Matt Damon KNEW Harvey Weinsten harassed Gwyneth Paltrow

Matt Damon and George Clooney opened up about the predatory behavior of their some-times boss and one-time friend Harvey Weinstein on ‘Good Morning America.’

In an interview that aired on Monday morning, both men said that they knew Weinstein was a ‘bully’ and ‘womanizer’ who bragged of bedding actresses, but had no idea about the level of criminal behavior that was occurring behind closed doors in hotels.

Damon also confessed that he was aware Weinstein had sexually harassed ‘the first lady of Miramax’ Gwyneth Paltrow just before the actress shot the film 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ for the studio. 

‘I knew the story about Gwyneth from Ben [Affleck] because he was with her after Brad [Pitt] and so I knew that story,’ said Damon.

‘But I was working with Gwyneth and with Harvey on [the 1999 film “The Talented Mr.] Ripley.”

He then added: ‘ I never talked to Gwyneth about it but Ben told me that whatever or agreement they had come to there was an understanding … and he treated her incredibly respectfully. Always.’

Three’s a crowd: ‘I knew the story about Gwyneth from Ben [Affleck] because he was with her after Brad [Pitt] and so I knew that story,’ said Damon (Affleck with Weinstein and then-girlfriend Paltrow at the Miramax afterparty following the 1998 Golden Globes)

This admission will no doubt lead to more backlash for Damon, who was one of the last people to speak out against Weinstein while at the same time being one of the few to confess that they were in fact aware of at least one incident. 

Paltrow said that she told Pitt at the time, and he immediately confronted Weinstein, who in turn ‘screamed’ at Paltrow and told her to never speak about the incident again according to The New York Times.

Damon is still just the fourth actor to publicly state that he was aware of at least one incident that occurred between Weinstein and one of his stars, save the victims.

In the days after The New York Times first broke their story, ‘Family Guy’ creator Seth MacFarlane admitted that he had learned about the mogul’s behavior from actress and victim Jessica Barth while Platrow’s ‘Emma’ co-star Toni Collette revealed she had heard ‘numerous, very real stories about other actresses being sexually harassed and/or abused by him.’

Then, just last week, Paltrow’s mother Blythe Danner spoke about when she learned about the incident in an op-ed for The New York Times published after columnist Maureen Dowd was critical of her Oscar-winning daughter for not doing more to stop Weinstein.

Affleck and Pitt have not spoken about the incident, and Damon’s revelation that he learned about Weinstein’s behavior from his friend may cause even more problems for embattled actor as it seems to contradict his initial statement.

‘I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades,’ said Affleck almost one week after news of the scandal broke in a carefully-worded response that seemed to suggest he had never before heard any of the allegations.

Damon’s decision to characterize the relationship between Paltrow and Weinstein as ‘always’ respectful is a bit odd as well, considering her admission that she had been sexually harassed by the mogul is part of the reason the men were sitting down for the interview. 

Clooney meanwhile said that like many of Weinstein’s victims, he had been told a number of times by the mogul that he was bedding a number of stars. 

‘Harvey would talk to me about women that he had had affairs with,’ said Clooney. 

‘I didn’t necessarily believe him quite honestly, because to believe him would be to believe the worst of some actresses who were friends of mine, and I didn’t really think that they had affairs with Harvey – and clearly they didn’t. 

He then added: ‘But the idea that this predator, this assaulter was out there silencing women like that, it’s beyond infuriating. And the fact that the story is coming out now and the more it comes out, I want to know all of it.’