Actress confronts Harvey Weinstein on camera in NYC, calls him a ‘rapist’

Suzy Byrne
·Reporter
Updated

An actress confronted Harvey Weinstein at a New York City event this week — calling him a “rapist” — and the incident was captured on camera before she was asked to leave the venue.

Weinstein — who’s been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 90 women — was sitting with a group of women and men at an Actors Hour event, which showcases emerging artists, at Downtime Bar on Wednesday. That’s when actress Zoe Stuckless approached his table, pointed at him and yelled, “Nobody’s gonna say anything? Nobody’s really going to say anything?” a video on her Facebook page showed.

Stuckless, who was asked to leave amid the confrontation, continued, “I’ll get out of here. That’s fine. I’m happy to leave. But nobody’s going to say anything? I’m going to stand four feet from a f***ing rapist? And nobody’s going to say anything?”

Stuckless said she was then kicked out of the event.

In a statement to People magazine, Weinstein’s spokesperson said, “Harvey Weinstein was out with friends enjoying the music and trying to find some solace in his life that has been turned upside down. This scene was uncalled for, downright rude and an example of how due process today is being squashed by the public, trying to take it away in the courtroom too.”

The statement included a note from Weinstein that said, “I am happy to address anyone’s questions. We should all be offered the courtesy to voice opinions and be heard and to even get answers. I am glad we all still have these rights.”

Since his accusers first went on the record in October 2017, the disgraced movie producer has been accused of sexual misconduct by nearly 100 women, many of them actresses or aspiring ones. Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex and has not been convicted of any crime. In January, he is scheduled to go to trial in NYC on charges of rape, criminal sexual act and predatory sexual assault, stemming from the accusations of two women.

Along with the video and photos, Stuckless detailed her account of the incident on Facebook, calling it “one of the most surreal nights of my life.”

“I went to an event called Actors Hour, whose mission statement is to empower emerging artists and to ‘create an open space for creatives to share what they love,’” she wrote. “After a while, a friend of mine pointed out a man sitting in a booth. It was Harvey Weinstein, surrounded by a cadre of young women and two bodyguards. He wasn’t hiding. He came to watch young artists be vulnerable on stage.”

While nobody initially said anything to Weinstein, “a comic got on stage and called out to the crowd to address ‘the elephant in the room.’ As soon as she alluded to his presence in the room the event organizers, the bartenders, and a number of others booed her into silence. She continued her set, stunned into compliance.”

She said she grew “furious” as the event continued and nobody else called him out. “He was sitting there, allowed to laugh and clap and drink and flirt and no one was saying anything,” she recalled.

That led her to take action she said for “all of the voices that have been silenced over so many years. I thought about the artists, the women, who were paralyzed by the same fear that I felt, surrounded by colleagues who were intimidated into a culture of silence and passivity. This room was a microcosm of our whole community. And I couldn’t sit there and let him laugh. So I spoke up.”

She ended her message by writing, “In some ways tonight was a horrible, painful reminder of the power a man like Weinstein holds even now. It was a reminder that even in this time of relative awareness it is hypnotically easy to be pulled into a culture of silence. However, it was also a reminder that our voices have so much more power when we stand together.

“When I left the building, crying out of fury and frustration I was quickly surrounded by a group of mostly women who expressed the same fear to raise their voice that I had. They thanked me for speaking up. Our passivity is poison. We need to stand together, and we need to speak up. Or this poison will fester, only encouraged by our fear.”

Video of comic Kelly Bachman making the “elephant in the room” comment has also surfaced. It actually went well beyond that. “I didn’t know we had to bring our own mace and rape whistles to Actors Hour,” Bachman is heard saying at one point. Immediately, she was booed and a male voice is heard telling her to “shut up.”

But she didn’t let up, “This kills at group therapy for rape survivors. They love it,” she continued as women cheered. Bachman then said, “I have been raped, surprisingly by no one in this room. But I’ve never gotten to confront those guys. So just a general f**k you,” she said to the crowd, as Weinstein sat there.

Comic Amber Rollo said she confronted Weinstein during the evening — following Stuckless calling him out — and was also kicked out. She claims she called him a “monster and told him he should disappear.”

The venue confirmed that Stuckless was asked to leave, calling her a “heckler” in a statement. It went on to defend Weinstein, saying, “Our goal at Downtime is to create an environment where everyone feels welcome. We respect the privacy of our patrons and event partners, and want to ensure that all guests are treated equally, with the same service and respect.”

According to Page Six, Alexandra Laliberte, who organized the event, wrote on Instagram that Weinstein was “not invited by the organizer or anyone associated with this organization.” However, actress Evan Rachel Wood shared Laliberte’s contact information on Twitter and urged her followers to contact her “in case anyone wants to ask personally why she invited Harvey Weinstein into a space with young actors.”

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