Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenberg

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Harvey Weinstein Says Brother Bob Responsible for His Demise
tmz.com
10/10/2017 5:36 PM PDT

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12:35 PM PT -- A rep for Harvey tells us, "No matter what derogatory things Bob Weinstein says about his brother, Harvey Weinstein believes his brother is his brother and does not believe his brother would leak his personnel file to the NYT." The rep continues, "Harvey is dealing with his family and is currently in counseling. These are his priorities."

Harvey Weinstein believes his own brother was responsible for his demise, and he has the proof in the form of a receipt ... but Bob Weinstein says Harvey's a "very sick man" who's slinging fake stories to deflect from his own misdeeds.

Sources connected to H.W. tell TMZ, Harvey firmly believes it was his brother Bob who fed The New York Times the information for its sexual harassment story. He believes it was a well-orchestrated plan by Bob to remove Harvey from the company he built.

Weinstein, we're told, firmly believes the entire board knew about his sexual harassment troubles for years. Our sources say 7 months ago Bob received Weinstein's entire personnel file which detailed a number of the claims, and he believes Bob leaked the file to The NY Times.

As for proof the file was sent, we're told Harvey Weinstein's people have a FedEx receipt which shows his brother got the material.



Bob Weinstein came out swinging, telling TMZ, "My brother Harvey is obviously a very sick man. I've urged him to seek immediate professional help because he is in dire need of it. His remorse and apologies to the victims of his abuse are hollow. He said he would go away for help and has yet to do so."

Bob goes on ... "He has proven himself to be a world class liar and now rather than seeking help he is looking to blame others. His assertion is categorically untrue from A to Z. I pray he gets the help that he needs and I believe that it is him behind all of these stories to distract from his own failure to get help."

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Bob Weinstein says 'sick and depraved' brother Harvey Weinstein abused him
by Joi-Marie McKenzie
ABC News
October 14, 2017, 1:34 PM ET

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Bob Weinstein is opening up amid the scandal over sexual misconduct allegations against his brother, claiming he was a victim of abuse by Harvey Weinstein.

"I was also the object of a lot of his verbal abuse — at one time physical abuse," the co-chairman of The Weinstein Co. told The Hollywood Reporter in a wide-ranging interview.

"And I am not looking for one bit of sympathy from anyone," the younger brother of Harvey Weinstein added. "I do not put myself in the category at all of those women that he hurt. But it's a complicated situation when it's your brother doing the abusing to you as well. I saw it and I asked him to get help for many years. And that's the truth. He avoided getting the help. We begged him."

Harvey Weinstein, 65, has been accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women, including actresses Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. He was fired Sunday night by the board of the company he and Bob Weinstein founded in 2005.

Since the scandal broke, The Weinstein Co. has been under increased scrutiny and is expected to undergo a name change, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bob Weinstein, 62, said that he's barely spoken to his brother in the past five years. He emphasized that he was not aware of his brother's alleged sexual misconduct but instead thought Harvey Weinstein was engaged in adultery with one woman after another.

"I could not take his cheating," he said, referring to Harvey Weinstein's marriage to wife Georgina Chapman, "his lying and also his attitude toward everyone."

With the allegations now made against Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein said, "My brother has caused unconscionable suffering ... I want him to get the justice that he deserves."

The Weinstein Co. fired Harvey Weinstein on Sunday night, and four board members have stepped down in the wake of the scandal.

Bob Weinstein said the board wants to go further and "sever" Harvey Weinstein's ownership interest in the company. "It can't be done that quickly," he said.

Earlier, in a statement Friday, Bob Weinstein told ABC News that the studio will survive the scandal.

"Our banks, partners and shareholders are fully supportive of our company and it is untrue that the company or board is exploring a sale or shutdown of the company," Weinstein said. "Business is continuing as usual as the company moves ahead."

A spokesperson for Harvey Weinstein told The New Yorker: "Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein."

"Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual," according to the full statement from Weinstein's spokesperson. "Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.”

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Emma Thompson: 'Harvey Weinstein's no sex addict. He is a predator': Actor says there are many men in Hollywood like the film mogul who has been accused of multiple sexual assaults
by Patrick Greenfield and Lisa O'Carroll
theguardian.com
Friday 13 October 2017 08.54 EDT
First published on Thursday 12 October 2017 17.47 EDT

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Oscar-winning actor Emma Thompson has branded Harvey Weinstein a bully and a predator and said the scandal now engulfing the Hollywood mogul had echoes of Jimmy Savile.

In a frank interview on BBC2’s Newsnight, the star of Nanny McPhee and Love Actually said the casting couch culture exposed in the past week was endemic and part of a systemic “public health” gender crisis that was endangering girls and women.

“One of the big problems in the system we have is that there are so many blind eyes and we can’t keep making the women to whom this happens responsible. They are the ones we have got to speak. Why?” she told Emily Maitlis.

She railed against the “conspiracy of silence” and described Weinstein as “the top of a very particular iceberg” in “a system of harassment and belittling and bullying and interference” and warned that there were many more like him in Hollywood.

Asked if she was a friend of Weinstein, who was credited with transforming the British film industry in the 1990s, she replied emphatically: “No, and that is the understatement of the century.”

She spoke hours after British actor Sophie Dix went public with allegations of a sexual assault involving masturbation, which she said “was the most damaging thing” to have happened in her life.

Thompson said she was unaware of the specific incidents but was not surprised. She said she only had business dealings with Weinstein and clashed with him over Nanny McPhee when Miramax owned the film.

BBC Newsnight ✔@BBCNewsnight
“I spent my twenties trying to get old men’s tongues out of my mouth” – Emma Thompson on being a woman in Hollywood
11:45 AM - Oct 12, 2017

“I think there are probably about a million missed opportunities to call this man out on his disgusting behaviour,” Thompson said.

“I don’t think you can describe him as a sex addict, he’s a predator. That’s different. He’s at the top of, as it were the ladder of, a system of harassment and belittlement and bullying and interference. This has been part of our world, women’s world, since time immemorial.

“So what we need to start talking about is the crisis in masculinity, the crisis of extreme masculinity which is this sort of behaviour.”

Asked if she thought producers, directors or agents were pushing women into Weinstein’s professional path while knowing of his behaviour, she responded: “Isn’t it the same story as Jimmy Savile? If someone’s powerful, you can say, as the nurses used to do in those hospitals, ‘Be careful, be careful, pretend you’re asleep.’ So some of the agents may have said, ‘Look he’s a little bit … He’s a little bit oily, he’s a little bit this. Don’t worry. Again, he might pester you a bit. But, you know, go in’,” she said.

