Goldie Hawn reveals iconic film she and Madonna were axed from

Goldie Hawn was attached to a famous musical’s film adaptation alongside Madonna – but claims she was betrayed by Harvey Weinstein.

Goldie Hawn. Picture: Sarah Matray

Hollywood star Goldie Hawn has blasted Harvey Weinstein, saying the jailed movie producer swindled her out of a film role in the late 1980s.

The actress, 77, told Variety on Wednesday that she and Madonna were set to star in a screen adaptation of Chicago produced by Weinstein before he suddenly rejigged the project.

“Harvey basically undermined me and Madonna,” the star said, adding that she had been cast as Velma Kelly, while the Like A Virgin singer was attached to play Roxie Hart.

At the time, Hawn was in her early 40s. However, before production began, Weinstein suddenly commissioned a new script in which Velma was 23 years old, effectively ageing Hawn out of the role.

Goldie Hawn was supposed to play Velma in Chicago. Picture: Valerie Macon/AFP

But she claims Weinstein betrayed her in the deal. Picture: Etienne Laurent/AFP

The star recalled confronting Weinstein after she learned the news.

“I said, ‘Don’t f**k with me. Because I know just what you’re doing. We made a deal,’” she told Variety.

While Weinstein never went ahead with having Hawn in the role, he did pay her a salary because she had signed on to star in the project.

“You stand up to a bully. And sometimes, you win,” she said. “I said to him afterward: ‘You know what the best part of you paying me is? Not the money. You restored my faith in dignity and ethics.’ Little did I know.”

Weinstein finally ended up producing the big-screen adaptation of Chicago in 2002, with Catherine Zeta-Jones playing Velma.

Zeta-Jones went on to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role.

Catherine Zeta-Jones with Renée Zellweger in the 2002 film Chicago.

Weinstein was once the most powerful producer in Hollywood, famed for making and breaking careers.

But in 2017, multiple women came forward saying the movie mogul had raped and sexually assaulted them, sparking his dramatic downfall. Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year jail sentence in New York for his crimes.

Last month, the power player was sentenced to a further 16 years behind bars by a Los Angeles judge after he was convicted in that city on three charges of rape and sexual assault.

Weinstein gave a statement from prison regarding Hawn’s claims.

He told Variety: “Acting roles were always chosen based on what was best for the project, artistically and financially.”

The disgraced producer bizarrely claimed that Hawn had a “positive” experience being attached to the role, adding: “We felt we did the best we could on Chicago and I’m proud of it, and I am so elated that Goldie’s experience was a positive one, and that she has the fortitude to say that in this environment. I would simply say, ‘Thank you.’”

Hawn, however, isn’t losing any sleep over it, telling Variety: “[Weinstein’s] finally living his karma.”

Elsewhere in her interview, Hawn revealed how she was asleep at the time she won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Cactus Flower back in 1970.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was republished here with permission