Entertainment: Actress Lauren Holly says naked Harvey Weinstein used toilet in front of her, asked for massage in hotel room
Actress Lauren Holly says Harvey Weinstein lured her to a hotel suite two decades ago, got naked without warning, used a toilet in front of her and became “angry” when she declined to massage his naked body.
The “Dumb and Dumber” actress appeared Monday on the Canadian talk show “The Social” and said the terrifying ambush left her in tears, with hives covering her body.
It was the late 1990s, and Holly was initially thrilled when she got a call to meet with the Hollywood heavyweight to discuss future projects with Miramax, she said.
She was in her 30s, had already made “Beautiful Girls” with Weinstein and had met him many times before, she said.
“At the time, he was the most powerful person in Hollywood. He could make a career. People were winning awards,” she said.
In a text to the Daily News, Holly, 53, said the meeting took place in a Los Angeles hotel.
“Everything seemed normal when I walked into the room. He had a big, silver bucket of champagne in the living room part of the suite and my first thought was, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m really important. Harvey Weinstein has champagne for me, this is very exciting. I think I’m going to make more movies with him,’ ” Holly said on program.
Weinstein, now 65, was fully dressed at that point, she said, and they sat down, had a glass of champagne and discussed the industry.
The movie mogul mentioned he had a big press tour with lots of traveling coming up, asked to be excused and returned wearing his hotel bathrobe, she said.
“No doubt it was odd,” Holly recalled.
“OK, let’s get to it,” Weinstein ordered as he started discussing scripts in the Miramax pipeline, she said.
He gestured for Holly to follow him into the bedroom area of the suite, and she obliged thinking he needed to pack for his trip, she said.
“The whole time he’s talking, and it never stopped ... What he had going on, what projects were coming, what he thought I would be right for,” she said.
“He dropped his robe, went into the bathroom in front of me and began to use the toilet. All the time talking. Now, at this point my head’s exploding,” she said.
“He keeps the conversation going, he finishes, he turns on the shower, he gets in the shower, he’s continually talking to me, he’s in the shower washing himself, leaning out, asking me for responses.
“My head is going crazy at this point. I don’t know. He’s acting like the situation is normal. He’s acting like we’re having a normal encounter. I’m thinking to myself, ‘Am I just a prude? Am I supposed to be more open-minded?’ I didn’t quite know how to handle myself at that moment,” she said.
Weinstein got out of the shower, dried himself, did not put on his robe and approached her, Holly said.
“When he came toward me, everything changed. The adrenaline rush I felt. I wanted to flee. I was scared,” she said. “He told me I looked stressed. He said that he thought maybe I could use a massage. Maybe I could give him a massage. I began sort of just babbling like I was a child.”
Holly recalled saying she didn’t have a massage license so maybe they should call down to the front desk to get a real masseuse.
“I didn’t know what to do, honestly,” she said. “And then he began to get angry. And I began to get really afraid, to be honest. I had to get out of there.”
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Weinstein tried verbal intimidation, advising it would be a “bad decision” for her career if she left, Holly said.
“I pushed him and ran,” she said. “I was scared.”
Holly said she left and went straight to a dinner party.
“I arrived crying. I had hives. They noticed immediately, asked me what had happened. I told them, and their response was, ‘Did he touch you, were you raped?’ ” she said.
Michaels and Collinsworth don’t get it, and probably never will
When Holly described what happened, they allegedly replied, “Then you need to keep your mouth shut, because it’s Harvey Weinstein.”
Holly said a year and a half later, she was in Toronto making a mini-series and Weinstein contacted her, asking to see her at her hotel.
She declined out of fear, she said.
Holly called Weinstein a “monster” and a “beast” and said she decided to speak up after The New York Times and New Yorker published blockbuster exposés this month in which multiple women accused the disgraced filmmaker of serial sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Weinstein issued a rambling apology that admitted he caused unidentified people pain, but he has denied the claims of sexual assault and threatened to sue The Times.
Holly said the lawsuit threat was one of the reasons she decided to turn vocal.
“I thought, ‘Oh no, sir. This is the truth. This is who you are,’ ” she said Monday.
source: nydailynews
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