In an interview with The Financial Times (via The Hollywood Reporter), a woman who used to work as Harvey Weinstein’s assistant at Miramax’s London office several years ago has broken a non-disclosure agreement she signed so she could discuss a supposed history of cover-ups that have prevented Weinstein staffers from talking about his alleged history of sexual harassment and abuse. The woman, Zelda Perkins, says she “endured sexual harassment” while working for Weinstein, but she decided to finally quit when he allegedly assaulted one of her colleagues.
Perkins and this unnamed woman went to a lawyer with their claims, and the lawyer told them to try and get a settlement from Weinstein and Miramax. Perkins says she initially wanted to expose Weinstein right away, but she was told that a court wouldn’t take her word against his “with no evidence” and that Weinstein would “destroy” her and her family if she tried. Perkins and the colleague took the settlement because of that, but not before demanding that Miramax set up a “complaints procedure” that would’ve forced the company to notify Disney—which owned Miramax—if Weinstein settled any other harassment complaints within two years. That apparently didn’t happen.
Perkins also says she wasn’t allowed to keep a copy of her NDA, probably to prevent her from letting anyone else see it, but she’s speaking out now because “the inequality of power is so stark and relies on money rather than morality.” She also wants to help other women “own their own history or their trauma” by being able to talk about what they’ve been through. Meanwhile, current Weinstein Company staff members have released a statement asking that they be let out of their NDAs as well so they can “speak openly and get to the origins of what happened here and how.”
Weinstein, for the record, has denied the accusations from Perkins and the unnamed colleague.