Harvey Weinstein was seen showing off a toothless grin in court this week at his sex crimes retrial — but the fallen movie mogul says the smile wasn’t from happiness. It was to showcase dental care in the can.
“I’m not doing well, I’m in Rikers Island… this is a horrible place, no one should be here,” the jailed former Oscar fixture told Page Six from prison on Thursday.
He said that because the medical care at the facility is so poor, he’s had his teeth pulled by prison medics. (He’s unsuccessfully requested previously to go to his own dentist.)
But when Weinstein called us from jail in advance of his retrial, he was in a good mood over his highly unlikely relationship with a controversial right-wing pundit, Candace Owens — who was named “Antisemite of the Year” by the watchdog group StopAntisemitism.
“My views are complete different than hers,” Weinstein told us. “But she’s tough and tenacious,” he said, calling her a “superstar,” after Owens has been arguing Weinstein’s innocence on her podcast.
“She approached a friend of mine, and then she approached me… and I said, ‘Candace, I am a huge supporter of the Anti-Defamation League — you’re not the most popular person on my list.”
“I tried to talk her out of it,” Weinstein, 72, said of her defending him publicly, but, “I’ve never seen anything like it… the woman is going to be a superstar, and I have been around stars. She’s doing investigative reporting on her podcast.”
Back in 2015 when Weinstein accepted the Humanitarian Award at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s National Tribute Dinner at the Beverly Hilton, he reportedly told the gathering of fighting antisemitism, “We better stand up and kick these guys in the ass… We’re gonna have to get as organized as the mafia… We just can’t take it anymore [from] these crazy bastards.”
A decade ago, he’d also told the crowd, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “It’s like, here we go again, we’re right back where we were [before the Holocaust]. And the lessons of the past are we better stand up and kick these guys in the ass.”
The Anti-Defamation League has called out Owens’ views “vicious antisemitism,” and she previously left Ben Shapiro’s media outlet “The Daily Wire.”
Owens has been talking with Weinstein since early 2022, and the longtime critic of the #MeToo movement has reportedly said of his convictions: “I’ve always had faith in our court system and now that’s beginning to change. Now I’m beginning to wonder if our courtrooms have been politicized.”
Weinstein’s retrial starts April 15 on rape and sexual misconduct charges, and he is being defended by lawyers from three different firms, Arthur Aidala, Jennifer Bonjean and Michael Cibella.
Meanwhile, away from the impending courtroom drama — we reported previously that he could take the stand in his retrial — Weinstein told us he watched the Oscars.
“I was thrilled for Georgina and Adrien,” (meaning his ex-wife Georgina Chapman and her new love interest, Oscar winner Adrien Brody),” he told us. He also said he was happy for some former friends who’d worked on the night’s breakout film, “Anora.”
Weinstein — who is also trying to appeal his conviction on rape charges in California in a separate trial — says he has read hundreds of books while in jail.
“One of the things that I did is read my high school curriculum again,” he said, pointing out tomes such as “The Catcher in the Rye” and “A Farewell to Arms.”
He even still believes, “I have a couple movies left in me.” (Box office poison doesn’t even seem to begin to cover any return — but, he says he’d just want to spend time with his kids if the movie biz wanted nothing to do with him.)
Glroia Allred — who has repped several Weinstein accusers — previously told The Hollywood Reporter of Weinstein’s retrial when asked about Owens’ defense of Weinstein: “I think that what really matters at this point is the evidence that will be admitted in his next criminal trial… My guess is that the only evidence that may be ‘explosive’ would be his testimony if Mr. Weinstein decided to testify under oath and subjected himself to cross examination by the prosecution.”
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