NEW YORK —
Jailed former film producer Harvey Weinstein underwent emergency heart surgery at a New York City hospital on Monday, his representatives said.
Weinstein, 72, was transferred to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan from the Rikers Island jail complex on Sunday night “due to serious medical conditions,” said his publicist Juda Engelmayer and prison consultant Craig Rothfeld.
“We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein underwent a procedure and surgery on his heart today,” they said. Representatives declined to comment further on his condition.
News of Weinstein’s hospitalization was first reported by ABC News.
Weinstein has been in a hospital outside Bellevue since returning to Rikers Island from a 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 a variety of health issues, including COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs, his representatives said.
The state Court of Appeals found that the judge in the 2020 trial unfairly allowed testimony from women whose claims against Weinstein were not part of the case.
Last week, prosecutors revealed they have begun taking steps to charge him with additional sexual assaults.
She said she has begun presenting evidence to a grand jury on up to three prior allegations against Weinstein: two sexual assaults in the mid-2000s and another sexual assault in 2016.
A vote on a possible new impeachment is expected soon.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in the UK said last week they were dropping two indecent assault charges against Weinstein brought in 2022 because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”
Weinstein denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone. He remains in custody in New York as he awaits a new trial in Manhattan that is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12. He is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial hearing Sept. 12.
He became the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement, which gained momentum in 2017 when women began going public with accounts of his behavior.
At the original trial, Weinstein was found guilty of forcibly performing oral sex on a television and film production assistant in 2006 and of rape for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013. Those allegations will be part of his retrial. Weinstein’s acquittals on sexual assault and rape charges still stand.
Following his retrial, Weinstein will 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, rose to become one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, producing Oscar-winning films such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
