This morning it was finally announced that the NYPD is reviewing the sexual harassment and assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein and is asking others to come forward. Joining the long list of Hollywood actors who have offered their own nightmarish encounters with the ousted studio chief is Underworld star Kate Beckinsale, who says that Weinstein invited her to his hotel room when she was only 17 years old. The Hollywood Reporter announces today that Beckinsale has taken to Instagram to tell her story: “After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed.”
Her history of saying no to Weinstein resulted in a massively dysfunctional working relationship, in which Weinstein couldn’t even remember what had happened at that early encounter:
A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting. I realized he couldn’t remember if he had assaulted me or not. I had what I thought were boundaries—I said no to him professionally many times over the years—some of which ended up with him screaming at me calling me a cunt and making threats, some of which made him laughingly tell people, “Oh, Kate lives to say no to me.”
In coming forward, Beckinsale joins a rapidly growing list of Hollywood actors speaking out against sexual intimidation, since The New York Times first came out with its story outlining Weinstein’s alleged abuses just a week ago. In her Instagram post, Beckinsale points out that the problem isn’t just limited to Weinstein: “Let’s stop allowing our young women to be sexual cannon fodder, and let’s remember that Harvey is an emblem of a system that is sick, and that we have work to do.”