“I just wouldn’t do that”: Matt Damon Vehemently Denied a Disgusting Allegation of His Relationship With Harvey Weinstein
- Matt Damon denied accusations that he helped Harvey Weinstein suppress his story of misconduct in 2004.
- Damon stated that if he had witnessed any wrongdoing, he would have acted against it.
- Damon admitted knowing about Weinstein's inappropriate behavior toward Gwyneth Paltrow.
The ‘Me Too’ movement began in 2017, and it exposed years of hidden misconduct by powerful figures in the entertainment industry. Amid all this was once one of the most influential Hollywood producers, Harvey Weinstein, who had gone behind bars after facing multiple accusations of s*xual misconduct by several women.
As the movement picked its pace, many celebs came under the radar of accusations and suspicion, and Matt Damon was one among them. He became a part of the controversy for what he knew about Weinstein as his breakthrough film Good Will Hunting was produced by him.
Matt Damon’s Denial of Attempting to Kill a Harvey Weinstein Story
The controversy that surrounded Matt Damon began when Sharon Waxman, a former reporter for The New York Times, revealed that Weinstein had invited Damon and Russell Crowe to help him get rid of a story on his behavior in 2004. The story was about Fabrizio Lombardo, a former Miramax executive in Italy, who was accused of procuring women for Weinstein.
However, when speaking to Deadline, Damon strongly dismissed these claims, noting that he only spoke to Harvey Weinstein on the phone.
My recollection was that it was about a one minute phone call. Harvey had called me and said, they’re writing a story about Fabrizio, who I knew from The Talented Mr. Ripley. He has organized our premiere in Italy and so I knew him in a professional capacity and I’d had dinner at his house.
Harvey said, Sharon Waxman is writing a story about Fabrizio and it’s really negative. Can you just call and tell her what your experience with Fabrizio was. So I did, and that’s what I said to her. It didn’t even make the piece that she wrote.
Damon stressed that he was talking only about professional stuff with Lombardo. The actor also said that he and Weinstein “vouch for each other all the time,” but he was “never conscripted to do anything.” Damon raised his guard when responding to a comment that he wanted to kill the story.
For the record, I would never, ever, ever try to kill a story like that. I just wouldn’t do that. It’s not something I would do, for anybody.
Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The New York Times, talked about the paper’s mishandling of Waxman’s initial piece. Baquet said it was “unimaginable” that The Times killed the story because of Weinstein, who was an advertiser at the time.
Matt Damon’s Stance on Weinstein’s Misconduct
Damon, a father of four daughters, was among the Hollywood celebrities who were shocked when Weinstein’s misconduct was exposed. “This type of predation happens behind closed doors, and out of public view,” he told Deadline while addressing the common notion that everyone in Hollywood knew what Weinstein was doing.
Damon’s stance was clear. If he had seen anything wrong happening, he would have addressed it. He told Deadline,
If there was ever an event that I was at and Harvey was doing this kind of thing and I didn’t see it, then I am so deeply sorry, because I would have stopped it.
However, the actor admitted that he did know the story about Gwyneth Paltrow. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Damon said that Ben Affleck informed him about Weinstein’s misconduct with Paltrow during her early days.
I knew the story about Gwyneth from Ben because he was with her after Brad [Pitt]. But I was working with Gwyneth, with Harvey, on [The Talented Mr. Ripley]. … I never talked to Gwyneth about it. Ben told me, but I knew that they had come to whatever agreement or understanding they had come to. She had handled it. She was the First Lady of Miramax, and he treated her incredibly respectfully.
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The revelation added a new layer to Damon’s connection to the Weinstein scandal, even though he claimed his knowledge was limited to this incident only. This case showed how intertwined relationships and information are in Hollywood and how incidents can remain buried despite industry insiders knowing about it.
