March 31, 2015

Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein

A Hollywood movie producer known for his anti-gun views has been accused of sexually assaulting a 22-year-old Italian model in his Manhattan office.

Harvey Weinstein, who created Miramax Studios in 1979 and later sold it to Disney for $80 million, stands accused of coaxing the model into his office to “talk business,” according to a report by the New York Daily News. Once she arrived, he allegedly touched her breasts, asked if they “were real” and slid his hand up her skirt.

Weinstein, 63, reportedly asked “for a kiss,” to which the model said, “No,” and left.

“She really was very upset,” a police source told the Daily News.

The producer met the woman at a red-carpet premiere of his Radio City “New York Spring Spectacular.” He invited her to meet him at his office on Friday for an audition, according to the Daily News.

Weinstein and his brother Bob co-own The Weinstein Company and have produced hundreds of movies over the years including “Pulp Fiction,” “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist.”

Weinstein has talked about making a film that would set out to portray the National Rifle Association in a negative light.

In an interview with Howard Stern earlier this year, he said he plans to make a movie that takes on the NRA and deals with the issue of firearms “head on,” reported Variety magazine.

“They are going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them,” Weinstein told Stern in January, referring to the NRA.

Weinstein did not go into specifics about the project, but said Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep was involved, Variety reported. He said the film would not be a documentary but “a big movie like ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.’”

“I don’t think we need guns in this country, and I hate it,” Weinstein told Stern. “The NRA is a disaster area.”

“Such a movie is bound to be a political flashpoint, and Weinstein undoubtedly would open himself up to criticism over some of the violence in the movies he has produced, as well as his role as a prominent fundraiser for President Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates,” according to Variety.

Weinstein has been questioned by police, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance will decide whether to file charges, the Daily News reported.

“He initiated the contact,” the police source said of Weinstein in the Daily News article. “He saw her and spoke to her. She didn’t know who he was until he approached her.”

Katie Pavlich, editor of TownHall.com and author of the book “Assault and Flattery: The Truth about the Left and their War on Women,” had this to say about Weinstein following news of the alleged assault: “Funny how anti-gun men often turn out to be creeps. It isn’t the men who support firearms ownership among women who we should be worried about, instead, it’s the men who don’t.”

Weinstein is married to 38-year-old fashion designer Georgina Chapman and has five children from two different marriages.

Pavlich and other pro-gun conservatives are already predicting that any movie Weinstein makes blasting gun owners will flop at the box office, even if he does have the star power of Streep working for him.

Jerry Henry, president of GeorgiaCarry.org, recalled the 2002 movie, “Bowling for Columbine,” rushed into theaters after the Columbine massacre.

“That was another one that was supposed to frighten the gun rights community. Best I can tell, we are still here stronger than ever, and most people have forgotten about that biased and less-than-factual movie,” Henry said.

“Of course, ‘Bowling for Columbine’ did win an Oscar, and this movie might win one as well, but don’t forget who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. These liberal prizes and awards mean little in the whole scheme of things.”

“A Weinstein film bashing guns and gun owners would be a dud,” predicted Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation.

“I would love for the left to dump a lot of money into such a movie,” added Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America. “We could rerun ‘American Sniper’ when the anti-gun movie debuts. There would be no air in the room for the antis.”

Pratt said Weinstein may learn a hard lesson.

“Mr. Weinstein had better hope that the victims of his sexual predations be as anti-self-defense as he is. Otherwise, he may reach into an inappropriate place and end up trying to digest a bullet.”

Gottlieb said the irony of the matter is that, if Weinstein were charged and convicted, he might be forbidden from ever owning a gun.

“The Hollywood liberal and an anti-gun zealot Harvey Weinstein might just get the gun control he has been pushing for. If he is convicted of this crime he could be banned from firearms ownership,” Gottlieb said.

In a People magazine article, Weinstein denied sexually assaulting the Italian model.

“We are cooperating fully with the authorities and are confident that we will be fully vindicated,” Weinstein spokesman Ken Sunshine told People.

In September 2009, Weinstein spoke out against efforts to extradite director Roman Polanski from Switzerland to the U.S. to face 1977 charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. Polanski pleaded guilty to the charges before fleeing the country, according to the Daily News. Weinstein, whose company had distributed a film about the Polanski case, questioned whether Polanski committed any crime.

The Oscar-winning film producer did not attend the premiere of his newest movie, “Women in Gold,” at the Museum of Modern Art Monday evening. He was expected to appear alongside actresses Katie Holmes and Helen Mirren.

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