The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Beckinsale tells of relief at movie mogul sentence
Actress says she was insidiously punished by Weinstein for having said no
Kate Beckinsale has told of her “huge relief” at Harvey Weinstein’s prison sentence after revealing how she was “punished” by the former movie mogul.
Weinstein, 67, was sentenced to 23 years in prison by a judge in New York after being convicted of assaulting a production assistant at his apartment in 2006, and third-degree rape of another woman in 2013.
Beckinsale, 46, posted an image of herself on Instagram at the 2001 movie premiere for Serendipity.
She wrote: “We all refused to go because holding a premiere mere weeks after 9/11 with the city still smoking felt like the most insensitive, tone deaf, disrespectful idea possible.
“But Harvey insisted. We flew into New York and somehow got through it.
“The next morning Harvey called me and asked if I would like to bring my less than two-year-old daughter to his house for a playdate with his similar aged daughter. I said OK.
“I turned up and he immediately called for his nanny to take the babies to another room to play.
“I went to go with them and he said: ‘No, you wait here’.”
She said the minute the door closed he started screaming that she had ruined his premiere.
Beckinsale said she “managed to get myself and my child out of there and yes that was one of many experiences I had that there was no recourse for, and falls under no felony.
“But I was punished for it, and for other instances where I said ‘no’ to him for years, insidiously and seeming irreversibly.”
Scores of women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault and he was found guilty of two attacks following a high-profile trial.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles filed sexual assault charges against Weinstein in January and have now begun the process of extraditing him from New York to their jurisdiction.
A spokesman said: “The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has begun the process of extraditing defendant Weinstein to California to face the sexual assault charges that were filed in January.
“No arraignment date has been set. Once a date has been set, our office will notify the public.”
Weinstein was charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.
Fieldfisher’s Jill Greenfield, who is running the UK civil litigation against Weinstein, said that his sentencing is a “hugely positive step for UK victims”.
She said: “Civil proceedings for the UK victims continues.”