Jamie Lee Curtis Calls Harvey Weinstein 'Brutish Thug' and Shares Her Own Sexual Harassment Story
Jamie Lee Curtis is the latest star to speak out amid the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal, calling the mogul a “brutish thug” while recounting her own experiences with workplace harassment.
Opening up in a Huffington Post column on Wednesday, the Halloween actress, 58, began by noting that the scandal has “seemingly rocked the entertainment business” despite the fact that “so many claim to have known about Mr. Weinstein’s aggression and harassment and lecherous doings.”
She then took aim at fashion designer Donna Karan, who recently defended Weinstein, saying his alleged victims might have been “asking for it.” Curtis questioned how a “fellow woman” who has “made her living dressing famous women in tight, sexy dresses” could “throw these brave women under the bus in a weird, mean girl version of slut shaming.”
Curtis also said she took Karan’s comments personally, explaining, “I, too, have been subjected to my own private, personal versions of sexual harassment on the job. Did I ask for it? No. What I simply asked for was a job, and what came with it was sexual harassment.”
The actress, who did not reveal who sexually harassed her, added, “What I believe we are all asking for in these instances, is a chance to show our talent, our humanity, a chance to express ourselves and our art and perhaps, be a part of a film that can truly create change.”
Curtis continued, “Perhaps this grotesque power play to ‘get some’ by this brutish thug of a man and the attempts by him, his lawyer, his board and famous friends to, once again, keep it under wraps and blame the victim will fail.
“Perhaps the truth will out other sexual harassment, be it from a governor or a president or a presidential candidate or studio head or movie star or executive or anyone else complicit in this billionaire boys club bulls— that will come to an inglorious end.”
Karen has since apologized for her comments saying the “statement that was not representative of how I feel or what I believe.”
“My statements were taken out of context and do not represent how I feel about the current situation concerning Harvey Weinstein. I believe that sexual harassment is NOT acceptable and this is an issue that MUST be addressed once and for all regardless of the individual.”
Weinstein, 65, has found himself in the middle of a media firestorm as dozens of women, including actresses like Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, have come forward to accuse him of decades of sexual misconduct.
In response to the lengthy allegations made against him in a New Yorker piece, a spokesperson for Weinstein said, “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein.”
He has since been fired from his powerhouse studio, The Weinstein Company, and his wife, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, has announced she’s leaving him.
