Actress: Harv said it’s how to be star
FORMER ACTRESS Heather Kerr says Harvey Weinstein pulled her hand onto his exposed penis nearly 30 years ago and told her put out — or be out of a career.
The latest accuser spoke out Friday, shortly before the lawyer for the unidentified Italian model-actress who filed a rape complaint against Weinstein with Los Angeles police Thursday met reporters outside a courthouse and said it was “premature” to rule out a lawsuit.
Sitting with lawyer Gloria Allred earlier in the day, Kerr broke down in sobs as she described how Weinstein allegedly assaulted her during a Los Angeles office meeting in 1989.
She said Weinstein led her to a couch and said he needed to know how “good” she was if he was going to help her career.
“I offered to provide him with a reel of my acting work. He had this sly, sleazy smile on his face,” she said.
“The next thing I knew, he had unzipped his fly and pulled out his penis,” the woman now living in Washington said. “He then grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him and forced my hand onto his penis and held it there.”
Kerr, 56, said she was “frozen with fear.”
“He told me this was how things worked in Hollywood and all of the actresses that had made it, had made it this way,” she said.
“He told me that first I’d have to have sex with him, and then he would take me to parties and show me who I needed to sleep with after that, but that he first needed to know how good I was,” she said.
Kerr said she backed out of the room and ran, terrified he might pursue her.
“I felt so powerless,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone would believe me. I was nobody. Why would they believe me?”
Kerr said she resigned from her job at an entertainment management office a few days later. Not long after that, she quit acting.
Allred said Friday she has been contacted by several other accusers. She plans to travel to New York next week to meet with at least one.
Asked if any of the women had claims that could possibly lead to criminal charges, she said it was too soon to tell.
“If they decide that they do want to report to law enforcement, either in areas such as Los Angeles, New York and London, where investigations are taking place at this time . . . they will not be speaking to the press if they do that. That is my practice. That is my policy,” she said.
More than 40 women have stepped forward this month to claim Weinstein made unwanted sexual advances during his reign as a top movie mogul.
The unidentified Italian accuser who met with LAPD was “relieved” to finally tell her story because it had a “humongous, huge impact on her life,” her lawyer David Ring said Friday.
When asked if she might file a civil lawsuit down the line, he said it was too soon to know.
“Right now, the only concern is the LAPD investigation,” he said.
Ring confirmed his client told investigators that Weinstein “bullied” his way into her Los Angeles hotel room in 2013 and that she was the victim of “sexual assault and rape.”
“She told me her greatest regret was opening that door. She had no idea what was coming,” he said.