Judi Dench says works by Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey should be respected

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) — Veteran British star Judi Dench has said that the work produced by Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey should be separated from the offences they are alleged to have committed.

Both Weinstein and Spacey face charges of sexual assault in the US, which they deny, and have been investigated in other jurisdictions as well, including Britain.

Dench — whose lengthy list of credits includes M in the Bond franchise — told British magazine Radio Times that, regardless of their alleged offences, Weinstein's and Spacey's works still had merit.

"Are we going to negate 10 years at the Old Vic and everything that he did, how wonderful he's been in all those films?" Dench said of double-Oscar winner Spacey. "Are we just not going to see all those films that Harvey produced? You cannot deny somebody a talent. You might as well never look at a Caravaggio painting. You might as well never have gone to see Noel Coward."

Dench has just signed on to star in a new adaptation of Coward's Blithe Spirit. She won an Oscar in 1999 for best supporting actress for Shakespeare in Love, which Weinstein produced.

Last year, Dench spoke of how Spacey had helped her in the aftermath of the death of her husband, but also expressed her disapproval of what he is alleged to have done. In the Radio Times interview, she questioned the impact of being frozen out of the business. "What kind of agony is that?" she said.

She also spoke of the impact of her failing eyesight, and a trip to Southeast Asia for her ITV show, Judi Dench's Wild Borneo Adventure.