Two more women were due to go public Friday with horrifying details of sexual attacks they say they were subjected to by disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
They include a case being investigated by Los Angeles police of an Italian model and actress who says the 65-year-old producer raped her after dragging her into the bathroom of her hotel suite in Beverly Hills in 2013.
Her lawyer Dave Ring is due to discuss her case — the sixth rape allegation against Weinstein — at a news conference in downtown Los Angeles, although it was not immediately clear whether she would appear in person.
Also on Thursday, a former actress who accuses Weinstein of sexual assault will appear at a news conference with celebrated women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred.
Weinstein allegedly told her that to get a job, she’d have to be good in bed and sleep with directors and producers, Allred said.
The entertainment tycoon is accused of decades of sexual abuse and harassment by around 40 actresses, including stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Mira Sorvino, Tarantino’s ex-girlfriend.
The veteran producer, who resigned from the board of The Weinstein Company this week, having already been sacked as its co-chairman, has so far denied all allegations of forcing himself on his accusers.
He was expelled from Hollywood’s motion picture Academy on Saturday and the Television Academy’s board of governors voted late Thursday to begin “disciplinary proceedings” which could see him ousted from that organisation too.
Los Angeles police confirmed to AFP on Thursday they were investigating the case of Ring’s client, which takes Weinstein’s potential legal woes to a new level as it falls within the 10-year statute of limitations for the crime.
‘Very aggressive’
Until now, most of the accusations Weinstein faced were more than a decade old.
The alleged victim, then 34, told the Los Angeles Times the incident occurred at the Mr. C Beverly Hills hotel after she attended the 8th annual Los Angeles, Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest in February 2013.
He showed up “without warning” in the lobby and asked to come up to her room, she told the newspaper. She said she offered instead to meet him downstairs, but added that he was soon knocking on her door.
“He… bullied his way into my hotel room, saying, ´I´m not going to (have sex with) you, I just want to talk,´” the mother-of-three is quoted as saying.
“Once inside, he asked me questions about myself, but soon became very aggressive and demanding and kept asking to see me naked. He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do. He then dragged me to the bathroom and forcibly raped me.”
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino admitted in an interview published Thursday by the New York Times he had known for decades about Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct.
“I knew enough to do more than I did,” Oscar-winning Tarantino, 54, told the paper of his friend and mentor, citing several episodes involving prominent actresses.
“There was more to it than just the normal rumors, the normal gossip. It wasn’t secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things.”
Weinstein and Tarantino have worked closely for decades since the producer distributed “Reservoir Dogs,” in 1992. (AFP)
