NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ‘s assistants saved an inventory of feminine “friends of Harvey” to ask to occasions and generally thought of them a particular class for visitor lists, an ex-aide testified Thursday on the former film mogul’s intercourse crimes retrial.
“A ‘friend of Harvey’ was a woman that he’d meet at events or parties or festivals or — somewhere,” stated Elizabeth Perz, certainly one of his govt assistants from 2011 to 2013.
The then-married Weinstein requested his assistants to ask these ladies to occasions, Perz stated. It was such frequent observe that Weinstein’s subordinates had a shorthand: “Might as well add a FOH column,” Perz suggested colleagues by electronic mail as they mentioned the attendee listing for some 2013 awards-season occasions.
Jurors have been proven a roster of effectively over a dozen names, which Perz stated was saved within the workplace at Weinstein’s now-defunct manufacturing firm. The names have been damaged down by geography, similar to “LA Friends” or “Cannes/And so forth/all invitations.”
One “LA Friends” entry was Jessica Mann, one of many three ladies whose allegations are on the coronary heart of the retrial.
Weinstein has pleaded not responsible. The once-powerful studio boss, who turned a first-rate goal of the #MeToo motion’s marketing campaign in opposition to sexual misconduct, maintains that he is by no means had sexual encounters that weren’t consensual.
Over the last 5 years, he was convicted of assorted intercourse crimes in each New York and California. However he is on trial once more as a result of an appeals court docket discovered that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial testimony and overturned that conviction. He is charged with raping Mann in 2013 and forcing oral intercourse on two different ladies, individually, in 2006.
Mann, who was a hairstylist and aspiring actor when she met Weinstein within the early 2010s, is anticipated to testify within the coming days or week. The opposite accusers, Miriam Haley and Kaja Sokola, have already got taken the stand.
At Weinstein’s 2020 trial, Mann painted a fancy and emotional image of a yearslong relationship that started consensually however turned “degrading” and unstable and finally exploded into rape. Nonetheless, she saved seeing him and sending heat messages as a result of she wished him to consider she “wasn’t a menace,” she testified.
Weinstein’s legal professionals on the time argued that Mann willingly had a sexual liaison with him to serve her performing ambitions. At one level throughout his protection’s questioning in 2020, she started sobbing so forcefully that court docket ended early that day.
On the retrial on Thursday, jurors noticed messages that Perz had despatched to Mann about some Oscars-related events in 2013.
“Harvey would like to extend an invitation to you” and a good friend, Perz wrote.
The Related Press usually doesn’t determine individuals who alleged they’ve been sexually assaulted until they comply with be recognized, which Sokola, Haley and Mann have carried out.