She said every girl or woman had stories of boys or men trying to stick tongues down their throats, lunge at them in lifts or feel them up on public transport and it was time for men and women to speak up.

“I mean, I’ve just said I’ve I spent my 20s trying to get old men’s tongues out of my mouth, you know, because they just thought, ‘Well she’s up for it.’ So I would imagine that that happens really very regularly, and so perhaps this is a moment when we can say to men and women: ‘Open your eyes and open your mouths and say something’.”

She said there were many like Weinstein in Hollywood. “Does it only count if you have done it to loads and loads of women, or does it count if you have done it to one woman, once. I think the latter.”

She recalled how she threatened to walk out of a film after another, unnamed producer told her co-star to go on a diet to appear in Brideshead Revisited.

“I will always speak up because I am bolshy and I will take someone’s head off if I see anything like that,” said Thompson.

On Tuesday, Weinstein was accused of rape by three women – claims that the producer says he unequivocally denies.

On Thursday evening, singer and model Myleene Klass became the latest woman to speak out about Weinstein, telling the Sun he offered her a “sex contract” at a meeting in Cannes.

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Harvey Weinstein: English actor says alleged sexual assault ruined film career
Sophie Dix says encounter at the Savoy hotel when she was 22 was ‘the single most damaging thing that’s happened in my life’
by Lisa O'Carroll
theguardian.com
October 13, 2017

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Sophie Dix said, once she was in the hotel room, ‘all the alarm bells started ringing’. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

An English actor who was on the brink of a career in the British film industry in the 1990s has told how her trajectory was “massively cut down” after an alleged sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein in a London hotel.

Sophie Dix claimed the Hollywood mogul performed an unwelcome sexual act in her presence after she was invited up his room at the Savoy hotel “to watch some rushes” – a film production term for unprocessed footage from a day’s filming.

She now says that what happened next was “the single most damaging thing that’s happened in my life”.

Dix had been cast in a new film with Colin Firth in 1990. Having been excited about her big break, she says that she accepted Weinstein’s invitation “naively”.

Once in the hotel room, “all the alarm bells starting ringing” and “within a heartbeat” she found herself pushed on the bed with him “tugging at her clothes”.

The young actor, who was 22 at the time, says that she managed to bolt to the bathroom and after some time in hiding opted to make an escape. She opened the door and found him facing her “standing there masturbating”.

The incident left her traumatised and depressed. She “took to the bed for six months” and concluded that the movies were not for her. “I decided if this what being an actress is like, I don’t want it,” she said.

Dix, now 48 and a screenwriter, had thought she was on verge of a film career after appearing alongside Colin Firth and Donald Pleasance in a film called The Hour of the Pig in the UK and The Advocate in the USA. When Weinstein invited her to dinner at Joe Allen, an American restaurant in Covent Garden frequented by people in the entertainment business, she said she “felt flattered”.

She had met Weinstein socially with colleagues in the industry, but was nervous about the one-to-one because he was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood.

“Maybe I went to talk about the film, maybe I went because it was a dinner in Joe Allen with someone from Hollywood. The point was, I had met him before I was doing a film with him. It was an exciting time of my life. I was open and trusting and I had never met a predator; I had never considered a predator,” she said.

“He made sure the wine was flowing,” she recalls. He told her he was “struggling with scenes” in another film and explained she might be able to help if she came to his room to watch the rushes. “I went trustingly and naively perhaps ... I suppose I just took it at face value,” she said.

“As soon as I was in there, I realised it was a terrible mistake. I got to the hotel room, I remember talk of a massage and I thought that was pretty gross. I think he showed me his big back and I found that pretty horrid.

“Then before I knew it, he started trying to pull my clothes off and pin me down and I just kept saying, ‘No, no, no.’ But he was really forceful. I remember him pulling at my trousers and stuff and looming over me and I just sort of – I am a big, strong girl and I bolted … ran for the bathroom and locked the door.”

“I was in there for a while, I think. He went very quiet. After a while I remember opening the door and seeing him just there facing the door, masturbating, so I quickly closed the door again and locked it. Then when I heard room service come to the door, I just ran,” she said.

Dix told her family, friends and colleagues about the incident at the time, but has decided 26 years later to tell the story more widely because for the first time she feels it will make a difference.

“I was very, very vocal about it at the time. I didn’t want to own it. I wanted people to take it away from me. But I was met with a wall of silence. People who were involved in the film were great, my friends and my family were amazing and very compassionate, but people in the industry didn’t want to know about it, they didn’t want to hear.

She considered going to police and discussed the incident with other women, but they felt they would be “trashed” and lose their careers.

She also vowed never to see Weinstein again, but months later she said she got what she felt was a phone call from him telling her to “stop talking”. Then over Christmas that year, when her family were away to visit her brother in Australia, Weinstein called again.

She believes it was Christmas Day, but cannot be certain. She recalls she had been at friends’ for dinner and was back at her home in north London when the phone rang. It was a call that she said terrified her.

“’This is Harvey. How are you?’ I was paralysed. There was no one in the house, I remember … and then he said: ‘It’s a new year, and I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and I’m going to start with you, and I’m going to say I’m sorry and is there anything I can do for you?’

“I remember those were his exact words. I don’t know if he meant money. I didn’t think what he meant at the time. I knew very definitely I was speaking to a tape-recorded situation and I said, ‘No, thank you,’” she said. “It was awful. I felt frightened. I was alone in the house. It was like further abuse, further trauma.”

Dix went on to have roles in television series such as ITV’s Soldier Soldier, but she never got another movie role and she now concentrates on her work as a screenwriter.

“I had done some TV and stuff before, that but this was my big movie break. I still had a decent acting career, but it was all in TV. I never really had a film career. I think my film career was massively cut short.

She hopes speaking out could help change what she describes as a “misogynist” and “antiquated” industry where “men hitting on women” in the workplace is accepted. “I told a lot of people who I thought might be capable of action, and I realised their hands were tied and they weren’t willing to help me in the way I hoped, so I just buried it.

“You think you go into the film business because you think it is this free-thinking, liberal-minded industry, but actually it could not be more opposite. It is as antiquated, as sexist and rigged as they come.

