Harvey Weinstein has responded to Salma Hayek’s allegations of sexual harassment.
In a column for The New York Times, the Mexican actress alleged that Harvey frequently sexually harassed her while she was filming 2002 biopic, Frida.
Salma alleged that Harvey forced her into filming a sex scene with co-star Ashley Judd – however, the disgraced film producer has now claimed that he “does not recall” pressuring her.
Last night, a spokesperson for Harvey released a statement, writing, “Mr. Weinstein regards Salma Hayek as a first-class actress and cast her in several of his movies, among them ‘Once Upon a Time in Mexico’, ‘Dogma’, and ‘Studio 54’.”
“He was very proud of her Best Actress Academy Award nomination for ‘Frida’ and continues to support her work. While Jennifer Lopez was interested in playing Frida and at the time was a bigger star, Mr. Weinstein overruled other investors to back Salma as the lead.
“Miramax put up half of the money and all of the P&A; the budget was over 12 million. As in most collaborative projects, there was creative friction on ‘Frida’, but it served to drive the project to perfection.
“The movie opened in multiple theaters and was supported by a huge advertising campaign and an enormous Academy Awards budget.
“Mr. Weinstein does not recall pressuring Salma to do a gratuitous sex scene with a female costar and he was not there for the filming. However, that was part of the story, as Frida Kahlo was bisexual and the more significant sex scene in the movie was choreographed by Ms. Hayek with Geoffrey Rush.”
“The original uni-brow used was an issue because it diverted attention from the performances. All of the sexual allegations as portrayed by Salma are not accurate and others who witnessed the events have a different account of what transpired,” they continued.
“Ed Norton, who was Ms. Hayek’s boyfriend at the time, [worked with Mr. Weinstein on the rewrite of the script in Mexico] did a brilliant job of rewriting the script and Mr. Weinstein battled the WGA to get him a credit on the film. His effort was unsuccessful to everyone’s disappointment.
“By Mr. Weinstein’s own admission, his boorish behavior following a screening of ‘Frida’ was prompted by his disappointment in the cut of the movie—and a reason he took a firm hand in the final edit, alongside the very skilled director Julie Taymor,” they added.
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