Harvey Weinstein has claimed Gwyneth Paltrow’s sexual harassment allegations against him are false, as she continued to work with him after the alleged misconduct took place.
The 65-year-old disgraced producer has faced several allegations of sexual misconduct since a damning New York Times article was published in October last year, including claims from actress Gwyneth who alleged Weinstein harassed her during the filming of 1994 movie ‘Emma’.
READ: 27 Hollywood stars accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault
But now, in response to a class action lawsuit which was filed against Weinstein and his production company, the producer has claimed the star wasn’t “offended” by anything that happened whilst they worked on the movie, as she returned to star in ‘Shakespeare in Love’ – which was produced by Weinstein – in 1998, for which she won an Oscar.
In documents obtained by The Blast, Weinstein claimed: “The specific facts alleged call into question the veracity of the general allegations that putative class members were under duress. For example, Gwyneth Paltrow was allegedly harassed during the filming of ‘Emma’ in 1994, which allegedly caused her to fear the prospect of being fired.
“Yet, Paltrow went on to star in another Weinstein production – ‘Shakespeare In Love’ – for which she won an Academy Award in 1998. Paltrow was not so offended that she refused to work with Weinstein again, nor did her career suffer as a result of her rebuffing his alleged advances.”
In his response to the lawsuit, Weinstein also stated that women such as Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep have defended his actions after both actresses denied he had ever been sexually explicit toward them.
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The documents state: “Such women would include, presumably, Jennifer Lawrence, who told Oprah Winfrey she had known Weinstein since she was 20 years old and said that ‘he had only ever been nice to me’, and Meryl Streep, who stated publicly that Weinstein had always been respectful to her in their working relationship.”
Weinstein’s response to the lawsuit comes as he and his lawyers want the case dismissed, following a previous response from The Weinstein Company which put the blame for the alleged harassment claims solely on the producer himself.
