By: Steve Dellar | 10-24-2017 | News
Photo credit: Chris Cintron | Dreamstime.com

Weinstein Assistant Paid 165k$ For Silence

When the Harvey Weinstein story broke, one of the subtitles read that he had already reached financial settlements with 8 women for 100k$. One of those 8 women has now come forward. She is Ms. Zelda Perkins and was his assistant for a decade in the 1990s.

Ms. Perkins admitted that at 24, she and another employee of Miramax split a settlement of around $300,000 (165k$ for her) in return for them signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

In view of all the news that came out over the past few weeks, and given the great number of women that have been hurt by her former boss’ behavior, she decided to break that NDA and now spills the beans on her former boss.

She explains how, at the age of 20 when she worked as his assistant, Mr. Weinstein would often parade naked in the hotel and made her side by the tub when he bathed. When a colleague of hers informed that Mr. Weinstein had raped her at the 1998 Venice Film Festival, she sought legal counsel and got a settlement.

Ms. Perkins explained: ”My driving motivation was to create safeguards to protect future employees. He had a need to annihilate and humiliate men, but with women, it was all about seduction and submission. Harvey made you feel in an honorary position of trust and influence which he then used as a tool to exert control.”

This behavior was on display as from the first time she ended up alone with him: “He went out of the room and came back in his underwear. He asked me if I would give him a massage. Then he asked if he could massage me. But this was his behavior on every occasion I was alone with him. I often had to wake him up in the hotel in the mornings and he would try to pull me into bed.”

Zelda says she got the job when another one of Weinstein's other assistants ‘suddenly disappeared’, and she secured her spot for a decade when she stood up to him on one occasion. After that he respected her: “I remember taking a call in the room when another call came through on another phone. He swore at me to "pick up the f*ing phone. I said: "I’m already on the f*ing phone!" It sealed my fate as someone who could stand up to him,” and she says she was very well paid over the next ten years.

Source:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41730109

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1 Comment/s
Anonymous No. 10251 2017-10-24 : 15:46

So, was there actually anyone who didn't know?

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