Woman says Weinstein screamed ‘you owe me!’ before alleged rape
A former aspiring actress who has accused Harvey Weinstein of raping her twice has said he once shouted “you owe me!” before one of the alleged attacks.
Jessica Mann, 34, told the disgraced movie mogul’s trial that she was in an “extremely degrading” relationship with Weinstein between 2012 and 2013.
She likened Weinstein to “Jekyll and Hyde,” saying he could be charming in public but often showed frightening anger when they were alone.
“If he heard the word ‘no,’ it was like a trigger for him,” she said.
Ms Mann told jurors the first rape happened in a New York hotel room in March 2013 after Weinstein demanded she undress, saying he “stood over me until I was completely naked”.
Then he went into another room, emerged naked and raped her, she testified.
Afterwards in the hotel bathroom, she found a needle in a trash can, she said, and believed, after some research, that he had injected himself with an erection-inducing drug.
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She also said she noticed “extreme scarring”, adding that she thought he had the characteristics of both male and female genitalia.
Weinstein: Hollywood’s reckoning
Ms Mann kept in touch with Weinstein after the attack and sent him flattering emails because his “ego was so fragile”, the jury heard.
She told the court it “made me feel safe, worshipping him in this sense. I wanted to be perceived as innocent and naive”.
Ms Mann said that eight months later, while she was working at a hairdresser at a Los Angeles hotel, she told Weinstein she was in a relationship with an actor.
She said Weinstein screamed at her “You owe me one more time!” before dragging her into a bedroom and raping her a second time.
Ms Mann said she crawled into the bathroom afterwards with her eyes red and swollen from tears, and was worried Weinstein would get angry if he knew she was crying.
She told the court he then told her “OK, now go have you relationship”, adding “I just find you so attractive, I couldn’t resist”.
Ms Mann’s testimony is a pivotal moment in the rape case against the once-powerful movie producer.
Weinstein is charged in New York with the rape in March 2013 and also sexually assaulting Mimi Haleyi, a former Project Runway production assistant in 2006.
A conviction could put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
Weinstein, 67, has insisted that any sexual encounters were consensual.
During cross-examination, Donna Rotunno, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, questioned Ms Mann’s account and repeatedly suggested she chose to have sex with Weinstein to advance her career.
“You were manipulating Mr Weinstein so you’d get invited to fancy parties, correct?” she asked.
“I was not manipulating him,” Ms Mann answered.
Ms Rotunno asked Ms Mann whether, in 2013, she thought Weinstein might cast her in a movie, and Ms Mann said she did.
“You were going to continue to do whatever you had to do to make that happen?” Ms Rotunno asked.
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” Ms Mann said.
Ms Mann told the court she met Weinstein at a party after she moved from Washington state to Los Angeles to pursue acting.
The producer behind such Oscar-winning films as Shakespeare In Love and Pulp Fiction offered to help her, she said, asking her to meet him at a bookstore to learn about movie-business history.
She said: “I thought it was a blessing.”
The trial is set to resume on Monday.
