Jennifer Siebel Newsom said Weinstein “zeroed” in on her at a Hollywood event in 2005 and attacked her later at a Beverly Hills hotel
(Picture: AP)The wife of California governor Gavin Newsom broke down in tears while describing being raped by film producer Harvey Weinstein, telling a court: “This was hell.”
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an actress and documentary film-maker, said Weinstein “zeroed” in on her at a Hollywood event in 2005 and attacked her later at a Beverly Hills hotel.
She believed Weinstein had invited her for a business meeting to help her career, but he suddenly appeared wearing just a bathrobe.
“I’m trembling. I’m like a rock. I’m frigid. This is my worst nightmare”, she told the court in Los Angeles. “He was just so big and so determined … This was hell.”
Ms Siebel Newsom, 48, was accompanied to court by her husband, the newly re-elected California governor who has been tipped to one day run for President, and is one of four women accusing Weinstein of either rape or sexual assault in this trial.
The former film producer, 70, denies the charges, and his lawyer branded Ms Siebel Newsom as a “bimbo” earlier in the trial.
On the witness stand, Ms Siebel Newsom broke down crying repeatedly as she recalled the alleged rape and was asked if her attacker was in the courtroom.
“Yes”, she replied, identifying Weinstein. “He’s wearing a suit, and a blue tie, and he’s staring at me.”
She first went public with her allegations against Weinstein in 2017 during the first wave of the MeToo movement.
In court, Ms Siebel Newsom said she was a young actor when she met with “kingmaker” Weinstein in the hotel suite, and said she protested as he groped her and then either dragged or carried her into the bedroom.
She told him “Please don’t, please don’t” and looked for the exit, she said, and felt “like a blow-up doll” during the attack.
“I felt tremendous shame”, she told the jury.
During her acting career, Ms Siebel Newsom appeared in TV shows including Mad Men and she created the acclaimed 2011 documentary Miss Representation, which tackled media portrayals of women. Ms Siebel Newsom was questioned by Weinstein’s legal team about a donation the producer had made to her husband’s political campaign, and a 2007 email she had sent asking for advice on handling the media.
In opening remarks at the trial, Weinstein’s lawyer Mark Werksman suggested Ms Siebel Newsom had made herself "a prominent victim in the #MeToo movement", adding: "Otherwise she’d be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood."
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault, but is mounting an appeal in New York to that conviction.
The trial in Los Angeles continues.
