Alan Dershowitz had a bizarre moment on MSNBC Friday morning after being publicly interrupted twice by an incoming Skype call on live television. More intriguing still, the call came from Natassia Malthe, an actress who has accused disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein of rape.
Though Harvey Weinstein and his arraignment in a Manhattan court had been the subject du jour, the Harvard law professor was on with MSNBC host Hallie Jackson to talk about Michael Cohen and the Trump legal strategy when the calls came in.
When Malthe dialed in for a second time, Jackson could barely contain her laugher.
“I know you’re getting another Skype call as we speak,” she said. Even after the camera panned away from Dershowitz, alerts could be heard indicating that Malthe was still trying to get through.
Despite Jackon’s assertion that it was Dershowitz who was receiving the call, a person familiar with the matter at MSNBC said that Malthe been dialing in for her own interview in the 11 o’clock hour with MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle.
The actress is one of more than 80 women who have accused Weinstein of some form of sexual misconduct toward them over the years. Her own story with the producer is from 2008, when she says a crazed and disheveled Weinstein barged into her hotel room late at night and demanded sex and that he raped her when she refused.
“It was not consensual. He did not use a condom. He did not ejaculate inside of me. Then he masturbated,” Malthe said, according to Variety. “I laid still and just closed my eyes and wanted it to end. I played dead.”
In court today, Weinstein was charged with rape and “criminal sexual acts,” according to releases by both the NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.