SEX SHAME FILM BOSS WEINSTEIN ACCUSED OF RAPE
Some of the world’s biggest film stars have condemned studio boss Harvey Weinstein over his alleged sexual harassment of women but the casting couch has long been part and parcel of the movie business
AN ITALIAN actress yesterday accused disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of rape.
Asia Argento, now 42, said the film mogul – who is facing a raft of sexual harassment and assault accusations spanning decades – attacked her in a hotel room when she was just 21.
She is the first person to be named as having been allegedly raped by him.
In total, 13 women now say that they were sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein, with three of them saying they were raped.
In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Argento claimed that in 1997 she was at a party hosted by his movie company Miramax at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the South of France when Weinstein led her to an empty room and asked her to give him a massage.
Despite her objections, Weinstein carried out sex acts upon her before raping her, she claimed.
Ms Argento said that when she became suspicious soon after she arrived in the empty hotel room she was assured by Weinstein that other people would soon be arriving. But she claimed he then emerged from the bathroom in a robe and holding a bottle of lotion.
“He asks me to give a massage. I was, like, ‘Look man, I am no ******* fool,”’ Ms Argento said. “But, looking back, I am a ******* fool. And I am still trying to come to grips with what happened.”
Separately, there were further claims yesterday that Weinstein tried to force himself on the actresses Rosanna Arquette and Mira Sorvino, who both said their careers suffered after they rejected his advances.
Weinstein denied the rape allegation and other claims by named stars, saying through a spokeswoman that he believed “all of these relationships were consensual”.
The 65-year-old Hollywood producer was dismissed by the movie company he founded on Monday.
British actress Emma Watson broke her silence yesterday with a tweet saying: “I stand with all the women who have been sexually harassed, and am awestruck by their bravery. This mistreatment of women has to stop.”
Jennifer Lawrence said she was “deeply disturbed” to hear of the allegations against the producer.
Lawrence, 27, won an Oscar in 2013 for Silver Linings Playbook, which was produced by Weinstein.
British actress Romola Garai, now 35, said that Weinstein wore a dressing gown as he auditioned her for a movie role when she was just 18.
“Like every other woman in the industry, I’ve had an ‘audition’ with Harvey Weinstein, where I’d actually already had the audition but you had to be personally approved by him,” she said. “I had to go to his hotel room in the Savoy, and he answered the door in his bathrobe. I was only 18. I felt violated by it. It has stayed very clearly in my memory.” Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie also say they were victims.
It also emerged yesterday that Weinstein pleaded with powerful friends to help him to keep his job, emailing: “I am desperate for your help. Do not let me be fired.”
‘I am still trying to come to grips with what happened’
BEFORE this week Harvey Weinstein, head of the Miramax studio and then later The Weinstein Company, was arguably the most powerful man in Hollywood, able to make or break careers.
But now it appears that he also spent that time abusing his power horribly. According to a report in the New York Times, Weinstein, 65, has intimidated, humiliated and sexually harassed vulnerable young women and aspiring actresses for nearly 30 years, reaching no fewer than eight settlements with victims who threatened to speak out.
Among those who have come forward to accuse the movie mogul are the actresses Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan. Both have described how in the late-1990s they were offered private meetings with Weinstein in his hotel room where they say he made inappropriate advances toward them.
Since the New York Times published its allegations, more women have come out to relate similar experiences, including Rosanna Arquette, Mira Sorvino and Romola Garai, star of Atonement. She described how as a teenager she was invited to a meeting with the producer in his hotel suite.
“Like every other woman in the industry, I’ve had an ‘audition’ with Harvey Weinstein, where I’d actually already had the audition but you had to be personally approved by him,” she said.
“So I had to go to his hotel room in the Savoy and he answered the door in his bathrobe. I was only 18. I felt violated by it, it has stayed very clearly in my memory.”
Perhaps most telling is that Garai said she never raised the incident because people would be “shocked I even thought it was an issue”.
She continued: “There are so many stories about him sending weird texts and harassing actresses, telling them he’ll give them a part if they come to dinner with him. And it’s well known that he has had relationships with a lot of people that he’s worked with, or have worked for him.
“Given how powerful he is, and given that they are always with women who are a lot younger than him, I think there is clearly an imbalance of power in those relationships.”
This week several A-list stars who have worked with Weinstein have condemned his behaviour.
“The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed and those whose good and worthy causes he supported,” said Meryl Streep.
Kate Winslet issued a statement which said: “The fact that these women are starting to speak out about the gross misconduct of one of our most important and well regarded film producers is incredibly brave and has been deeply shocking to hear.”
