US journalist who broke the story to present a late-night show on Channel 4
Just when you thought you knew enough about the sexual assault allegations involving disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, now British actresses and models are coming forward to speak out against the mogul, prompting the UK police to launch a separate investigation into these allegations.
Calling Harvey ‘an emblem of a system that is sick’, Hollywood actress Kate Beckinsale is the latest British face to come forward and allege that Weinstein sexually harassed her.
Beckinsale took to social media last evening and wrote how at the age of 17 she was called to meet Weinstein at the Savoy Hotel in London, where he opened the door in a bathrobe.
Calling herself “naive”, Beckinsale wrote how ” it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him.”
Beckinsale left the room “uneasy but unscathed” and said that “a few years later” Weinstein could not remember if he had tried anything with her at that first meeting. Following this scarring experience, the actress declined work on Miramax productions for several times, a move, she said, prompted the film executive producer to reportedly call her names and threaten her.
Just two days earlier, British actress and model Cara Delevingne had accused Weinstein of trying to kiss her as she tried to leave a hotel room. Delevingne had appeared in a Weinstein produced film “Tulip Fever,” which just released in September.
The actress-model had posted a photo and a note on Instagram reading “Don’t be ashamed of your story it will inspire others.”
She then narrated her side of the story of how early in her career she “received a call from Harvey Weinstein asking if I had slept with any of the women I was seen out with in the media.”
“It was a very odd and uncomfortable call,” the actress said, adding : “I answered none of his questions and hurried off the phone but before I hung up, he said to me that If I was gay or decided to be with a woman especially in public that I’d never get the role of a straight woman or make it as an actress in Hollywood.”
Emma Thompson had earlier told BBC how she found him to be a “bully” when his company Miramax owned the rights to her film Nanny McPhee. She also said that she did not know about the allegations of sexual impropriety but they ” don’t surprise me at all”.
Following the string of accusations in the US, the 65-year-old Hollywood mogul has reportedly lost his job and his wife is also leaving him amid the scandal, media reports suggest.
With new allegations surfacing daily, Weinstein’s spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister reiterated yesterday that any allegations of “non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein”. She added: “Mr Weinstein has begun counselling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path.”
Merseyside Police has said it received a report on Wednesday alleging a sexual assault had taken place in the London area in the 1980s and referred the matter to Scotland Yard. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police told media that the allegation will be assessed by officers from its Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command.
It is also learned that the US journalist who revealed the string of allegations against Weinstein fstretching over decades, will now present a new late-night show on Channel 4 , a media report states.
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