A friendly reporter recently sat down for an interview with disgraced Hollywood mogul and Democrat Party financier Harvey Weinstein to discuss life in the wake of the numerous allegations of sexual assault and misconduct lodged against him.
Weinstein appeared to admit in the interview that he, among many others in the industry, routinely offered women acting jobs in exchange for sex, only to have his lawyer and the reporter walk that statement back after the article had been published.
The interview between Weinstein and the U.K. Spectator’s famed reporter Taki was published on Friday and it didn’t take long for the rather significant admission from the former Hollywood bigwig to garner attention and prompt retractions from both Weinstein’s attorney and even Taki himself.
“You were born rich and privileged and you were handsome,” Weinstein told Taki in the Spectator. “I was born poor, ugly, Jewish and had to fight all my life to get somewhere. You got lotsa girls, no girl looked at me until I made it big in Hollywood.”
“Yes, I did offer them acting jobs in exchange for sex, but so did and still does everyone. But I never, ever forced myself on a single woman,” Weinstein asserted.
But that account of the conversation with Weinstein as related by Taki was quickly disputed by Weinstein’s attorney, Ben Brafman.
Brafman told TMZ, “Harvey and Taki (the reporter) did not discuss the case, nor would I allow him to.”
“They talked about old Hollywood and the contrast to European culture and I think Taki sees Harvey in that older light. Mr. Weinstein never said anything about trading movie roles for sexual favors,” added Brafman.
Even Taki himself stated, “I believe that I may have misrepresented Harvey Weinstein’s conversation with me. It was my mistake.”
Fox News covered the apparent confession and subsequent retraction and noted that Weinstein had just pleaded not guilty in June in New York to charges of rape and criminal sexual acts.
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Those charges stem from the accusations of just two of the dozens of women who have alleged that Weinstein abused or harassed them sexually, at times either coercing or forcing them to perform sexual acts in exchange for coveted roles or an advancement in their acting careers.
Weinstein’s now-retracted admission that such activity was and still is the norm among many in Hollywood is something a lot of Americans have long suspected, and the efforts to walk back that seeming confession from Weinstein may not be able to close Pandora’s box now that it has been opened.