Matt Damon has denied that he helped kill a 2004 New York Times expose on Harvey Weinstein's alleged history of sexual abuse.
Matt Damon has denied that he helped kill a 2004 New York Times expose on Harvey Weinstein's alleged history of sexual abuse.
Weinstein's downfall has been swift since the New York Times article exposed decades of alleged sexual abuse by Weinstein.
The Wrap founder Sharon Waxman recently accused the New York Times of backing down from a similar story in 2004 due to intense pressure from high-profile people such as Damon and Russell Crowe.
Waxman said her piece revolved around an executive at the Italian branch of Miramax who had supposedly been paid just to facilitate Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct.
NYT has already issued a rebuttal to Waxman's account and now Damon too has spoken out.
Damon, in an interview to Deadline, said Weinstein had asked him to call Waxman to vouch for Fabrizio Lombardo, who ran Miramax's Italian office, the distribution company for Weinstein, and Damon agreed to call the reporter.
The actor said he had no knowledge about the subject of Waxman's story. He said Weinstein only told him that the paper was doing a "hit job" on Lombardo.
"Harvey said, Sharon Waxman is writing a story about Fabrizio and it's really negative. Can you just call and tell her what your experience with Fabrizio was. So I did, and that's what I said to her. It didn't even make the piece that she wrote.
"As I recall, her piece just said that Russell and I had called and relayed our experience with Fabrizio." The actor said being a father to daughter, he was disgusted by the revelations against Weinstein and if he knew about it, he would have tried to stop it.
"We know this stuff goes on in the world. I did five or six movies with Harvey. I never saw this. This morning, I just feel absolutely sick to my stomach."
Acknowledging the closed-doors "predation" that takes place in Hollywood, Damon said, "If there was ever an event that I was at and Harvey was doing this kind of thing and I didn't see it, then I am so deeply sorry, because I would have stopped it.
"And I will peel my eyes back now, further than I ever have, to look for this type of behaviour. Because we know that it happens. I feel horrible for these women and it's wonderful they have this incredible courage and are standing up now.".
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