Harvey Weinstein ‘stable’ after emergency heart surgery

The 72-year-old, who is awaiting trial in New York on rape and sexual assault charges, was transferred from the Rikers Island prison complex to Bellevue Hospital on Sunday evening, his lawyers said.

The former movie mogul underwent emergency surgery on Monday due to chest pains.

Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Weinstein, told the PA news agency: “His condition is stable. He is now resting.”

He added that he was “hopefully out of danger at the moment.”

Weinstein is serving a prison sentence after being convicted of rape and sexual misconduct in Los Angeles, stemming from a 2013 incident in which he showed up uninvited at a woman’s hotel room during a Los Angeles film festival.

In February 2023, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The former film producer is currently in custody at Rikers Island prison in Manhattan awaiting a retrial after a 2020 rape conviction was overturned by a majority decision of the New York Court of Appeals earlier this year.

Weinstein has had serious health problems and has been hospitalized several times in recent years.

In July, he was hospitalized after being diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs and Covid-19.

Other conditions he had to treat included diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis and fluid accumulation in his heart and lungs, Engelmayer told the Associated Press at the time.

His latest hospitalization came after the British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced it had dropped the sexual assault case against Weinstein after reviewing the evidence and saying there was “no longer a realistic prospect of a conviction.”

In 1996, two criminal charges were brought against the former Hollywood film producer in London for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman who is now 50 years old.

Mr Engelmayer said earlier: “We are grateful for the decision and know that in some parts of Western society the justice system is indeed still blind.

“Mr. Weinstein is grateful to those who worked hard to reach this conclusion and is deeply saddened that his actions may have caused distress to anyone.

“He hopes other jurisdictions will find a way to clearly distinguish between disappointment, sadness, regret and illegal, criminal behavior. Harvey believes in his heart that he never crossed those lines.”

Weinstein has denied raping or sexually abusing anyone.

He became one of the most prominent focuses of the #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 when women began coming forward with accounts of his alleged behavior.

In 2020, the producer of hit films such as Pulp Fiction, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Gangs of New York and Shakespeare in Love was stripped of the honorary title CBE, which was awarded to him for his contribution to the British film industry.