Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood movie producer and convicted sex offender, has been hospitalized following an “alarming blood test result,” according to his attorney.
Imran Ansari, Weinstein’s lawyer, stated in an email that the 72-year-old was taken to a New York hospital for “emergent treatment due to an alarming blood test result that requires immediate medical attention.”
His lawyer also mentioned that he will remain in the hospital “until his condition stabilizes.”
Reports in US media from October indicated that Weinstein had been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.
In the same email, Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Engelmayer disclosed that his client “is suffering from a number of illnesses, including leukemia,” and emphasized that he “has been deprived of the medical attention that someone in his medical state deserves, prisoner or not.”
“In many ways, this mistreatment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment,” added Mr. Engelmayer.
Previously, Weinstein was hospitalized in September for emergency heart surgery before being reincarcerated.
Although Harvey Weinstein’s trial was scheduled to start in November, it has now been postponed.
The co-founder of Miramax Films is set to be retried in New York in 2025, after an appeals court overturned the ruling of his 2020 sentence for the rape of actress Jessica Mann and the sexual assault of production assistant Mimi Haleyi.
The trial was expected to begin in November, but has since faced delays.
Weinstein has made multiple court appearances throughout the proceedings, the latest being in October, where he arrived in a wheelchair, appearing pale and visibly weakened.
Moreover, New York prosecutors have charged him in a separate sexual assault case from 2006, to which Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and has requested a separate trial.
The next hearing for this case is scheduled for 29 January, at which a new trial date will be set for all charges.
Despite the overturning of his conviction in New York, Weinstein remains incarcerated, serving a 16-year prison sentence issued in 2023 by a Los Angeles court for additional rape and sexual assault charges.
The allegations against Weinstein in 2017 were pivotal in igniting the #MeToo movement, which became a defining moment for women advocating against sexual misconduct.
Over 80 women have accused him of harassment, sexual assault, or rape, including well-known actors Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ashley Judd.
Weinstein contends that any sexual relations in question were consensual.
