A new story published Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Harvey Weinstein may have begun a pattern of sexual misconduct when he was in his early 20s and just breaking into the entertainment business.
The story by Scott Johnson and Stephen Galloway details three new accusations, including one from a former manager at a Buffalo collections agency when Harvey Weinstein was running a concert promotion business in his hometown with partner Corky Burger.
The unnamed woman told THR that in 1975, when Weinstein was 22 or 23, she agreed to offer leeway on an overdue bill in exchange for tickets to a Hot Tuna concert — but was told to enter his bathroom when she went to pick up the tickets from his home in suburban Buffalo.
According to THR, Weinstein was in the tub at the time she entered and asked her to wash his back — which she said she declined. The woman said that when she later went to his office to thank him for the tickets, he put his arm around her and tried to kiss her. “He wanted a blow job,” she told THR.
Another new accuser, Paula Wachowiak, recalls working as an in,tern on Harvey Weinstein’s first film as a producer, the low-budget horror film “The Burning” during the summer of 1980. Wachowiak, then 24, said she took a folder of checks to Weinstein in his hotel room — where she said he met her wearing only a towel, which he soon dropped.
“What’s this for?” she said that he asked, pointing downward before chuckling. She said that he asked her to give him a massage, which she declined: “I don’t think that’s in my job description.” (Weinstein’s rep told THR, “Mr. Weinstein has a different recollection of these events.”)
The story also quotes producer Alan Brewer, who had known Weinstein since age 12 and worked with him on “Playing for Keeps,” an indie comedy that Bob and Harvey Weinstein co-wrote and co-directed in the early 1980s.
According to Brewer’s account in THR, a female crew member on the film said Harvey Weinstein had invited her to his hotel to discuss work-related matters and then tried to kiss her and force oral sex on her. She told Brewer that she resisted Weinstein’s advances — and also declined Brewer’s offer to call the police but instead asked him to keep Weinstein away from her.
Brewer said that Weinstein’s temper boiled over many times during and after the shoot — including a violent altercation that he said “spilled into the street.”
“This was a person who had tremendous anger issues,” Brewer told THR.
A rep for Weinstein has not yet responded to a request for comment but the disgraced mogul has consistenly denied engaging in any nonconsensual sexual conduct.