Kate Beckinsale says Harvey Weinstein "couldn't remember" if he assaulted her

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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Beckinsale says Weinstein "couldn't remember" if he assaulted her
Actress Kate Beckinsale is the latest woman to come forward as accusations of sexual misconduct mount against Harvey Weinstein.

NEW YORK (KABC) -- Actress Kate Beckinsale is the latest woman to come forward as accusations of sexual misconduct mount against Harvey Weinstein.

Beckinsale posted a lengthy account of her experience on Instagram Thursday morning, recalling an encounter with Weinstein at the Savoy Hotel when the actress was just a teenager.

The actress said she was called to meet with the movie mogul at the hotel when she was 17 years old. She had assumed the meeting would take place at a conference room. However, when she arrived at the location, the receptionist told her to go to his hotel room.

MORE: Celebs slam "disgusting" Harvey Weinstein amid assault allegations

In her social media post, Beckinsale said Weinstein opened the door to his room wearing a bathrobe.

"After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed," Beckinsale said in her post.

The actress said a few years later, Weinstein asked her if he had "tried anything" with her in that first meeting at the Savoy.

"I realized he couldn't remember if he had assaulted me or not," she recounted.

MORE: Harvey Weinstein accused of sexual harassment in 2008 by former screenwriter

Beckinsale continued, adding that she said "no to him professionally many times over the years." She said upon her rejections, Weinstein screamed at her, called her derogatory names, made threats and laughingly told people "Oh, Kate lives to say no to me."

"It speaks to the status quo in this business that I was aware that standing up for myself and saying no to things, while it did allow me to feel uncompromised in myself, undoubtedly harmed my career and was never something I felt supported by anyone other than my family," Beckinsale said.

The actress said she applauds the women who have come forward with their stories.

"We can from this create a new paradigm where producers, managers, executives and assistants and everyone who has in the past shrugged and said 'well, that's just Harvey/Mr X/insert name here' will realize that we in numbers can affect real change," she said.

She went on to describe an incident involving her male friend, who warned a young actress "to be careful" when he learned she was going to dinner with Weinstein.

"He received a phone call the next day saying he would never work in another Miramax film," she said, adding that the young actress had "already been sleeping with Harvey and had told him that my friend had warned her."

Beckinsale ended her post by saying Weinstein is "an emblem of a system that is sick and that we have work to do."

More than a dozen women - including actresses Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow - told The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine of recent stories that Weinstein had sexually harassed or sexually assaulted them. Weinstein was fired Sunday by The Weinstein Co., a studio he co-founded with his brother.

The fallout has continued to resonate days after the scandal came to light. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has scheduled a special meeting on Saturday, when its board of governors will decide how to respond to the allegations against Weinstein.

Pierre Lescure, president of the Cannes Film Festival, said in a statement: "These actions point to a pattern of behavior that merits only the clearest and most unequivocal condemnation. Our thoughts go out the victims, to those who have had the courage to testify and to all the others."

The New York Police Department on Thursday said it was conducting a review to determine if there are any other complaints against Weinstein in the agency's jurisdiction.

Neither the Los Angeles Police Department nor the L.A. County Sheriff's Department has conducted an investigation - past or present - of the legendary producer.