The allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour against Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein just keep coming, as more and more women are coming forward and decades of sexual assault and misconduct and abuse of power are coming out. One such accusation has come from Italian actor Asia Argento, who has said that Weinstein raped her when she was 21.
Argento told The New Yorker that Weinstein invited her to what she thought would be a party at his room in the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cannes where they were both attending the world-renowned film festival, but when she got there, she found that she was his only guest.
He changed into a bathrobe and requested that she give him a massage. This corroborates a lot of the other claims, which see Weinstein wearing just a bathrobe and inviting actresses up to his hotel room.
According to Argento, she reluctantly agreed to the massage, after which Weinstein pulled up her skirt and forcibly performed oral sex on her. She described the experience as a “horrible trauma” and says she felt guilty for not fighting him off. Later, she would go on to have sex with Weinstein that she did consent to, but also clarified that she only complied so that he wouldn’t ruin her career. She said, “After the rape, he won.”
‘He forced me to perform oral sex on him’
Lucia Evans, back then going by Lucia Stoller, was an aspiring actress living in New York when she was approached by Harvey Weinstein in the Cirpriani Upstairs nightclub in 2004.
She told The New Yorker that he then arranged to meet her at the offices of the production company behind many of Weinstein's film, Miramax, to discuss opportunities for her career in acting. But when she got there, she found that she was alone with him, where she alleges that she was "forced to perform oral sex" on the Hollywood movie mogul.
Evans said she “overpowered” her, and told The New Yorker that she blamed herself for the assault for not fighting back hard enough and that she is still traumatised by it.
When Gwyneth Paltrow was 22 and Harvey Weinstein hired her for the lead role in “Emma,” the adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, she was invited up to his hotel room.
She said that he told her to give a massage, but she rejected his advances, refused to give him the massage, and left the hotel room. Terrified, she confided in Brad Pitt, who was her boyfriend at the time, and he confronted Weinstein. Afterwards, Weinstein told Paltrow not to tell anyone else about his advances. Paltrow said that there was an expectation from Weinstein that she would keep her encounter with him a “secret,” and said that she was concerned that he would fire her if she went public with it.
Angelina Jolie is another actress who found herself in a hotel room with Harvey Weinstein, before she was fully established. She told The New York Times that he made some unwanted advances towards her, but she turned him down.
She described the encounter as “a bad experience...in my youth,” after which she decided that she would never work with Weinstein on another project and consistently advised others not to and warned them if they ever became attached to one of his productions.
Some accusers have chosen to remain anonymous
One of Weinstein’s accusers, who has remained anonymous, told The New Yorker that the producer slipped into a bathrobe and “forced himself on me sexually.” She said that after the rape, she felt “horror, disbelief, and shame,” and contemplated whether or not to take it to the police. However, due to fears that it would set her career back, she decided to leave it and “just...move forward.” Following the rape, the actress continued her working relationship with Weinstein.
Another star of a number of Weinstein productions, Mira Sorvino, has come forward to publicly share allegations that Weinstein invited her up to his hotel room during the Toronto International Film Festival in 1995 and “started massaging [her] shoulders.” She told The New Yorker that she felt “very uncomfortable” during the forced massage and that afterwards, he attempted to step the assault up to the next level and began “chasing [her] around” the room. However, before the assault could go any further, Sorvino managed to escape.
Could Harvey Weinstein go to jail?
The allegations against Harvey Weinstein keep pouring in, and pretty soon, every actress in Hollywood will have spoken out about his crimes.
Sooner or later, there will definitely be circumstances under which he could be convicted and then jailed. This goes beyond him merely being shunned from the industry he was once the king of. This is rape and sexual assault and harassment. It's serious stuff, and it's illegal. With so many victims coming forward to tell of their experiences and in turn, encouraged others to stand up and do the same, we could be seeing Harvey Weinstein stand trial for his immoral and unjustifiable actions.
As for Weinstein himself, he's threatened to sue The New York Times for publishing the story about him, because he thinks he's still the most powerful man in Hollywood who can get whatever he wants, but the truth is, those days are over. It's ironic, really, because he abused his power for decades and now, because of it, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.
