HOLLYWOOD’S DARKEST DAY

Now three rape claims. 17 new sex harassment cases. Angelina and Gwyneth speak out (at last). And the terrible question – how did Monster of Tinseltown get away with it for so long?

HARVEY Weinstein was accused last night of raping three women – as a string of stars also accused him of harassing or assaulting them during decades of predatory behaviour.

The scandal deepened dramatically as a comprehensive expose in The New Yorker claimed the disgraced movie mogul routinely forced himself upon young actresses.

The magazine also alleged his depraved behaviour was common knowledge in the film industry.

As well as the rape allegations, ten other women told The New Yorker he sexually harassed or assaulted them. And according to the article, he told one former colleague: ‘There are things I’ve done that nobody knows.’

It also emerged Weinstein was once the target of a police sting operation in which he appeared to harass a young actress.

In separate bombshell claims, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and four other stars said they were among Weinstein’s alleged victims in an article for the New York Times. Last night actress and screenwriter Louisette Geiss said she was also harassed – bringing the total of new allegations yesterday up to 17 harassment or assault claims and three rapes.

Miss Paltrow revealed Weinstein asked her for a massage in his hotel bedroom when she was 22. The actress said she rejected his advances and left immediately but feared he would harm her career as a result, adding: ‘I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified.’

She told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt who confronted Weinstein at a movie premiere and told him to never touch her again. She added that she was ‘expected to keep the secret’ afterwards.

Miss Jolie said she had a ‘ bad experience’ with Weinstein when she was young and never worked with him again. A string of actresses made similar claims.

Weinstein denies having nonconsensual sex with anyone, but the scandal has stunned Hollywood after days of damaging allegations.

They raise grave questions over Hollywood’s ‘ culture of complicity’, especially at Weinstein’s film firms Miramax and The Weinstein Company. The New Yorker claims 16 of Weinstein’s colleagues knew about allegations but did nothing. Last night Weinstein, 65, was holed up in a hotel in Los Angeles with wife Georgina Chapman, 41, a British fashion designer, who is considering whether or not to divorce him.

He was sacked by the board of The Weinstein Company after allegations were first reported by the New York Times last week, when the newspaper revealed he had paid off at least eight women for sexually harassing them.

But yesterday’s New Yorker article goes much further and is the result of a ten-month investigation by Ronan Farrow, the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen.

He wrote: ‘I was told by 13 women that, between the 1990s and 2015, Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them ... Three women told me Weinstein raped them.’

Anyone who dared to speak up against Weinstein was targeted and intimidated by the man himself or his staff, Mr Farrow wrote.

Four actresses said that after they rejected his advances Weinstein ‘ had them removed from projects or dissuaded people from hiring them’, it was claimed.

The article features a disturbing audio recording of Weinstein – a father of five including four daughters – badgering Italian actress Ambra Battilana Gutierrez to go into his room at a Manhattan hotel in 2015. When the actress says he groped her breasts the day before, Weinstein responds: ‘I’m sorry, I’m used to that.’

Miss Gutierrez secretly made the recording after going to the New York Police Department and agreeing to wear a wire when she met him again. The case was eventually dropped because of questions over Miss Gutierrez’s credibility.

Asia Argento, an Italian actress, told the New Yorker that in 1997, when she was 21, she was invited to what she thought was a party for Miramax at the Hôtel du CapEden-Roc on the French Riviera.

But when she got there it Weinstein was alone in his room and pressured her into allowing him to perform a sex act on her.

The article also claims that female staff at Miramax and The Weinstein Company were used as a ‘honeypot’ to lure actresses to meetings with Weinstein; their presence initially made women feel safe, but Weinstein would then dismiss them, leaving him alone with the actress.

Irwin Reiter, an executive who worked for him for 30 years, said his boss branded him the ‘sex police’ when he criticised his conduct.

Among other alleged victims was actress Rosanna Arquette, who met Weinstein at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the early 1990s where he greeted her in a bathrobe. She said he grabbed her hands and tried to make her touch him intimately. She told him: ‘I will never do that.’

A week on from the first revelations Weinstein has become so toxic The Weinstein Company is report- edly meeting advertising agencies to come up with a new name.

Weinstein’s name is being removed from the credits of forthcoming films including The War With Grandpa, starring Robert De Niro. CNN reported that Weinstein is ‘convinced this was a takedown’ by his brother Bob, with whom he has been in a feud for years.

At the weekend Weinstein begged top Hollywood studio executives for support in an email, saying ‘I am desperate for your help’ and asking them to ‘allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance’.

A growing number of stars have condemned Weinstein, including Dame Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close and Kate Winslet.

Yesterday they were joined by Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Oscar in 2013 for Silver Linings Playbook, which Weinstein produced. She said she was ‘deeply disturbed’ by the allegations, add-

‘I was a kid, I was petrified’

ing: ‘I did not experience any form of harassment personally, nor did I know about any of these allegations. This kind of abuse is inexcusable and absolutely upsetting.’

Hillary Clinton said she was ‘shocked and appalled’ and said that kind of behaviour ‘cannot be tolerated’. Her late response was criticised as Weinstein had donated $2.3million to the Democrats.

George Clooney said Weinstein’s conduct was ‘indefensible’, add- ing: ‘A good bunch of people that I know would say, “Yeah, Harvey’s a dog” or “Harvey’s chasing girls”, but this is a very different kind of thing. This is harassment on a very high level. And there’s an argument that everyone is complicit in it.’

Last night Colin Firth said: ‘It’s with a feeling of nausea that I read what was going on while I was benefiting from Harvey Weinstein’s support. He was a powerful and frightening man to stand up to. It must have been terrifying for these women to step up and call him out. And horrifying to be subjected to that kind of harassment. I applaud their courage.’

Weinstein’s spokesman Sallie Hofmeister said: ‘Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Weinstein.

‘He has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.

‘Weinstein has begun counselling and is pursuing a better path. He is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.’