Notorious movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been rushed from prison to a New York City hospital for emergency heart surgery after complaining of chest pains, his representative told US media.
“Mr. Weinstein was rushed to Bellevue Hospital last night due to several medical conditions,” Weinstein’s representatives Craig Rothfeld and Judah Engelmeyer said in a statement, first reported by ABC News.
“We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein underwent a cardiac procedure and surgery today, but we cannot comment further. As we have said many times before, Mr. Weinstein has a number of significant health issues that require ongoing treatment.”
As of Monday afternoon, Weinstein had undergone surgery and was recovering.
Weinstein, 72, was transferred to Bellevue from New York’s Rikers Island prison where he is awaiting retrial on rape and sexual assault charges, marking the second time in two months that he has been sent to hospital.
Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said Weinstein had asked prison officials to immediately transfer him to Bellevue Corrections Center based on “complaints of chest pains.” In one email, Aidala said, Weinstein wrote, “If you do nothing, this man will die on your watch.”
He was hospitalized in July for treatment for a variety of health issues, including COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs. Reps said at the time that the former director and producer also suffered from diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis and fluid in his heart and lungs.
In April, the New York Supreme Court overturned Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault convictions and ordered a new trial after the state’s appeals court ruled that the judge in his 2020 trial improperly admitted testimony from women whose allegations against Weinstein were not part of the cases.
But Weinstein now faces possible new indictments in New York, as the Manhattan district attorney’s office has begun presenting evidence to a grand jury on up to three previously uncharged charges against Weinstein — two counts of sexual assault in the mid-2000s and one in 2016.
After the completion of his retrial and the resulting prison sentence, Weinstein is scheduled to begin serving a 16-year sentence in California in December 2022 for a separate rape conviction that occurred in Los Angeles, authorities said.
A California jury took more than nine days of deliberation to find Weinstein guilty of three counts of rape and sexual assault against a European model and actor who testified anonymously as “Jane Doe 1.”
The jury also remained divided on three charges of rape and sexual assault brought by two other accusers, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Weinstein was also acquitted of a sexual assault charge brought by a fourth woman.
More than 90 women have come forward to say they sexually assaulted or harassed Weinstein, who has been one of the most powerful men in Hollywood since founding the Miramax film studio with his brother Bob Weinstein in 1979, over his decades-long career.
The two later founded The Weinstein Company, and during their time together they produced some of the most famous and successful films in Hollywood history, including Shakespeare in Love, Django Unchained, The King’s Speech and Pulp Fiction.
But his arrest and Manhattan conviction exposed Weinstein’s dark side and marked a landmark for the #MeToo movement, in which women have accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other sectors of sexual misconduct.
British prosecutors announced last week that they were dropping two indecent assault charges against Weinstein, saying there was “no longer any realistic prospect of conviction”.
The charge relates to an incident which took place in London between 31 July and 31 August 1996, involving a woman who was in her 50s at the time the charges were announced.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.