An anonymous actress filed suit against Harvey Weinstein and his namesake production company Tuesday in Los Angeles, alleging that the disgraced Hollywood mogul raped her in 2016.
According to the suit, the woman, who goes by the name Jane Doe in official filings, is a new accuser — she has not yet gone public with her claims against the mega-producer. She says she’s known Weinstein since 2011, and interacted with him often without incident. But in 2015, the producer lured Doe to his room at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, claiming he wanted to speak with her about a part in a new Weinstein-produced Netflix series, “Marco Polo.”
Once in the room, Doe alleges that Weinstein grabbed her and forced her to watch as he dropped his pants and masturbated. “Despite her telling Weinstein ‘no,’ he proceeded to grip her wrist with one hand while using the other to masturbate in front of her until completion,” the complaint says.
She escaped from that incident, but just a few months later Weinstein called to tell her she’d gotten the “Marco Polo” part and asked to, again, meet with her privately. It’s at this meeting, Doe says, that Weinstein held her down and raped her.
Weinstein immediately denied the claims. “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” a representative told Deadline. “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 suit, filed by celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, seeks damages from Weinstein for “sexual battery,” but also seeks restitution from the Weinstein Company which, the suit alleges, knew of Weinstein’s behavior and did nothing to rein in their eponymous chief executive.
“Prior to the incidents involving Plaintiff, the Companies’ executives, officers, directors, managing agents, and employees had actual knowledge of Weinstein’s repeated acts of sexual misconduct with women,” the complaint alleges.
In addition to Jane Doe’s suit, Allred also filed a separate “class action” claim. That suit, citing from news articles covering nearly 90 alleged incidents of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and rape involving Weinstein, lists several anonymous victims, and indicates a plan to file a collective suit on behalf of at least a dozen actresses and entertainment industry professionals.
That may not come to fruition, but Allred is clearly preserving her options.