Harvey Weinstein Trial Escalates As Former ‘Project Runway’ Assistant Testifies About Forced Encounter

By PopZette Staff | January 28, 2020

The trial of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein continued to escalate on Monday as a former assistant on the reality show “Project Runway” broke down while testifying about the sexual assault she allegedly suffered at his hands.

Mimi Haleyi told the New York City court that she tried to fight Weinstein off, saying that she kept saying “no, no, no” as he assaulted her, according to USA Today.

“I did reject him, but he insisted,” Haley testified. “Every time I tried to get off the bed, he would push me back and hold me down.”

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Haleyi, who is one of two women whose allegations make up the current case against Weinstein in New York, said that she had gone to the movie producer’s Soho apartment back in 2006 in a car he sent for her. She thought that she was going to meet with him about working on one of his movies, but instead, she said that Weinstein pushed her on a bed at his home and forcibly engaged in sexual acts despite her repeated protests.

Haleyi went on to say that she recalled thinking “I’m being raped” during the attack. She also remembered asking herself, “If I scream rape, will someone hear me?” before she finally simply “checked out.”

“I couldn’t get away from him at all. … I checked out and decided to endure it,” she told the court. “That was the safest thing I could do.”

Earlier today, the court heard the testimony of Elizabeth Entin, who was Haleyi’s roommate at the time of the alleged attack. Entin testified that Haley told her about the assault as soon as it happened.

“And she came in, and he started rubbing her shoulders, kissing her, and she said no, no, and he wouldn’t stop, and she said, ‘I’m on my period,’ and he said, ‘I don’t care,’ at which point, he threw her down … and started (assaulting) her as she was saying no,” Entin told the court.

Entin remembered telling her roommate, “Miriam, that sounds like rape. … Why don’t you call a lawyer?”

“She still just seemed very distraught and was shaking and didn’t really want to pursue it or talk about it,” she explained. “She wasn’t very present.”

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Weinstein is currently facing five charges in New York related to his alleged crimes against Haleyi and one other woman. He has plead not guilty to all charges, denying that any of his sexual encounters with the women were nonconsensual.

Prior to being hit with numerous sexual assault charges, Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. He was also a major donor to the Democratic Party who had close ties to lawmakers like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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The post Harvey Weinstein Trial Escalates As Former ‘Project Runway’ Assistant Testifies About Forced Encounter appeared first on The Political Insider.

Actress Evan Rachel Wood Gets Major Backlash For Calling Kobe Bryant A ‘Rapist’ After His Death

By PopZette Staff | January 28, 2020

Evan Rachel Wood, who is best known for starring in the HBO television series “Westworld,” has found herself in hot water this week after she called late NBA star Kobe Bryant a “rapist” hours after his death on Sunday.

Bryant tragically passed away on Sunday at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash that also killed his 13 year-old daughter Gianna as well as seven other people. Just hours later, Wood took it upon herself to say that Bryant was both a “sports hero” and a “rapist” in a tweet to her over 444,000 followers.

“What has happened is tragic. I am heartbroken for Kobe’s family. He was a sports hero. He was also a rapist. And all of these truths can exist simultaneously,” Wood tweeted.

Wood’s tweet refers to allegations stemming from 2003, when a 19 year-old woman accused Bryant of choking and sexually assaulting her in a hotel room in Colorado, according to The Daily Beast. After being arrested, Bryant admitted to cheating on his wife with the woman, but claimed that their encounter in the hotel room was consensual. All charges against Bryant were later dropped when the woman refused to testify against him in court, instead choosing to hear an apology from him that was read by his lawyer.

Despite the fact that the charges against Bryant were dropped, Wood still decided to portray him as a “rapist” less than a full day after his passing. Unfortunately for her, however, this came back to bite her in a big way when social media users fired back at her for condemning the NBA hero.

The backlash eventually got so great that Wood finally responded in a second tweet.

Twitter users were still having none of it, however.

For Wood to defame a man hours after his death and that of his child based on allegations from seventeen years ago that were eventually dropped in a court of law is truly beyond the pale. Her tweet is also especially hypocritical coming from someone who works in the industry of Hollywood, which turned a blind eye to the sexual deviances of someone like disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein for decades.

Wood owes the entire Bryant family an apology, and she deserves all of the social media backlash that she is receiving.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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The post Actress Evan Rachel Wood Gets Major Backlash For Calling Kobe Bryant A ‘Rapist’ After His Death appeared first on The Political Insider.