UK POLICE INVESTIGATE WEINSTEIN SEX ASSAULT COMPLAINT
As sex scandal destroys Harvey Weinstein’s reputation, how the boy from a humble part of New York became one of the most powerful movie moguls in LA
MEDIA mogul Harvey Weinstein is being investigated by police in both London and New York over his years of predatory sexual behaviour.
Scotland Yard yesterday said it was investigating an allegation made this week to police in Liverpool of sexual abuse in the 1980s.
Merseyside Police said its report concerned an alleged sexual assault “in the London area in the 1980s”.
That news came as British actress Kate Beckinsale said she turned down Weinstein when she was 17 by telling him she had school in the morning.
Yesterday, in a post on Instagram, the Underworld star wrote: “I was called to meet Harvey Weinstein at the Savoy Hotel when I was 17.
“When I arrived, reception told me to go to his room. He opened the door in his bathrobe. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him.
“After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed.
“A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting.
“I realised he couldn’t remember if he had assaulted me or not.
“I had what I thought were boundaries – I said no to him professionally many times over the years – some of which ended up with him screaming at me calling me a **** and making threats, some of which made him laughingly tell people, ‘Oh, Kate lives to say no to me’.”
Standing up to Weinstein, she added, undoubtedly “harmed my career and was never something I felt supported by in anyone other than my family”.
And she went on to “applaud the women who have come forward”.
British actress Emma Thompson told the BBC’s Newsnight programme last night Weinstein is “at the top of the ladder of a system of harassment and bullying and interference”.
The New York Police Department said investigators want to speak to former aspiring actress Lucia Evans over her claims Weinstein forced her to commit a sex act at his Miramax office in Manhattan in 2004.
Lt John Grimpel of the NYPD said in a statement that no complaints had yet been filed, but it was “conducting a review to determine if there are any additional complaints relating to the Harvey Weinstein matter”. A New York police official said of Weinstein, who has a home in New York: “He’s a ‘super predator’. He’s been at this so long.
“Imagine how many promises he’s made to young women who were trying to make it into the industry.”
Lucia Evans told The New Yorker magazine that she told Weinstein “over and over” she did not want to do it and that he “overpowered” her.
Of the dozens of women who have
accused Weinstein, 65, of inappropriate behaviour, three have accused him of rape or sexual assault.
Accusers include Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd and Cara Delevingne, who have all gone on the record to say he sexually harassed them.
In a newly surfaced interview from 1993 Gwyneth Paltrow told a US TV show that Weinstein would “coerce you to do a thing or two”.
This week Ms Paltrow told the New York Times that in 1989, when she was 22, Weinstein put his hand on her and suggested that she give him a massage.
Weinstein could be hit with a slew of civil lawsuits against him and his production company, The Weinstein Co, which fired him last week.
Hollywood legend Jane Fonda, 79, yesterday admitted she found out last year that Weinstein had been sexually harassing Hollywood women – and was ashamed she did not speak up earlier. When asked why, she told CNN: “I was not that bold. I guess it hadn’t happened to me and I didn’t feel it was my place.”
She said she was informed of Weinstein’s transgressions by Rosanna Arquette – one of the many women who have since spoken out against the movie mogul.
Weinstein’s British wife, Georgina Chapman, 41, announced this week she was leaving him.
IT HAS been an open secret in Hollywood for years that Harvey Weinstein is a sexual predator on an epic scale but it is only now that the horrific truth has stunned the public. The fall of a man who was until a week ago one of the most influential figures in Hollywood has been spectacular.
And it has resulted in much soul-searching by the film industry. The question on everyone’s lips is what turned this one-time mummy’s boy into a monster?
Harvey Weinstein was born in a working class part of the Queens neighbourhood of New York. His father Max was a diamond cutter but the dominant figure in his life was his mother Miriam.
Weinstein and his younger brother Bob started out promoting rock concerts and founded their film company in 1979 – the name Miramax came from an amalgam of Miriam and Max.
Miriam worked at the company, bringing in pastries for her sons each day. Weinstein once said of the matriarch, who died last year aged 90: “She was incredibly supportive and tough with both of us. She’s still the one person we have to toe the line with.”
Their company was eventually sold to Disney for about £50million in 1993 in a deal that saw Harvey and Bob retain responsibility for the day-to-day running of Miramax.
The brothers’ success was founded on an ability to turn low budget art-house movies, such as Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare In Love, into mainstream hits.
Over the next decade Weinstein made his name with a streak of hits, resulting in at least one Oscar nomination each year, before a huge bust-up with Disney. The brothers eventually stormed off to launch The Weinstein Company in 2005.
Weinstein’s volcanic temper and bullying became legendary in Hollywood. Bizarrely, he once claimed that his anger issues were due to consuming too much sugar. Matters went much deeper than boorishness, however, and it is now apparent that Weinstein was spiralling out of control, with no checks in place.
It has emerged that Weinstein and his aides used a combination of non-disclosure agreements, pay-offs and mob-style intimidation to suppress the abuse claims. Payments were made to at least eight women but the money meant little to Weinstein, whose fortune has been put at more than £150million.
Some of the allegations date from up to three decades ago and Weinstein must have felt he was untouchable. He once said of Hollywood in an expletive-laden outburst: “I’m the sheriff in this town.”
Until now no one felt able to speak out or stand up to him and the industry has a long history, from the times of the silent movies, of brushing sexual misdemeanours under the red carpet.
Actresses Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow are among those to have now alleged they were victims of the film producer. Young actresses and female employees were terrified of Weinstein because of his power to make or break careers and his sheer physical presence. He was surrounded by yes-men and despite stories of his appalling behaviour being rife in the industry, senior figures queued up to laud the producer. It is said that during acceptance speeches at the Oscars, Harvey Weinstein has been thanked more times than God.
His personal relationships have been complex. Despite a long and very successful working partnership with brother Bob, who is much quieter and prefers to stay in the background, there have always been tensions.
SINCE the harassment allegations broke there have been suggestions that it was Bob who was the main source of the New York Times story that triggered the film producer’s downfall.
It is claimed Bob could no longer tolerate his sibling’s outrageous behaviour, prompting one Tinseltown gossip column to claim: “It’s Cain and Abel, Hollywood style, Harvey Weinstein may have been stabbed in the back by his own brother.”
His first wife was Eve Chilton, who met the producer while she was working as an assistant for Miramax in the mid-1980s. Eve, who comes from a wealthy New England family, hated being in the limelight and never gave interviews. Details of the divorce settlement in 2004 were kept secret and she later remarried.
It is said that Eve was a calming influence on Weinstein, although it has also been pointed out that many of the sexual harassment incidents happened when she was pregnant or soon after their three children were born. Weinstein is said to have bragged that he slept with other women during his first marriage and that Eve was “OK with it”.
Weinstein married British fashion designer Georgina Chapman, 41, in 2007. She has described his actions as “unforgivable” and stated that her “heart breaks for the women involved”. She has left him, taking their two children.
While Weinstein was preying on vulnerable women he was supporting good causes and surrounding himself with powerful allies, including Barack Obama and the Clintons. He also championed the careers of legendary actresses including Dame Judi Dench and Meryl Streep, all adding to his aura of invincibility.
Weinstein is said to be devastated that his former friends and allies are now scrambling to distance themselves from him. The former kingmaker has become the pariah of Hollywood.