WEINSTEIN SCANDAL WIDENS
Jolie, Paltrow allege harassment
Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie have come forward to allege that Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul, sexually harassed them when they were young actresses.
The 65-year-old film producer was also accused of rape and sexual assault by three other women in an explosive expose in The New Yorker magazine.
The new allegations mark a shocking escalation of a scandal that has engulfed Hollywood.
Both Paltrow and Jolie described how the producer, who was instrumental in launching Paltrow’s career, made unwanted advances toward them in hotel rooms. And, in the same article in The New York Times, five other women went on the record to allege sexual assault or harassment at the hands of Weinstein, who has vehemently denied the claims and said all his sexual relations were consensual.
Weinstein also denied claims by the actresses Rosanna Arquette and Mira Sorvino that he damaged their careers after they rejected his advances.
The New Yorker also published an audio tape, apparently of a conversation between Weinstein and an Italian model from 2015, in which it seems he is heard confessing to sexual assault.
Paltrow was 22 when Weinstein hired her for her breakthrough lead role in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. Before filming she was asked to visit his suite at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel for a work meeting, Paltrow told The New York Times. She said he then attempted to encourage her into his bedroom for massages. The actress said: “I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified. I thought you were my Uncle Harvey.”
Paltrow refused and confided in her then boyfriend, Brad Pitt, who later confronted Weinstein and told him never to touch her again. The actress said Weinstein yelled at her for telling Pitt and she thought she would be fired. “He screamed at me for a long time. It was brutal. I was expected to keep the secret.”
She told the paper, “We’re at a point in time when women need to send a clear message that this is over. This way of treating women ends now.” Paltrow’s account was echoed by Jolie, who said Weinstein made unwanted advances to her in a hotel room during the release of Playing by Heart in the late ’90s. She rejected him.
Jolie told The Times: “I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did.
“This behaviour towards women in any field, any country, is unacceptable.”
In an article in the New Yorker, Asia Argento, an Italian actress best known for her role in the action film xXx, and a former aspiring actress named Lucia Evans went on the record to allege Weinstein forced himself on them. A third woman, who also said Weinstein raped her, declined to be named.
Argento said she was 21 when she was invited to a studio party at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, on the French Riviera in 1997. She said Weinstein was the only person there and changed into a bathrobe before asking her to give him a massage. She claimed he forced himself on her and she was “terrified”.
Arquette, meanwhile, claimed that in the early ’90s she went to pick up a script at the Beverly Hills Hotel, arriving at Weinstein’s room to find him in a bathrobe and asking for a massage. She claimed he then tried to forcibly initiate a sexual encounter and, when she refused, named another actress who had advanced her career that way.
Arquette said she told him: “I’ll never be that girl.”
Filipina-Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez claimed Weinstein sexually assaulted her and even wore a wire for the New York police. On the wire, Weinstein allegedly confessed to the assault but prosectors declined to lay charges.
A spokeswoman for Weinstein said: “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.
“Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
The statement added: “Mr. Weinstein has begun counselling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.”