Mogul’s former assistant speaks
Two more women talk about assaults
WASHINGTON • Harvey Weinstein’s British former assistant has told how the disgraced mogul sexually harassed her when they were alone in hotel rooms.
Zelda Perkins signed a non-disclosure agreement in 1998 and was paid $208,000 in damages after negotiations that she said left her “broken.”
But she has now decided to break the agreement and speak publicly about her former boss.
She told the Financial Times: “He went out of the room and came back in his underwear. He asked me if I would give him a massage. Then he asked if he could massage me.”
Perkins declined but said Weinstein would frequently be naked in a hotel room and ask her to stay while he bathed.
“This was his behaviour on every occasion I was alone with him.
“I often had to wake him up in the hotel in the mornings and he would try to pull me into bed.”
Meanwhile, a former Weinstein Co. production assistant has alleged Weinstein sexually assaulted her after her repeated refusals.
In a press conference Tuesday in New York held by attorney Gloria Allred, Mimi Haleyi claimed Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006. Haleyi was in her 20s at the time.
“He was extremely persistent and physically overpowering,” Haleyi said. “I remember Harvey rolling over and saying, ‘Don’t you feel like we’re so much closer now?’”
Haleyi said she first met Weinstein at the London première of The Aviator in 2004. She encountered him again at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.
She expressed interest in working on one of his films and he invited her to his hotel room and asked for a massage.
Haleyi refused, replying, “No, sorry, I’m not a masseuse,” and suggesting he instead contact hotel reception.
More meetings followed, though.
The alleged incident occurred at Weinstein’s Soho apartment.
“We need justice for these victims,” Allred said.
I OFTEN HAD TO WAKE HIM UP IN THE HOTEL ... AND HE WOULD TRY TO PULL ME INTO BED.