Harvey Weinstein
Kate Beckinsale says Harvey Weinstein couldn't remember if he'd sexually assaulted her
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]
A post shared by Kate Beckinsale (@katebeckinsale) on Oct 12, 2017 at 6:02am PDT
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."