The head of Russia’s film promotion body, actress Yekaterina Mtsitouridze, has come forward with allegations of sexual harassment by disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Weinstein has been forced out of his award-winning film studio and quit its board after multiple allegations of rape and sexual harassment.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter magazine published Thursday, Mtsitouridze said Weinstein had invited her to his hotel in Venice in Italy after a screening of one of his distribution company’s films in 2004.
She said she proposed meeting in a hotel cafe instead, but that when she showed up the next day she was told by his assistant the producer was feeling unwell and led to Weinstein’s room.
The assistant immediately disappeared, she said.
“I was frozen into immobility like a statue, because [Weinstein] was in a bathrobe.”
Mtsitouridze remembers him saying “let’s relax” and “you will love it” before she ultimately fled the hotel room, seizing on a moment when a waiter entered without knocking.
Around a decade later, Mtsitouridze recalls Weinstein warning her not to go public with her story.
“Be a smart girl,” she said Weinstein whispered to her at the Cannes film festival.
