Survivor Stories

In the wake of the bombshell articles that came out about Harvey Weinstein this week, more and more actors and actresses are coming forward to recount their own assaults and sexual harassment from Harvey Weinstein and other unnamed powerful men in the entertainment industry. It takes a lot of courage to come forward and share what happened, so I think it is important to share the stories of those who are brave enough to recount them. But I know that the subject matter is difficult, and not everyone is up to reading about it every day. 

So Anarchy Gossip is starting a new recurring post called "Survivor Stories." Just like Kardashian Korner only goes up at 9am, Survivor Stories will only appear in the 8am slot so that the stories are confined to one post, and those who are not up to reading it can scroll past it. And like Kardashian Korner, it will not appear every day, only on days when it applies (in the short term, it will probably be going up almost daily for a little while).

In today's edition, James Van Der Beek, Kate Beckinsale, and Claire Forlani have all spoken out about their experiences.

James Van Der Beek shared the following on his Twitter:
"What Weinstein is being accused of is criminal. What he’s admitted to is unacceptable - in any industry. I applaud everybody speaking out. I’ve had my ass grabbed by older, powerful men, I’ve had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger...I understand the unwarranted shame, powerlessness & inability to blow the whistle. There’s a power dynamic that feels impossible to overcome...FTR, the harassment I tweeted about was by people 99.9% of you don’t know. 2 were charged (by others) & punished. The other has since died."

Kate Beckinsale recounted her own Harvey Weinstein encounter on her Instagram:
"I was called to meet Harvey Weinstein at the Savoy Hotel when I was 17. I assumed it would be in a conference room which was very common.When I arrived ,reception told me to go to his room . He opened the door in his bathrobe . I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older ,unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him.
After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left ,uneasy but unscathed.A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting .I realized he couldn't remember if he had assaulted me or not .I had what I thought were boundaries - I said no to him professionally many times over the years-some of which ended up with him screaming at me calling me a cunt and making threats, some of which made him laughingly tell people oh "Kate lives to say no to me ." 
It speaks to the status quo in this business that I was aware that standing up for myself and saying no to things,while it did allow me to feel uncompromised in myself,undoubtedly harmed my career and was never something I felt supported by anyone other than my family.I would like to applaud the women who have come forward , and to pledge that we can from this create a new paradigm where producers, managers, executives and assistants and everyone who has in the past shrugged and said " well, that's just Harvey /Mr X/insert name here " will realize that we in numbers can affect real change.
For every moment like this there have been thousands where a vulnerable person has confided outrageous unprofessional behavior and found they have no recourse, due to an atmosphere of fear that it seems almost everyone has been living in .I had a male friend who, based on my experience, warned a young actress who said she was going to dinner with Harvey to be careful. He received a phone call the next day saying he would never work in another Miramax film ;the girl was already sleeping with Harvey and had told him that my friend had warned her off.Let's stop allowing our young women to be sexual cannon fodder,and let's remember that Harvey is an emblem of a system that is sick,and that we have work to do."

Claire Forlani sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where she talked about her experiences working with Harvey Weinstein:
"[Farrow] didn’t mention that it was about Harvey but when I received the email I instinctively knew it was going to be. I told some close men around me and they all advised me not to speak. I had already told Ronan I would speak with him but from the advice around me, interestingly the male advice around me, I didn’t make the call. Today I sit here feeling some shame, like I’m not a woman supporting other women. I just read Mira Sorvino’s article in Time and she writes of how scared she was to speak out and participate. I take little solace in that.

You see, nothing happened to me with Harvey — by that I mean, I escaped 5 times. I had two Peninsula Hotel meetings in the evening with Harvey and all I remember was I ducked, dived and ultimately got out of there without getting slobbered over, well just a bit. Yes, massage was suggested. The three dinners with Harvey I don’t really remember the time period, I was 25. I remember him telling me all the actresses who had slept with him and what he had done for them. I wasn’t drinking the cool aid [sic], I knew Harvey was a master manipulator. He also announced to me at the last dinner I had with him at Dominic’s that his pilot knew to be on standby because he could never get me to sleep with him, to which I did what I always did, make light of the situation, a joke here or there and moved on. You see, I always thought I was a pro at handling these guys, I’d had a fair amount of experience. Sometimes I got angry, really angry. I wondered why I had Prey stamped on my forehead but this I kept to myself.


This sort of thing was something my generation dealt with, all the time. For me it started at age 14, my parents had two male friends who I trusted and adored and they were deeply inappropriate. It happened all the time when I modeled and it happened all through my twenties in the film business. For us it was something you weren’t supposed to make a big deal out of; it was sadly our normal."

Read her full article at The Hollywood Reporter.

Finally, Emma Thompson was recently asked about the Harvey Weinstein revelations. Here's what she had to say: