Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment.
Paltrow told The New York Times that at 22, Weinstein summoned her to his hotel room shortly after she was cast in Emma. The meeting began uneventfully, but ended with Weinstein "placing his hands on her and suggesting they head to the bedroom for massages," Paltrow told the paper. "I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified." Paltrow's account continues as follows:
She refused his advances, she said, and confided in Brad Pitt, her boyfriend at the time. Mr. Pitt confronted Mr. Weinstein, and soon after, the producer threatened her not to tell anyone else about his come-on. "I thought he was going to fire me," she said.When Mr. Weinstein tried to massage her and invited her into the bedroom, she immediately left, she said, and remembers feeling stunned as she drove away. "I thought you were my Uncle Harvey," she recalled thinking, explaining that she had seen him as a mentor.
Pitt reportedly approached Weinstein at a theater premiere and "told him never to touch Ms Paltrow again," an account of events which Pitt confirmed to The Times through a representative. Paltrow went on to tell the paper that Weinstein called her shortly after the Pitt incident and "screamed at her for a long time," berating her for discussing what had happened. "It was brutal."
Jolie told the Times that Weinstein made unwanted advances on her in a hotel room in the late 1990s. "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," she said in an email. "This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable."
Paltrow and Jolie's are the latest in a series of allegations made agains the legendary producer, beginning last Thursday with a New York Times investigation detailing allegations dating back three decades, from multiple women including actresses Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan.
Following the initial Times article, Weinstein released a statement in which he said "I realized some time ago that I needed to be a better person and my interactions with the people I work with have changed. I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I'm trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go." His statement can be read in full at The Times. Also on Thursday, Weinstein's attorney Charles Harder threatened to sue the paper for what he called "a story that is saturated with false and defamatory statements about Harvey Weinstein."
