Fourth French actress says she was harassed by Weinstein

The French actress Florence Darel became the latest star Thursday to reveal that she was harassed by disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Darel, 49, who first came to notice in Eric Rohmer’s “A Tale of Springtime” in 1990, told Le Parisien newspaper that Weinstein had promised to help make her big in America if she became his “part-time” mistress.

She said she first had to beat off his advances after Weinstein’s company Miramax bought the 1993 fashion industry comedy “A la mode” in which she appeared.

The following year, pushed by her agent, she agreed to meet Weinstein in a Paris hotel.

“He talked to me about a film he wanted to make about World War II and then he began to tell me that he found me very attractive and wanted to have an affair with me,” Darel told the paper.

“I told him I was very much in love with my partner, but he said that that didn’t worry him and he wanted me to be his mistress for a few days a year.

“That way we could work together. Basically, he said that if I wanted to make it in America, it would be through him,” the actress said.

Bond star Lea Seydoux had earlier written her own account of her run-ins with Weinstein and others in an industry that she said turned a blind eye to abuse.

“That’s the most disgusting thing. Everyone knew what Harvey was up to and no one did anything,” “Spectre” star Seydoux wrote in the Guardian.

Two other French actresses, Judith Godreche and Emma de Caunes, had earlier said they had also suffered at his hands.

De Caunes, who starred in the Oscar-nominated “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and the comedy “Mr. Bean’s Holiday”, said she was “petrified” when Weinstein emerged naked from the bathroom at the Ritz hotel in Paris where they were having a meeting.

Weinstein has denied all charges, according to a statement from his spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister.

Source: AFP