Weinstein accuser demands: Why am I the only actress in Britain with the guts to speak out?
THE first British actress to accuse Harvey Weinstein of rape has claimed that a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign has left her as the only alleged victim in the UK to go public.
Lysette Anthony, 54, has questioned why she has been the only Briton ‘with the guts’ to waive her anonymity and speak out about the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of the movie mogul.
Last year she accused the 66-year-old producer of raping her at her west London home in the late 1980s. Weinstein, who Miss Anthony first met in New York in 1982, allegedly turned up at her flat one morning and forced himself on her.
The actress said that after she went public, her 14-year- old son Jimi had been mocked by other boys who said his mother is ‘Harvey Weinstein’s b****’.
She said there had been ‘a huge backlash’ against women who have spoken out against Weinstein. He has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Miss Anthony told The Sunday Times: ‘I have waived my right to anonymity because it gave me a voice. But people should ask themselves a very simple question: why am I the only actress in Britain who has had the guts to use her name? Why the silence?
‘I know people have been sitting around dinner tables looking to find us complicit. [But] he’s hurt a shocking number of women. Please ask yourselves, “What is the cost of owning up to being part of his bloody harem?” Quite a lot. The shame over years of degradation was enough to make me contemplate suicide at one point. A friend had to talk me down.’
The actress, who has had a long film, TV and stage career and currently appears in the soap Hollyoaks, has given a statement to the Metropolitan Police. The force has received allegations of sexual assault against Weinstein from ten other women.
Miss Anthony also defended Asia Argento, one of Weinstein’s most prominent accusers, who alleged he raped her at the Cannes film festival when she was 21. Last week it emerged that Miss Argento, now 42, paid former child actor Jimmy Bennett almost £300,000 after he accused her of sexually Under fire: Asia Argento with Weinstein assaulting him while he was a teenager. Miss Argento had denied she had a sexual relationship with Bennett, now 22, before text messages from her stating she had slept with the actor emerged.
Miss Anthony said: ‘ She has been extraordinarily courageous standing up to Weinstein. And now she’s being punished.’ The producer has now been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 80 women and charged with offences relating to three women in New York, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Miss Anthony believes that ‘black ops’ and ‘dirty tricks’ are being used. She fears a journalist who approached her last year was in fact a ‘spy’ seeking material to discredit her claims.
‘Weinstein paid former Mossad agents to obtain information,’ she said. ‘I have also been battling against a “little spy” of my own whom I suspect may have been conducting a fishing operation. I got the budget version.’
Weinstein denied her claims and said any allegations of involvement in dirty tricks are ‘totally false’. Benjamin Brafman, who leads his legal team, added: ‘Neither Mr Weinstein nor any of his agents or representatives had anything whatsoever to do with exposing the hypocrisy and lies that will now and forever personify Asia Argento.’
‘The shame made me contemplate suicide’