Harvey Weinstein, sentenced to 23 years in prison, hopes to appeal the verdict

Film expert: “I think he can count on indulgence”

70-year-old American producer Harvey Weinstein has filed an appeal in a New York court in a harassment and sexual assault case in which he was sentenced to 23 years in prison two years ago. About 80 women have come forward with accusations against Weinstein, including famous film actresses Ashley Judd (“Kissing the Girls”) and Rose McGowan (“Charmed”). The producer has already paid about $44 million in compensation to injured women. After serving two years, he hopes for a reduced sentence. Can the producer’s request be granted now that the passions have subsided a bit?

It seems that until recently the producer of such iconic films as Kill Bill, The Lord of the Rings, The Aviator, Gangs of New York was one of the pillars of Hollywood, and now he is in prison. In 2017, the Harvey Weinstein trial sparked a massive #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment, with millions of women using the hashtag to talk about their painful experiences. Weinstein himself argued in court that the sex was “consensual,” and during the proceedings it emerged that some of the victims had had intimate relationships with the producer for years.

The verdict, which the producer listened to in a wheelchair, was called a triumph for feminists. Now that the passions have subsided somewhat, can the sentence be commuted?

Of course he didn’t behave well. But, unfortunately, many representatives of the film industry behave like him – and not only in Hollywood, – says film critic Sergei Lavrentiev to MK. Weinstein was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The situation of political correctness has reached its limit and, I hope, it subsides. They have already registered everyone in the minority. Being a white heterosexual male has become simply shameful and shameful in Hollywood. Someone even wrote that the white male in the American film industry now feels like a Jew in Nazi Germany. Yes, Harvey Weinstein was not supposed to behave the way he did, but to inflate the universal guard out of this … The films that he produced remained in the history of cinema, unlike the girls who, however, were left with millions of dollars. Now everyone has calmed down a bit and I think he can count on some kind of indulgence.