Ex-aide: ‘Harvey tried to pull me into bed’
A BRITISH former assistant of shamed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has claimed he once tried to pull her into bed – then paid her £125,000 to keep quiet.
Zelda Perkins, 44, has broken a non-disclosure confidentiality agreement she signed in 1998 after initially making the accusations.
She claims the veteran producer asked her to give him massages while he was in his underwear when they were alone in hotel rooms.
But she was subsequently “made to feel ashamed for disclosing his behaviour” and agreed to sign the financial silence agreement.
However, she said: “I want to publicly break my non-disclosure agreement.
“Unless somebody does this there won’t be a debate about how egregious these agreements are and the amount of duress that victims are put under.”
The former assistant said she had initially reported her allegations after a female colleague told her she had also been sexually harassed by Weinstein.
The two women subsequently sought damages and were awarded £250,000, split equally, but also signed a non-disclosure agreement, prohibiting them from discussing the allegations.
By breaking the agreement, Ms Perkins could be liable to repay the settlement, and potentially pay damages and other legal fees stipulated in the contract.
Ms Perkins claimed Weinstein would ask her to massage him and said she often had to wake him up in the morning and “he would try to pull me into bed”.
Weinstein, who is currently undergoing therapy in Arizona, is facing numerous sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape allegations from more than 60 actresses and assistants.
Weinstein, 65, has “unequivocally” denied any allegations of non-consensual sex.
He now faces police investigations, both in the UK and the US.
He has also been fired from the Weinstein Company, which he helped form, expelled by the Academy Awards and suspended by BAFTA.
He is also under civil rights investigation in New York state.