One of Hollywood's most powerful movie producers, Harvey Weinstein, has been fired by the board of the company he founded after a news report recounted his decades-long sexual harassment of women in the film industry.
The 65-year-old Weinstein oversaw production of some of the most critically acclaimed and financially successful films over the last 30 years, including "Shakespeare in Love," "Pulp Fiction," "Sex, Lies and Videotape," "The English Patient," "Good Will Hunting" and "Lee Daniels' The Butler." He ran the Miramax and later the Weinstein movie companies with his brother Bob Weinstein.
But the movie mogul's fall came quickly after The New York Times reported last week that Weinstein, a man known in Hollywood for his demanding control of film productions and angry outbursts, had made unwanted sexual advances on women stretching over nearly three decades. The story said Weinstein had paid confidential settlements to at least eight women who had accused him of sexual harassment.
In a statement last week, Weinstein said that "the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it." Later, he claimed some of the newspaper's claims were false and said he would sue for defamation.
Weinstein took a leave of absence from his company on Friday, but on Sunday the board said that "in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days," it had told him that "his employment is terminated, effective immediately."
Weinstein has been big donor in recent years to Democratic politicians in the U.S. and liberal causes. But with the sexual harassment revelations, Democratic political figures moved quickly over the weekend to transfer the same amount of Weinstein's donations to charitable causes.