Harvey Weinstein Apologizes to Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence for Dragging Their Names in Legal Defense
Harvey Weinstein has apologized to Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence for dragging their names in his defense against a sexual harassment lawsuit. In the said legal defense, Weinstein's lawyers cited Lawrence and Streep among the actresses who had worked with Weinstein but denied being sexually harassed by the producer.
In a motion filed on Tuesday by Atty. Phyllis Kupferstein and Mary Flynn, Weinstein's lawyers argued that the proposed plaintiffs' class was too broad as it would take into account all actresses who had auditioned for their client or discussed with him a role in a film. According to the lawyers, the class would also include every woman who had encountered Weinstein at parties or served him an hors-d'oeuvre, even if they had not been harassed by Weinstein. Kupferstein and Flynn included in their examples Streep and Lawrence, who had previously worked with Weinstein but never really had a bad experience with him.
Streep and Lawrence issued their statements regarding the issue, and it was clear that they were both up against being invoked in Weinstein's defense. "Harvey Weinstein's attorneys' use of my true statement—that he was not sexually transgressive or physically abusive in our business relationship—as evidence that he was not abusive with many OTHER women is pathetic and exploitive," Streep told Deadline regarding the issue.
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Lawrence also issued her own statement, criticizing Weinstein for continuing to do what he has always done — to take things out of context and use them for his own gain. "This is what predators do, and it must stop," she said. She added that while she personally did not experience any abuse from Weinstein, she stands behind all the women who are now seeking justice after all the terrible abuse they had experienced with the disgraced media executive.
In response to the issue, Weinstein's attorneys said in a statement that their client had already advised them to not include specific names of former associates in his defense. They also said that Weinstein acknowledges Streep and Lawrence's "valuable input" in the ongoing conversation and apologizes to them for mentioning their names.