“What I’m interested in talking about is the aftermath of a trauma like that. I’ve had friends call this week after the New York Times pieces came out, some who are now really famous, who knew about it at the time, and they say: ‘This was the moment it changed for you.’

“It was massively damaging. It’s the single most damaging thing that’s happened in my life.”

She said she buried her memories of the incident until, this week, dozens of actors from Angeline Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow to Cara Delevingne stepped forward with allegations of unwelcome sexual overtures and assault. London and New York police have also said they have opened unspecified investigations into Weinstein.

Weinstein said he realised his behaviour with colleagues “has caused a lot of pain and I sincerely apologise for it” when the first allegations of sexual misconduct emerged a week ago.

He has subsequently “unequivocally denied” any allegations of non-consensual sex, and a spokeswoman has said that he never retaliated against women who refused his sexual advances.

“Mr Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.”

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'I had to defend myself': the night Harvey Weinstein jumped on me
by Léa Seydoux
theguardian.com
October 11, 2017

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‘He was using his power to get sex.’ Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

I meet men like Harvey Weinstein all the time. I have starred in many films over the last 10 years and have been lucky enough to win awards at festivals like Cannes. Cinema is my life. And I know all of the ways in which the film industry treats women with contempt.

When I first met Harvey Weinstein, it didn’t take me long to figure him out. We were at a fashion show. He was charming, funny, smart – but very domineering. He wanted to meet me for drinks and insisted we had to make an appointment that very night. This was never going to be about work. He had other intentions – I could see that very clearly.

We met in the lobby of his hotel. His assistant, a young woman, was there. All throughout the evening, he flirted and stared at me as if I was a piece of meat. He acted as if he were considering me for a role. But I knew that was bullshit. I knew it, because I could see it in his eyes. He had a lecherous look. He was using his power to get sex.

He invited me to come to his hotel room for a drink. We went up together. It was hard to say no because he’s so powerful. All the girls are scared of him. Soon, his assistant left and it was just the two of us. That’s the moment where he started losing control.

We were talking on the sofa when he suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me. I had to defend myself. He’s big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him. I left his room, thoroughly disgusted. I wasn’t afraid of him, though. Because I knew what kind of man he was all along.

Since that night in his hotel room, I’ve seen him on many other occasions. We are in the same industry, so it’s impossible to avoid him. I’ve seen how he operates: the way he looks for an opening. The way he tests women to see what he can get away with.

He also doesn’t take no for an answer. I once went with him to a restaurant and when he couldn’t get a table he got angry and said: “Do you know who I am? I am Harvey Weinstein.” That’s the kind of man he is.

I’ve been at dinners with him where he’s bragged openly about Hollywood actresses he has had sex with. He’s also said misogynistic things to me over the years. “You’d be better if you lost weight,” he said. That comment shocked me.

One night, I saw him in London for the Baftas. He was hitting on a young woman. Another time, at the Met Life ball, I saw him trying to convince a young woman to sleep with him. Everyone could see what he was doing.

That’s the most disgusting thing. Everyone knew what Harvey was up to and no one did anything. It’s unbelievable that he’s been able to act like this for decades and still keep his career. That’s only possible because he has a huge amount of power.

In this industry, there are directors who abuse their position. They are very influential, that’s how they can do that. With Harvey, it was physical. With others, it’s just words. Sometimes, it feels like you have to be very strong to be a woman in the film industry. It’s very common to encounter these kinds of men.

The first time a director made an inappropriate comment to me, I was in my mid-20s. He was a director I really liked and respected. We were alone and he said to me: “I wish I could have sex with you, I wish I could fuck you.”

He said it in a way that was half joking and half serious. I was very angry. I was trying to do my job and he made me very uncomfortable. He has slept with all of the actresses he filmed.

Another director I worked with would film very long sex scenes that lasted days. He kept watching us, replaying the scenes over and over again in a kind of stupor. It was very gross.

Yet another director tried to kiss me. Like Weinstein, I had to physically push him away, too. He acted like a crazy man, deranged by the fact that I didn’t want to have sex with him.

If you’re a woman working in the film industry, you have to fight because it is a very misogynistic world. Why else are salaries so unequal? Why do men earn more than women? There is no reason for it to be that way.

Hollywood is incredibly demanding on women. Think about the beauty diktats. All of the actresses have botox at 30. They have to be perfect. This is an image of women that is bizarre – and one that ends up controlling women.

This industry is based on desirable actresses. You have to be desirable and loved. But not all desires have to be fulfilled, even though men in the industry have an expectation that theirs should be. I think – and hope – that we might finally see a change. Only truth and justice can bring us forward.

Léa Seydoux is a French actor. She was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival for her film Blue Is the Warmest Colour

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Hollywood men silent over Weinstein allegations as women speak out: When the Guardian contacted 20 high-profile actors and directors who have worked with the producer, many failed to respond
Harvey Weinstein speaks in New York earlier this year.
by Sam Levin and Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco
10 October 2017 20.13 EDT
First published on Monday 9 October 2017 20.52 EDT

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Meryl Streep, Judi Dench, Kate Winslet and dozens of other women in Hollywood have condemned the producer Harvey Weinstein amid a growing number of sexual harassment allegations. Most high-profile men in the industry, however, have remained silent.

The Guardian contacted more than 20 male actors and directors who have worked with the movie mogul over the years, some of whom have projects with Weinstein. All declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries about the accusations that the producer sexually harassed women over a period of nearly three decades. Weinstein allegedly invited vulnerable women to hotel rooms for business reasons and then greeted them in the nude or asked them to massage him or watch him shower, according to a New York Times report.

The list of industry figures thus far remaining silent includes a number of male directors, such as the Oscar-nominated Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, the Hateful Eight) and David O Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter, Flirting With Disaster), who have both made numerous movies with Weinstein.

The liberal film-maker Michael Moore, currently working with Weinstein on a documentary about Donald Trump, also did not respond to a request for comment.

To some, the glaring silence from the men of Hollywood reflects a broader culture of misogyny in the entertainment business, boosted by enablers who looked the other way or ignored the rumors, allowing the Weinstein accusations to remain an “open secret” for years.

“Why are they being silent? What do they have to hide?” the New Zealand model Zoë Brock said in an interview Monday, two days after she published her own account of alleged harassment by Weinstein. “I’d love to hear from some of those guys. They are all men I admire and look up to as artists. They’re all men with daughters. It’s horrifying.”

