Wary of #TooFar
Harv vic sez some sex claims ‘not real’
The Victoria’s Secret model who first spoke out against Harvey Weinstein wants to make sure that #MeToo doesn’t go #TooFar.
“Some people use #MeToo in the wrong way,” according to 26-year-old catwalker and activist Ambra Battilana Gutierrez. “I feel that #MeToo is for the collective benefit. Somebody speaking bad about someone else to ruin their careers is not good.”
Gutierrez made headlines in 2015 when she accused film producer Weinstein of accosting her in his Tribeca office.
In the two years that followed, the Filipino-Italian model battled depression and struggled to find work before explosive exposes unearthed new Weinstein accusers — including celebs like Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan — to say they, too, shared similar experiences with the “Hands of Stone” producer. Dozens more followed.
When Gutierrez launches her “In Our Words” podcast Thursday, she plans to give a voice to men who feel they have been wrongly accused of sexual harassment or misconduct.
“I’ve had so many of my other friends or movie directors or whatever and they came onto these lists and they lost so much work,” she said.
“The #MeToo movement has two different faces. You can really ruin somebody if it’s not real.”
Gutierrez claims she knows of many agents and photographers she’s worked with who have been hurt by #MeToo accusations.
She questions allegations made against some of those people, with whom she can empathize.
“You have to be very careful of these things you publish,” Gutierez said. “I lived it in my skin.”
She also wants her podcast to provide a platform to women who have been victimized.
Following her 2015 claims against Weinstein, Gutierrez found herself on the receiving end of a two-year smear campaign launched by publications that enjoyed cozy relationships with the former star-maker.
She was labeled an opportunist and falsely accused of leveraging Weinstein for movie roles before going to authorities. The Daily Mail even quoted an ex-boyfriend saying, “I’m glad we broke up.”
Though Gutierrez didn’t have a platform like her “In Our Words” podcast back then, she didn’t suffer in silence.
“I was never a #MeToo, I was a ‘fight back,’ ’’ she said. “I went to the police and everything. It’s not that I sat down till it was safe for me to speak.”
She even wore a wire that later caught Weinstein all but admitting to his misconduct and promising, “I won’t do it again,” when she accused him of touching her breast.