Top Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who was the subject of a bombshell exposé in the New York Times today that detailed “decades of harassment”, apparently misquoted Jay -Z in his bizarre and rambling statement.
ICYMI, the explosive report detailed “dozens” of current and former employees alleging inappropriate sexual behaviour on Weinstein’s part, including the fact that he’d reached confidential settlements with at least eight women.
As actress Ashley Judd, one of the brave women who went on the record to detail Weinstein’s behaviour, said: “Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.”
Shortly after the report was published – which by all accounts, he had been attempting to sue into non-existence – Weinstein issued a statement apologising for his behaviour, and promising to “be a better person”. (He didn’t flat-out deny the report, but he’s also lawyered up with same guy Hulk Hogan used to take down Gawker.)
“I came or age in the 60’s and 70’s, when all the rules about behaviour and workplaces were different,” he begins. “That was the culture then.”
Harvey Weinstein. Photo: Getty.
(FYI, the NYT notes how a common thread in the dozens of women it interviewed was that Weinstein would invite a young, vulnerable woman to his hotel room on the pretence of work, and then ask them to give him a massage, or watch him take a shower, or something similarly and wildly inappropriate. Many of the incidences also took place in the 1990’s. “60’s and 70’s culture” my arse.)
“I so respect all women and regret what happened,” he continued (ugh), and it’s shortly after that we get to the Jay-Z part.
“Jay-Z wrote in 4:44 ‘I’m not the man I thought I was and I better be that man for my children’. The same is true for me.”
Uhhh… for starters, Jay-Z’s song, not album, 4:44, was an apology for apparently cheating on Beyoncé, which she detailed in her phenomenal album ‘Lemonade‘. As SPIN notes, that lyric does not appear anywhere in the song.
In fact, SPIN went through the entire record, just to make sure Weinstein didn’t mean the album ‘4:44’ instead of the song. The quote appears literally no where.
It’s a tiny detail, but it’s always nice to know that when an alleged sexual predator is exposed after decades of abuse, he can’t even get his official statement correct.
You can read his full statement here.