The accusations first came to light last week in the New York Times report, which included on-the-record testimony from the actor Ashley Judd and others who said they had been victimized by Weinstein. Over the years, the producer reached settlements with at least eight women, including actors and assistants, the paper reported.

Weinstein, who was fired from his company on Sunday, has apologized for the “pain” he has caused, but he and his attorneys have also said he denies “many” of the allegations, saying the piece was “saturated with false and defamatory statements” and relied “on mostly hearsay accounts”.

"My brother Harvey is obviously a very sick man. I've urged him to seek immediate professional help because he is in dire need of it. His remorse and apologies to the victims of his abuse are hollow. He said he would go away for help and has yet to do so."

Bob goes on ... "He has proven himself to be a world class liar and now rather than seeking help he is looking to blame others. His assertion is categorically untrue from A to Z. I pray he gets the help that he needs and I believe that it is him behind all of these stories to distract from his own failure to get help."

-- Harvey Weinstein Says Brother Bob Responsible for His Demise, tmz.com

Harvey Weinstein seems to have flunked out of sex rehab after about a week.

-- O’Reilly, "Shitty Media Men," and the Harassment Double Standard: In the past, the sexual-harasser perps got their jobs back while their female victims lost their careers. Will this time be different?, by Sarah Ellison

The Guardian, which has not independently confirmed the accounts in the New York Times, published an interview Monday with actor Romola Garai, who alleged that Weinstein greeted her wearing only a dressing gown when she was 18.

Shortly after the New York Times story went viral last week, many prominent women in Hollywood lent their voices in support of the accusers. Patricia Arquette, Amber Tamblyn, Olivia Munn, Lena Dunham, Brie Larson, Constance Wu, Rosie O’Donnell, America Ferrera, Jessica Chastain and others tweeted soon after it published.

Days later and under some pressure to comment, Streep and Dench also weighed in, both strongly condemning the alleged offenses and claiming they had no prior knowledge of the accusations. Winslet also released a statement saying Weinstein had “behaved in reprehensible and disgusting ways”. She also acknowledged that there had been whisperings over the years: “I had hoped that these kind of stories were just made-up rumours, maybe we have all been naive. And it makes me so angry.”

No woman should be allowed to be "naive" to another woman's suffering.

-- by Anonymous

The actors Seth Rogen and Mark Ruffalo have spoken up, but most male celebrities with ties to Weinstein have chosen not to comment, even after Weinstein was ousted from his own company.

The Guardian contacted representatives of actors who have starred in Weinstein films, including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Colin Firth, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Russell Crowe, George Clooney and Ewan McGregor, along with the directors Tarantino, Russell, Ryan Coogler, Tom Hooper, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michael Moore, Rob Marshall, Robert Pulcini, Garth Davis, Doug McGrath, John Madden, Simon Curtis, Kevin Williamson, Martin Scorsese, John Hillcoat and John Wells.

None initially commented, despite the fact that many have been vocal about gender equality in the industry and other social justice causes. Many have directly criticized Donald Trump amid similar accusations of sexual misconduct. On Tuesday, several released statements or responded to the Guardian.

Clooney later told the Daily Beast the alleged acts of sexual misconduct carried out by the film producer were “indefensible”. Miranda tweeted in response to this article: “I’m as appalled and repulsed by the Weinstein news as anyone with a beating heart. And forever in awe of the bravery of those who spoke out.”

Affleck also released a statement Tuesday, saying: “I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades.”

Firth responded to the Guardian on Tuesday, saying in a statement that Weinstein “was a powerful and frightening man to stand up to”, adding: “It must have been terrifying for these women to step up and call him out. And horrifying to be subjected to that kind of harassment. I applaud their courage”.

Damon and Crowe were caught up in the scandal this week when a former New York Times reporter alleged that when she was investigating Weinstein in 2004, the two actors called her to vouch for a key Weinstein associate, apparently in an effort to discourage her from moving forward with the piece. Representatives for both actors did not respond to inquiries about the allegations from the journalist Sharon Waxman.

Damon on Tuesday defended his “one minute” call to the reporter in 2004, telling Deadline he was vouching for the Weinstein associate, with whom he had “perfectly professional experiences”, and that he had not been aware of harassment allegations and had not been trying to kill the story.

Pulcini, a writer and director, emailed a statement to the Guardian after publication of this story, saying: “I have such admiration for the women who have spoken up. What bravery. There should be zero tolerance EVERYWHERE for this kind of horrifying behavior. I’m honored to offer them a male director’s voice of total support, and appreciate you providing me a forum to do so.”

Coogler, whose first feature film was produced by Weinstein, said in an email Tuesday that he had “no knowledge of this predatory behavior”, but that he saluted the “brave women who came forward”.

“As men we sit in positions of privilege. It is our responsibility to leverage our position, and be allies to the women in our industry. We need to do everything we can to make sure violations like these don’t continue to happen. The first step is to listen.”

DiCaprio published a short statement late Tuesday night that did not name Weinstein but said: “There is no excuse for sexual harassment or sexual assault – no matter who you are and no matter what profession.”

Madden later released a statement to the Guardian, saying the Weinstein revelations “deserve total condemnation”, adding: “For those of us who have worked with him, they are shaming and unforgivable. I applaud the women who have been brave enough to share their testimony of profoundly damaging and deeply abusive experiences.”

Migdia Chinea, a film-maker and screenwriter, said it was “outrageous” that so few men had been willing to speak up.

“Many of these guys are very well known in liberal circles and they support a very progressive approach to equality and women,” she said. “Here’s an opportunity for these guys to really speak about this issue. All of these powerful men should come forward and denounce sexual harassment.”

Rose McGowan, one of the most prominent Weinstein accusers, has called for the entire board of men in Weinstein’s company to resign and tweeted that men have remained silent because “they are weak and scared”.

Brock said she would like to see more men publicly admitting to their misconduct following the Weinstein news. “Wouldn’t it be nice if people had the courage and the gall to say, ‘Hey, I’ve done this, too. I need help’?”

Laura Finley, a Barry University professor and author of Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault in Popular Culture, said it can make a huge difference when men publicly support women who have come forward.

“We need men’s voices even more than women’s voices,” she said. “Men can reach men in ways that women unfortunately still can’t.”

Before he was fired, Weinstein reportedly sent an email to high-level executives at studios, networks and talent agencies asking them to write statements of support.

“I am desperate for your help,” he wrote, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “Do not let me be fired. If the industry supports me, that is all I need.”

