Harvey Weinstein ‘stable’ after emergency heart surgery

Disgraced former film producer Harvey Weinstein is in a “stable” condition following emergency heart surgery, his representatives have said.

The 72-year-old, who is awaiting trial in New York on rape and sexual assault charges, was moved from the city’s Rikers Island jail complex to Bellevue Hospital on Sunday night, his lawyers said.

The former film mogul underwent emergency surgery on Monday after experiencing chest pains.

Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Weinstein, told the PA news agency: “His condition is stable. He is resting now.”

He added that he was “hopefully out of danger for the moment”.

Weinstein is serving a prison sentence following a rape and sexual misconduct conviction in Los Angeles related to an incident in 2013 where he appeared uninvited in a woman’s hotel room during a Los Angeles film festival.

He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in February 2023.

The former film producer is currently in custody at Rikers Island jail while awaiting a retrial in Manhattan after a 2020 conviction for rape was overturned earlier this year in a majority decision from the Court of Appeal in New York.

Weinstein has had serious health problems and been admitted to hospital multiple times in recent years.

In July, he was treated in hospital after being diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs and Covid-19.

The other conditions he was to be treated for included diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, and fluid on his heart and lungs, according to a statement from Mr Engelmayer given to the Associated Press at the time.

His latest spell in hospital comes after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the UK said it had discontinued its indecent assault case against Weinstein following a review of the evidence, saying “there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.

The former Hollywood film producer was facing two criminal charges of alleged indecent assault against a woman, who is now aged in her 50s, in London in 1996.

Mr Engelmayer previously said: “We are grateful for the decision and to know that in some parts of western society, justice is indeed still blind.

“Mr Weinstein is appreciative towards those who worked hard to come to this conclusion and is deeply saddened that any of his actions may have caused anyone difficulty.

“He hopes that other jurisdictions can find their way clear to distinguish the difference between disappointment, sadness, regret and illegal, criminal behaviour. Harvey believes in his heart that he never crossed those lines.”

Weinstein has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone.

He became one of the most prominent focuses of the #MeToo movement, which took root in 2017 when women began to go public with accounts of his alleged behaviour.

In 2020, the producer of hit movies including Pulp Fiction, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Gangs Of New York and Shakespeare In Love was stripped of his honorary CBE awarded for his contribution to the British film industry.

Jail overcrowding crisis could see prisoners freed early staying in hotels

BBC would consider a review of Middle East coverage – chairman

Deputy prison governor illegally accessed inmate information, court told