More voices join the chorus in Harvey Weinstein scandal
Harvey Weinstein kept a low profile over the weekend, but his accusers did not.
On Saturday, Italian actress Asia Argento urged Uma Thurman, who has starred in some of the producer’s biggest hits and said she would address the controversy when she is “less angry,” to speak out sooner rather than later.
“We need your strong voice,” Argento tweeted. “It is truly commanding.”
The latest developments:
Ben Affleck says he’ll donate his Weinstein movie residuals
Affleck, who got his big break in Miramax films like Good Will Hunting, says he will be following the lead of his Mallrats director Kevin Smith and donating his residual payments from Weinstein-related films to charity.
“Once Kevin suggested that,” Affleck told Washington, D.C., TV station WTTG in a video published Sunday, “I decided to do the same thing, so any further residuals that I get from a Miramax or a Weinstein movie will go either to F.I. or to RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network). One is Film Independent, and the other is a women’s organization. I just didn’t want to cash any more checks from the guy, you know?”
Rose McGowan’s memoir ‘Brave’ due Jan. 30
HarperCollins has announced that it will publish
Brave, the memoir by outspoken Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan, on Jan. 30.
McGowan, 44, has accused the producer of raping her at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival and is one of the eight women who reported to have received a financial settlement from him. Since the scandal broke on Oct. 5, she has called out the Hollywood establishment for turning a blind eye to Weinstein’s behavior over the years. In a blurb distributed by HarperCollins, McGowan wrote: “My life, as you will read, has taken me from one cult to another, the biggest cult of all: Hollywood. Brave is the story of how I fought my way out of these cults and reclaimed my life. I want to help you do the same.”
The publisher summed up Brave as “unscripted, courageous, victorious, angry, smart, fierce, unapologetic, controversial, and real as (expletive).”
McGowan gave readers an idea of what to expect in an Oct. 27 speech at the Women’s Convention in Detroit, where she proclaimed: “I have been silenced for 20 years. I have been slutshamed. I have been harassed. I’ve been maligned. and you know what? I’m just like you. What happened to me behind the scenes happens to all of us in this society. And that cannot stand, and it will not stand. We are free. We’re strong.”
NYPD builds case for arrest
New York Police Department detectives said Friday that Boardwalk Empire actress Paz de la Huerta may be their best shot at arresting Weinstein and that they were gathering evidence in hopes of filing an arrest warrant.
De la Huerta reported that the producer raped her on two separate occasions in 2010.
Detective Nicholas DiGaudio told
Vanity Fair, “I believe based on my interviews with Paz that from the NYPD standpoint, we have enough to make an arrest.” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce added that Huerta “put forth a credible and detailed narrative to us” and was able to “articulate each and every movement of the crime: where she was, where they met, where this happened and what he did.”
Margulies recalls encounter
Meanwhile, The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies told Sirius XM host Jenny Hutt about a run-in she had with Weinstein regarding a screen test for a major film during her days on the medical drama E.R.
After she threatened to cancel their meeting at the Peninsula Hotel if his female assistant didn’t join them, she was led up to his room.
“He opened the door, in a bathrobe,” Margulies recalled during the interview, posted Saturday. “I could see that there were candles lit in the room, and there was a dinner for two. And I saw him stare at her, daggers. And so, I turned to see what she had done to deserve that, and I caught her in a shrug-like ‘What could I do?’ ”
Margulies continued: “He looked at me, furious, and he took the door and he said, ‘Just wanted to say good audition.’ And he slammed the door. And of course, I didn’t get the part.”