Director’s Harassment Of Actresses Was Public Knowledge: Matt Damon

New York: Hollywood star Matt Damon has revealed that he knew that media mogul Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed Gwyneth Paltrow.

The 47-year-old star had initially dismissed the reports that he knew about the disgraced producer's misconduct towards women when the scandal first broke out. In an appearance on "Good Morning America", Damon said that he learned Weinstein had abused Paltrow from his friend Ben Affleck, who was in a relationship with her.

"I knew the story about Gwyneth from Ben, because he was with her after Brad, so I knew that story. But I was working with Gwyneth with Harvey on 'Ripley'. I never talked to Gwyneth about it. Ben told me. "I knew that they had come to whatever agreement or understanding that they had come to. She had handled it and she was the first lady of Miramax. He treated her incredibly respectfully. Always," the actor said.

Damon, however, said that Weinstein's womanising nature was known to the industry. "When people say everybody knew, yeah, I knew he was an a–hole. He was proud of that. That's how he carried himself. I knew he was a womaniser. I wouldn't want to be married to the guy, but that's not my business, really. But this level of criminal sexual predation is not something that I ever thought was going on. Absolutely not."

This Is Watershed Moment For Society: Clooney

Los Angeles: Actor George Clooney hopes the current scenario where women are voicing their cases of sexual harassment is a "watershed moment for society where women feel safe enough" to talk about the issue.

On Sunday, at the premiere of his latest directorial foray "Suburbicon", Clooney talked about the issue, reports thehollywoodreporter.com. "What we hope is this is a watershed moment for society where women feel safe enough to talk about this issue, feel believed and where men who are committing these crimes and violations don't feel safe and feel as if they do these things they're going to be outed, sued and may even get litigated and go to jail for it," said Clooney. "If we can get to that point then we actually succeeded. This thing won't end up just being Harvey Weinstein jokes in three months," he added.

In addition, stars including Jessica Chastain, Brie Larson, Patricia Arquette, Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen have all spoken out in one way or another. Clooney also spoke out against filmmaker Woody Allen's remark that Hollywood had created a "witch hunt atmosphere" after several actresses blamed Weinstein of sexually harassing them. "That's a stupid thing to say," Clooney responded. "The reality is it's not a witch hunt to these women who were trapped in a hotel room and told they were going to get a part and then suddenly here comes Harvey Weinstein in his birthday suit. That's an assault. It's not just Hollywood it's all of society and we're going to have to come to terms with it because we haven't yet," he added.