A New York City club owner is questioning the story being told by one of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged victims, who claims that she was trapped in a basement by the mogul and forced to watch him masturbate in a potted plant.
Armin Amiri, the proprietor at the now-shuttered Socialista, claims that it was his sous chef’s pot that got ‘defiled’ with Weinstein’s human stain on the night he blocked the basement exit at the club and made Fox News reporter Lauren Sivan watch him pleasure himself to completion.
He came forward to reveal Weinstein’s silver lining playbook in a letter to The Hollywood Reporter after he claims the mogul reached out to him for the first time in years and asked that he discredit Sivan’s allegations.
That hunt for some good will ultimately backfired though for the not-so-talented Mr. Weinstein.
Sivan meanwhile is standing by her account, and amidst all these new allegations of sex, lies and videotapes wrote on Twitter: ‘What this says to me? I wasn’t the only woman + that wasn’t the only potted plant/kitchen pot.’
Amiri does confess that he did not see a girl or the moment that the pot was defiled , but knew something had happened when he walked in as Weinstein was buckling up his pants.
Basement bummer: Armin Amiri (above in 2008) was one of the owners of the now-shuttered NYC club Socialista, where Lauren Sivan claims Harvey Weinstein masturbated in front of her
Standing string: He writes in a letter that Weinstein reached out to him in the wake of Sivan’s claims to ask him to discredit her statements (Sivan above on ‘Today’ last week)
‘What I remember about this incident is that my sous chef came into my office, furious, telling me that “some fat f***” saying he’s an owner — he didn’t know the name — had come into the kitchen with a woman and shoved a $100 bill at him and told him to get out,’ said Amiri.
‘It was like 1:30 in the morning and he’d been the only one still there. The chef told me he was going to quit.’
The sous chef then provided proof of the damage which had been done to his iron lady according to Amiri.
‘My chef and I go to the kitchen. He picks up a pot that had been placed back on the stove,’ said Amiri.
‘It had been defiled. It was so bizarre. We couldn’t believe it happened.’
Amiri said he never confronted Weinstein about the incident however, while also applauding the women who have gone public with their allegations against the Hollywood heavyweight.
‘My heart goes out to all the brave women who have come forward,’ said Amiri.
‘Once Ms. Sivan spoke out, and after being contacted by several media outlets, I’ve felt responsible to state what I remembered.’
He might have stayed quiet too had Weinstein not contacted him last week and asked that he try and help with some damage control by discrediting Sivan according to Amiri.
Predator: Amiri did tell a slightly different story than Sivan, claiming that Weinstein (above at Socialista with wife Georgina) ejaculated into a sous chef’s pan
‘We hadn’t spoken in years,’ said Amiri.
‘He told me he needed a statement about his involvement in Socialista, which I said I’d be happy to provide, and I did, and then his lawyers said he needed one saying I hadn’t seen anything that night.’
That request proved to be too much for Amiri, who refused to lie for the inglorious bastard.
‘I told them I knew something happened that night, I just hadn’t known what specifically,’ he explained.
‘I couldn’t make a statement absolving him because when she came forward, my memory clicked.’
Sivan told Megyn Kelly on ‘Today’ last week that she came forward after hearing Weinstein’s response to the bombshell investigation released by The New York Times, saying that he has ‘no remorse’ for his actions.
She also told Kelly that it was after she rejected Weinstein’s sexual advances that he exposed himself and began to masturbate into a potted plant while blocking her exit.
Once Weinstein, 65, was done, he behaved as if nothing had happened according to Sivan, and the next day even called to ask her out on a date.
‘That apology was the final straw for me, so when I was contacted by a [Huffington Post] reporter, that is when I said, “oh no, enough is enough with this guy,”‘ Sivan told Megyn.
‘There is no remorse, there was no acknowledgement of the type of behavior that was going on.’
She then added: ‘If he did this with me, who is just a stranger, who is not an actress in Hollywood and doesn’t need anything from him, I can only imagine how many other women something like this has happened to.’
Appropriate interactions: ‘I told them I knew something happened that night, I just hadn’t known what specifically,’ said Amiri (above with Demi Moore and Rachel Zoe)
Insight: ‘What this says to me? I wasn’t the only woman + that wasn’t the only potted plant/kitchen pot,’ said Sivan
Sivan explained that she was attending an event at Cafe Socialista over a decade ago when Weinstein asked her if she wanted a tour of the kitchen.
He was one of the investors in the the now shuttered venue at the time.
‘I thought a restaurant kitchen, there would be people cooking and moving and things happening, and as soon as we got downstairs, that was not what it was,’ explained Sivan.
‘There were two guys sweeping up, there was no one down there. And that’s when I really saw the red flags.’
Soon after Weinstein leaned in to kiss her, with Sivan saying that she rejected his advance.
Then, he began to masturbate soon after telling Sivan to ‘stand there and be quiet.’
Sivan told Kelly that she was completely caught off guard in that moment.
‘No idea. No idea. I was completely shocked and yet, what is going to happen? Stand there and be quiet? I had no idea what was going to happen,’ explained Sivan, who remained remarkably composed throughout the interview.
‘And it happened very quickly, and he immediately exposed himself and began pleasuring himself and I just stood there, dumbfounded.’
Sivan, who did not work for Weinstein, also said that she found the incident to be both ‘disgusting’ and ‘pathetic.’
‘I was so shocked, I couldn’t believe, what was I witnessing. Could not believe what I was witnessing,’ said Sivan.
‘It was disgusting and kind of pathetic really to stand there and look at this man. But more than the disgusting act itself, which of course was gross, the demeaning part of it all, that just 20 minutes earlier he was having this great conversation with me and I felt so great and flattered by it.
‘And then, stand there and be quiet, just a few minutes later just negated any warm feelings I had and I realized oh, that is what this is all about.’
When he was finished, Sivan said that she asked if she could leave,and Weinstein said that they should both return to the party.
Following up: The next day, Weinstein called Sivan to say he had a good time and wanted the two to get together, at which point Sivan said that she hung up on him (Sivan and Megyn above)
Things took another turn however the following day when she received a call from Weinstein at work.
‘That was so crazy. After I fled, he called my station. They said, I have Harvey Weinstein on the line for you and my heart sank,’ said Sivan.
‘And he said, I want to let you know, “I had a great time last night … I had a great time last night. I’m going away overseas on a trip, I would love to see you again. If that’s something we could do.”‘
Sivan revealed that she quickly shot down that notion, again informing Weinstein that she was in a relationship, something she had also told him the previous night when he trapped her in the basement of his restaurant.
‘I said, “Absolutely not. I told you yesterday, I have a very serious boyfriend. Absolutely not,”‘ Sivan told Megyn.
‘And I’m pretty sure I hung up the phone after. But that was the most shocking part.’
She also said that she believed all the women who had come forward to share their stories.
‘I can’t speak for the women, I don’t know what happened to them. But in my opinion, I absolutely believe all of their stories, all of their stories,’ said Sivan.
‘The casualness that he had, in just luring me down there, and knew exactly what he was doing. That gave me the impression that I was definitely not alone, I was definitely not the only one. And this goes on quite a bit in my opinion.’