\u201cI saw a bit of film of Harvey walking with two sticks and you think, \u2018Well…\u2019 I knew Harvey and I knew him well and worked with him, and I had none of that experience – very fortunately for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Weinstein has looked increasingly frail at court appearances since his diagnosis with chronic myeloid leukaemia last year, NBC News reported.<\/p>\n
Harvey Weinstein is currently imprisoned at Rikers Island for his crimes. Photo \/ Steven Hirsch-Pool, Getty Images<\/p>\n
In a statement through his spokesperson, Weinstein told TMZ he has \u201calways been fond\u201d of Dench and was grateful for her \u201ckind words\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is an extraordinary person who played an important role in my career. I\u2019ve now spent more than six years and a half years incarcerated, including a year and a half in Rikers, which counts as double time…\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 80 sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein kick-started the MeToo movement in 2017 and resulted in his facing multiple criminal charges.<\/p>\n
At the time, Dench condemned her former producer\u2019s alleged sexual offending, telling Newsweek she was sympathetic to the women who had come forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst there is no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has helped and championed my film career for the past 20 years, I was completely unaware of these offences which are, of course, horrifying, and I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered and wholehearted support to those who have spoken out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judi Dench said she and disgraced Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey continue to text. Photo \/ David M. Benett, Getty Images<\/p>\n
The actress also referenced her \u201cexonerated\u201d friend Kevin Spacey, and how the pair still sent text exchanges, Deadline reported.<\/p>\n
Spacey was found not liable by a New York court in 2022 and acquitted of a criminal trial by a UK court in 2023.<\/p>\n
Next year, he will face three more claims of sexual assault in London\u2019s High Court.<\/p>\n
Dench previously told The Radio Times she couldn\u2019t \u201capprove\u201d of the actor being cut from films in response to the allegations, referring to his replacement by Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we to do that throughout history? Are we to go back throughout history and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or who has broken the law, or who has committed some kind of offence, are they always going to be cut out? Are we going to extrude them from our history?\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair became friends on the set of 2001\u2019s The Shipping News as Spacey supported Dench through the death of her husband of 30 years, Michael Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know about the conditions of it, but nevertheless, he is, and was, a most wonderful actor. I can\u2019t imagine what he is doing now. And a good friend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI saw a bit of film of Harvey walking with two sticks and you think, \u2018Well…\u2019 I knew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2223,5767,2947,1403,104611,112903,8473,39053,6097,156,88984,2222,6871,293,40568,61092,111,139,69,17699,312,97807,6100,53316,112902,2044,12790],"class_list":["post-176103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-confirmed","tag-convicted","tag-dame","tag-defence","tag-dench","tag-deserving","tag-done","tag-doubled","tag-down","tag-entertainment","tag-forgiveness","tag-harvey","tag-has","tag-his","tag-judi","tag-kevin","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offender","tag-says","tag-spacey","tag-still","tag-suggesting","tag-texts","tag-time","tag-weinstein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}