A woman who claims that fallen movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her told the jury in his Los Angeles sex crimes trial on Wednesday that he also tried to make her take part in a threesome with him and another woman two months later at one of his favorite Beverly Hills luxury spots.
Taking the stand at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Norwegian actress Natassia Malthe testified that the alleged incident occurred in 2008 at the Peninsula Hotel, a preferred haunt for Weinstein—who faces four counts of rape and seven other sexual assault charges involving five women, and is already serving a 23-year-sentence for sex crimes convictions in New York—that figures prominently in trial testimony from multiple witnesses and alleged victims.
Malthe told the court she had arrived at the Peninsula having been led to believe she would be discussing a movie role with Weinstein, which is another frequent feature of horror stories about the onetime Oscar king’s alleged decades of attacks on women. And it is a common aspect of accuser accounts about Weinstein that his own lawyers seem to support, as they’re using a “casting couch” defense, contending that the alleged victims had voluntary but “transactional” sex with Weinstein in hopes of advancing their careers.
However, Malthe said, when she arrived at Weinstein’s suite, there was another woman there, the New York Post reports.
“They were trying to get me to do a threesome with them,” Malthe said through tears. “I had already said I didn’t want to… And this [woman] who I think is a prostitute is like, ‘Oh, she so shy,’ and her and Weinstein were laughing. And she gave him a blow job.”
Adding that the woman was “coaxing” her to get into a robe and take part, Malthe said of Weinstein, “He has you by the fucking throat, knowing that if you don’t comply, that your career is down the drain… and that’s not right.”
While it can be easy to forget—and many may wish to—the unique power Weinstein once wielded in (and, sometimes, against) the entertainment industry and its codependent Oscars system to force his will, Miramax and the Weinstein Company had produced or distributed 81 Oscar-winning films by the time he was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences during the rising popularity of #MeToo in 2017.
Malthe told the court that the Peninsula the incident happened two months after Weinstein allegedly raped her at a London hotel at around the same time as the BAFTA Awards in England.
At the time of the alleged assaults, Malthe told the court, Weinstein was referred to as “one phone call away Harvey” because he could make or break careers as the most powerful person in Hollywood, the Post notes.
When Weinstein allegedly assaulted her, Malthe testified, he told her to think about “all the Oscars” people had won and said “everyone had to go through him; meaning—comply.”
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