Weinstein aide tells MPs: I quit over sex attack on colleague
A FORMER assistant to disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein told MPs yesterday she left his company after he “sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a colleague”.
Zelda Perkins told the Commons Women and Equalities Committee the woman had “recently been employed and had only met him [Weinstein] once”.
Ms Perkins said she was “defrauded” when she left Weinstein’s Miramax film company in 1998 after being asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement and warned by lawyers that she and other women would be “utterly crushed” if they tried to take legal action against Weinstein.
Ms Perkins said Weinstein’s alleged victim sought counselling, but never spoke out because “she was so afraid of this agreement she felt she was not allowed to”.
She told MPs that she believed breaking the agreement, of which she was never given a copy, would result in time in jail.
Weinstein, 66, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by a high number of women, denies all allegations of non-consensual sex and is the subject of criminal investigations in the UK and the US.
Ms Perkins told the committee’s first oral evidence session on workplace sexual harassment and non-disclosure agreements that at the time she believed the document would curb Weinstein’s future behaviour.
But she told MPs: “Essentially we were defrauded.”
Battle
Ms Perkins said she had asked that Weinstein go to therapy and for “a human resources system to be brought into the company with three complaint handlers, one of whom had to be an attorney, because I hoped that meant they couldn’t lie”.
She said: “If a damages claim was sought in the following two years, this would either be disclosed to Disney [the parent company of Miramax] or they would fire Harvey from the company.”
Ms Perkins was advised by lawyers that the women would be “utterly crushed” if they attempted to take action against Weinstein and advised it “wasn’t worth considering because of the disparity of power between myself and Weinstein and Disney”.
Recalling a 12-hour session with Weinstein’s lawyers, Allen & Overy, that lasted until 5am, she said: “It was a siege mentality, you lose track of time and place, you’re in a battle.”