Harvey Weinstein taken to hospital for emergency heart surgery – The Irish News

Disgraced former film producer Harvey Weinstein underwent emergency heart surgery on Monday, his representatives said.

The 72-year-old man was taken from New York’s Rikers Island jail to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on Sunday evening, where he remains in custody, a spokesman for his lawyer Arthur Aidala told the PA news agency.

The former movie mogul was taken to hospital with chest pains.

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.

He is currently being held at Rikers Island Jail complex, 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.

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

Last week, the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that it had dropped the indecent assault case against Weinstein, 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.

Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS’s special crime and counter-terrorism unit, said on Thursday: “Following a review of the evidence in this case, the CPS has decided to discontinue criminal proceedings against Harvey Weinstein.

“The CPS has a duty to continually review all cases and we have decided that there is no realistic prospect of a conviction.

“We have explained our decision to all parties.

“We always encourage potential victims of sexual abuse to report to the police and we will prosecute where the legal test is met.”

Juda Engelmayer, a spokesperson for Weinstein, previously told PA: “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.