Kate Beckinsale says Harvey Weinstein couldn't remember if he'd sexually assaulted her

Kate Beckinsale opens up about Harvey Weinstein

(Image credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

last updated 13 October 2017

Police in London and New York said Thursday that they are looking into complaints of sexual assault by disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, including ones with no statutes of limitations. Also Thursday, actress Kate Beckinsale said that Weinstein did not sexually assault her, but not for lack of trying. When she was 17, she was sent to a meeting with Weinstein at London's Savoy Hotel, and to her surprise, it was in his hotel room. He opened the door in his bathrobe, she writes on Instragram under a photo of herself at 17:

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. A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting. I realized he couldn't remember if he had assaulted me or not. [Kate Beckinsale]

Beckinsale went on to recount how she "said no to him professionally many times," too, over the years, and he called her crude names and threatened her. Keeping herself "uncompromised ... undoubtedly harmed my career," she said, adding that an unidentified male friend was blacklisted from Weinstein projects because he tried to warn off an actress who was already sleeping with Weinstein. "Any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein," spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister said earlier this week, as allegations from actresses started piling up. "Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.