Disgraced Weinstein Company founder and former CEO of Miramax Harvey Weinstein has released a statement in the wake of actress Salma Hayek’s allegations of verbal and sexual harassment against him.
In case you missed it, the Oscar-nominated actress penned a heartbreaking op-ed in the New York Times accusing Weinstein of a series of indiscretions both before, during, and after the making of her Oscar-winning biopic, Frida. She alleges Weinstein asked her to take a shower in front of him, dragged her to a private party where presumed “models” were actually “high-priced prostitutes” and offered her part as painter Frida Kahlo to another actress unless Hayek adhered to a list of almost-impossible demands. Once production on the film started Weinstein continued to harass the actress, including forcing her to film a sex scene with a female or risk having the movie dumped straight to video.
As laid out in Weinstein’s statement he “does not recall pressuring Salma” into doing the sex scene in Frida, and alleges that he wasn’t there at the time of filming, maintaining that any sex scene included was the result of the real-life Frida Kahlo being bisexual. He states that while actress Jennifer Lopez “was interested in playing Frida and at the time was a bigger star, Mr. Weinstein overruled other investors to back Salma as the lead.” He also makes a bizarre point of stating that actor Edward Norton, whom Hayek says offered to help rewrite the Frida script for free to appease Weinstein’s demands, was “Ms. Hayek’s boyfriend at the time.”
Regardless, Twitter has taken Weinstein’s statement as further proof of his attempts to only distance himself from accusations by women of color as this is the second statement he’s made refuting allegations, starting with those of actress Lupita Nyong’o.