The women who accuse Harvey Weinstein of rape and sexual harassment
Many were young, powerless and afraid to speak out in case their careers were ruined. For nearly three decades their accusations remained bottled up, some suppressed by payoffs.
More than 30 women have now come forward with allegations of sexual harassment against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, the man once described as 'God' of the film industry. The accusations, including from some of the world's most famous actresses, range from inappropriate massages to rape. Here are some of those who have come forward so far.
Kate Beckinsale
In an Instagram post the Underworld star said Weinstein made a move on her when she was just 17. 'When I arrived reception told me to go to his room. He opened the door in his bathrobe. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him. After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed. A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting.I realized he couldn't remember if he had assaulted me or not.'
Gwyneth Paltrow
The star said that when she was 22, Weinstein touched her and suggested having joint massages in a hotel bedroom before she started shooting the 1996 Jane Austen adaptation Emma. 'I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified'. She said she told her then boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident and he confronted the mogul. She said Weinstein then told her not to tell anyone and she feared getting fired.
Angelina Jolie
The actress told the New York Times she had to turn down advances from Weinstein in 1998 and chose never to work with him again. She said she warned other women about him.
She said: 'I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did.'
Cara Delevigne
The model wrote on her Instagram page about a meeting with Weinstein in which he 'asked her to kiss another woman.' She wrote: 'As soon as we were alone he began to brag about all the actresses he had slept with and how he had made their careers and spoke about other inappropriate things of a sexual nature. He then invited me to his room. I quickly declined and asked his assistant if my car was outside. She said it wasn't and wouldn't be for a bit and I should go to his room.
'At that moment I felt very power- less and scared but didn't want to act that way hoping that I was wrong about the situation. When I arrived I was relieved to find another woman in his room and thought immediately I was safe. He asked us to kiss and she began some sort of advances upon his direction. I swiftly got up and asked him if he knew that I could sing. And I began to sing....i thought it would make the situation better.... more professional....like an audition....i was so nervous. After singing I said again that I had to leave.He walked me to the door and stood in front of it and tried to kiss me on the lips. I stopped him and managed to get out of the room'.
Lea Seydoux
The French actress accused the mogul of jumping on her and trying to kiss her. She wrote in The Guardian: 'We were talking on the sofa when he suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me. I had to defend myself. He’s big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him. He tried more than once. This was never going to be about work. He had other intentions – I could see that very clearly. All throughout the evening, he flirted and stared at me as if I was a piece of meat.
'It was hard to say no because he’s so powerful. I’m an actress and he’s a producer. We are in the same industry, so its impossible to avoid him. I’ve seen how he operates: the way he looks for an opening. The way he tests women to see what he can get away with. That’s the most disgusting thing. Everyone knew what Harvey was up to and no one did anything. It's unbelievable that he’s been able to act like this for decades and still keep his career.'
Claire Forlani
The Meet Joe Black actress appeared in the 2000 Miramax film Boys and Girls. She says she escaped Harvey's advances five times. 'I had two Peninsula Hotel meetings in the evening with Harvey and all I remember was I ducked, dived and ultimately got out of there without getting slobbered over, well just a bit. I wasn't drinking the cool aid [sic], I knew Harvey was a master manipulator.
'I'd had a fair amount of experience. Sometimes I got angry, really angry. I wondered why I had Prey stamped on my forehead but this I kept to myself.'
Louisette Geiss
The actress said she was called to a late night meeting with Weinstein “Lawyers encourage people to come forward and then settle. There’s a whole industry about making money off plaintiffs.”
The Weinstein company board knew of at least three confidential settlements, according to David Boies, a lawyer who represented the co- founder. There was no sanction.
Never t h e l e s s, rumours seeped out. “Congratulations,” the comedian Seth MacFarlane told five best actress Oscar nominees in 2013. “You five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.”
Emily Best, an LA- based film producer, said women have shared information privately in various networks about potential abusers: “It’s a ‘whisper circle’. We have to do that. The law doesn’t protect us. The culture doesn’t protect us. So we have to protect ourselves. People will come out and say, ‘I had this experience. Nobody work with this person.”
Industry analysts say the Weinstein Company’s ebbing success in recent years – the stream of hits in 2008. He allegedly emerged in a bathrobe and told her he would green light her script if she watched him masterbate. She left the meeting.
Geiss made her accusations in a press conference with high-profile attorney Gloria Allred on October 10.
Dawn Dunning
The actress says she was called to a meeting about future film projects in 2003 aged 24. When she arrived she says Weinstein presented her with three scripts for his next three movies which he would let her star in, only if she had three-way sex with him. She fled the hotel, she told the NYT.
Katherine Kendall
The Swingers actress was told Weinstein had to stop off in his apartment to pick something up after a screening in 1993.
He changed into a bathrobe and told her to massage her, she said. When she resisted she said the mogul returned naked and chased her, reports the NYT.
Mira Sorvino
The Mighty Aphrodite actress told the New Yorker that Weinstein tried to massage her in a hotel room at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival.
He then went to her home in the middle of the night but she called a male friend to protect her, she claimed. She said turning down the mogul adversely affected her career.
Rose McGowan
The actress, who made her breakthrough in 1996 in the Weinsteinproduced slasher revival movie Scream, reportedly sued Weinstein after he assaulted her in 1997 at the Sundance Film Festival.
She signed a non- disclosure agreement at the close of the suit and has only referred to him obliquely in social media since. On Sunday she referred to being abused by a 'monster' and has previously referred to being raped by a studio head.
Ashley Judd
Judd says that during filming for 1997 thriller Kiss the Girls Weinstein repeatedly asked her to watch him shower. She was one of the women who spoke out to The New York Times this week, saying: 'Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it's simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.' became a trickle – made its co-founder vulnerable.
So did the eruption of rape allegations against Bill Cosby and Donald Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” recording.
“You can’t turn a blind eye to this shit. It’s 2017,” said Feig, the director. “We are liberal Hollywood. We’ve got to stand up to it no matter who is doing it.”
He was unsure if Weinstein’s career was over. “Who knows? I thought Mel Gibson would never work again [after his antisemitic outburst in 2006].”
Some are convinced this is a watershed – that Weinstein’s fall was so sudden and so steep it will rattle other offenders.
Biskind, one of Hollywood’s leading chroniclers, is not so sure. “The shock value of what’s happened to Harvey will reverberate for some time. But as long as you have men, money and power it will come back. Maybe come back in a more guarded way but it’s not gone forever.”
(Courtesy The Guardian, UK)