At a presentation of The Weinstein Co’s upcoming slate at Cannes on Friday night, Harvey Weinstein defended missing the premiere of his film “Grace of Monaco” earlier this week.
Weinstein explained, as he had previously said in a statement issued to reporters, that he skipped the first night of Cannes due to a pre-scheduled trip to Syrian refugee camps in Jordan.
“I want to say I had an interesting experience this week,” Weinstein said, citing press reports that suggested he ditched the premiere due to his lack of faith in director Olivier Dahan’s cut of the biopic about Grace Kelly. Weinstein said that the Guardian floated this theory, even though a reporter from the paper was with him on the trip. “The movie reviewer obviously hadn’t talked to the editors, which proves the editors of their newspaper don’t read their own newspaper,” Weinstein said.
Weinstein added that he took the trip with his wife Georgina Chapman. “There are 400,0o0 Syrian refugees in Jordan,” Weinstein said. “It’s amazing. These kids have seen their fathers beaten to death, and some of the rebels used to take one kid per family. We sat down with about 10 kids and we talked about movies.” Weinstein said “they just flipped out” at the news that he produced “Lord of the Rings.”
Weinstein said he intends to release a documentary about his trip to the refugee camps.
Although he showed extensive clips of his company’s upcoming films, there was no other mention of “Grace of Monaco” in the presentation.
