Oscar-winning movie producer Harvey Weinstein who has fallen from grace is at the centre of a sexual harassment scandal. When the claims were first reported in the New York Times, Weinstein apologized for causing “a lot of pain”. He later disputed the article, however, claiming the report was “saturated with false and defamatory statements”. Many in the Hollywood industry including actress actress Meryl Streep – who once called him “God” in an awards speech – has spoken out against him, saying the claims left her “appalled”.
New Zealand fashion model and actress Zoë Brock who entered the modelling at the age of 14 describes how she was ’Harveyed’ while attending Cannes film festival in Paris when she was 23.
She says in her blog: “Harvey left the room, but not for long. He re-emerged naked a couple of minutes later and asked if I would give him a massage. Panicking, in shock, I remember weighing up the options and wondering how much I needed to placate him to keep myself safe…’You don’t like me because I’m fat’, he said”.
“I wish I had spoken up sooner. I wish I hadn’t thought this type of behaviour was normal at the time. I wish I had thought there was something, anything, I could do to stop him from hurting women all these years. I wish this type of man was not so prevalent. And I wish I had learned from this experience and not ended up in a relationship with a man just like him! There is not a woman I know who hasn’t been emotionally or physically tormented, threatened, intimidated, abused and terrified at the hands of bullies like Weinstein and Donald Trump (another creep I met in the late 1990’s). Society condones it. Women forgive it. Men enable it. I’d like to thank the New York Times for exposing this beast and giving me the courage and impetus to tell my story”. READ MORE
