French President Seeks to Strip Harvey Weinstein of Legion of Honor

STRIPPING HONORS: French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a procedure to strip Harvey Weinstein of the Legion of Honor, in the latest fallout from accusations of sexual misconduct against the Hollywood mogul.

“These acts are not befitting of the honor,” said Macron, speaking in a televised interview broadcast on the French television channel TF1 on Sunday.

Weinstein denies rape allegations but apologized for causing “a lot of pain” to colleagues.

“I asked the council to carry out a disciplinary procedure,” which could result in the honor being revoked, Macron said, referring to the body that governs the award.

France’s highest honor, the prize is mostly geared to French citizens but is also bestowed on several hundred foreigners a year; Weinstein received the decoration in 2012 from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The honor can be removed in the case of criminal conviction or if a recipient commits an act seen as dishonorable or as harming French interests.

In his first, sit-down television interview since taking office, Macron seized on the Weinstein scandal to propose new anti-harassment measures in France, saying “the law must be employed” in the efforts.

French actress Isabelle Adjani also weighed in on the issue, publishing an editorial in the print edition of the French weekly paper Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. In France, sexual predators use games of seduction to slip from gallantry to violence, wrote the actress.

“When an actress makes herself seductive in order to land a role, it’s not to be raped!” Adjani wrote.

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