Harvey Weinstein Accused of Raping Multiple Women

More claims stemming from Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct have been uncovered.

Ronan Farrow conducted what he describes as a 10-month investigation for a New Yorker exposé published Tuesday in which multiple actresses and former employees of the disgraced producer came forward with even more decades-long allegations of sexual advances. Three of those women even claim to have been raped by Weinstein.

Though one of the women refused to speak on-the-record, two others were willing to finally go public with the alleged details behind their scarring experiences, which Weinstein later denied in a statement to the publication.

An actress from Rome, Asia Argento—who played Beatrice in the crime drama B. Monkey—said she was asked to attend a party thrown by Miramax at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc on the French Riviera in 1997, but when she got there, she found herself alone with Weinstein. 

She—like many other women—claimed Weinstein then forced her into giving him a massage, threatening her career if she didn't oblige. When she finally agreed, he allegedly pulled her skirt up and forced her legs apart to begin performing oral sex on her. Though she said she repeatedly told him no, she eventually gave in with hopes that it would come to an end—something she said has prompted years of guilt.

Things grew even more complicated as Argento admitted to giving into Weinstein's further sexual advances and even grew close with him. She said the reason she kept it all a secret for so long was her fear that he would "crush" her and her career.

Another former aspiring actress, Lucia Evans, revealed a similar story. 

Evans was heading into her senior year at Middlebury College in 2004 when she met Weinstein at a club in New York. Later, his assistant ended up calling her to set up a meeting with a female casting casting director at the Miramax office in Tribeca. However, when she arrived, she said Weinstein was waiting for her in the room, alone.

Evans claimed he told her about a few opportunities that could help launch her career before she claimed he eventually took his penis out and forced her to perform oral sex on him—once again, after she pleaded and begged not to. She said he just continued to pull her head down and she eventually stopped fighting. 

 "I just sort of gave up," Evans recalled. "That's the most horrible part of it, and that's why he's been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like it's their fault."

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Farrow claims 16 former and current executives and assistants at Weinstein's companies told him they witnessed and/or had knowledge of Weinstein's unwanted sexual advances. Aside from the three women who say they were raped by the producer, four women said they experienced unwanted touching that could be classified as an assault, and four other women claimed they had encounters in which Weinstein exposed himself or masturbated in front of them.

Actress Rosanna Arquette claimed she was supposed to meet Weinstein for dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel to pick up the script for a new film in the early '90s. At the hotel, Arquette was told to meet Weinstein upstairs in his room where she said he greeted her in a white bathrobe. She claimed he then asked her for a massage, and when she rejected, she said he pulled her hand down toward his erect penis.

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Farrow said another actress and model, Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, came forward with an audio recording she claims was part of a sting operation with the New York Police Department in 2015 that was made public by The New Yorker for the first time.

The recording allegedly revealed Weinstein admitting to groping her breast and attempting to seduce her into joining him in his room. When she denied him, he said he was "used to" that and continued pressuring her before threatening her career.

And that was the overlying concern among every woman who claimed they were sexually harassed or raped by Weinstein. He threatened their careers, and they said they stayed quiet for so long out of fear that he'd ruin their name in Hollywood.

Even the publication itself admits that previous attempts to publish some of these details over the years fell short of journalistic evidence, and therefore was shut down multiple times—until now, with more and more women willing to speak on the record.

As for the incredibly serious allegations in The New Yorker, Sallie Hofmeister, a spokesperson for Weinstein, issued the following statement: "Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Mr. Weinstein obviously can't speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual."

The statement continued, "Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance."