Weinstein ‘pestered’ star for sex favours
UNITED STATES: Harvey Weinstein has issued a partial rebuttal of accusations by the actress Salma Hayek that he tried to use his power as a Hollywood mogul to extort sexual favours.
The disgraced film producer did not deny her most serious allegations, claiming only that he did not ‘‘recall pressuring Salma to do a gratuitous sex scene with a female co-star’’ as a condition for continuing to back a film that she was working on, disputing her account of persistent sexual harassment as ‘‘not accurate’’ and ignoring altogether her declaration that he once threatened to kill her.
Weinstein’s response came as the Oscar-nominated documentary maker Morgan Spurlock made a public confession of his own sexual misconduct.
He hoped that his frankness could make him ‘‘part of the solution’’ to the epidemic of sexual misconduct exposed after the initial revelations made against Weinstein in October.
Writing on Twitter, Spurlock described ‘‘watching hero after hero, man after man, fall at the realisation of their past indiscretions’’ recently and wondering when it would be his turn, ‘‘You see, I’ve come to understand after months of these revelations, that I am not some innocent bystander, I am also a part of the problem.’’
He went on to admit that he had been accused of rape by ‘‘a girl who I hooked up with on a one-night stand’’ at university and had paid to settle a sexual harassment claim around eight years ago, long after he made his reputation with the film Super Size Me, in which he lived on McDonald’s food for a month and chronicled its effect on him.
Spurlock also wrote that he had ‘‘been unfaithful to every wife and girlfriend I have ever had’’, had been drinking since he was 13 years old, had fought depression and was sexually abused as a boy. He promised: ‘‘I will do better. I will be better. I believe we all can.’’
Earlier a spokesman for Weinstein had admitted to ‘‘creative friction’’ around the making of Frida, the biopic of the artist Frida Kahlo that was at the centre of allegations by Mexican actress Hayek, 51, in The New York Times.
He had, however, ‘‘overruled other investors to back Salma as the lead’’ in the film [which she produced] even though Jennifer Lopez, who was ‘‘a bigger star’’, was interested in the role. Together, he and Hayek were able to ‘‘drive the project to perfection’’.
The actress and the producer’s recollections of the process were very different.
She wrote that the ‘‘monster’’ pestered her constantly, turning up outside her room at ‘‘hotel after hotel’’, asking to shower with her, to massage her, to perform oral sex on her, to see her naked with another woman. When she rebuffed him he was furious and tried to sabotage the film.
Weinstein, 65, has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 80 women and is facing criminal investigations in three cities.
He has denied all claims of nonconsensual sexual relationships and has been receiving treatment in Arizona for sex addiction.
Hayek did not come forward initially as she was ashamed, she said. Then she thought her experiences were insignificant compared to what other women had allegedly suffered.
She said she wonders now if it was only her friendship with some of Weinstein’s most important collaborators, including George Clooney and the directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, ‘‘that saved me from being raped’’. – The Times