Hollywood women applaud impending Weinstein charges
LOS ANGELES: Women in Hollywood applauded on Thursday after Harvey Weinstein agreed to turn himself into authorities in New York after a months-long investigation into multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
More than 70 women have accused the once-powerful film producer of sexual impropriety, including rape, since October 2017. Weinstein has denied having nonconsensual sex with anyone.
Weinstein was expected to surrender on Friday morning, a person familiar with the case said. The exact nature of the charges being brought against him by Manhattan prosecutors was unclear.
“BOOM”, tweeted Italian actress Asia Argento, who has accused Weinstein of raping her at the Cannes film festival in 1997 when she was 21.
Argento repeated her accusations in an emotional speech at the Cannes festival on Saturday.
Weinstein’s Italian attorney said on Saturday that Argento’s allegations were “completely false.” On Thursday in the United States, Weinstein’s spokesman Juda Engelmayer and Weinstein’s New York lawyer Benjamin Brafman both declined to comment.
Rose McGowan, who was among the first actresses to accuse Weinstein of sexual assault, said his victims were “one step closer to justice.”
“I, and so many of Harvey Weinstein’s survivors, had given up hope that our rapist would be held accountable by law,” McGowan said in a statement. “May this give hope to all victims and survivors everywhere that are telling their truths.”
Former “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra, who has said she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein in the 1990s, tweeted “Can’t Wait!” followed by “Anyone know where I can get front row seats?” “A
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I, and so many of Harvey Weinstein’s survivors, had given up hope that our rapist would be held accountable by law. May this give hope to all victims and survivors everywhere that are telling their truths. Rose McGowan, actress
Wrinkle Time” director Ava DuVernay, one of the leaders of the Time’s Up campaign against sexual harassment in the workplace, posted a link on Twitter to news of Weinstein’s expected surrender, adding “Karma NEVER loses an address.”
Tarana Burke, the founder of the wider #MeToo movement triggered by accusations against Weinstein, told Hollywood trade publication Variety that the expected charges represent a shift in the movement to change how sexual violence is handled.
“This moves from the court of public of opinion into an actual courtroom,” Burke told Variety in an interview. “That is super cathartic for a bunch of the survivors, or even survivors who are not necessarily victimiSed by him.”
Melissa Silverstein, founder of the blog Women and Hollywood, wrote on Twitter, “This is for all the women who stood up and spoke out and for those who endured years of pain who probably never thought this day would come.”
Actress Ashley Judd, one of the first women to publicly accuse Weinstein, started legal proceedings against him this month on the grounds that he defamed her after she rejected his advances.
The “Frida” and “Divergent” actress accuses Weinstein of ruining her chance to be cast in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy by making false statements to director Peter Jackson that he’d had a bad experience with Judd, calling her a “nightmare.”
The lawsuit describes the “pathetic reality” that Weinstein was retaliating after Judd, 50, rejected his sexual advances a year earlier, when he allegedly cornered her in a hotel room under the guise of discussing business.
Judd said in a prepared statement that any damages she wins will go to the Time’s Up legal fund, “so that women and men in all professions may have legal redress for sexual harassment, economic retaliation and damage to their careers.” — Reuters/AFP