Asia Argento shared a photo of herself with Ronan Farrow and two other women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment.
Farrow was seen in the picture, taken on Monday, with his arm around Rosanna Arquette as Annabella Sciorra and Argento leaned against one another.
Argento initially tweeted the photo with the caption: ‘A tribe of women who helped take down the Beast with angel @RonanFarrow #POWERBRUNCH.’
Her boyfriend Anthony Bourdain retweeted the image with the caption, ‘Power Brunch.’
Ronan Farrow posed for a photo with Rosanna Arquette (right), Annabella Sciorra (left) and Asia Argento (center) after having brunch on Monday. The three women have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment
Argento initially tweeted the photo with the caption: ‘A tribe of women who helped take down the Beast with angel @RonanFarrow #POWERBRUNCH’
Farrow’s exposé on Weinstein appeared in The New Yorker on October 10. The report that accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting and harassing multiple women rocked Hollywood.
On November 7, Farrow published a second exposé that claimed Weinstein used an ‘army of spies’ that included former Mossad agents in order to dig up dirt on the actresses and journalists he feared would expose his history of sexual misconduct.
Farrow also published that piece in The New Yorker. He revealed that the men and women portrayed themselves as victims, journalists and, in one case, a women’s rights activist to befriend actress Rose McGowan in hopes of getting an early copy of her memoir.
The disgraced mogul hired Black Cube, run by former Israeli intelligence officers of Mossad, and Kroll – one of the biggest global corporate-intelligence firms – to gather details about the personal lives and sexual histories of dozens of actresses and journalists.
Farrow’s exposé on Weinstein appeared in The New Yorker on Oct 10. The report that accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting and harassing multiple women rocked Hollywood
Black Cube is still under contract with Weinstein, and McGowan said she spoke to an agent just two weeks ago – after the publication of both The New York Times and New Yorker exposes.
In one email, on October 10, the agent who went by the name Diana Filip and posed as a women’s rights activist wrote: ‘Hi Love, How are you feeling? . . . Just wanted to tell you how brave I think you are.’
Filip emailed her again on October 23 as well, while also meeting with McGowan in person four times.
During those meetings, McGowan spoke about what she had been through, unaware that this was all being reported back to man she had accused of raping her at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.
One of the Weinstein’s objectives was to obtain a copy of a book that included ‘harmful negative information on and about the Client’ – identified as Weinstein in multiple documents.
The book referred to was ‘Brave,’ a memoir by McGowan that is set for release in January.
The documents reveal that the agency delivered more than a hundred pages of transcripts and descriptions of the book based on hours of conversation between the actress and Filip.
The Black Cube agent posing as Filip said she was the deputy head of a London-based wealth-management firm Reuben Capital Partners, who first wrote to McGowan in May 2017, asking her to speak at a gala event for discrimination against women in the workplace.
On November 7, Farrow published a second exposé that claimed Weinstein used an ‘army of spies’ that included former Mossad agents in order to to dig up dirt on the actresses, including Rose McGowan (left) and journalists he feared would expose his history of sexual misconduct
Farrow said on Good Morning America earlier this month (above) that there was more to come from this story
Tweet beat: McGowan responded to Farrow’s second report by tweeting: ‘Here is my official statement: CHECK MOTHERF***ING MATE PIGFACE’
Speaking out: Another Weinstein rape accuser, Asia Argento, wrote: ‘Why didn’t I @rosemcgowan @RoArquette @AnnabellSciorra spoke up earlier? We were followed by ex-Mossad agents. Isn’t that terrifying? Very’
The pair met on a number of occasions in the following months, in Los Angeles and New York, where Filip began pressing the actress for information, while also offering to make an investment in a film she was hoping to make.
There was even a very authentic looking website that was created for Reuben Capital, with an entire section devoted to women.
‘It is a well-known fact that women have less access to capital around the world. This is certainly the case in emerging markets and rings true in other industries around the world too,’ reads the ‘Women In Focus’ page.
The agencies were employed to get their hands on McGowan’s book Brave
‘The scale of the issue is different depending on which country is brought into focus, but the fundamental issues are identical: women earn less, get promoted less, and are underappreciated in the workplace.’
The address in London is also a building with a number of small offices, though no actual office number is listed on the Reuben website.
McGowan responded to Farrow’s report second report earlier this month by tweeting: ‘Here is my official statement: CHECK MOTHERF***ING MATE PIGFACE’
Another Weinstein rape accuser, Asia Argento, wrote: ‘Why didn’t I @rosemcgowan @RoArquette @AnnabellSciorra spoke up earlier? We were followed by ex-Mossad agents. Isn’t that terrifying? Very.’
And Farrow wrote: ‘Craziest story I’ve ever reported, and a rare professional experience that made me fear for my safety (even including time in Afghanistan).’
Weinstein also used several other private security firms including the Los Angeles-based agency PSOPS to investigate those who threatened to expose him.
The agencies deployed secret operatives to ‘target’ stars such as Rose McGowan, who would later become Weinstein’s most vocal accuser, Farrow reports.
The agent known as Diana Filip even posed as a woman’s right activist to lull McGowan into discussing her claims.
The same female operative later met with a journalist to find out which women were talking to the press.
‘The explicit goal of the investigations, laid out in one contract with Black Cube, signed in July, was to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against Weinstein that eventually emerged in the New York Times and The New Yorker,’ Farrow said.
Over the course of twelve months, Weinstein had the agencies compile psychological profiles on dozens of targets that often focused on their personal or sexual histories.
One such profile focused on actress Arquette, an accuser in a recent piece for The New Yorker, and included her posts on social media about sexual abuse, her family history with molestation and sexual assault, and her friendship with McGowan.
Weinstein had hired the intelligence agencies through his law firm so the investigations would be covered by attorney-client privilege. Those services ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars according to one invoice that was submitted for $600,000.
Weinstein had the agencies compile psychological profiles on dozens of targets such as Rosanna Arquette (left). Annabella Sciorra (right) said she’d got a call from a journalist but quickly became suspicious and realized the interviewer could be tied to Weinstein
Another tactic saw Weinstein or his agencies hire journalists to interview his accusers and report back on their claims, as well as trying to dig up information on their other sources.
In January, 2017, McGowan said she was contacted by a freelance journalist who secretly recorded their conversation and reported back to Black Cube about what she said. The journalist, who has not been named, denies he reported back to them ‘in a formal capacity.’
That same reporter contacted at least two other of Weinstein’s accusers including actress Sciorra who later alleged the 65-year-old had raped her.
She says she’d got a call from the journalist but quickly became suspicious and realized the interviewer could be tied to Weinstein.
‘It scared me that Harvey was testing to see if I would talk,’ she said.
Black Cube, which has branches in Tel Aviv, London, and Paris, and states on its website it offers ‘a select group of elite Israeli intelligence community who specializes in tailored solutions to complex business and litigation challenge’, declined to comment on the work it did for Weinstein but insists it always operates ‘in full compliance with the law of any jurisdiction in which it operates’.
However, the firm has landed itself in trouble previously and just last year, two of its investigators were arrested in Romania on hacking charges.
Meanwhile, Weinstein’s spokesperson Sallie Hofmeister, said: ‘It is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time.’
She also denied he had ever secure any part of McGowan’s book, calling Farrow’s article full of ‘inaccuracies and wild conspiracy theories’.