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Meryl Streep condemns Weinstein for using her words

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

From Digital Spy

Meryl Streep has hit out at Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein after his legal team cited one of her previous statements as evidence in an attempt to dismiss a lawsuit against him.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Weinstein filed a motion to dismiss a racketeering lawsuit from six women, and quoted an earlier statement from Streep as evidence that not "all women" who worked with Weinstein had suffered "identifiable harm".

In a statement, Streep called Weinstein's use of her statement, in which she said the two had had a "respectful" relationship, "pathetic and exploitive".

"Harvey Weinstein's attorneys' use of my (true) statement – that he was not sexually transgressive or physically abusive in our business relationship – as evidence that he was not abusive with many OTHER women is pathetic and exploitive," the actress said.

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

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"The criminal actions he is accused of conducting on the bodies of these women are his responsibility, and if there is any justice left in the system he will pay for them."

Following a wave of sexual misconduct allegations made against him, Weinstein's use of Streep's statement comes after six women filed a lawsuit against the producer claiming that "the Weinstein Sexual Enterprise" was essentially a criminal organisation given the number of alleged victims who have come forward since the scandal broke.

Streep, who worked with Weinstein on the likes of The Iron Lady and August: Osage County, released a statement back in October after The New York Times published an investigation into his alleged behaviour.

Photo credit: Steve Granitz / Getty Images
Photo credit: Steve Granitz / Getty Images

"The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported," she said.

"The intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are our heroes."

Weinstein has apologised for the way he has "behaved with colleagues in the past" and acknowledged that his actions have "caused a lot of pain".

However, he has denied any allegations of non-consensual sex "unequivocally" and claimed that many of the accusations against him are "patently false".


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