Harvey Weinstein apologizes for citing Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence in court

Harvey Weinstein apologized to Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence after his lawyers cited them in asking a court to dismiss a sexual misconduct lawsuit.

A spokeswoman for the disgraced movie mogul said Thursday that Weinstein has also directed his legal representatives not to use specific names of actors and former associates in the future.

Lawyers for Weinstein argued in a filing, in which they quoted previous remarks made by Streep and Lawrence, that a proposed class-action lawsuit filed by six women should be rejected.

Weinstein's attorneys cited Streep as having previously said that Weinstein wasn't inappropriate with her and cited Lawrence as having told Oprah Winfrey that Weinstein "had always been nice" to her.

The actresses immediately snapped back, with Streep calling the citation of her remarks "pathetic and exploitive."

Lawrence said Weinstein's attorneys took her previous remarks out of context.

"Harvey Weinstein and his company are continuing to do what they have always done which is to take things out of context and use them for their own benefit. This is what predators do, and it must stop," Lawrence said in a statement.

"For the record, while I was not victimized personally by Harvey Weinstein, I stand behind the women who have survived his terrible abuse and I applaud them in using all means necessary to bring him to justice whether through criminal or civil actions. Time's up."