Actress Ashley Judd has spoken out to thank her celebrity supporters as Harvey Weinstein is fired ‘by email’ from his own production company in the wake of a barrage of sexual harassment claims.
Last week, Judd detailed an incident involving the Hollywood mogul for The New York Times in their bombshell investigation into Weinstein’s decades of alleged sexual harassment.
Her claims sparked a tide of women to come forward with further sexual harassment allegations including Hollywood producer Elizabeth Karlsen and British actress Jessica Hynes.
‘Thank you for being a part of this critical conversation,’ Judd told one supporter on Twitter.
Actress Ashley Judd has spoken out to thank her celebrity supporters as Harvey Weinstein is fired ‘by email’ from his own production company in the wake of a barrage of sexual harassment claims
‘Thank you for being a part of this critical conversation,’ Judd told one supporter on Twitter who revealed an episode of sexual harassment
Her comments come as the 65-year-old movie boss was ousted from The Weinstein Company – which he founded with his brother Bob in 2005 – by its board of directors on Sunday.
Judd thanked Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon who said on Twitter: ‘Huge respect for Ashley Judd and all the women who broke their silence for the article on Harvey Weinstein. Brave.’
She acknowledged Academy-award winner Patricia Arquette who wrote online: ‘I’m sure it wasn’t easy to come forward but in doing so you helped a lot of others who might not have been heard.’
Other high-profile supporters she thanked on Twitter include Heather Graham, Mark Ruffalo and Josh Gad.
Her comments come as the 65-year-old movie boss was ousted from The Weinstein Company – which he founded with his brother Bob in 2005 – by its board of directors on Sunday. Pictured, Judd, actor Vince Vaughn and Weinstein at an Oscar party in 1997
Judd thanked Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon who said on Twitter: ‘Huge respect for Ashley Judd and all the women who broke their silence for the article on Harvey Weinstein. Brave’
She acknowledged Academy-award winner Patricia Arquette who wrote online: ‘I’m sure it wasn’t easy to come forward but in doing so you helped a lot of others who might not have been heard’
Other high-profile supporters she thanked on Twitter include Heather Graham, Mark Ruffalo and Josh Gad
Judd, fresh off the success of her role in the film adaption of John Grisham’s ‘A Time to Kill’ was in the middle of filming Kiss the Girls for Weinstein’s studio Miramax when she says she was called in for a hotel meeting with the movie tycoon two decades ago.
She said she felt uncomfortable almost as soon as she arrived, revealing that she ordered cereal from room service because it would arrive quicker than a hot meal.
Judd said she was asked to give Weinstein a massage and then a shoulder rub, both of which she declined while trying to get herself out of the room.
That is when he asked her to help him pick out his clothes for the day and then watch him shower.
‘I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask,’ said Judd in the New York Times report.
Actor Josh Gad wrote online: ‘As a father of 2 girls, I thank women like Lena Dunham, Ashley Judd & Rose Macgowan 4 their candor, bravery & vocalness’
Actress Christine Lahti said: ‘The women who speak up about it are brace and heroic. Thank you Ashley Judd for your courage’
Judd said: ‘Thank you my friend’ after comedy actress Kathy Najimy publicly sided with her
Judd attended the 70th Academy Awards (pictured) with sister Wynonna and mother Naomi
Weinstein (pictured with actress Meryl Streep) was ousted by his own company’s board of directors on Sunday
‘It was all this bargaining, this coercive bargaining.’
She eventually made her escape by joking that Weinstein would have to help her win an Oscar before she would be willing to touch him, stating that the prestige of working for his studio made it too difficult to forcefully shut down his harassment.
‘There’s a lot on the line, the cachet that came with Miramax,’ explained Judd.
She previously wrote about the same experience in 2015 for Variety without naming Weinstein, simply saying it was a studio mogul.
‘I was with a bunch of other actors, and it was critical that it was actors: The exact same thing had happened to them by the exact same mogul,’ wrote Judd.
‘Only when we were sitting around talking about it did we realize our experiences were identical. There was a mutual strengthening and fortification of our resolve.’
She later wrote in that piece: ‘The ultimate thing when I was weaseling out of everything else was, ‘Will you watch me take a shower?’ And all the other women, sitting around this table with me, said, ‘Oh my god — that’s what he said to me too.”
Weinstein was ousted by his own company’s board of directors on Sunday.
In a statement, the company said: ‘In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days, the directors of The Weinstein Company – Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar – have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with The Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately.’
WEINSTEIN’S ACCUSERS
Harvey Weinstein has been slammed with multiple accusations of sexual harassment after a report detailing a $100,000 settlement he reportedly made to Rose McGowan in the mid-’90s emerged this week.
Below are some of the women who have accused Weinstein of harassing them, or other women.
Rose McGowan: The actress, who made her breakthrough in 1996 in the Weinstein-produced slasher revival movie Scream, reportedly sued Weinstein after he approached her during production of that movie. She signed a non-disclosure agreement at the close of the suit and has only referred to him obliquely in social media since. On Sunday she referred to being abused by a ‘monster’ and has previously referred to being raped by a studio head.
Ashley Judd: Judd’s film roles include the thriller Kiss the Girls – and says that during the filming of that movie Weinstein repeatedly asked her to watch him shower. She was one of the women who spoke out to The New York Times this week, saying: ‘Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.’
Zelda Perkins was 25 when, as an assistant of Weinstein’s in London, she reportedly confronted the mogul for harassing her and ‘several’ other women; she later settled out of court
Lauren O’Connor: A former employee of The Weinstein Company, she told executives there in the fall of 2015 that there was ‘a toxic environment for women at this company’ after one of her colleagues told her that Weinstein had pressured her into massaging him while he was naked, the NYT said.
Ambra Battilana: An Italian actress and model, she told the NYT that in March 2015 Weinstein invited her to his New York office. There, she said, he asked if her breasts were real before grabbing them and putting his hands up her skirt. She reported the alleged incident to police, but they did not press charges. According to the NYT, Weinstein later paid her off.
Laura Madden: An ex-employee, she told the NYT that Weinstein had asked her to give him massages from 1991 onwards, while they were both in London and Dublin. ‘It was so manipulative,’ she told the NYT. ‘You constantly question yourself – am I the one who is the problem?’ Weinstein denied knowledge.
Emily Nestor: Nestor was a temporary employee of the Weinstein Company for just one day in 2014 when Weinstein approached her and offered to boost her career in exchange for sex, the NYT reported.
Elizabeth Karlsen, an Oscar-winning producer, said a female executive told her almost 30 years ago that she had found Weinstein naked in her bedroom in a Miramax-rented property
Zelda Perkins: An assistant of Weinstein’s based in London in 1998; then 25, she reportedly confronted Weinstein after she and ‘several’ others were harassed and later settled out of court.
Elizabeth Karlsen: The Oscar-nominated producer of Carol and The Crying Game, among others, told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday that almost 30 years ago, an unnamed young female executive who had worked at Miramax with Weinstein had found him naked in her bedroom one night. The exec was in a house rented by Miramax at the time to cut its overheads.
Liza Campbell: A freelance script reader, she told the UK’s Sunday Times that Weinstein had summoned her to his hotel room in London before telling her to get in the bath with him.
Lauren Sivan: The former Fox news host said that Weinstein trapped her in a closed restaurant and masturbated in front of her to completion in 2007. He took her to a closed restaurant beneath a club she had visited and attempted to kiss her, then when she refused he cornered her and made her watch him touch himself, according to The Huffington Post.