Harvey Weinstein booted from film academy

Credit: Drew Angerer

Credit: Drew Angerer

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled embattled producer Harvey Weinstein Saturday.

The academy’s 54-member Board of Governors vote was in excess of the two-thirds majority required.

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“We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over,” the academy said in a statement. “What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society.”

Carmine Caridi, an actor who shared screener copies of movies, is the only other academy member to be expelled, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Producers Guild of America votes Monday on expelling Weinstein from the group, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts suspended Weinstein earlier in the week.

Women started to come forward after The New York Times published a report last week detailing complaints of sexual harassment made against Weinstein over nearly three decades.

Three women, former aspiring actress Lucia Evans, Italian actress Asia Argento and a woman who was not identified, accused Weinstein of rape in a report published Tuesday by The New Yorker.

Actress Rose McGowan slammed Weinstein earlier in the week and said Ben Affleck had known about Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct. McGowan received a $100,000 settlement from Weinstein in 1997 "after an episode in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival," the New York Times reported.

Weinstein was ousted from his position at The Weinstein Company on Sunday in the wake of the New York Times report. His wife, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, said Tuesday that she was leaving Weinstein in light of the allegations. Weinstein said in a statement on Wednesday that he was going to counseling.

He denied the rape allegations in a statement to The New Yorker issued by one of his representatives.

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