Video published online shows disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein being physically and verbally assaulted while walking out of an Arizona restaurant on Tuesday night. Though it’s not known if there was more to the altercation than what is shown in the video, a reportedly drunk restaurant patron slapped Weinstein twice in the face while angrily yelling, “You’re a piece of shit for fucking with those women, get the fuck out of here!”
According to initial reports, the lead up to the incident involved the attacker being turned down for a photo as Weinstein was dining with his sobriety coach. However, the video content suggests the attacker may have been out for his own version of drunken vigilante justice as the man references Weinstein’s now widely known past predatory attacks against women.
The episode was summarized as follows:
Weinstein was dining Tuesday night at Elements restaurant in Scottsdale when a guy named Steve approached him and asked for a photo. Steve tells TMZ Weinstein was belligerent and said no, while a restaurant manager says Weinstein was “sweet” and politely declined.
Steve and Weinstein shook hands and sat down, but this video shows what happened when they were both leaving the restaurant around 9 PM. Although the restaurant manager says Steve’s hands never landed on Weinstein’s face, you clearly see and hear Steve make contact twice, as he calls Weinstein “a piece of s***.”
Steve told us he’d had “quite a bit to drink,” and instructed his friend to record video as he walked up to Weinstein. As we reported, Weinstein declined to call police and left the restaurant.
Though Weinstein might have been dazed by the assault – as a witness reported “Weinstein stumble backward and almost fell” – he appears to awkwardly saunter out of the restaurant and into a hallway while his sober coach stays behind attempting to block the cell phone shot. Though TMZ indicates that police were not called to the scene, it is unclear if any later report was made.
Since the New York Times first published explosive allegations of sexual assault based on interviews with multiple of his celebrity female victims, more than 60 women have accused the 65-year old movie mogul of sexual misconduct. Since then Weinstein has been dropped by his own studio which he co-founded and is now facing ongoing criminal investigations in multiple US jurisdictions as well as in London.
And beyond the potential for an impending arrest and future prosecution, which has long been speculated upon but has yet to materialize, Weinstein is at the very least now a national pariah who as this latest video attests will have trouble showing his face in public for a very long time to come.
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