Kiwi model sues Weinstein
Zoe Brock one of six plaintiffs in lawsuit claiming hundreds of women were preyed on
Former Kiwi model Zoe Brock is one of six women suing disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal. The women filed their suit yesterday, targeting companies Weinstein worked at by likening the “Weinstein Sexual Enterprise” to an organised crime group that relied on agents, producers and others to lure young women seeking to break into films.
The racketeering lawsuit in federal court in New York seeks to represent “dozens, if not hundreds” of women who say they were assaulted by Weinstein, 65, after being isolated in close quarters such as a hotel room after bystanders were sent away.
Christchurch-born Brock, 43, wrote about the lawsuit on Twitter yesterday. She said it was for everyone who had ever come forward and tried to seek justice after being abused by someone with power and money.
“For every person who has ever had a company place profit over integrity. This suit is for YOU.”
Brock claimed in a blog post and a Herald interview that she was asked for a massage and chased into a bathroom by a naked Weinstein 20 years ago.
Describing herself as a “naive” 23-year-old, Brock said she met Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival. They were seated next to each other at a dinner but she told the Herald she had no idea who he was.
“He seemed like a nice guy, and I didn’t feel threatened by him.”
After spending the night at various parties, Brock said she ended up in a remote hotel suite with Weinstein after being parted from her friends.
“We headed upstairs to Harvey’s room and opened another bottle of champagne while we waited for the gang to arrive. But the gang never arrived,” Brock wrote.
Weinstein left the hotel room and Brock claimed he re-emerged naked minutes later and asked if she would give him a massage. She felt panicked and told him she was uncomfortable and angry at being tricked into this position.
“He asked if I would like a massage instead . . . He pleaded with me to let him massage me and I let him put his hands on my shoulders while my mind raced.”
Brock said she ran into the bath- room, locking the Weinstein chased her.
When she came out, she found the film producer sitting on the bed “wearing a bathrobe crying”.
The other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are scriptwriter and actor Louisette Geiss and actors Katherine Kendall, Sarah Ann Thomas, Melissa Sagemiller and Nanette Klatt.
The lawsuit seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages followed the filing of a similar suit in Los Angeles last month that did not identify plaintiffs by name.
It said the “proverbial ‘casting couch’ was Harvey Weinstein’s office of choice” in an arrangement condoned by defendants Miramax and the Weinstein Company and its door, and board of directors. It said the companies were complicit in Weinstein’s flashing, groping, fondling, harassing, battering, false imprisonment and sexual assault, attempted rape or rape of women.
A Weinstein lawyer declined comment, but Weinstein’s representatives forwarded a statement saying he “has never at any time committed an act of sexual assault”. It referred to “claims of consensual sexual contact later regretted” by complainants.
At least 75 women have made claims of assault, harassment and inappropriate conduct by Weinstein, who is being investigated by police in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, New York and London.