Weinstein told Peter Jackson to blacklist actors

In a new interview with New Zealand's Stuff, blockbuster director Peter Jackson addressed the Weinstein scandal and said that he was told by Weinstein's company not to hire actresses Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd, the latter of whom also had rejected Weinstein's sexual advances in a Beverly Hills hotel room around the same time. “I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998,” Jackson told writer Dani McDonald.

Jackson and Weinstein were in business together as Jackson was putting the pieces together for what would be his massively successful three-picture franchise “The Lord of the Rings”. The film originally was slated to be a Miramax picture, but Jackson and Weinstein had a falling out over the number of installments Jackson intended to make, so he took his project to New Line. Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein both have executive producer credits on all three films.

Jackson's quotes elicited an emotional response from Sorvino. “Just seeing this after I awoke, I burst out crying,” she tweeted Friday morning. “There it is, confirmation that Harvey Weinstein derailed my career, something I suspected but was unsure.”