Weinstein lawyers pin hopes on Bond girl’s ‘new story’
HARVEY WEINSTEIN’S lawyers believe his chances of escaping jail have been boosted after a Bond girl who claims he attacked her has changed her account of the episode.
French actress Léa Seydoux, 33, who played Dr Madeleine Swann in 2015’s 007 film Spectre, gave a graphic description last year of how Weinstein allegedly attacked her.
She had said he ‘lost control’ after inviting her to his room after a fashion show and said she resisted his advances. But she has now said in a subsequent interview that she didn’t need to defend herself.
In an article for the Guardian last year, Ms Seydoux said Weinstein ‘invited me to come to his hotel room for a drink. We went up together. It was hard to say no because he’s so powerful. All the girls are scared of him. Soon, his assistant left and it was just the two of us. That’s the moment where he started losing control.
‘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. I left his room, thoroughly disgusted.
‘I wasn’t afraid of him, though. Because I knew what kind of man he was all along... I pushed him physically. I think he respected me because I resisted him.’
But Weinstein’s lawyers are now seizing upon an interview Ms Seydoux gave in the November issue of French Marie Claire published just days ago.
She told the magazine: ‘ If he wanted to rape me, he could have done, but he didn’t.
‘ It never came to blows and I didn’t have to defend myself or resist. Given his weight, he would have been able to pin me against a wall and force me to do something, but he didn’t.’
Last month, Weinstein scored a major victory when one of his accusers, Lucia Evans, had her case thrown out after it was reported ‘old personal writings’ emerged that suggested her encounter with the producer was consensual.
Last night, Weinstein’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman said: ‘It does not surprise me that yet another accuser is now changing her story.
‘That’s what happens when the media helps create a story that catches fire but then begins to be extinguished when hard exculpatory facts start to surface showing that the initial accusation was not true.’
A spokesman for Weinstein said: ‘Harvey has known Léa for some time, met her family and had promoted her for some important projects.
‘ He understands the pressure many were under to make claims.’
W einstein, who vehemently denies all allegations, still faces claims he raped an unidentified woman in his New York hotel room in 2013 and performed a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on £770,000 bail. He also faces charges of sex assaults in LA and London.
Ms Seydoux’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment last night.