Harvey Weinstein has slammed a few Hollywood A-Listers in a scathing new interview from prison.
Harvey Weinstein has slammed an array of famous Hollywood stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and New Zealander director Peter Jackson in a scathing interview from prison.
Weinstein, a convicted rapist, rants about some of Hollywood’s biggest names during a telling new interview with The Hollywood Reporter from the infamous Rikers Island prison.
The disgraced movie mogul first addressed claims made by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson that Weinstein once demanded he recast Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino, alleging they were both “a nightmare”.
However, the actresses later alleged that his claims of their poor behaviour were fabricated by Weinstein after they rejected his sexual advances.
“Peter Jackson is the worst,” moaned Weinstein in the new interview. “For him it’s personal. He still resented me over what happened with [Miramax and] Lord of the Rings.”
Weinstein famously wanted to condense the Lord of the Rings movies into two films, and fought with Jackson until he took the project to New Line cinema instead.
The director also infamously modelled an orc after Weinstein as a “middle finger” to him in the films.
“So as soon as he sees I’m down, he says that I ordered him not to work with Ashley Judd or Mira Sorvino. It’s a complete f**king lie.”
Weinstein went on to insist that claims made by Judd and Sorvino that he destroyed their careers in Hollywood “never, ever happened”.
“The truth is, I fought on my last breath to cast Ashley Judd in Good Will Hunting. I fought like a bastard to get her cast. But Gus and Matt insisted on Minnie Driver, and that was the end of that. And when Mira Sorvino’s husband needed a part in a TV show, I got another actor removed and put him in. The truth is, to retaliate against these women I would have needed the co-operation of the agencies. Call Ari Emanuel! Call Bryan Lourd! It never, ever, ever happened.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Weinstein opened up about his former friendship with Gwyneth Paltrow, and shared how devastated he was when she spoke out against him publicly and accused him of in appropriate behaviour.
Because she was a good friend of mine,” he said when asked why Paltrow’s comments left a particularly hurtful sting.
“I don’t know what drove her to do what she did. To make such a big deal over nothing. I walked out of a nice meeting with her and said, ‘How about a massage?’ And she just went, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ I got the message. I never put my hands on her. She told Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt came to me and said, ‘Don’t do anything like that with my girl.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, Brad. I got it.’”
He continued: “But then Gwyneth goes on Howard Stern and The New York Times and makes a big deal about it all. She knows that nothing happened. But this person who was a friend, who owes her career to me, just stabs me in the back. She wanted to be part of the crowd. “
“I won’t forgive her for that,” added the disgraced mogul.
