After initially jumping to Harvey Weinstein’s defense, director Oliver Stone walked back his comments Friday — saying he was “appalled” by the sexual harassment accusations against the disgraced movie mogul.
The 71-year-old Oscar winner also said he was cutting ties to the “Guantanamo” series due to the involvement with The Weinstein Company, which has fired the Hollywood horndog.
“I’ve been travelling for the last couple of days and wasn’t aware of all the women who came out to support the original story in the New York Times,” Stone wrote on Facebook.
“After looking at what has been reported in many publications over the last couple of days, I’m appalled and commend the courage of the women who’ve stepped forward to report sexual abuse or rape,” he wrote.
Stone first addressed the scandal while at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, where he is serving as chairman of the event’s competition jury.
“I’m a believer that you wait until this thing gets to trial,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I believe a man shouldn’t be condemned by a vigilante system.”
Stone continued: “It’s not easy what he’s going through either. He was a rival and I never did business with him. I’ve heard horror stories on everyone in the business. So, I’m not going to comment on that. I’ll wait and see, which is the right thing to do.”
After Stone’s remarks, former Playboy Playmate Carrie Stevens accused the “Platoon” director of grabbing her breast at a party.
“Two of a kind! When I heard about Harvey, the first person I thought of was Oliver Stone, and it figures…,” she tweeted Thursday.
In May, Stone teamed with Weinstein Television for production of “Guantanamo,” his first scripted TV series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The show is said to explore the US prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, telling the story of the detainees as well as the soldiers, lawyers, reporters and other civilians on the military base.
Stone said he was pulling back from those plans in light of what he had learned about Weinstein.
“I’ll therefore recuse myself from the Guantanamo series as long as the Weinstein Company is involved,” he added on Facebook.
Weinstein has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment, assault and rape in exposés by the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine.
Police in New York City and the UK have since launched probes following the publication of a series of shocking claims that go back decades.

source: pagesix.com