The Weinstein Company film studio announced Sunday it had fired Harvey Weinstein after decades of sexual harassment complaints against him emerged last week.
The Oscar-winning producer co-founded The Weinstein Co. with his brother, and he announced this week he had taken an indefinite leave of absence after a bombshell New York Times article detailing lurid accounts of his sexual misconduct by numerous women.
After Thursday's article revealed he had settled with at least eight women, more women have come forward accusing Weinstein of harassment, including one television reporter who said Weinstein cornered her in 2007 and masturbated in front of her.
"In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days, the directors of The Weinstein Company - Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar - have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with The Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately," the company's board of representatives said in a statement provided to Fox News on Sunday.
The dismissal comes after The New York Times reported Thursday that Weinstein has reached at least eight legal settlements with women over alleged harassment.
Weinstein's alleged inappropriate behavior with women in the last 30 years was detailed in the bombshell report. In it, actress Ashley Judd described being lured to Weinstein's hotel room, only to find him wearing a bathrobe and requesting sexual favors.
The report also detailed encounters Weinstein allegedly had with other women working for the Weinstein Company, as well as official settlements from people associated with him, including actress Rose McGowen, who was issued a $100,000 settlement that Weinstein specifically said was not an admission of guilt.
Weinstein has been a longtime Democratic donor and held fundraisers for such politicians as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Several Democrats have already announced they have returned or donated his contributions in response to the allegations against him.