If you have stories to share about Weinstein or sexual misconduct in Hollywood, contact sam.levin@theguardian.com

[admin]

Actor Romola Garai felt 'violated' after Harvey Weinstein encounter: British star adds to allegations against film mogul, describing encounter in which he wore only a dressing gown
by Hannah Ellis-Petersen
October 10, 2017

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Romola Garai: ‘You can’t find an actress that doesn’t have that kind of story about Harvey.’ Photograph: Mike Marsland/WireImage

Harvey Weinstein auditioned an 18-year-old Romola Garai while wearing only a dressing gown in an encounter at the Savoy Hotel that the British actor described as humiliating and “an abuse of power”.

The actor, who starred in Atonement and the BBC series The Hour, told the Guardian she was left feeling “violated”. It is the latest of allegations of harassment and inappropriate behaviour by the Hollywood mogul.

“Like every other woman in the industry, I’ve had an ‘audition’ with Harvey Weinstein, where I’d actually already had the audition but you had to be personally approved by him,” said Garai. “So I had to go to his hotel room in the Savoy, and he answered the door in his bathrobe. I was only 18. I felt violated by it, it has stayed very clearly in my memory.”

Garai said the incident in London was indicative of Weinstein’s approach to women in the film industry, consistently putting young female actors, often desperate to get a break in the industry, into “humiliating situations” to prove “he had the power to do it”.

“The transaction was just that I was there,” said Garai, who once she was in the hotel room with Weinstein just sat on a chair and had a brief discussion about film. “The point was that he could get a young woman to do that, that I didn’t have a choice, that it was humiliating for me and that he had the power. It was an abuse of power.”

In an exposé in the New York Times last week, it was alleged that Weinstein, one of the most powerful people in Hollywood who produced films such as Pulp Fiction, had been sexually harassing women in the film industry for more than two decades.

It was alleged that he had reached at least eight settlements with women he had sexually harassed, and that he would invite women to his hotel room under the guise of work and then greet them naked or ask them to massage him or watch him shower.

Among his accusers are the actors Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan, and since they went public with their allegations against Weinstein, others have come forward. The writer and artist Liza Campbell said Weinstein invited her to his hotel room and asked her to get in the bath with him, and a US TV journalist said Weinstein masturbated in front of her.

Weinstein had taken a leave of absence from his company but on Sunday night the board announced he had been sacked after new allegations of misconduct. On Monday evening the NYT reported that, hours before the board announcement, Weinstein emailed associates in Hollywood asking them to help stop him being fired.

Actors including Meryl Streep and Judi Dench, both of whom have starred in several Weinstein films, publicly condemned the producer, denying any knowledge of his actions, while Emma Thompson described him as a “predatory man”.

Streep added that the allegations had “appalled those of us whose work [Weinstein] championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported”.

Weinstein has expressed regret for his inappropriate behaviour towards women stretching back decades, saying “I own my mistakes”, but his lawyers say he also denies many of the allegations made against him.

Garai told the Guardian she “couldn’t be less surprised” by the allegations against Weinstein and said the fact that the film industry was “very very very misogynistic” had meant Weinstein’s behaviour was accepted. “You can’t find an actress that doesn’t have that kind of story about Harvey,” she said.

Describing her hotel room encounter with Weinstein, Garai said she knew back then it was “weird” but that she “just tried to make out like it was normal because as far as I was concerned it was a job interview”. “I knew something had happened to me that I didn’t like and that I felt belittled by but I didn’t feel like I had the right to complain.”

She added: “The people who asked me to go to his hotel room did so with an eye-rolling look of, ‘This is weird but you just have to do it, you’re not in any danger’. It was clear they were uncomfortable asking me to do it, but that it had to be done.

“I remember the feeling of seeing him opening the door in the dressing gown and thinking, ‘Oh god, this is a casting couch’. But I guess it’s now only as a much older woman that I understood what it meant. At the time I understood myself to be a commodity and that my value in the industry rested almost exclusively on the way I looked and I didn’t really think of myself to be any more than that.”

Bathrobes for males are so cozy and comfortable that it is no surprise that so many of Hollywood’s hottest A-list actors have been spotted wearing them. Sometimes these actors wear their robes in a film, or sometimes they lounge around in robes while relaxing on set or taking a day off. With their suave Hollywood style they always make bathrobes for men look sophisticated.

-- Tisseron Bathrobes Blog, tisseronbathrobes.com

This king’s cape, king's cloak, coronation robe was inspired by some of the beautiful and elaborate coronation robes worn by royalty throughout history. No detail was overlooked in the design and construction of this high quality masterpiece. This robe projects both the look and the feel of an authentic coronation robe.

-- alpharegalia.com

Garai said she had never thought to raise the incident until now because in the film industry people would be “shocked I even thought it was an issue”. Weinstein’s alleged behaviour towards women has been described as an “open secret”, and something Garai affirmed, saying he was one of the most notorious culprits for this sort of behaviour in the film industry.

“It’s kind of amazing to me that this is news, it’s just so well known in the industry,” she said. “There are so many stories about him sending weird texts and harassing actresses, telling them he’ll give them a part if they come to dinner with him – that’s really really common. And it’s well known that he’s had relationships with a lot of people that he’s worked with, or have worked for him. Given how powerful he is, and given that they are always with women who are a lot younger than him, I think there is clearly an imbalance of power in those relationships.”

Garai landed the role in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights but her uncomfortable experiences with Weinstein did not end there. During filming she said she was put under enormous pressure to lose weight and was constantly told she was fat, with food taken from her trailer and people paid to make sure she did not eat anything.

Garai said that while the instructions came from lower-level producers, she believed it was Weinstein putting the pressure on for her to lose weight to “fit his expectations of what a movie star should look like”.

“Harvey’s behaviour was accepted but it was accepted because the industry knows that what people want to see on screen is women who are thin and beautiful with big tits and don’t say very much,” she said.

Garai said the incident with Weinstein was the most “explicitly problematic” of her career, but that only now, over a decade later, had she really come to terms with it. She added: “If someone asked me now to go to their hotel room and a guy was in a dressing gown I’m 100% sure that I would leave and say: ‘Would you like to come down to the bar and have the meeting with me when you’re dressed’.”

Meanwhile the British prime minister, Theresa May, expressed her concerns over the allegations against Weinstein but her spokesman said the issue of whether he should keep the CBE he was awarded in 2004 for services to the film industry “was not one for Downing Street”.

