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British actress Julia Ormond sues Harvey Weinstein, Disney and Miramax over sexual assault
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Emmy Award winner Julia Ormond has added herself to the long list of women who have legally accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and is now suing the disgraced producer.
The “Walking Dead: World Beyond” star also filed suit against The Walt Disney Company, Miramax — the production company Weinstein founded — and CAA talent agency for enabling the imprisoned the 71-year-old rapist, according to Variety.
Ormond’s suit was reportedly filed in New York City on Wednesday. It alleges the former movie mogul lured the 58-year-old British star into giving him a massage in her apartment, then masturbated and forced her to perform oral sex after a 1995 business dinner.
She alleges her agents at CAA advised against criticizing Weinstein and did nothing when she told them what happened.
“The men at CAA who represented Ormond knew about Weinstein,” Ormond’s filing says. “So too did Weinstein’s employers at Miramax and Disney.”
Ormond claims movie studios were enablers to Weinstein because he was a massive cash cow before several women, herself included, spoke out publicly against him at the start of the 2016 #MeToo movement.
Weinstein was sentenced to a total of nearly 40 years in prison for combined convictions in 2020 and 2022. More than half of that time will be served in New York, where he was convicted of committing sexual violence against women in 2006 and 2013. He will then be imprisoned in California for another 16 years for sex crimes committed there.
“There’s no way that Harvey did this without people knowing,” Ormond told Variety by phone. “If people knew, they were either too afraid to step up, or they allowed the profit that they were making from their relationship with him to justify a cover-up.”
Her lawsuit alleges “Weinstein’s assault and the aftermath was catastrophic both personally and professionally” to the actress. She claims in her suit that journalists over the years have asked “What happened to you?” as her acting career languished.
None of the parties being sued commented on Variety’s scoop.
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Brian Niemietz
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