NEW YORK — Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein underwent emergency heart surgery at a New York hospital on Monday, his representatives said.
Weinstein, 72, was transported to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan from the Rikers Island jail complex Sunday night “due to serious medical issues,” his publicist Juda Engelmayer and his jail consultant Craig Rothfeld said.
“We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein underwent surgery on his heart today,” they said, declining to comment further on his condition.
News of Weinstein’s hospitalization was first reported by ABC News.
Weinstein has been hospitalized and hospitalized at Bellevue since his return to Rikers Island from state prison in April, after an appeals court overturned his 2020 rape and sexual assault convictions and ordered a new trial.
In July, he was hospitalized for treatment for various health issues, including COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs, his representatives said.
The state appeals court found that the judge in the 2020 trial improperly allowed testimony from women whose allegations against Weinstein were not part of the case.
Last week, prosecutors revealed they had begun taking steps to potentially charge him with three additional sexual assaults.
They said they have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury regarding up to three uncharged allegations against Weinstein — two sexual assaults in the mid-2000s and another sexual assault in 2016.
A vote on a possible new indictment is expected soon.
Meanwhile, British prosecutors said last week they were dropping two indecent assault charges against Weinstein in 2022 because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”
Weinstein has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone. He remains in custody in New York awaiting his retrial in Manhattan, which is scheduled to begin on November 12. He is expected back in court for a preliminary hearing on September 12.
Weinstein has become the most notorious villain of the #MeToo movement, which took root in 2017 when women began coming forward with accounts of his behavior.
At the original trial, Weinstein was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on a television and film production assistant in 2006 and of third-degree rape for an assault on an aspiring actress in 2013. Those allegations will be considered at his retrial. Weinstein’s acquittals on charges of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape still stand.
After the retrial, Weinstein is expected to begin serving a 16-year sentence in California for a separate rape conviction in Los Angeles, authorities said. Weinstein was sentenced in Los Angeles in 2022.
Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Company, was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, having produced Oscar-winning films such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
