An English actress has filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein, claiming the disgraced movie mogul sexually assaulted her in 1995.
In the Wednesday lawsuit filed in Manhattan, Sabrina star Julia Ormond states that Weinstein sexually assaulted her after a business dinner. She alleges that Weinstein lured her into a room under the guise of giving her a massage before he allegedly forced her to give him oral sex and masturbated on her. The lawsuit, which was first reported by Variety, also names Disney and CAA for allegedly telling her to stay quiet after the assault.
“After living for decades with the painful memories of my experiences at the hands of Harvey Weinstein, I am humbled and grateful to all those who have risked speaking out,” Ormond said. “Their courage and the Adult Survivors Act has provided me a window of opportunity and way to shed light on how powerful people and institutions like my talent agents at CAA, Miramax and Disney enabled and provided cover for Weinstein to assault me and countless others. I seek a level of personal closure by holding them accountable to acknowledge their part and the depth of its harms and hope that all of our increased understanding will lead to further protections for all of us at work.”
Ormond, best known for her roles in Sabrina and Legends of the Fall, is the latest actress to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct. In February, Weinstein was sentenced in Los Angeles to 16 years in prison for sexually assaulting an Italian model at a Los Angeles hotel in 2013. The 71-year-old is also currently serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for rape in the third degree and a criminal sex act in the first degree. An appeals court in August has allowed him to appeal his conviction there.
In a statement to The Daily Beast, a CAA spokesperson stressed that the agency “takes all allegations of sexual assault and abuse seriously and has compassion for Ms. Ormond and the experience she described in her complaint.”
“However, the claims that Ms. Ormond has levied against the agency are completely without merit. Through counsel, Ms. Ormond approached CAA in March with these allegations about the agency,” the spokeswoman said. “Knowing these allegations to be untrue, the agency then retained attorney Loretta Lynch and her law firm, Paul Weiss, to defend the company. Their review found nothing to support Ms. Ormond’s claims against CAA.”
The spokesperson added that CAA “received a demand, through its counsel, from Ms. Ormond’s attorneys, that CAA pay $15,000,000 in exchange for Ms. Ormond not making the allegations against CAA public,” and that the agency rejected that demand. The statement also noted that CAA also shared the internal investigation with Ormond about her four year relationship with the agency and that they “vigorously refute” her “baseless” claims.
Disney, Miramax, and one of Ormond’s former CAA agents did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Imran Ansari, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, told The Daily Beast that his client “categorically denies the allegations made against him by Julia Ormond and he is prepared to vehemently defend himself.”
“This is yet another example of a complaint filed against Mr. Weinstein after the passing of decades, and he is confident that the evidence will not support Ms. Ormond’s claims,” Ansari added.
Tim Robbins, Dr. Mathilde Krim, Harvey Weinstein, and Julia Ormond.
J. VespaThe latest lawsuit, however, alleges that Weinstein’s employers were complicit in his devious behavior and even went out of their way to keep it quiet.
It alleges that in December 1995, at the height of her career, Ormond went to a business dinner with Weinstein in New York. At the time, Ormond had scored a two-year film agreement with Miramax, which included a stipulation that the production company would pay for a trip to Africa for a writer’s research, character development, and location scouting.
While the dinner was meant to discuss the Africa trip, Weinstein instead plied Ormond with drinks and frequently changed the subject, insisting that they could discuss it later. Then, Weinstein said he wanted to discuss Africa back at an apartment that Miramax had provided for Ormond.
“Given Weinstein’s powerful position and domineering nature, Ormond felt that she had no choice but to allow him to return to her apartment,” the lawsuit states. “When they arrived at Ormond’s apartment, she was too inebriated to even put her keys in the door to open it. Weinstein took Ormond’s keys and opened the door. Once inside her apartment, Weinstein quickly agreed that Miramax would pay for the Africa trip and then went to Ormond’s bathroom.”
The lawsuit states that when Weinstein emerged from the bathroom, he was stripped down to his underwear. While Ormond made it clear to Weinstein that she did not want to do anything sexual with him, he continued to take off his underwear and persuade her to massage him.
Weinstein then allegedly rolled over and started masturbating, before he removed her pants and eventually forced her to give him oral sex. After the assault, Weinstein allegedly got off her and left the apartment.
“That sexual assault on Ormond could have been prevented if Miramax or Disney had properly supervised Weinstein and not retained him while knowing that he was a danger to the women he encountered at work,” the lawsuit states. “Likewise, had CAA fulfilled its legal duties to Ormond to look out for her well-being, to not place her in danger, and to warn her about Weinstein’s predations, Ormond would not have been in a position to be victimized by Harvey Weinstein.”
The lawsuit alleges that after the assault when Ormond reached out to CAA, Weinstein and his employers retaliated against her. It states that instead of helping Ormond, CAA, and others “suggested that if she reported Weinstein to the authorities, she would not be believed, and he would seriously damage her career.”
“Still worse, not long after Weinstein’s assault on Ormond and her reporting of the assault to them, CAA lost interest in representing her, and her career suffered dramatically,” the lawsuit said. “CAA, Miramax, and Disney continued to handsomely profit from their close association with Harvey Weinstein for many years after Ormond was assaulted by him and then cast aside by Hollywood. But the damage to Ormond—and so many other women Harvey Weinstein went on to rape, assault, and harass—has yet to be fully understood.”
The lawsuit alleges that the actress’ agents were not surprised by her allegations against Weinstein—and instead of providing empathy, they questioned her about whether her actions could have been seen as consent. They added that if Ormond were to go to the police, she might not be believed.
Julia Ormond won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Temple Grandin.
NBC/Trae PattonOrmond did not pursue any further action, and Miramax ultimately terminated her contract. The lawsuit alleges that CAA then “suddenly transferred her to a younger and less experienced agent, and CAA no longer appeared to be effectively and productively working on her behalf.”
“More than twenty-five years later, still haunted by memories of the assault and trauma, as well as the sexual assaults and rapes she learned that Weinstein committed after he assaulted her, Ormond is deeply troubled by the fact that her sexual assault was entirely preventable by Miramax, Disney, and CAA,” the lawsuit states.
