Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misbehaviour has long been a subject of gossip in Hollywood, where rumours of unwanted advances, cover-ups and hush money have been swirling below the surface for years.
Those rumours burst into the open last week, when the New York Times published an expose identifying the powerful studio executive as the perpetrator of a series of sexual assaults across three decades.
A-list celebrities including Angelina Jolie are among host of accusers who have since come forward to say they experienced or witnessed sexual harassment by Weinstein, who has now been dismissed from the company that bears his name.
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Here are the major names who have broken the wall of silence:
Ashley Judd: The 49-year-old actor, who rose to fame in 1990s crime thrillers A Time To Kill and Kiss the Girls, was the first star to explicitly name Weinstein as her aggressor.
In the New York Times article which kicked off the scandal, Judd claimed that, in 1997, Weinstein invited her to what she thought was a meeting at his hotel. Instead he asked her up to his suite, where he “appeared in a bathrobe and asked if he could give her a massage or she could watch him shower”.
“I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask,” she said. Judd said she was eventually able to make her excuses and leave the room.
Angelina Jolie: “I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did,” the Maleficent star told the New York Times, adding that such behaviour towards women is “unacceptable”.
Gwyneth Paltrow: Oscar winner Paltrow sent a separate statement to the New York Times alleging that Weinstein touched her and tried to solicit “massages” in a hotel room after casting the then-newcomer in Emma. ”I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she said.
Rose McGowan: Aged 22, McGowan was reportedly given an undisclosed settlement “after ‘an episode in a hotel room with Weinstein at the Sundance Film Festival’”, The Sun reports.
Since the New York Times article emerged last week, the Charmed actor has been one of the most vocal advocates for her fellow accusers, encouraging other victims to come forward:
Rosanna Arquette: The Pulp Fiction actor and member of the Arquette acting dynasty, told the New Yorker that Weinstein asked her for a massage and tried to place her hand on his erect penis in the 1990s. After she refused his advances, “he made things very difficult for me for years,” she told the New Yorker.
Mira Sorvino: The actor, who won a Best Suppoting Actress Oscar for her role in the Weinstein-produced comedy Mighty Aphrodite, said she had fended off multiple advances from the producer.
On one occasion, she told the New Yorker, “he started massaging my shoulders, which made me very uncomfortable, and then tried to get more physical, sort of chasing me around.”
Asia Argento: The Italian actor and director, most familiar to Hollywood audiences for her role alongside Vin Diesel in xXx, told the New Yorker that Weinstein cornered her in a hotel and performed oral sex on her against her will. “I said, ‘No, no, no.’ ... It’s twisted,” she said.
The pair later had other sexual encounters, ostensibly consensual. “I felt I had to,” Argento said.
The revelations surrounding Weinstein’s alleged behaviour have also encouraged celebrities to come forward to share stories of harassment.
Brooklyn Nine Nine and White Chicks star Terry Crews tweeted about an experience last year in which, he said, an unnamed studio executive groped his genitals at a “Hollywood function”.
Crews said he had felt unable to defend himself and had empathy for Weinstein’s accusers who were previously reluctant to come forward.
