Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has moaned he was punched in the face by a fellow Rikers Island inmate and is “constantly threatened and derided” by other prisoners.
Weinstein made his claim in a self-pitying one-hour interview with the Hollywood Reporter conceding he “wouldn’t last long” among the general prison population while despairing Gwyneth Paltrow betrayed him with sexual harassment claims.
Weinstein, who uses a wheelchair to compensate for his lack of mobility, insisted safety concerns at the notorious New York City lockup have kept him confined to his cell for 23 hours a day because when he is out of confinement bad things happen.
It is all really just too much for a man who once flaunted what he believed was unfettered power in Hollywood.
“One time, while I was waiting to use the phone, I asked the guy in front of me if he was done. He got off and punched me hard in the face,” the 73-year-old told the magazine in an interview published Tuesday.
“I fell on the floor, bleeding everywhere,” he said in the January interview. “I was hurt really badly. The cops asked me who had done it, but I couldn’t say. You can’t be a rat. That’s the law of the jungle,” the convicted sex pest continued.
The Oscar-winning producer further whined that former friend Gwyneth Paltrow “stabbed” him in the back with her sexual harassment claims — and recalled being confronted by her then-fiancé Brad Pitt after he asked the star for a massage.
“This person who was a friend, who owes her career to me, just stabs me in the back,” the ailing septuagenarian wailed from his Rikers Island prison cell, repeating a claim against her he has aired before, as Breitbart News reported.
“She wanted to be part of the crowd. I won’t forgive her for that,” he added.
Paltrow, 53, was one of more than 100 women to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment after a bombshell 2017 New York Times exposé unleashed a torrent of similar allegations against the film producer — leading to both his imprisonment and the worldwide #MeToo movement.
Despite his conviction and sheer weight of allegations against him, Weinstein holds hope for his future – even if nobody else does.
“I will be proven innocent. That I promise you,” he said.
Weinstein’s landmark #MeToo-era case has spanned seven years, trials in two states, a reversal in one and a retrial that came to a messy end in New York last year.
He has denied all the charges.