Dame Judi Dench said: “Whilst there is no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has helped and championed my film career for the past 20 years, I was completely unaware of these offences which are of course horrifying and I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered, and wholehearted support to those who have spoken out.”
But for many in the industry the news confirms what has been an open secret in Tinseltown: that the “casting couch” culture that once defined Hollywood is as strong as ever… and still embraced by those in positions of power.
George Clooney admitted this week: “A good bunch of people that I know would say, ‘Yeah, Harvey’s a dog’ or ‘Harvey’s chasing girls’. The rumours in general started back in the 1990s. They were that certain actresses had slept with Harvey to get a role. It seemed like a way to smear the actresses and demean them by saying that they didn’t get the jobs based on their talent, so I took those rumours with a grain of salt.”
Speaking to the New York Times, Glenn Close said: “I’m angry, not just at him and the conspiracy of silence around his actions but also that the ‘casting couch’ phenomenon… is still a reality in our business – the horrible pressure, the awful expectation put on a woman when a powerful, egotistical, entitled bully expects sexual favours in exchange for a job.” For almost as long as there has been a film industry, there have been unscrupulous studio bigwigs exploiting their position to abuse naive young starlets. As far back as the 1930s studio boss Howard Hughes kept a secret house in LA where he would “interview” aspiring actresses: his conquests included Ava Gardner, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Russell and Bette Davis.
ADECADE later Marilyn Monroe admitted that she used the casting couch to propel herself from Norma Jean Mortensen to the world’s most famous film star: “I’ve slept with producers,” she said. “I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t.” She later described Hollywood as “an overcrowded brothel”.
And Dame Joan Collins has revealed how in 1963 she lost the part of Cleopatra to Liz Taylor thanks to the same culture of “being nice” to the men in power. “I refused to go to bed with the head of the studio,” she said. “I had tested for Cleopatra twice and was the frontrunner. He took me into his office and said, ‘You really want this part?’ And I said, ‘Yes. I really do.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘then all you have to do is be nice to me.’ It was a wonderful euphemism in the 1960s for you know what. But I couldn’t do that. In fact I was rather wimpish, burst into tears and rushed out of his office.”
The tales of harassment and exploitation are not limited to the so-called “Golden Age” of film — many of today’s biggest stars have spoken about their own experiences of the casting couch. In 2010 Gwyn-
Marilyn Monroe admitted: ‘I’ve slept wth producers – I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t.”
eth Paltrow said: “When I was just starting out, someone suggested that we finish a meeting in the bedroom… I could see how someone who didn’t know better might worry, ‘My career will be ruined if I don’t give this guy a b ****** ’.”
Charlize Theron has told how as a 19-year-old she was invited to “audition” at a producer’s house. “I thought maybe that was normal,” she said. “He was in his Hugh Hefner pyjamas – I go inside and he’s offering me a drink and I’m thinking, ‘My God this acting stuff is very relaxed.’ But it soon becomes very clear what the situation was.”
And Transformers star Megan Fox has even claimed that the practice is not restricted simply to wannabe starlets. “Any casting-couch s*** I’ve experienced has been since I’ve become famous,” she said. “Some of these people! Like Hollywood legends. You think you’re going to meet them and you’re so excited, like, ‘I can’t believe this person wants to have a conversation with me,’ and you get there and you realise that’s not what they want at all.”
FOR Weinstein – for so long the most powerful man in Hollywood – it seems the game might finally be up. He has been sacked from his own company and is facing a potential slew of lawsuits in the wake of the accusations. And now it seems even those he once counted as friends – Meryl Streep famously referred to him as “God” in a speech at the 2012 Golden Globes – are queueing up to condemn him.
Except… perhaps as in all great Hollywood productions there is a twist remaining in the tale.
Before he was fired, Weinstein reportedly sent an email to highlevel executives across Hollywood asking them for statements of support. “I am desperate for your help,” he wrote, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “Do not let me be fired. If the industry supports me that is all I need.”
That may not have worked but he may yet have that support. Many of the industry’s biggest names have remained conspicuous by their silence. At the time of writing, highprofile friends of the mogul, including Dame Helen Mirren, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansson and Nicole Kidman have failed to comment… and although George Clooney has spoken out, fellow male A-listers Matt Damon and Russell Crowe – both of whom have starred in Weinstein-produced smashes – are yet to release statements.
It has also now been alleged by American journalist Sharon Waxman that a 2004 story on Weinstein she wrote for the New York Times was suppressed after direct pressure from stars including Damon and Crowe.
While it is to be hoped that this scandal finally represents the end of Hollywood’s casting-couch culture, it remains to be seen if it will prove to be the end of Hollywood’s most powerful player.
‘People would say, “Yeah, Harvey’s a dog” or “Harvey’s chasing girls.”’ George Clooney