Jennifer Lawrence Slams Harvey Weinstein for Using Her Name in His Defense

Update 2/22:

Weinstein has since apologized via spokesperson in a direct statement to The Blast (opens in new tab):

“Mr. Weinstein acknowledges the valuable input both Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence have contributed to this conversation and apologizes. Mr. Weinstein has been informed that his civil counsel responded in court to a class action lawsuit which improperly sought to include all actresses who had previously worked with Mr. Weinstein, even where those actresses have made no claim of wrongdoing.”

The statement continues, “Even though Mr. Weinstein has worked with hundreds of actresses and actors who had only professional and mutually respectful experiences with him, Mr. Weinstein has directed in the future that no specific names be used by his counsel, even where those actors have made previous public statements about him.”

Original story: Jennifer Lawrence (opens in new tab) is not here for former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein (opens in new tab) using her name while defending his class action suit, which claims he used his power to bully women and hide his alleged sexual misconduct.

In a statement obtained by The Blast (opens in new tab), Weinstein name drops celebrities like Lawrence, 27, and Meryl Streep (opens in new tab), 68, in his defense that claims Lawrence told Oprah she had known Weinstein since she was 20 years old and that “he had only ever been nice to me.” He also mentions Streep who had previously said, “Weinstein had always been respectful to her in their working relationship" before news broke about Weinstein's sexual misconduct of over 50 women.

"Harvey Weinstein and his company are continuing to do what they have always done which is to take things out of context and use them for their own benefit," Lawrence said in a statement (opens in new tab) in London while promoting her new movie, Red Sparrow (opens in new tab). "This is what predators do, and it must stop."

She continues, "For the record, while I was not victimized personally by Harvey Weinstein, I stand behind the women who have survived his terrible abuse and I applaud them in using all means necessary to bring him to justice whether through criminal or civil actions. Time’s up (opens in new tab)."

Streep also made a statement to The Hollywood Reporter (opens in new tab) in response to Weinstein using her name:

"Harvey Weinstein’s attorneys’ use of my (true) statement—that he was not sexually transgressive or physically abusive in our business relationship—as evidence that he was not abusive with many OTHER women is pathetic and exploitive," she says. "The criminal actions he is accused of conducting on the bodies of these women are his responsibility, and if there is any justice left in the system he will pay for them—regardless of how many good movies, made by many good people, Harvey was lucky enough to have acquired or financed."