Update!

Harvey Weinstein Accused of Raping Multiple Women

Weinstein Company founder denies any non-consensual sex after New Yorker exposé

By Kendall Fisher Oct 30, 2017 7:20 PMTags

UPDATE (10/30/17): New allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced against Harvey Weinstein, stemming back to the '70s.

In a New York Times article published Monday, four more women shared their sexual misconduct stories. Hope Exiner d'Amore shares with the NYT that she was living in Buffalo and working for Wenstein's concert promotion company in the late '70s called Harvey and Corky Productions. Exiner d'Amore says that after a few weeks working there, she took a trip to New York City with Weinstein to meet with people in the film industry. When they got to the hotel, Weinstein allegedly told her there had been a mistake with the reservation and they'd have to share a room. That night, she alleges that Harvey "forcibly performed oral sex and intercourse on her."

Actress Cynthia Burr claims in her interview with the publication that in the late '70s, Weinstein allegedly "forced her to perform oral sex on him" in a hallway. Burr, who was in her early 20s when the alleged incident occurred, tells the NYT, "It was just him and me alone. I was fearful I didn't have the wherewithal to get away."

Ashley Matthau is a dancer who worked on the movie Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights in 2004, a film produced by Weinstein's company Miramax. Matthau claims that Weinstein visited the set in Puerto Rico and allegedly began "pressuring her" to go to his hotel room for a meeting, but she explained she was engaged. Weinstein allegedly later "instructed" her to get into a car and when they were in his hotel room she alleges he "pushed her onto the bed and fondled her breasts." Weinstein then allegedly took off his clothes, straddled Mathau and masturbated on her.

After the incident, Matthau and her attorney John S. West met with Weinstein and his attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli at the Peninsula Beverly Hills. Matthau "agreed to enter into a more than $100,000 settlement." In exchange, Matthau entered a legally binding promise to not speak of the claims. Matthau wanted to speak out about the alleged incident even though she could face legal repercussions. "I want to do my part to help bring this to light so it doesn't happen with other people in Hollywood or anywhere else," she tells the publication. Petrocelli declined to comment to the NYT on the article.

Lacey Dorn, an actress and filmmaker, claims that in 2011 that Weinstein "grabbed between her legs" as she was leaving a Halloween party in New York City.

In response to multiple accusations of misconduct in the NYT article, a spokesperson for Weinstein tells E! News, "Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein."

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More claims stemming from Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct have been uncovered.

Ronan Farrow conducted what he describes as a 10-month investigation for a New Yorker exposé published Tuesday in which multiple actresses and former employees of the disgraced producer came forward with even more decades-long allegations of sexual advances. Three of those women even claim to have been raped by Weinstein.

Though one of the women refused to speak on-the-record, two others were willing to finally go public with the alleged details behind their scarring experiences, which Weinstein later denied in a statement to the publication.

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An actress from Rome, Asia Argento—who played Beatrice in the crime drama B. Monkey—said she was asked to attend a party thrown by Miramax at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc on the French Riviera in 1997, but when she got there, she found herself alone with Weinstein. 

She—like many other women—claimed Weinstein then forced her into giving him a massage, threatening her career if she didn't oblige. When she finally agreed, he allegedly pulled her skirt up and forced her legs apart to begin performing oral sex on her. Though she said she repeatedly told him no, she eventually gave in with hopes that it would come to an end—something she said has prompted years of guilt.

Things grew even more complicated as Argento admitted to giving into Weinstein's further sexual advances and even grew close with him. She said the reason she kept it all a secret for so long was her fear that he would "crush" her and her career.

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Another former aspiring actress, Lucia Evans, revealed a similar story. 

Evans was heading into her senior year at Middlebury College in 2004 when she met Weinstein at a club in New York. Later, his assistant ended up calling her to set up a meeting with a female casting casting director at the Miramax office in Tribeca. However, when she arrived, she said Weinstein was waiting for her in the room, alone.

Evans claimed he told her about a few opportunities that could help launch her career before she claimed he eventually took his penis out and forced her to perform oral sex on him—once again, after she pleaded and begged not to. She said he just continued to pull her head down and she eventually stopped fighting. 

 "I just sort of gave up," Evans recalled. "That's the most horrible part of it, and that's why he's been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like it's their fault."

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Farrow claims 16 former and current executives and assistants at Weinstein's companies told him they witnessed and/or had knowledge of Weinstein's unwanted sexual advances. Aside from the three women who say they were raped by the producer, four women said they experienced unwanted touching that could be classified as an assault, and four other women claimed they had encounters in which Weinstein exposed himself or masturbated in front of them.

Actress Rosanna Arquette claimed she was supposed to meet Weinstein for dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel to pick up the script for a new film in the early '90s. At the hotel, Arquette was told to meet Weinstein upstairs in his room where she said he greeted her in a white bathrobe. She claimed he then asked her for a massage, and when she rejected, she said he pulled her hand down toward his erect penis.

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Farrow said another actress and model, Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, came forward with an audio recording she claims was part of a sting operation with the New York Police Department in 2015 that was made public by The New Yorker for the first time.

The recording allegedly revealed Weinstein admitting to groping her breast and attempting to seduce her into joining him in his room. When she denied him, he said he was "used to" that and continued pressuring her before threatening her career.

And that was the overlying concern among every woman who claimed they were sexually harassed or raped by Weinstein. He threatened their careers, and they said they stayed quiet for so long out of fear that he'd ruin their name in Hollywood.

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Even the publication itself admits that previous attempts to publish some of these details over the years fell short of journalistic evidence, and therefore was shut down multiple times—until now, with more and more women willing to speak on the record.

As for the incredibly serious allegations in The New Yorker, Sallie Hofmeister, a spokesperson for Weinstein, issued the following statement: "Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Mr. Weinstein obviously can't speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual."

The statement continued, "Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance."

Article originally published Tue, Oct 10, 2017 2:25 p.m.

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