DANI MCDONALD
Last updated 10:49, December 16 2017
Two Hollywood actresses have thanked Sir Peter Jackson for speaking out about Harvey Weinstein and his brother, saying they orchestrated a smear campaign that led to him blacklisting them both.
Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino were responding on Twitter to a Stuff story in which Jackson spoke of the blacklist as a result of the actions of accused sexual predator Weinstein and his brother Bob, describing the pair as “second-rate Mafia bullies”.
Judd and Sorvino have both publicly claimed Weinstein sexual harassed them, and they both missed out on roles in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films because of what the brothers had said about them.
Judd recalled how she was shown “everything” about the films and was even asked which role she preferred – then never heard from Jackson or his wife Fran again.
“Peter & Fran had me in – showed me all the creative, the boards, costumes, everything. They asked which [of] the two roles I preferred, and then I abruptly never heard from [them] again. I appreciate the truth coming out. Thank you, Peter,” Judd wrote.
Speaking to Stuff for the first time since multiple sexual assault allegations emerged against Weinstein, Jackson said he had “no direct experience or knowledge of the sexual allegations” against the Hollywood powerbroker, but had earlier made a conscious decision to never work with him again.
Weinstein and Jackson crossed paths in the late 1990s when Jackson was pitching his early plans for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films to the Weinstein-led studio Miramax.
“I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998,” Jackson said.
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