Kiwi model Zoe Brock disgusted by Weinstein’s rape appeal

A Kiwi model among the more than 80 women who spoke out against convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein says she’s “disgusted”, but not surprised by a New York court’s decision to overturn one of the former movie mogul’s rape convictions.

“Historically, men who manipulate and assault and rape and abuse women barely ever get even prosecuted … so it was a miracle, and thanks to a lot of hard work by a lot of brave women that he was convicted in the first place”, Zoe Brock told the Herald today.

“Of course, stupid, archaic, short-sighted, imbecilic judges are going to overturn it, because that’s what happens.”

But despite the stunning development in one of the cases against the 72-year-old, multiple accusations against whom sparked the global #MeToo reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures, Brock has no regrets about going public with her own story.

Her claim - that in 1997 a naked Weinstein asked her for a massage and chased her into a bathroom - and those of others had improved the public’s understanding of sexual crime, and the trauma it left.

“People are more aware of the myriad nuances involved in the perpetrating of sexual assault, and also the many … ways victims of sexual assault can react. And so that’s a good thing when it comes to a jury, right?”

But women were still battling misogyny, Brock said.

“There are people out there who hate the idea of ‘woke people’ and ‘cancel culture’, and they see that as a result of this #MeToo movement. And so there’s been a lot of pushback on it.

“I had some guy in the small [New Zealand] town I live call me a ‘Harvey Weinstein reject’ on social media a couple of months ago … tons of people liked his comment and laughed and engaged with it. So there’s that kind of mentality out there.”

Despite yesterday's New York Court of Appeals' decision to overturn his 2020 rape conviction, former Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein remains in prison because he was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape.

Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction was overturned yesterday after four out of seven New York Court of Appeals’ judges found it was an “abuse of judicial discretion” for the trial judge to allow testimony from other women about “loathsome alleged bad acts and despicable behaviour”.

The Oscar winner remains in jail because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

She spoke to prosecutors in the past but wasn’t among those called to testify in Weinstein’s trials, Brock said.

“I would’ve loved to have taken the stand because I could have named the co-conspirators, which would have forced them to have been put on the stand”, she said of others she claimed acted as enablers for Weinstein.

“[And] I’m one of the only people who’s actually got evidence against him.”

Kiwi model Zoe Brock didn't go to police about Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein in 1997 because she didn't think "the world in 1997 cared about what a little girl from New Zealand had to say".

She was 23 when she met Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival, where he later invited her to his hotel room on the pretence of a party.

Instead the Christchurch-born model was confronted by the Hollywood producer, naked and asking for a massage, she said.

She ran into the bathroom, locking the door, and Weinstein chased her, she told the Herald in 2017.

When she came out, the film producer was sitting on the bed “wearing a bathrobe, crying” before telling her she didn’t like him because he was fat.

She wrote about it in her diary, called her mother and was supported by others she told the day of the incident, but didn’t go to police at the time because she felt she didn’t have a voice.

“I don’t think the world in 1997 cared about what a little girl from New Zealand had to say.”

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.