Aussie model latest to accuse Weinstein of harassment
SYDNEY: An Australian model said she was “played” by Harvey Weinstein and his colleagues who engineered a hotel room meeting where he stripped naked and demanded a massage, in the latest accusation against the Hollywood mogul.
Zoe Brock, 43, said she met Weinstein at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival when she was 23 and was seated next to him at a dinner, not realising who he was.
Brock told Australia’s Channel Nine she went back to his hotel room with a group of his colleagues and they were eventually left alone.
“He left the room and came back naked,” she alleged late Sunday.
“He wanted a massage, and I didn’t want to give him one. I remember being quite frozen. He touched my back and shoulders, and I quickly knew that I couldn’t ... and I got up and I ran.”
On reflection, she believes she was manipulated and targeted, not only by Weinstein but his accomplices who set up the situation.
“I had been played by not just one predator but all his accomplices. Yuck,” she said.
Brock is the latest in a long line of women to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault and rape over the past week.
He has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex, but has been denounced by many in Hollywood with ‘Thor’ stars Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth the latest to condemn his behaviour.
“It’s absolutely intolerable and people should be filing criminal complaints against him. It was a crime what he was doing,” Ruffalo told the Sydney Morning Herald at the Sydney premiere of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ on Sunday evening.
Hemsworth said he believed the scandal would change Tinseltown for the better.
“Hopefully it will put a spotlight on the issue and people will change their thinking to what is acceptable and that it doesn’t occur (again) would be the best scenario,” he said. — AFP