*Another woman has come forward with sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein – this time appearing in a press conference Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 10) with high-profile attorney Gloria Allred.
Actress and screenwriter Louisette Geiss said Weinstein tried to force her to watch him masturbate while she was pitching a movie at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.
“We went to his office and had a great conversation about his current film and about the film I was pitching,” Geiss said in a statement. “He seemed genuinely interested in the script I had co-written. After 30 minutes he excused himself to go to the bathroom.”
“He returned in a robe with the front open, buck-naked,” she continued. “He told me to keep talking about my film and that he was going to get into his hot tub which was in the room adjacent to his office, steps away. I kept talking as he got into the hot tub. When I finished my pitch, he asked me to watch him masturbate. I told him I was leaving. He quickly got out of the hot tub. As I went to get my purse to leave, he grabbed my forearm and pulled me to his bathroom and pleaded with me to watch him masturbate. My heart was racing and I was very scared.”
Geiss is only the latest to come forward with details of an offensive run-in with Weinstein. Last Thursday, the New York Times published an exposé detailing “dozens” of incidences of sexual harassment by Weinstein. The article and ensuing controversy caused Weinstein to be fired from his own company on Sunday.
The scandal escalated even more when, on Tuesday, the New Yorker published a report alleging Weinstein sexually assaulted multiple women. Following that report, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie went public to the New York Times, saying that Weinstein sexually harassed them at points in their careers.
Allred’s daughter, Lisa Bloom, was previously advising Weinstein as the revelations came to light. She resigned last week, however, following significant backlash from women’s groups and Allred herself, who said she would have declined to represent Weinstein but “would consider representing anyone who accused Mr. Weinstein of sexual harassment, even if it meant that my daughter was the opposing counsel.”
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, who has received a ton of money and Democratic support from Weinstein, praised the women who have come forward against him in an official statement released Tuesday, five days after the initial New York Times report.
The statement was also released hours after the New Yorker published a second explosive report in which three women accuse the media mogul of rape.
“I was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein,” Clinton said in the statement. “The behavior described by the women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior.”
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