Farrow: Weinstein Threatened Lawsuit

Ronan Farrow says Harvey Weinstein threatened to sue him over his blockbuster piece that the disgraced Hollywood heavyweight raped three women and sexually harassed many others, Variety reports. Speaking to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday, Farrow says he was undeterred by the threat that came during the 10 months he worked on the story. But Farrow, son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, added another twist to the explosive saga, saying that NBC News, which originally commissioned the story, dropped it. Asked why, he replies, "You would have to ask NBC and NBC executives about the details." The New Yorker published his article on Tuesday, a few days after a New York Times exposé led to Weinstein's firing. "I will say that over many years, many news organizations have circled this story and faced a great deal of pressure in doing so,” Farrow says.

"There are now reports emerging about the kind of pressure news organizations have faced. That is real," he says. "I was threatened with a lawsuit personally by Mr. Weinstein.” Farrow, who freelances for NBC and was a host at MSNBC, pushed back when Maddow says the network considered his story "unpublishable," per Mediaite. Farrow says he pitched an "explosively reportable piece" to NBC "that should have been public earlier … there were multiple determinations that it was reportable at NBC." But a source tells Variety that when Farrow brought the story to NBC "he didn’t have one accuser willing to go on the record or identify themselves," adding that the New Yorker piece was "radically different" than the one he pitched to the network. (More Ronan Farrow stories.)