Harvey Weinstein says in new interview: ‘Yes, I did offer them acting jobs in exchange for sex’

In an interview published days after pleading not guilty to additional sexual assault charges in New York, Harvey Weinstein said he had offered women acting roles in exchange for sex but denied doing anything illegal.

“Yes, I did offer them acting jobs in exchange for sex, but so did and still does everyone,” the disgraced mogul told Greek journalist Taki Theodoracopulos in the British magazine Spectator. And in a meeting at Weinstein’s small rented office near Grand Central Station in New York City joined by his attorney Ben Brafman, he insisted, “I never, ever forced myself on a single woman.”

Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 80 women. He is under investigation in Los Angeles and London, and faces several lawsuits, including a class-action RICO suit filed by several of his accusers, and a separate one filed by actress Ashley Judd, who accused him of sabotaging her career.

Earlier this week, Weinstein pled not guilty to three sexual assault charges — one count of committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree and two counts of felony predatory sexual assault. And that’s after being indicted in June on charges of rape in the first and third degrees, as well as on charges of criminal sexual act in the first degree, to which he also issued a plea of not guilty.

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As Theodoracopulos puts it in his piece — a sympathetic defense of Weinstein published in Spectator — Weinstein is facing life in prison.

“At 66 years of age and not in good health, even five years in an American jail is a death sentence,” Theodoracopulos wrote.

In the Spectator interview, Weinstein also offered unsubstantiated claims about two actresses who have also accused him of sexual assault — Rose McGowan and Asia Argento — as well as about Argento’s relationship with late chef Anthony Bourdain, who died by suicide in June.

Argento, one of the first women to speak out against Weinstein, has been on the receiving end of people blaming her for Bourdain’s death and using the #MeToo movement to propel her career.

Argento was photographed with another man days before Bourdain’s death. McGowan, another of Weinstein’s accusers, defended Argento, saying that Bourdain and Argento had an open relationship.

“It was obviously not true, says Harvey, but dead men tell no tales, so the girls made it up,” Theodoracopulos wrote in his piece. “Harvey made a sketch of the twisted story for me and I couldn’t help feel sorry for him. He was, to use a terrible cliché, clutching for straws.”

McGowan, in response to article in the Spectator, said on Twitter “rapist are liars.”

In addition to McGowan, dozens of people who spoke out during the #MeToo movement have come to Argento’s defense, signing a statement of solidarity in support of the actress, calling out “internet trolls” who have targeted her since the suicide of Bourdain.

“Asia has now found herself on the receiving end of vicious cyberbullying and repulsive slander at the hands of internet trolls who hold her responsible for Anthony’s death,” the statement reads. “She has been accused of everything from causing her boyfriend’s suicide to trying to use her “survivor status” and the #MeToo movement to advance her career.”

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