Harvey Weinstein has settled a dispute over an unpaid bill worth more than £350,000.
The disgraced movie mogul hired Mike Stirick’s crisis PR firm, Sitrick Inc., after he was accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women last year, but when they parted ways earlier this year, the company claimed the 66-year-old producer owed them $352,105.63.
The two sites were in arbitration in a bid to resolve the matter, but sources have now told The Blast that the "petition is being dismissed with prejudice and the parties have amicably resolved their differences".
The firm announced in April they were no longer representing Weinstein.
Last month, the company’s owner, Michael Sitrick, insisted he didn’t know whether the producer had been "unable" to pay his bills.
When asked if Weinstein was unable to pay his bills, Michael replied: "Well, I don’t know if he was unable."
Weinstein’s lawyers called Michael in on the day his mother died in early October, and the public relations boss recalled: "I said, ‘I can’t deal with this now. I’m making my mother’s funeral arrangements.’ "
Weinstein later called Michael personally, and the PR man admitted his former client sounded composed on the phone, but he was too busy to deal with him so he put his colleague Sallie Hofmeister on the case, though he insisted he didn’t deliberately choose a woman.
He explained: "I said, ‘I’m going to put Sallie on it.’ He knows who Sallie is. There wasn’t any choice. It was either that or we weren’t going to take it.
"It wasn’t a matter of, ‘Gee, I wanted a woman.’ I don’t think in terms of male/female."
Michael – who has been employed by several celebrities, including Kelsey Grammer, Halle Berry, Chris Brown and Naomi Campbell – had met Weinstein several years earlier in passing and found the director was "personable" at the time.
Following the initial sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein in October, the MeToo movement – a campaign against sexual harassment and assault, especially in the workplace – went viral, and PR boss Michael believes it is a "good thing".
He said: "If it gets people to think before they act, it will be a good thing."
Earlier this year, Weinstein was indicted on charges of rape in the first and third degrees, and criminal sexual act in the first degree.
Harvey Weinstein settles bill dispute
