Harvey Weinstein Cites Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep Comments in Bid to Get Lawsuit Against Him Dismissed

Harvey Weinstein is pointing to statements made by Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep in a bid to get a class-action lawsuit against him dismissed. E! Online reports that Weinstein’s lawyers have filed documents in relation to a proposed class-action lawsuit by six women against him, The Weinstein Company, Bob Weinstein and more quoting the actresses as proof that the class definitions in the lawsuit are “fatally overbroad” and should be “dismissed or stricken in their entirety.”

Weinstein’s documents point out an interview by Lawrence in which she said, “Just speaking for myself, I had known him since I was 20, and he had only ever been nice to me—except for the moments that he wasn’t, and then I called him an a–hole, and we moved on. He was paternal to me.”

It goes on to quote Streep’s discussion of the allegations against Weinstein in October of last year, in which the Oscar winner said, “One thing can be clarified. Not everybody knew. Harvey supported the work fiercely, was exasperating but respectful with me in our working relationship, and with many others with whom he worked professionally.”

Weinstein’s lawyers argued in the memo, “Here, Plaintiffs seek a nationwide class of “[a]ll women who met with Harvey Weinstein in person (i) to audition for or to discuss involvement in a project to be produced or distributed by either The Weinstein Company Holdings, LLC or, prior to September 30, 2005, Miramax LLC, or (ii) in a meeting or event facilitated, hosted, or underwritten by TWC. As drafted, [the proposed class definitions] would include all women who ever met with Weinstein, regardless of whether they claimed to have suffered any identifiable harm as a result of that meeting. Such women would include, presumably, Jennifer Lawrence, who told Oprah Winfrey she had known Weinstein since she was 20 years old and said ‘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.”

The memo also argues that Gwyneth Paltrow, who has claimed Weinstein sexually harassed her when she twenty-two years old, did not see her career damaged after the alleged encounter. It notes, that 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,” the memo reads in a footnote. “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.”

The Weinstein Company has issued its own response, claiming that the former TWC head acted alone in his sexual harassment.