[admin]

USA Gymnastics Failed to Protect Athletes From Sex Abuse: Report
by Tracy Connor and Gabe Gutierrez
June 27, 2017

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The investigator hired by USA Gymnastics in the midst of a sprawling sexual abuse scandal says the number of athletes victimized is "far higher" than the hundreds previously reported and that the organization needs a "complete culture change" to protect young people.

Ex-prosecutor Deborah Daniels said in her report that she cannot estimate how many club-level and elite gymnasts have been harmed over the years because the sport's governing body, which is fighting a mountain of lawsuits, didn't ask her to look into past wrongdoing.

"This was a forward-looking report and not a rear-view mirror report," Daniels said after the USA Gymnastics board of directors accepted her recommendations on how to keep kids safe.

It's a goal that she said will require a mindset shift in a sport that pairs pre-pubescent girls with authority figures who can make or break their gold-medal dreams and that has been accused of prizing success over safety.

"I think there's probably fault throughout the organization," Paul Parilla, chairman of the USA Gymnastics board of directors, told NBC News. "Who can say that we have done everything it's possible to do to protect athletes?"

USA Gymnastics, which selects the U.S. Olympic teams, tapped Daniels to examine its policies after it was rocked by allegations in the Indianapolis Star that it had mishandled a raft of molestation cases, including accusations that team doctor Larry Nassar preyed on scores of girls for years.

John Manly, an attorney who represents many of Nassar's accusers, denounced the resulting report as a public relations ploy "designed to divert attention from who at USA Gymnastics knew about molestation by Larry Nassar and others and when they knew it."

"The report calls for a change in culture but those who created the toxic culture remain in charge of the organization," Manly said.


Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, in court for a hearing on sex abuse charges. NBC News

Nassar's case merited just a few mentions in the 100-page report, which cited it as an example of delayed reporting of suspected abuse. USA Gymnastics admits it waited five weeks to notify law enforcement after his behavior was flagged, but Daniels didn't assign any blame.

"My charge was to look at the policies in place and the practices in place," she said. "I did not go into what any person may or may not have done in the past."

Among the troubling policies she highlighted:

USA Gymnastics used a "grievance procedure" to handle reports of abuse, and until 2013 required an athlete or their parent to file a written complaint to the very people with influence over their success.

There was no written protocol for how to handle allegations of abuse.

Clubs and members were historically not required to report sexual misconduct or other abuse to USA Gymnastics or law enforcement.

Members suspended for sexual misdeeds were able to get new coaching jobs, in part because USA Gymnastics did not publicize the penalties.

USA Gymnastics did not leverage its control over membership privileges to ensure clubs adopt and enforce appropriate policies.

The USAG board spends "very little" time on child-abuse issues and its members receive no training. Until recently, no staff member was assigned to athlete protection.

There's no certification process for coaches.

"Over time, the practices of USA Gymnastics have not kept up with best practices in the field of child abuse protection, allowing for significant gaps and exposures regarding the prevention and reporting of child sexual abuse within the sport," the report said.

Among Daniels' recommendations: a requirement that any suspected abuse be reported "immediately" to law enforcement, a menu of sanctions for failure to report, penalties aimed at rooting out "grooming" of athletes by potential abusers, and a database of coaches so abuse can be tracked systemwide.

One section of the report tackled the National Team Training Center in Texas — better known as "The Ranch" owned by famed coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi — where elite gymnasts are readied for the world stage.

The gymnasts, some as young as 11, are isolated from their parents — cell service is spotty — and rely on an "athlete representative" who is also on the selection committee for the national team, making it unlikely an abused child would confide in her, the report said.

Gold medalist Dominique Moceanu, a member of the 1996 Olympic team and a longtime critic of gymnastics' winning-is-everything ethos, called the recommendations a "no-brainer" and said it was a shame that it took a major scandal to force a revamp.

"It's years too late, but it's obviously a start," Moceanu, who says she was subjected to emotional abuse as a young athlete, told NBC News.

USA Gymnastics — which was a no-show at a congressional hearing on its handling of abuse allegations earlier this year — approved Daniels' report unanimously.

"USA Gymnastics is very sorry anyone has been harmed during his or her gymnastics career," Parilla said.

He said the organization's leaders "have no way" of estimating how many of its 200,000 members may be victims. Daniels said that question was not part of her mission, but her history as a prosecutor leads her to believe the cases that have already come to light represent just part of the problem.

"According to published reports, hundreds of gymnasts over the last 20 years have reported abuse at the hands of coaches or other authority figures in the sport, many of whom were involved with USA Gymnastics as members or contractors," she wrote.

"And given the understandable reticence of those who have suffered abuse to come forward, the true number of those victimized over that period of time cannot be estimated but is surely far higher."

Jamie White, a Michigan attorney who represents 17 girls and women who are suing Nassar and USA Gymnastics, said it remains to be seen if USA Gymnastics is capable of the transformation called for in the report.

"A plan is only as good as its implementation," he said, noting that Daniels did not call for a leadership shakeup.

"I would find it hard to believe that the same people can fix a problem that has festered for years under their watch," he said.

USA Gymnastics is in the middle of looking for a new chief executive after its longtime leader resigned under pressure following a judge's release of documents in a Georgia lawsuit that alleges the organization bungled sex abuse cases.

But Parilla said he has no plans to step down as head of the board, saying that better training will give the leadership the tools it needs to keep kids safe.

"Basically, we thought we were doing a lot," he said. "We obviously can do better and we need to do better."

[admin]

More Gymnasts Testify About How Larry Nassar Sexually Abused Them
by Dvora Meyers
5/26/17 6:01pm

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Photo credit: CNN

The preliminary hearing in the criminal case against former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar continued today in a Michigan court, with four victims testifying about how they say the doctor sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatments. This hearing was a continuation of the proceedings that started on May 12. Nassar had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Today’s hearing began with the cross examination of Victim D by the defense attorneys. (She had been questioned by the prosecution three weeks prior.) The focus of the questioning, at least initially, was Victim D’s injury history and whether or not her condition improved after being treated by Nassar.

Matt Mencarini @MattMencarini
Victim D said her discomfort level improved as treatments with Nassar went on. Def attys asked the first 2 women to testify this same ?

The defense also wanted to question the victim as to whether or not she had filed a civil suit against Nassar, but the judge stopped that line of questioning because the victim is a minor and can’t hire an attorney for herself. On redirect, the prosecutor asked the witness whether or not Nassar had asked for her consent before the penetration. She said he had not, and she then differentiated between the penetrative parts of the “treatment” and the non-penetrative parts.

