Harvey Weinstein formally resigned his post at The Weinstein Company on Tuesday, following a showdown with the surviving members of his board of directors.
Weinstein was expected to mount an aggressive defense to hang onto his position in the company but unexpectedly backed down, an individual familiar with the meeting told TheWrap.
Weinstein was terminated as the CEO of TWC on Oct. 8, and effectively removed from his duties. The meeting on Tuesday saw the board ratify his termination.
Weinstein called into the meeting from a treatment facility in Arizona. He was represented by his civil attorney Patty Glaser. Harvey’s spokespeople declined to comment on the matter.
The Weinstein Company board consists of co-founder Bob Weinstein, media executive Lance Maerov and international film distributor Tarak Ben Ammar. In wake of the scandal, the board saw resignations from four members including Marc Lasry, Paul Tudor Jones, Dirk Ziff and Tim Sarnoff.
Top legal advisors like Lisa Bloom, Charles Harder and Lanny Davis have likewise departed Team Harvey in the still-escalating scandal.
Reports of tension between Harvey and the board have been leaking since his firing. The disgraced mogul was expected to argue that he was not in breach of his latest employment agreement, signed in 2015, according to TMZ.
That contract reportedly made provisions for incidents like sexual harassment, or other behavior from Harvey that might damage the prestigious studio, as long as he settled the matters personally and paid a penalty to the company.
Numerous requests to TWC and Weinstein for clarity on the contract made by TheWrap saw no response.
Bob Weinstein and TWC President and COO David Glasser are currently in charge. No interim CEO has been named and the studio is urgently seeking a name change to remove the stench of Harvey’s scandal, TheWrap reported.
Bob’s imprint within the company, Dimension Films, is operational and will release the horror film “Polaroid” on Nov 22. TWC’s awards project “The Current War” was slated for a December release, but has been pulled from the schedule.