Actress Kaitlin Doubleday has revealed why she agreed to visit Harvey Weinstein’s hotel room, despite hearing the rumors of his inappropriate behavior.
The Empire star revealed in a column for The Hollywood Reporter that the two met when Doubleday was 25 and a struggling actress at the time.
She was invited to meet with the influential movie mogul, but was warned of past accusations of sexual harassment. Doubleday agreed to the meeting, but only if it were in a public location.
Empire actress Kaitlin Doubleday (left and right) has revealed why she agreed to visit Harvey Weinstein’s hotel room, despite hearing the rumors of his inappropriate behavior. The two met when she was 25. Before the meeting, she was warned by her manager of past accusations of sexual harassment
Doubleday said Weinstein (pictured, September 2017) suggested meeting up for a drink at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel restaurant where they about movies, books, travel, and awards
After several meetings in public, the actress says he asked her to meet her in his room to watch some footage because he needed advice on an ending on the film Nine (Pictured, Doubleday in Empire)
Doubleday said her manager warned her that she’d heard rumors about Weinstein being a serial sexual harasser and suggested that if the actress agreed to the meeting, she should do so in a public setting.
‘I called him back and, shockingly, we developed a rapport,’ she wrote in the column.
She said he suggested meeting up for a drink at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel restaurant.
‘OK, as long as you don’t expect me to come up to your room!’ she claims she responded.
Doubleday says they spoke about movies, books, travel, and awards and stayed in touch ‘like old friends’ until another night at the Montage, when she says he asked her to meet her in his room to watch some footage because he needed advice on an ending for the film Nine.
‘I didn’t want to go. I knew what he was doing. I had prepared myself for this moment, but still, I went,’ she wrote. ‘Now the world knows what happens when Harvey Weinstein invites you to his hotel room.’
Doubleday (left) said she didn’t want to go but she went because she was ‘desperate’ and had struggled with her self-esteem. She didn’t describe what transpired in detail but she compared to being ‘just as’ actress Ashley Judd (right) described it
Judd (pictured, center, Vince Vaughn and Weinstein in March 1997) has said Weinstein greeted her wearing a bathrobe and asked if she would watch him shower and give him a massage
‘I went up to that hotel room because I’ve been groomed to by the world, by the industry and by people’s expectations that an aspiring young woman can achieve success only with the help of a powerful man,’ Doubleday said (Pictured, the Montage Beverly Hills hotel)
Doubleday didn’t describe what transpired in detail but she compared to being ‘just as’ actress Ashley Judd described it.
Judd has said Weinstein greeted her wearing a bathrobe and asked if she would watch him shower and give him a massage.
Doubleday said she went up to the room because she was ‘desperate’ and had struggled with her self-esteem.
‘Harvey made me feel like he saw me for my intelligence and not for my body,’ she wrote.
‘I went up to that hotel room because I’ve been groomed to by the world, by the industry and by people’s expectations that an aspiring young woman can achieve success only with the help of a powerful man.’
The disgraced movie mogul is facing more than 80 sexual misconduct allegations dating all the way back to the 1970s, but claims he never engaged in non-consensual sex with women.