German actor Emma Loman has accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of raping her at the Cannes film festival in 2006, AFP reported on Wednesday. Loman filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Monday, accusing the media mogul of assault, violation of human trafficking laws, battery and false imprisonment.
Hers are the latest in a long line of sexual assault and rape allegations against Weinstein.
Loman claimed that she met the accused at the Venice film festival in 2004, where he invited her to Cannes as his guest to discuss her career. The actor said that she had expressed her hesitation to take up the offer and that Weinstein had persisted in getting her to accept the invitation and even had his assistant call her up to 30 times a day.
The German actor said that while Weinstein was professional during their initial meetings, he eventually convinced her to go his hotel suite to apparently discuss potential acting roles for her. “Upon arriving at Weinstein’s suite ... Weinstein quickly dropped his professional demeanor. He instead overpowered Loman and raped her,” the report quoted the lawsuit as saying.
The complaint alleges that Weinstein threatened to ruin her career if she complained against him. “Fearful both that no one would believe her and the potential retaliation from such a powerful figure, Loman stayed silent,” the lawsuit says. “It was only upon the late 2017 revelation of the scope of Weinstein’s wrongful actions ... that Loman felt safe coming forward to seek redress for Weinstein’s rape of her.”
Weinstein, who has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 70 women, surrendered at a police station in New York on May 25. He has been indicted on multiple charges of rape and assault following several allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Weinstein has been charged with first and third degree rape, and a criminal sexual act in the first degree. He faces between five and 25 years in prison if proved guilty of the most serious crimes.
He pled not guilty to charges of rape and a criminal sexual act in June.
The allegations of sexual assault were first reported by The New York Times and The New Yorker in 2017, which led to the #MeToo and Times Up movements. The movements seek to expose sexual harassment and assault, especially at workplace.
Since the allegations against Weinstein became public, several people from within the American film industry and outside have accused actors and directors such as Dustin Hoffman, Brett Ratner, Geoffrey Rush, Ryan Seacrest, Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman of harassment.
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