A dancer who worked as a double in the movie “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” testified Thursday that she tried to struggle or move after former film producer Harvey Weinstein shoved her onto a hotel room bed and took off her bra during an alleged attack nearly two decades ago.
The woman, identified in court only as “Ashley M.,” is among four uncharged alleged victims whom the prosecution told jurors that they will hear from during Weinstein’s trial on charges that he sexually assaulted four women in Los Angeles County.
The dancer told the downtown Los Angeles jury hearing the case against Weinstein that she was waiting in Puerto Rico in 2003 to film a scene in the movie when he suggested they walk outside, where she said he mentioned a “naked massage” and she responded that she was engaged.
She described the high-profile entertainment industry figure as “aggressive” and said she felt “scared,” but said she went along with Weinstein’s directive to get in a limousine with his then-assistant, Bonnie Hung, whom she said assured her that she would remain with her as Weinstein discussed future projects.
The woman testified that she felt more at ease because Weinstein’s assistant was with them when they arrived at a hotel, but said the assistant “shut the door behind us” once they got into the room.
“Harvey began to get aggressive and he eventually like shoved me on the bed,” the prosecution witness said. “… He just ripped off my top and bra.”
She said Weinstein told her, “It’s not like we’re having sex. It’s just naked cuddling,” and that she was “scared” and didn’t know what to do when he started masturbating and fondling her breasts. The woman, who described herself as 110 to 115 pounds, described herself as “hysterical” and said she tried to struggle or move under Weinstein’s larger weight.
“I was just really thankful that I wasn’t raped,” she told jurors about the alleged encounter with Weinstein.
The 70-year-old defendant was indicted on 11 charges — including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by a foreign object and sexual battery by restraint — involving five women. But Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson made no mention during his opening statement Monday of “Jane Doe #5,” who is named in four of the counts in the grand jury’s indictment, and the status of those charges was not immediately available.
In a statement released earlier this week, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said it had “no comment at this time” on the charges involving “Jane Doe #5,” adding only that its office is “tirelessly ensuring that all of the victims in this case receive justice.”
The prosecutor said in his opening statement that the alleged victims feared that Weinstein — whom he described as the most powerful person in the entertainment industry at the time — could crush their careers if they reported the allegations, but that one model came forward soon afterward to report the alleged attack on her in a New York hotel room in 2015.
Jurors have heard since then from one of the alleged victims named in the indictment. A model-actress who was identified in court only as “Jane Doe #1” testified that Weinstein raped and sexually assaulted her in a Los Angeles hotel room in what she described as “the longest night” of her life.
The panel is also expected to hear from three other alleged victims, who are referred to in the indictment only as “Jane Doe #2,” “Jane Doe #3” and “Jane Doe #4”
The prosecutor said one of the alleged victims — Jane Doe #4 — is now married to California’s governor and showed a photo of Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, but said she was a “powerless actor trying to make her way in Hollywood” when she met Weinstein 17 years ago.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who was not referred to by name during the prosecutor’s opening statement, is expected to testify about the alleged attack in a hotel room at The Peninsula in Beverly Hills after initially meeting him at a film festival in Toronto in 2005.
“Jane Doe #4” reported that she was “crying and shaking” after Weinstein allegedly took her by the arm from a hotel room bathroom, pulled her onto the bed and told her, “Relax, this is going to make you feel better,” according to the prosecutor.
Weinstein began his entertainment career as a concert promoter and then, with his brother Bob, created Miramax Films, which produced a number of “iconic and award-winning films” including “Pulp Fiction,” “The English Patient,” “Good Will Hunting” and “Shakespeare In Love,” among others, the prosecutor noted.
The movies launched the careers of Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Quentin Tarantino and Gwyneth Paltrow, Thompson said.
Weinstein’s attorney, Mark Werksman, countered that two of the victims named in the indictment “just made it up” and that it was “transactional sex” for the other two women.
“You will see that these were all consensual sexual relations or, in some cases, they didn’t happen at all,” Werksman told jurors in his opening statement. “Mr. Weinstein is an innocent man who is not guilty of the charges in this indictment.”
He told jurors that the allegations “can be traced directly to the #MeToo movement,” and said that his client “became the epicenter of the #MeToo movement.”
Werksman told the panel that Weinstein’s accusers were “women who willingly played the game by the rules applied back then” and now “claim they were raped and sexually assaulted.”
“He’s not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. He’s not hot,” Weinstein’s lawyer told jurors. “They had sex with him because he was powerful …”
Weinstein, he said, “was once a very successful movie producer” whose “name was synonymous with Oscars and hit movies” — but is now described as a “vile monster.”
Weinstein was extradited from New York, where he was convicted of raping an aspiring actress and of a criminal sex act against a former production assistant. The state’s highest court has since agreed to hear his appeal involving that case.
Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench — who described the charges as “essentially sexual assaults or assaults of a sexual nature” — told prospective jurors that the trial is expected to last about two months, including the jury selection process, which began Oct. 10.
Weinstein remains behind bars.