In a new report by Vanity Fair, actress Paz de la Huerta is accusing Harvey Weinstein of raping her twice in 2010. The first instance, she says, took place in November of that year after Weinstein offered to give her a ride home to her Tribeca apartment. The two had come across each other earlier that night at the Standard Hotel. According to her account, the producer insisted on coming up to her home for a drink, at which point, “Things got very uncomfortable very fast.” De la Huerta says Weinstein started by trying to kiss her, but when she brushed him away, “He pushed me onto the bed and his pants were down and he lifted up my skirt.” She described the rest of the attack as follows.
I felt afraid … . It wasn’t consensual … It happened very quickly … . He stuck himself inside me … . When he was done he said he’d be calling me. I kind of just laid on the bed in shock.
After that, de la Huerta says Weinstein continued to call her and eventually showed up in the lobby of her building in December. The actress said she had been drinking when Weinstein arrived and insisted again on going up to her apartment. “I was in no state. I was so terrified of him,” de la Huerta told Vanity Fair. “I did say no, and when he was on top of me I said, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ He kept humping me and it was disgusting. He’s like a pig … . He raped me.” She says she never heard from Weinstein again after that night.
The actress’s claims are very similar to ones shared by many among the more than 60 women who have come forward accusing Weinstein of assault, harassment, or rape. But according to Vanity Fair, de la Huerta has been in communication with the New York Police Department, and detective Nicholas DiGaudio told the publication, “I believe based on my interviews with Paz that from the NYPD standpoint we have enough to make an arrest.” De la Huerta said she told two people about the incident before now, including her therapist and a journalist, and both of them have provided statements corroborating the actresses’s account of the night, as per her description of it to them.
Following the alleged assaults, de la Huerta says she entered a very dark period, drinking to excess and slipping into depression. “I don’t think I was taking very good care of myself,” said the actress. “What happened with Harvey left me scarred for many years. I felt so disgusted by it, with myself … I became a little self-destructive. It was really hard for me to deal, to cope.” A Weinstein spokesperson has “unequivocally denied” any accusations of nonconsensual sex.