Matt Mencarini @MattMencarini
Victim D asked she felt when Nassar digitally penetrated her: "Uncomfortably" " yucky."

Matt Mencarini @MattMencarini
Asked how she felt during other parts of medical appointments: "I felt fine and those were helpful."
7:13 AM - May 26, 2017

After a brief recess to determine which members of the media could remain in the courtroom, the hearing continued with the questioning of Victim A, a teenage gymnast at Twistars, the club that Nassar had been affiliated with until the first round of abuse allegations last September. It’s at Twistars that Victim A first encountered Nassar, where he treated her for a rib injury.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
She first saw him at Twistars when she was about 9-10 yrs old. Says Nassar put his hand up her leotard, massaging and digitally penetrating.
7:43 AM - May 26, 2017

Later, when Victim A was 11 and dealing with a foot injury, she went to Nassar’s clinic office with her father. She said her family knew Nassar professionally through Michigan State.

Nassar told the victim’s father that her treatment would take awhile and gave her a pair of baggy shorts to change into. The victim was not wearing any underwear. When Nassar returns, he was alone and not wearing gloves, she said. Almost immediately, he digitally penetrated her, which greatly confused her.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
"I didn't understand how touching would help my heel issue. Then I was embarrassed," Victim A says. Goes into detail regarding penetration
7:50 AM - May 26, 2017

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
"He was quite sweaty and very into it, I guess you would say?" Victim A says he's leaning over her on the table, rubbing her thigh.
7:52 AM - May 26, 2017

She said no one else was in the room before the massage and no consent or prior notice had been given. Victim A said that she didn’t tell her parents because she believed it was legitimate medical treatment. Victim A did note that when her mother, a doctor, accompanied her to Nassar, he didn’t penetrate her on those visits.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Her mother is a medical professional who knew Nassar. When her mom would go w/ her to treatment, Nassar did not penetrate her, she says.
7:57 AM - May 26, 2017

Victim A said that the gymnasts at Twistars would discuss Nassar’s methods among themselves.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Says she and other gymnasts would talk about Nassar. "He's kind of touchy," one gymnast said. "Yeah, but that's Nassar," they'd all say.
7:55 AM - May 26, 2017

When Victim A heard about Rachael Denhollander’s and Jane Doe’s allegations against Nassar in the Indianapolis Star last year, she decided to tell her parents about what had happened to her. Her mother called the police, who interviewed her at Small Talk, a place for kids who had been sexually abused. She initially told the police she wasn’t penetrated because she didn’t know what it meant.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
She told police interviewer that she wasn't "penetrated" because she didn't know what penetrated meant, thought it involved rapid movement.
8:00 AM - May 26, 2017

Victim A also spoke about how the realization about the abuse has affected her.

Matt Mencarini @MattMencarini
Assistant AG asked if the process since coming forward has been easy. She said it hasn't.

Matt Mencarini @MattMencarini
"There have been lots of nights where I just cried and cried."
8:03 AM - May 26, 2017

Victim A said that it wasn’t until she read the account in the Star that she better understood what had happened to her because the details in Denhollander’s story closely resembled her own experience.

Matt Mencarini @MattMencarini
Victim A said the mention in the @indystar story about lack of gloves was a red flag for her.
8:25 AM - May 26, 2017

After lunch, two more victims testified. Victim E, now 18, started gymnastics at age 2. She was 12 when she first started seeing Nassar.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
"It made me very happy to be seen by him, because he was the best of the best," Victim E says of gymnastics posters, celebrity signatures
10:43 AM - May 26, 2017

Victim E said that when she was 13, Nassar penetrated her during treatment, claiming it was myofascial release.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Victim E says Dr. Nassar inserted two fingers inside her vagina. "He made certain comments, does this feel better? I said it felt better."
10:46 AM - May 26, 2017

According to the victim, Nassar never discussed penetration with her or her father.

Nassar also engaged in grooming behaviors, giving the victim a present shortly after the 2012 Olympics.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
At the same appointment, 5 days after 2012 Olympics, he handed her an Olympic pin. Said he "thought of all his gymnasts, especially me."
10:51 AM - May 26, 2017

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
She was 13 at the time. Victim E says Nassar told her he "wanted to make sure I got one," referring to the pin. Says she felt special.
10:51 AM - May 26, 2017

This was the only time that Nassar penetrated her. She said she indicated to her father afterwards that Nassar had done something weird.

Matt Mencarini @MattMencarini
Victim E said a physical therapist later performed myofascial release on her, but it did not include digital vaginal penetration.
10:55 AM - May 26, 2017

Victim E said that the exercises Nassar gave her to do at home helped her but she didn’t feel that what he did during the appointments did much to alleviate her pain.

Matt Mencarini @MattMencarini
Asked why she told him it felt better, Victim E said, "I said it felt better because I wanted him to stop what he was doing."
11:06 AM - May 26, 2017

Like several other women who have come forward, Victim E said that the account in the Star helped her realize she had been sexually abused during that appointment.

During cross examination, Shannon Smith, one of two defense lawyers on Nassar’s team, opened by talking about the fact that she has a daughter who does gymnastics at Victim E’s gym.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Ummm defense attorney says her kids go to the same gym as Victim E and Victim E has taught her kids
11:02 AM - May 26, 2017

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
"You don't recognize me, correct?' Smith asks. "Correct." "My kids are not as good as you are," Smith laughs.
11:02 AM - May 26, 2017

Smith then focused on the issue of gloves, or the lack thereof, during Nassar’s penetrative treatments. (They did this with the previous witness.) Many of the victims have said that the absence of gloves during treatments to the genital area was one of the indications that something was amiss; the defense is trying to make the case that this is not as significant as the prosecution and victims are saying it is.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Another big point for the defense: that Rachael Denhollander's article made a "big deal" about not using gloves
11:12 AM - May 26, 2017

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Basically, the defense is trying to point out that alleged victims "assume" that not wearing gloves is a giveaway that's something wrong
11:13 AM - May 26, 2017

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Looks like they're gearing up for an argument that Nassar did have a valid reason for not wearing gloves, and then say women misunderstood
11:14 AM - May 26, 2017

Smith also questioned her about the gift Nassar gave her, pointing out that Nassar gave it to her in front of her father and indicated that Nassar brought back pins for many other patients. Victim E agreed that this was accurate

