More Women Come Forward With Harvey Weinstein Assault Claims, NYPD Opens Criminal Investigation Into 2004 Incident
Posted on Thu Oct 12th, 2017 10:50am PDT By X17 Staff
This is the takedown of the century.
Harvey Weinstein is not only in hot water with every Hollywood actress, he's now potentially in trouble with the law as well. Today, Kate Beckinsale came forward with allegations of sexual harassment by the disgraced studio exec, and the NYPD has opened an investigation into a sexual assault incident that occurred back in 2004.
The British beauty claims she was only 17-years-old when Weinstein made advances towards her, of which she was able to fend off.
"I was called to meet Harvey Weinstein at the Savoy Hotel when I was 17. I assumed it would be in a conference room which was very common. When I arrived reception told me to go to his room. He opened the door in his bathrobe. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him. After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed," she wrote on Instagram.
During a run-in years later, Weinstein couldn't even remember if he had creeped on Beckinsale. Wow!
"He had tried anything with me in that first meeting. I realized he couldn't remember if he had assaulted me or not. I had what I thought were boundaries — I said no to him professionally many times over the years — some of which ended up with him screaming at me calling me a c-nt and making threats, some of which made him laughingly tell people, 'Oh, Kate lives to say no to me,'" she continued.
The actress says that her repeated rebuffs of Weinstein damaged her career.
"It speaks to the status quo in this business that I was aware that standing up for myself and saying no to things, while it did allow me to feel uncompromised in myself, undoubtedly harmed my career and was never something I felt supported by anyone other than my family. I would like to applaud the women who have come forward, and to pledge that we can from this create a new paradigm where producers, managers, executives and assistants and everyone who has in the past shrugged and said, 'Well, that's just Harvey /Mr X/insert name here,' will realize that we in numbers can affect real change," she concluded.
Kate's not the only one, though! French actress Florence Darel also came forward this morning to reveal that Weinstein propositioned her while his then-wife Eve Chilton was in the room next door!
As for the investigation, the NYPD is looking into claims that Weinstein sexually assaulted a victim 13 years ago. They don't name the victim or offer any more details, but the timeline matches up to actress Lucia Evans' claims that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him at his Manhattan Miramax office.
Weinstein was being investigated in 2015, but DA Cyrus Vance declined to press charges because he didn't think they had sufficient evidence to win the case. Chief ADA Karen Friedman Agnifilo released the below statement on Twitter to explain their reasoning.
Imagine if this all ends with Weinstein going to the slammer!
Statement by Chief ADA Karen Friedman Agnifilo on allegations against Harvey Weinstein — pic.twitter.com/4kLfEk60re
— Cyrus Vance, Jr. (@ManhattanDA) October 10, 2017