Jennifer Lawrence has joined Meryl Streep in objecting to Harvey Weinsteins legal teams use of the actresses former comments in a motion filed to dismiss a sexual misconduct class action lawsuit.
The class action lawsuit was filed last December on behalf of six women against Weinstein, his brother Bob, The Weinstein Company, Miramax and others.As Deadline reports, earlier this week, Weinsteins legal team filed a motion to dismissthe class action lawsuit. The motion cites previous statements Lawrence and Streep had made, arguing that the class action lawsuit was relying on proposed class definitions [that] are fatally over-broad As drafted, they would include all women who ever met with Weinstein, regardless of whether they claimed to have suffered any identifiable harm as a result of that meeting. Such women would include, presumably, Jennifer Lawrence, who told Oprah Winfrey she had known Weinstein since she was 20 years old and said he had only ever been nice to me, and Meryl Streep, who stated publicly that Weinstein had always been respectful to her in their working relationship.
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Lawrence slammed Weinstein and his cohorts for using her comment from the past out of context. Harvey Weinstein and his company are continuing to do what they have always done which is to take things out of context and use them for their own benefit, Lawrence said in a statement, via Deadline. This is what predators do, and it must stop.
For the record, while I was not victimized personally by Harvey Weinstein, I stand behind the women who have survived his terrible abuse, she continued. And I applaud them in using all means necessary to bring him to justice whether through criminal or civil actions. Times up.
Lawrences statement came on the heels of Streeps rebuke of the movie mogul. Harvey Weinsteins attorneys use of my (true) statement that he was not sexually transgressive or physically abusive in our business relationship as evidence that he was not abusive with many OTHER women is pathetic and exploitive, Streep said in a statement on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Weinstein apologized to the actresses. Mr. Weinstein acknowledges the valuable input both Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence have contributed to this conversation and apologizes, reps for Weinstein told Deadline. Moving forward, Mr. Weinstein has advised his counsel to not include specific names of former associates; and to avoid whenever possible, even if they are in the public record.