ALLEGATIONS MOUNT AGAINST WEINSTEIN
British police investigate accusations of rape, sex assault
NEW YORK • The British inquiry into Harvey Weinstein intensified Sunday with detectives now investigating a further four allegations of rape and sexual assault against the disgraced Hollywood producer.
The latest investigations relate to allegations of assault in London in 1992, 2010, 2011 and 2015. The announcement came after two more women accused Weinstein of raping them.
Lysette Anthony, a British actress, said he had attacked her in her London home in the late 1980s. A second, unidentified woman said she was raped in 1992.
Weinstein, 65, has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. More than two dozen women, including superstars Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow and Canadians Sarah Polley, Erika Rosenbaum and Mia Kirshner, have come forward with allegations of unwanted advances, lewd behaviour or sexual assault.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he has begun the process of revoking Weinstein’s Legion of Honor.
On Saturday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists said its board had voted “well in excess of the required two thirds majority” to expel Weinstein.
Police in New York have asked anyone with a complaint to come forward, and detectives in London confirmed they were looking into a total of five allegations made by three complainants.
In an op-ed article for the New York Times, Polley, who gave up acting for directing, recounted spurning Weinstein’s advances after he told her of advancing the career of another, unidentified, actress.
“Because of his ‘very close relationship’ with this actress, she had gone on to play leading roles and win awards. If he and I had that kind of ‘close relationship,’ I could have a similar career. ‘That’s how it works,’ I remember him telling me,” Polley wrote.
Anthony, who stars in the British soap opera Hollyoaks, said she got to know the producer when she starred in the 1982 film Krull. She said it was a “pathetic, revolting” attack that had left her “disgusted and embarrassed.”
A second woman told the Mail On Sunday she was raped by Weinstein in 1992 when she was working at his film company offices in West London. The woman, who described how she wore old clothes and chewed raw garlic to keep Weinstein away, said she had only confided in her husband about the attack within the past few days.
Meanwhile, Woody Allen said he felt sad for Weinstein as well as the women who suffered from his attentions.
“The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” the veteran filmmaker told the BBC. “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up.”