The Weinstein Company is making major changes amid sexual assault allegations brought against Harvey Weinstein. In addition to granting television networks permission to remove Weinstein’s name from show credits, the company will have a new name within days, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
While Weinstein has decided to enter a treatment facility for sex addiction, the board of his company has continued to publicly denounce his alleged actions. “The Weinstein Company’s Board of Representatives – Bob Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar – are shocked and dismayed by the recently emerged allegations of extreme sexual misconduct and sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein,” The Weinstein Company board said in a statement. “These alleged actions are antithetical to human decency. These allegations come as an utter surprise to the Board. Any suggestion that the Board had knowledge of this conduct is false. We are committed to assisting with our full energies in all criminal or other investigations of these alleged acts, while pursuing justice for the victims and a full and independent investigation of our own.”
As previously reported, the New York Times published a shocking expose on October 5 claiming that the 65-year-old film producer had a history of sexual harassment spanning decades. Just five days later, The New Yorker published its own investigative piece with several allegations of sexual assault against Weinstein.
In the wake of both investigative pieces, several celebrities, including Heather Graham, Rose McGowan, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, among others, have come forward with their own personal accounts of inappropriate encounters with Weinstein or allegations of sexual harassment by him.
The businessman, who was fired from his own company on October 8, is denying rape accusations against him. “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” Weinstein’s spokesperson Sallie Hofmeister said in a statement to Us Weekly on Tuesday, October 10. “Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual. Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.”
Weinstein’s wife, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, announced on Tuesday that she was leaving her husband of seven years, with whom she shares two children.
