Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra on Thursday confronted Harvey Weinstein from the witness stand, testifying that the former Hollywood studio boss overpowered and raped her, and made other crude overtures that included sending her X-rated chocolates and showing up uninvited in his underwear with a bottle of baby oil in one hand and a video in the other.
In a quivering voice, Sciorra told the jury that the burly Weinstein barged into her apartment in the mid-1990s, threw her on a bed and forced himself on her as she tried to fight him off by kicking and punching him.
She said that about a month later, she ran into him and confronted him about what happened, and he replied: “That’s what all the nice Catholic girls say.”
Photo: AFP
Then, Weinstein leaned toward her and added menacingly: “This remains between you and I,” she told the jury.
“I thought he was going to hit me right there,” Sciorra testified.
The 59-year-old actress became the first of Weinstein’s accusers to testify at his trial, where the movie mogul is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his New York apartment in 2006, and raping an aspiring actress in a hotel room in 2013.
Weinstein’s lawyers sought to sow doubts about Sciorra’s story, raising questions about her actions after the alleged rape, and asking whether she had once described the encounter as “awkward sex,” which she denied.
Weinstein is not charged with attacking Sciorra, whose accusations date too far back to be prosecuted. Instead, she testified as one of four additional accusers prosecutors intend to put on the stand to show that the Hollywood producer had a habit of preying on women.
Generally, prosecutors cannot bring up alleged crimes beyond the charges at a trial, but such evidence can be allowed if it shows a certain pattern of behavior.
Weinstein, 67, could get life in prison if convicted.
He has insisted that any sexual encounters were consensual.
During cross-examination, Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno noted that Sciorra never went to police or a doctor about the alleged rape.
“At the time, I didn’t understand that that was rape,” Sciorra said.
She testified earlier that she once thought rape was a crime of strangers.
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