Even by Harvey Weinstein’s standards, crashing the Golden Globes this weekend would be in surprisingly bad taste.
That was the rumor that started circulating in Hollywood this week, however, after some actors, including Rosanna Arquette and Ellen Barkin, posted messages suggesting Weinstein was in town.
It now seems as though the Harvey-panic may have been a case of a paranoid Tinseltown seeing ghosts, as Weinstein’s reps have sought to dismiss the story, and a photo purportedly taken around 4 p.m. Thursday in Arizona—and made available to gossip site TMZ—showed Weinstein appearing pensive and depressed, staring over an institutional-looking balcony next to a road.
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Weinstein has reportedly entered a therapy clinic in Arizona.
The panic started when Pulp Fiction actress Rosanna Arquette—who told The New Yorker that her career suffered after she rejected a sexual advance from Weinstein in the early 1990s at the Beverly Hills Hotel—posted on Facebook, “It is very strange that Harvey Weinstein is at the very same hotel in Beverly Hills that the Golden Globe’s press is being done at. I smell a rat.”
The (unverified) account @RoArquette also posted the message on Twitter, and Ellen Barkin responded from a verified account:
However Weinstein’s reps told Page Six that rumors of the disgraced movie mogul allegedly being in L.A. were “false.”
Many women at this year’s Golden Globes are expected to wear black on the red carpet in solidarity with the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up initiative.
Arquette’s Twitter feed prominently features the Time’s Up logo, including the rallying cry, “Time’s Up on silence. Time’s Up on waiting. Time’s Up on tolerating discrimination, harassment, and abuse.”
But there’s no denying the industry is on edge as awards season continues.
One senior female in the industry told Page Six: “I was driving in L.A. and I saw a fat guy get out of a car—and I was like, ‘Stop it, it’s Harvey!’ But it was not.”
Dozens of women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault, including rape.
The Beverly Hills Police Department has referred two investigations against Weinstein to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and police in New York and London are also looking into allegations against Weinstein, who has denied accusations of “nonconsensual sex.”
Weinstein has consistently denied the allegations, with his reps repeating the line: “Any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein.”
