Jamie Lee Curtis has waded into the Harvey Weinstein scandal, calling the disgraced producer a “brutish thug of a man” and revealing that she, too, has had experience with sexual harassment.
In a Huffington Post column that also took aim at designer Donna Karan for suggesting that Weinstein’s alleged victims might have been “asking for it,” the “Halloween” actress noted, “I, too, have been subjected to my own private, personal versions of sexual harassment on the job. Did I ask for it? No. What I simply asked for was a job, and what came with it was sexual harassment.”
In Tuesday’s column, the actress declined to offer specifics on the sexual harassment she’d experienced, but added, “What I believe we are all asking for in these instances, is a chance to show our talent, our humanity, a chance to express ourselves and our art and perhaps, be a part of a film that can truly create change.”
Seeking a silver lining in the accusations of sexual misconduct leveled at Weinstein by numerous women, Curtis held out hope that the reports of his behavior would put other harassers on notice and bring an “inglorious end” to sexual harassment by powerful men.
“Perhaps this grotesque power play to ‘get some’ by this brutish thug of a man and the attempts by him, his lawyer, his board and famous friends to, once again, keep it under wraps and blame the victim will fail,” Curtis wrote.
“Perhaps the truth will out other sexual harassment, be it from a governor or a president or a presidential candidate or studio head or movie star or executive or anyone else complicit in this billionaire boys club bulls–t that will come to an inglorious end,” the actress added.
Interestingly, Curtis’ “Freaky Friday” co-star Lindsay Lohan also made headlines this week by weighing in on the Weinstein scandal — and defending the embattled producer.
“He’s never harmed me or done anything wrong to me. We’ve done several movies together. And so I think everyone needs to stop. I think it’s wrong, so let’s stand up,” Lohan said in a since-deleted Instagram video, also saying that Weinstein’s wife, Georgina Chapman — who announced Tuesday that she’s leaving Weinstein — “needs to take a stand and be there for her husband.”
Last October, Curtis laid into then-president-to-be Donald Trump, after unearthed audio from a 2004 interview with Howard Stern revealed Trump saying that Lohan, in her teens at the time, was ” probably deeply troubled, and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women, deeply, deeply troubled, they’re always the best in bed?”
“How dare you. She needed help. @realDonaldTrump,” Curtis tweeted at the time, accompanied by herself and Lohan in a promotional photo from “Freaky Friday.” “‘Yeah, you’re probably right, she’s probably deeply troubled and therefore great in bed.’”
In recent days, Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women, both in a bombshell New York Times report last week and a subsequent article published by the New Yorker on Tuesday.