Graham Norton has revealed that the worst guest he ever had on The Graham Norton Show was a convicted rapist and former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
The disgraced mogul was convicted by a New York court in February 2020 of several crimes, including third-degree rape, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Weinstein is also awaiting further trial in Los Angeles after being charged with 11 charges of rape and assault, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Before dozens of women came forward with sexual assault allegations against him, sparking the #MeToo movement, Weinstein tried to book himself on the long-running BBC chat show, Graham said.
The 59-year-old was at an event in Dublin to promote his new book Forever Home when he was asked by the public who his ‘worst guest ever’ was and talked about Weinstein’s ‘horrifying’ persistence to appear on the program.
Weinstein appeared in an episode of The Graham Norton Show in 2015, starring David Tennant, Olivia Coleman and Jessie J.
Graham said according to: Joe Magazine: ‘I often talk about who my least favorite guest was, but now, someone reminded me, I now have a very good answer to that. It’s Harvey Weinstein. He’s in jail, so he gets the award for the worst guest ever.
“And actually it was weird because he asked for my email. And he emailed me something really nice, a compliment. And then he decided he wanted to be on the show because he was going to promote something.”
Graham continued: ‘And it was a show that was fully booked, so I replied, ‘Oh thank you so much, but the show is fully booked’. He emailed back “What if I blah de blah de blah”. [I replied] “No, the show is fully booked, blah de blah”.
“And he emailed back, ‘But I think…’, and I just had to turn to my booker and say, ‘Can you handle this please?’ And at the time I thought that kind of attitude, that kind of “Oh no, I’m going on” that’s what makes you a really good producer.
“But now that we know what we know, he’s obviously a predator. It was such a weird thing with tunnel vision. And in hindsight, it was pretty horrifying because I just laughed at those emails. But you realize “Oh my God, that’s an insight into what that man is like”.’
In addition to legal proceedings in the US, Weinstein has also been charged with: two counts of indecent assault against a woman in London.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said: ‘Charges have been filed against Harvey Weinstein, 70, after examining the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation.
‘The crown The Public Prosecution Service reminds all those involved that criminal proceedings are underway against the suspect and that he is entitled to a fair trial.’
With his brother, Bob, Weinstein co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced successful films, including Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989); The Howling Game (1992); Pulp Fiction (1994); Celestial Beings (1994); Flirting with Disaster (1996); and Shakespeare in Love (1998).
The Graham Norton Show continues Friday at 10:40pm on BBC One and iPlayer
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Graham Norton representatives for comment
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