Harvey Weinstein taken to hospital for emergency heart surgery

Disgraced former film producer Harvey Weinstein underwent emergency heart surgery on Monday, his representatives said.

The 72-year-old was taken to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan from the Rikers Island jail in New York on Sunday night, where he is being held in custody, a spokesperson for his attorney Arthur Aidala told the PA news agency.

The former film mogul was taken to hospital after experiencing chest pains.

Weinstein is serving a prison sentence following a rape and sexual misconduct conviction in Los Angeles related to an incident in 2013 where he appeared uninvited in a woman’s hotel room during a Los Angeles film festival.

He was sentenced to 16 years’ prison in February 2023.

He is currently in custody in Rikers Island jail complex while awaiting a retrial in Manhattan after a 2020 conviction for rape was overturned earlier this year in a majority decision from the Court of Appeal in New York.

In July, Weinstein was treated in hospital after being diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs, and Covid-19.

Last week, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the UK said it had discontinued its indecent assault case against Weinstein, saying “there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.

The former Hollywood film producer was facing two criminal charges of alleged indecent assault against a woman, who is now aged in her 50s, in London in 1996.

On Thursday, Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS special crime and counter-terrorism division, said: “Following a review of the evidence in this case, the CPS has decided to discontinue criminal proceedings against Harvey Weinstein.

“The CPS has a duty to keep all cases under continuous review and we have decided that there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.

“We have explained our decision to all parties.

“We would always encourage any potential victims of sexual assault to come forward and report to police and we will prosecute wherever our legal test is met.”

Juda Engelmayer, a spokesperson for Weinstein, previously told PA: “We are grateful for the decision and to know that in some parts of Western society justice is indeed still blind.

“Mr Weinstein is appreciative towards those who worked hard to come to this conclusion and is deeply saddened that any of his actions may have caused anyone difficulty.

“He hopes that other jurisdictions can find their way clear to distinguish the difference between disappointment, sadness, regret and illegal, criminal behaviour. Harvey believes in his heart that he never crossed those lines.”

Weinstein has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone.

He became one of the most prominent focuses of the #MeToo movement, which took root in 2017 when women began to go public with accounts of his alleged behaviour.

In 2020, the producer of hit movies including Pulp Fiction, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Gangs Of New York and Shakespeare In Love was stripped of his honorary CBE awarded for his contribution to the British film industry.