‘ GROPE’ BEAUTY
Italian model accuses Harvey Weinstein
Sizzling Ambra Battilana ( right), a 22- yearold model with ties to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is the woman accusing Hollywood powerhouse Harvey Weinstein ( left) of molesting her at his Tribeca office, sources told The Post yesterday. Weinstein’s camp says she’s a would- be extortionist, adding, “We are confident that we will be fully vindicated.”
A stunning 22yearold model with ties to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told police she was molested by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein during a meeting in his Tribeca office, sources told The Post.
The accuser is catwalker and former beauty queen Ambra Battilana, a filmindustry source said. Battilana was one of two models who witnessed one of Berlusconi’s infamous “bungabunga” orgies and offered testimony to Italian authorities.
“We believe this is a blackmail attempt, and he did nothing wrong,” a source close to Weinstein said of Battilana’s claims.
The former Miss Italy contestant told cops she was in a business meeting in Weinstein’s office on the third floor of the Tribeca Film Center on Greenwich Street at around 6 p. m. Friday when the Miramax cofounder came on to her, lawenforcement sources said.
“He asked if they [ her breasts] were real,” the source said.
Weinstein then allegedly grabbed her breast, and she said, “No, stop,” she told police.
She told cops that Weinstein, a married father of five, then put his hand up her skirt and asked her for a kiss.
She said she responded “no” and left. She later went to the 1st Precinct station house off Varick Street to file a complaint.
Weinstein was questioned by police Saturday, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. will determine whether to file charges, sources said.
But a police source insisted the case is “BS.”
“It’s not going anywhere,” the source said
A spokesman for Weinstein said, “We are cooperating fully with the authorities and are confident that we will be fully vindicated. We will have no further comment.”
Battilana made headlines in 2011, when she and another beauty queen, Chiara Danese, offered lurid testimony describing a raunchy sex party at Berlusconi’s pad near Milan in August 2010. The pair told investigators they at HARVEY’S
tended the party in hopes of becoming television weather girls — and were horrified when Berlusconi passed around a statue with a large penis, asking his female guests to kiss it.
“At this point, all the girls started to do erotic things to each other,” they alleged.
They also claimed Berlusconi touched their bottoms several times in “the bungabunga room” and urged them to undress, but they were terrified and left without participating.
Their testimony emerged as Berlusconi went on trial for allegedly having sex with an underage prostitute during one of his wild parties.
Battilana and Danese testified at Berlusconi’s trial and sought damages in a separate trial involving three people accused of procuring prostitutes for the prime minister.
The then-teenagers claimed to have lost job opportunities when their names were published online and in documents connected to the scandal.
Berlusconi was convicted in 2013 but acquitted on appeal a year later.
Battilana’s attorney, Mark Jay Heller, said Monday that his client was in no way blackmailing Weinstein.
“There absolutely was no attempt of blackmail, and, in fact, making such a false allegation adds insult to injury causing a duplicity of victimization,” he told The Post.
Since founding Miramax with his brother, Bob, in 1979, Weinstein has produced some of the most acclaimed films in the business, including “Shakespeare in n Love,” “Silver Linings Playbook” andnd “Django Unax
Unchained.”
They sold Miramax to Disney in 1993 and started anew with The Weinstein Company in 2005.
Harvey Weinstein was the victim of an extortion plot in 2012, when an asood
aspiring West Hollywood actor, Vivek Shah, threatened to kill him and his family if he didn’t fork ork over millions of dollars. Shah was later sentenced to seven years in the slammer. Weinstein wed his second and curfashion
current wife, English fashion designer Georgina Chapman, , in 2007. They have two children together. ogether. He has three children from his marriage to his former assistant Eve Chilton.