Another actress has come forward with graphic allegations of an assault committed by Harvey Weinstein - and she says companies like Disney were complicit. Photo / Getty Images
Another actress has come forward with graphic allegations of an assault committed by Harvey Weinstein - and she says companies like Disney were complicit. Photo / Getty Images
Warning: This article mentions sexual assault.
Actress Julia Ormond is suing Harvey Weinstein for sexual battery.
The Legends of the Fall star, 58, filed a lawsuit against the disgraced Hollywood producer on Wednesday, October 4 alleging he sexually assaulted her following a business dinner in 1995.
Ormond claimsin the lawsuit 71-year-old Weinstein – who has been accused by more than 100 women of sexual abuse and is behind bars serving a 23-year sentence for raping an aspiring actress and sexually abusing a TV and film production assistant – told her he would only discuss a project “back at the apartment Miramax had provided for Ormond as part of their first-look deal with her”.
Ormond said she agreed to have Weinstein come to her apartment, where he allegedly “stripped naked and forced her to perform oral sex on him”.
After the alleged incident, the Sabrina actress said in her suit she informed her agents Kevin Huvane, 64, and Bryan Lourd, 62, about what apparently occurred.
Actress Julia Ormond attends the 'Sabrina' Westwood Premiere on December 8, 1995 at Mann National Theatre in Westwood, California. Photo / Getty Images
But Ormond - who played Elizabeth Kublek in The Walking Dead: World Beyond - said they advised her against speaking out and did not protect her afterwards.
She is also suing Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for negligence and a breach of fiduciary duty – as well as Miramax and the Walt Disney Company for negligent supervision and retention.
Kevin and Bryan, who are co-chairmen of CAA, are not named as defendants in the lawsuit but are named throughout Ormond’s filing as her representatives during the time she was allegedly targeted by Weinstein.
The lawsuit claims the “men at CAA who represented Ormond knew about Weinstein”.
It added: “So, too, did Weinstein’s employers at Miramax and Disney. Brazenly, none of these prominent companies warned Ormond that Weinstein had a history of assaulting women because he was too important, too powerful, and made them too much money.”
“I seek a level of personal closure by holding them accountable to acknowledge their part and the depth of its harms and hope that all of our increased understanding will lead to further protections for all of us at work,” Ormond said in a statement. Photo / Getty Images
Ormond released a statement following the lawsuit filing, saying she has been living with the “painful memories” Weinstein allegedly caused her for “decades”.
She said: “I seek a level of personal closure by holding them accountable to acknowledge their part and the depth of its harms and hope that all of our increased understanding will lead to further protections for all of us at work.”
In February, Weinstein was sentenced to another 16 years in prison after he was convicted in December 2022 on counts of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object of an Italian model in February 2013.
