A little less of the noble suffering, please

NATASSIA MAlTHE is the latest actress to come forward and accuse Harvey Weinstein of rape. This brings the total number of rape claims to nine, alongside dozens of accusations of sexual assault.

Malthe claims that she was raped by the Hollywood mogul in 2008 at the Sanderson Hotel in london, following the BAFTA Awards.

The details of her alleged attack are ghastly and follow the pattern of all the other assaults made public. The man is a beast, a predator, a danger to women.

After a week’s penance in a sex addiction clinic, he is now claiming to be ‘cured’, but is still acting like a man who believes that he is a victim, too — and has done nothing wrong. Through his lawyers he has denied that he took part in any nonconsensual sexual intercourse. But battle lines are being drawn. lawyers are preparing cases against Weinstein and there is a possibility he could end up behind bars. Might that really happen? There is a mountain of evidence against him, but much of it will be swiftly dismissed by the courts. One of the actresses who accused Weinstein of rape went on to have a consensual sexual relationship with him. As for Natassia Malthe (left), she opened her bedroom door to him in the middle of the night. And after he allegedly raped her, she began to train with dance and voice lessons for a role in one of his films. She even agreed to meet him again, but says that she left when it became clear he wanted her to join him in a threesome.

There are victims of rape out there, women unconnected with Weinstein, who must look upon all this with incredulity. These are women who did not agree to meet their rapist again, for cocktails and contract talks, but who went through rape suite procedures and who gave evidence in court.

Instead of reporting his actions, a great number of Weinstein women stayed silent for the good of their careers.

By taking a job or hush money, they not only tacitly condoned his behaviour, they allowed others to suffer as well. And that doesn’t make you a heroine — it makes you an enabler, someone who wanted fame above all.

Of course, I don’t blame any of them: Weinstein is the guilty party here.

yet there are moments when I wish they would dial down that air of noble suffering and daring valour, just a notch.

At a press conference, Natassia talked of how she was speaking out now so that ‘my three-year-old little boy understands how to respect and treat women, and for countless little girls that should never experience what I went through and for all the women that came before me and after me trying to succeed in Hollywood’.

Very noble, I’m sure. But Natassia, where were you when all the women who came after you needed you most?