Harvey Weinstein ‘stable’ after emergency heart surgery – The Irish News

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

The 72-year-old man, who is awaiting trial in New York on rape and sexual assault charges, was transferred from Rikers Island Jail to Bellevue Hospital on Sunday night, his lawyers said.

The former movie 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 is “hopefully out of danger for the time being”.

Weinstein is serving a prison sentence after being convicted in Los Angeles of rape and sexual misconduct, stemming from a 2013 incident in which he showed up uninvited in a woman’s hotel room during a film festival in Los Angeles.

In February 2023, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The former film producer is currently being held in Rikers Island Jail awaiting a new trial in Manhattan after a 2020 rape conviction was overturned by a majority decision of the New York Court of Appeals earlier this year.

Weinstein has been struggling with serious health problems and has been hospitalized several times in recent years.

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

Other conditions for which he required treatment included diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis and fluid on his heart and lungs, according to a statement Mr. Engelmayer gave to The Associated Press at the time.

His latest stay in hospital comes after the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced it had dropped Weinstein’s indecent assault case after reviewing the evidence, saying there was “no realistic prospect of a conviction”.

The former Hollywood film producer faced two charges in London in 1996 for alleged indecent assault against a woman, now in her 50s.

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

“Mr. Weinstein is grateful to those who worked hard to reach this conclusion and is deeply saddened that his actions have caused anyone harm.

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

Weinstein denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone.

He became one of the mainstays of the #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 when women came forward with stories about his alleged behavior.

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