The final witness to testify was Victim B, who was treated by Nassar for severe back pain when she was 11. Like several others before her, she said that a parent was in the room while Nassar treated her but that her mother’s view was obstructed. She said that Nassar digitally penetrated [her] vagina during her during treatment and she never gave him permission to do this.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Victim B says Nassar once asked her, "is this alright, goof?" Was that a nickname she used, prosecutor asks? No, she says.
11:54 AM - May 26, 2017

She said that during her last visit, he gave her leotard.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Gave her the leotard as they were leaving, B says. Doesn't recall him saying anything. Felt "very confused. We weren't close at all."
11:57 AM - May 26, 2017

Victim B said she first told her parents about what Nassar had done to her after she read the Star’s story on the first allegations.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Victim B says she reads the articles, sees that Nassar claims he never uses vaginal penetration. "That's when I knew it was sexual assault."
12:03 PM - May 26, 2017

The defense would seize upon Victim B’s belated awareness that she had been abused (as they did with previous witnesses) to suggest that the Star article influenced them.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
Would appear that the defense will argue that 1) it's only after hearing abuse allegations that these witnesses think they were abused, too
12:18 PM - May 26, 2017

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
And 2) that witnesses are taking the word of other women, like Denhollander, that what happened to them was abuse.
12:19 PM - May 26, 2017

Victim B said that the fact that Nassar never sought consent for penetration was problematic. The defense attorney pointed out that her mother drove her to her appointments with Nassar, but didn’t directly address the issue of whether or not she and her mother, since she was a minor, consented to an invasive procedure involving penetration.

Kate Wells @KateLouiseWells
How you doing, kiddo, judge asks. "That wasn't fun," B says, tearing up. "better than the dentist?" "I'd much rather go to the dentist."
12:27 PM - May 26, 2017

The next preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 23

[admin]

Former Elite Gymnast Speaks Out Against Larry Nassar, Doctor Accused Of Sexually Abusing Dozens Of Athletes: "I Just Trusted Him"
by Dvora Meyers
4/19/17 5:17pm

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Yesterday, Kamerin Moore, a former junior elite gymnast, posted a powerful, wrenching video testimony detailing the sexual abuse she endured at the hands of former national team physician Dr. Larry Nassar, who is currently in jail awaiting trial on sexual assault charges as well as federal child pornography charges. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Moore, who did not respond to requests for comment, trained alongside 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Wieber for part of her career at Twistars under the tutelage of John Geddert, who has been listed as a defendant in a Larry Nassar-related lawsuit. Moore was frequently injured as a gymnast, which meant that she ended up spending a lot of time with Nassar, who volunteered at Twistars. According to the video, she saw him as a patient between the ages of 11 and 18, seeing him, on average, two or three times a month.

In the video, Moore goes into detail about the so-called “treatment” she was subjected to when she was 13 years old and alone with Nassar.

“This treatment is where he would rub out your back or your hamstrings with one arm or one hand and he would use his other hand to do pressure points or massage on, in, around your genital area. Yes, I say ‘in’ because, at least in my own experience, it was invasive…He would actually put his fingers inside of you. To be clear about this, it was skin-on-skin contact. He would go under your clothing with no gloves on.”

Though it made her very uncomfortable, Moore didn’t question what Nassar was doing to her. “As a little girl, I wasn’t ever questioning a well-respected doctor if their techniques were legitimate. I just trusted him that he was doing the right thing,” she explains.

Moore recounts one particularly disturbing incident at Nassar’s MSU office. The doctor asked her if he could videotape himself performing the “treatment” on her. He claimed that he wanted to make a video so he could train other doctors in how to do this particular procedure.

“To be very clear about what he was asking: he was asking as a 40-year-old man or however old he was, to videotape himself touching a 13-year-old girl’s naked private parts. And if nothing else, if he was a well-respected doctor still and he was a good person and they hadn’t found thousands of images and videos of child pornography on his devices, this would still be wrong.”

Moore says that even though she was just 13, she stood up to Nassar and refused. “I said no. I stood up for myself and said absolutely not.”

She says that this was the last time she got that treatment done, and estimates that Nassar had probably performed that “treatment” on her eight to 10 times. The reason the abuse ceased, she says, was that she pretended to feel better.

“I lied to my coaches. I lied to him. I lied to my mom. I lied to everyone and said that my back and hamstrings were feeling better and that I wasn’t in pain anymore so that I didn’t have to have these treatments done.”

Moore explains that she didn’t tell anyone what had happened because she was so young and was confused. “I was a little girl. I was not equipped to handle that situation at all.” Also, some of her teammates had experienced the same thing. “That kind of gave me peace of mind that even if it was uncomfortable, maybe it was legitimate.”

As with many women who have accused Nassar of abuse, Moore, now 21, says she only came to trust her own experiences over the last six months, as news reports made broader patterns clear.

“Now that I’m 21 and I can actually put the pieces together, it all makes perfect sense,” she says.

Moore speaks about the training course that she took in order to become a gymnastics coach. A part of that course entailed learning how to spot the signs of a child predator. She realized that Nassar checked every box on the predator checklist.

“When I did that course, I thought back to Larry and all of the things he used to do. He used to volunteer his time with kids, which made him look like an amazing person but he was really volunteering his time so he could abuse children. He would tell me secrets, very, very personal secrets about himself and his family and he would even cry to me about things, which is just an extremely inappropriate thing to do to a 13-year-old. But he would do that so he could get close to you and make you feel like you guys could share secrets with each other and that you could trust him. He would talk crap about your coaches to you so you would feel like he was your buddy, he was your friend, that you could talk to him about anything.”

Moore says that coming to terms over the last six months with what Nassar did to her has been incredibly difficult. After she found out what really happened to her, she felt disgusting. “I wanted to take 10 showers and just scrub my skin off. I can’t explain why I felt that way. I just felt dirty,” she explains.

“This affected me really horribly. Honestly, the past six months have kind of sucked. I started isolating myself from people. I have a really, really, really hard time trusting anyone because, like I said, someone I trusted more than almost anyone in the world ended up being someone who hurt me so immensely.”

When Moore looks back on herself at that time—going to gymnastics, doing her schoolwork, hanging out with her friends and family—she wishes she could somehow communicate with her younger self. “[I] want scream into the past, ‘Something’s wrong! Please tell someone how you’re feeling because something is so wrong!’”