Harvey Weinstein is no longer an honorary Commander of the British Empire. The Queen stripped the disgraced former Hollywood movie mogul of the award after he was convicted of rape in February, it was revealed Friday.
The 68-year-old was granted an honorary CBE for his contribution to the British film industry in 2004, however it has now been very publicly withdrawn.
A notice in The Gazette, the UK’s official public record, today said:
The Queen has directed that the appointment of Harvey Weinstein to be an Honorary Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated January 19 2004, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order.
Announcing his CBE in 2004, the Daily Mail reports Weinstein said at the time: “My life and my career have been greatly influenced and enriched by great British film-makers and authors and so I am especially honoured and humbled to be receiving the CBE.”
The removal of honours – formally called “forfeiture”- is done when someone is judged to have brought the honours system into disrepute.
As Breitbart News reported, Weinstein’s conviction earlier this year followed weeks of often harrowing and excruciatingly graphic testimony from a string of accusers who told of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation, lewd propositions and how Hollywood’s casting couch works.
More than 100 women, including famous actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman, had accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct stretching back decades – fuelling the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment.
Last year it was claimed Weinstein accompanied deceased criminal Jeffrey Epstein to the 18th birthday of friend Prince Andrew’s daughter Princess Beatrice just days before he was arrested and brought to face child-prostitution charges in 2006.
The Sun alleged the disgraced Epstein was in the fancy dress crowd at the half-million-dollar bash at Windsor Castle with his then-girlfriend and accused accomplice Ghislane Maxwell.
Also claimed to be present was Weinstein along with a host of other Hollywood A-listers including Demi Moore, her then husband Ashton Kutcher, Pixie Geldof, Kelly Osbourne and Sir David Frost.
The Queen was not in attendance.