute the claims that will expose him for who he is,” Wigdor said.
Weinstein is to go on trial on Jan. 6 on rape and sexual assault charges in a state court.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which relate to incidents alleged by two female accusers in 2006 and 2013.
He has also denied allegations by roughly 70 women of sexual misconduct dating back decades.
A deluge of disinformation about a virus called hMPV is stoking anti-China sentiment across Asia and spurring unfounded concerns of renewed lockdowns, despite experts dismissing comparisons with the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago. Agence France-Presse’s fact-checkers have debunked a slew of social media posts about the usually non-fatal respiratory disease human metapneumovirus after cases rose in China. Many of these posts claimed that people were dying and that a national emergency had been declared. Garnering tens of thousands of views, some posts recycled old footage from China’s draconian lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in the country in late
French police on Monday arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of murder after an 11-year-old girl was found dead in a wood south of Paris over the weekend in a killing that sparked shock and a massive search for clues. The girl, named as Louise, was found stabbed to death in the Essonne region south of Paris in the night of Friday to Saturday, police said. She had been missing since leaving school on Friday afternoon and was found just a few hundred meters from her school. A police source, who asked not to be named, said that she had been
VIOLENCE: The teacher had depression and took a leave of absence, but returned to the school last year, South Korean media reported A teacher stabbed an eight-year-old student to death at an elementary school in South Korea on Monday, local media reported, citing authorities. The teacher, a woman in her 40s, confessed to the crime after police officers found her and the young girl with stab wounds at the elementary school in the central city of Daejeon on Monday evening, the Yonhap news agency reported. The girl was brought to hospital “in an unconscious state, but she later died,” the report read. The teacher had stab wounds on her neck and arm, which officials determined might have been self-inflicted, the news agency
ISSUE: Some foreigners seek women to give birth to their children in Cambodia, and the 13 women were charged with contravening a law banning commercial surrogacy Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday thanked Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni for granting a royal pardon last year to 13 Filipino women who were convicted of illegally serving as surrogate mothers in the Southeast Asian kingdom. Marcos expressed his gratitude in a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, who was visiting Manila for talks on expanding trade, agricultural, tourism, cultural and security relations. The Philippines and Cambodia belong to the 10-nation ASEAN, a regional bloc that promotes economic integration but is divided on other issues, including countries whose security alignments is with the US or China. Marcos has strengthened