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Did Harvey Weinstein Admit to Trading Movie Roles for Sex?

Harvey Weinstein with his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, at his arraignment on sexual assault charges this month.Credit...Pool photo by Jefferson Siegel

A longtime London magazine columnist and friend of Harvey Weinstein’s on Friday published — and then seemingly took back within hours — a bombshell piece that quoted Mr. Weinstein admitting to using his position of power in exchange for sexual favors.

According to the column with the byline Taki in The Spectator, Taki Theodoracopulos wrote that Mr. Weinstein had invited him to his Manhattan office near Grand Central Terminal for a “world exclusive.” The topic turned out to be information that Mr. Weinstein claimed to have about two of the numerous women who have accused him of sexual assault, the actresses Rose McGowan and Asia Argento.

Mr. Theodoracopulos’s column recounted Mr. Weinstein’s discussing women he had encountered in Hollywood: “You got lotsa girls, no girl looked at me until I made it big in Hollywood. Yes, I did offer them acting jobs in exchange for sex, but so did and still does everyone. But I never, ever forced myself on a single woman.”

It was a startling admission conveyed through Mr. Theodoracopulos, the first time Mr. Weinstein has explicitly said he traded jobs for sex. The column was published as Mr. Weinstein faces criminal charges in New York City that he sexually assaulted three women. He has pleaded not guilty and has denied having any nonconsensual sex.

In a strange twist, within hours, Mr. Weinstein’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, issued a statement saying Mr. Weinstein had never said anything of the sort.

“I was present for the conversation; it was not an interview, but a social meeting between old friends,” Mr. Brafman’s statement said. “Harvey and Taki did not discuss the case, nor would I allow him to. They talked about old Hollywood and the contrast to European culture, and I think Taki sees Harvey in that older light. Mr. Weinstein never said anything about trading movie roles for sexual favors. You have my word that Harvey did not say that.”

Mr. Brafman added an additional statement from Mr. Theodoracopulos: “After 41 years as a Spectator columnist without a single retraction, I believe that I may have misrepresented Harvey Weinstein’s conversation with me in New York last month. It was my mistake. We were discussing Hollywood, and I may have misunderstood certain things about the methods of that place. I had nothing to do with the headline of my article and I hope I have not damaged his case. It was, after all, a social visit.”

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Taki TheodoracopulosCredit...Bennett Raglin/Getty Images

Left unclear was exactly what Mr. Theodoracopulos was claiming to have misrepresented or whether the quotation itself was inaccurate. The column was still on The Spectator’s website Friday evening without any correction or retraction note. The Spectator did not respond to a request for comment. .

Mr. Theodoracopulos has been a defender of Mr. Weinstein and in this column wrote: “Although some will say I’m prejudiced, I have doubts about women who come out of the woodworks years later, or return for more after allegedly being raped by Weinstein.”

Just last month, in a separate piece for Taki’s Magazine, he wrote: “I have grave doubts about McGowan’s and Argento’s stories about being raped by Harvey. These two women seem like hustlers out for a buck. Never mind. In America today a woman can make an accusation, and the man instantly gets the death sentence.”

There is also the matter of why Mr. Weinstein invited Mr. Theodoracopulos over in the first place, which Mr. Theodoracopulos suggested was an attempt to undercut two of his accusers. He wrote that Mr. Weinstein wanted to cast doubt on the open letter Ms. McGowan wrote last month in the wake of Anthony Bourdain’s suicide June 8.

Ms. Argento, who had been dating Mr. Bourdain, had been photographed with another man before Mr. Bourdain’s death. In the letter, Ms. McGowan said that Ms. Argento, a friend of hers, was being unfairly criticized for that on the internet and that she and Mr. Bourdain had had an open relationship.

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Rose McGowanCredit...Erin Kirkland for The New York Times

Mr. Theodoracopulos wrote: “It was obviously not true, says Harvey, but dead men tell no tales, so the girls made it up. Harvey made a sketch of the twisted story for me and I couldn’t help feel sorry for him. He was, to use a terrible cliché, clutching for straws.”

Mr. Brafman declined to comment as to whether this part of the conversation was accurately characterized. Ms. Argento did not respond to a request for comment. Ms. McGowan, however, responded angrily in a phone interview.

“I’m sure Harvey Weinstein would know Asia Argento’s relationship better than her best friend,” Ms. McGowan said. “My response to that is that he’s a pathological liar and a superpredator.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: Explosive Harvey Weinstein Quote in Column Is Disputed by His Lawyer. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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