British actress Lysette Anthony says that Harvey Weinstein raped her in her home

The Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards held at the BFI Southbank

Of course there are a million new Harvey Weinstein and Weinstein-adjacent stories still coming out on a daily basis. I’m committed to covering the women coming forward to tell their stories of assault and harassment – I think it’s important for their voices to be heard, for these women to be acknowledged. It’s how I felt about Bill Cosby’s victims and Roger Ailes’ victims and Donald Trump’s victims too. In Harvey Weinstein’s case, his victims are some of the most famous women in the world. One of the latest women to come forward is Lysette Anthony, a 54-year-old British actress best known for her work on British TV shows, like Hollyoaks. She says that in the late 1980s, Weinstein came to her house and raped her.

Lysette Anthony has told police she was raped by ­Harvey Weinstein. The British actress, 54, claims she was assaulted in the late 1980s when the film producer turned up at her house. She told cops about the alleged incident last week af­ter years trying to forget the “pathetic, revolting” attack. Lysette, once hailed the Face of the Eighties by photographer David Bailey, said it left her feeling “disgusted and embarrassed”.

According to Anthony, she met Weinstein in 1982 while doing press for the 1983 fantasy-adventure movie Krull. Over the next few years the pair saw each other socially several times, catching up at parties and getting lunch together, all without incident. “The lunches were invariably in hotel suites but I felt comfortable in Harvey’s company. We had become friends.” Anthony says of their relationship. The tone of their friendship suddenly changed, however, one night at the producer’s rental home. “The next thing I knew he was half undressed and he ­grabbed me. It was the last thing I expected and I fled. I blamed it on myself because I was tired, a bit drunk and ­therefore so completely off my guard,” says Anthony.

After that, she says Weinstein would stop by her home at all hours. One morning, Anthony let him inside, whereupon he allegedly raped her. “He pushed me inside and rammed me up against the coat rack in my tiny hall and started fumbling at my gown. He was trying to kiss me and shove inside me. It was disgusting,” the actress recalls. After the producer left, Anthony struggled with the reality of the assault. “I was disgusted and embarras­sed, but I was at home,” she says. “I thought I should just forget the whole disgusting incident. I blamed myself. I’d been an idiot to think he and I were just friends.” Sometime later Weinstein bought Anthony a coat, which she took as “his unspoken way of apologising for what had happened.”

Unfortunately, that was not the end of the abuse Anthony claims Weinstein inflicted on her. Afraid for her career, the actress later agreed to meet with Weinstein for what her agent, who didn’t know about the attack, assumed was a promising meeting with the then-head of Miramax. Once there, Weinstein allegedly subjected Anthony to the same bathrobe-and-massage proposition familiar to dozens of actresses. Says Anthony, “By then I’d just given up. I knew I was powerless and at least I wouldn’t have to do much. I was just a body, young flesh. It wouldn’t take long and no one knew.” According to her, Weinstein “finally let go of me” after repeated instances of sexual-harassment and assault in 2002.

Compelled by the stories of the many other women who have come forward about Weinstein’s abuse, Anthony reported the rape last week to police. “I can’t stand by and see all these brave women tell the truth and not stand up alongside them,” the actress says. She concludes, “The truth is that Harvey Weinstein raped me — not in a hotel suite with ­champagne and ­caviar on tap, but up against a coat rack on a grey morning in my own home.”

[From The Sun and Vulture]

Yet another horrifying and gut-wrenching story. Apparently, Lysette only began telling a handful of people (close friends) years after it happened. She just lived with it, and now she’s speaking out. She reported it to the London police last week, and she’s one of several victims that spoke up in Britain, leading to the London police opening up an investigation into Weinstein. Will anything come of that investigation? Well, is Bill Cosby in jail? No. Nothing much will come of it. But that doesn’t change Lysette’s bravery for coming forward and telling her story publicly. I believe you, Lysette.

British Soap Awards 2017

Photos courtesy of WENN.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

36 Responses to “British actress Lysette Anthony says that Harvey Weinstein raped her in her home”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Froggy says:

    They are going to need a bigger golf cart to hell. He’s so vile.

    • V4Real says:

      Why are there no charges being brought against this pig like Cosby? He’s disgusting and I hate him with a passion, almost as much as I hate Trump

      • Sunglasses Aready says:

        Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Everyone in Hollywood knew about Weinstein, they all heard the rumours. If ex-employees of his company knew the rumours, the hollywood elite knew also. Harvey told models, actresses, top critics and other people outside the industry of the actresses he slept with.
        This is why a lot of people are having a problem with actors/actresses saying they did not hear or know about the rumours.
        Bafta acted swiftly to ban Weinstein and Hollywood slowly followed. Hollywood needs to clean house. Hollywood needs regulation. Cooperate Hollywood now needs to step up and bring this industry inline with the real world.

      • Bellagio DuPont says:

        Surely, these women must be able to file a class action lawsuit? No?

    • Froggy says:

      Google Carrie Fisher Heather Ross

  2. Cristina says:

    Someone please tell me this guy will be prosecuted and sent to jail! Please!

  3. Sixer says:

    The “I just shut my eyes and waited for it to be over” thing that survivors say really, really, really, makes my heart hurt.

    • Betsy says:

      +1
      I first heard this when a family friend came to speak to our health class. We all knew “Petra” had gotten wild and then terribly sad; we didn’t know that her great sadness was from being raped by two boys. I still cannot imagine the fear and sadness and sense of violation she must have had, nor the strength it took in order for her to share this story with classrooms of us in our small town.

      I wish that rapists would get the punishments due to them.

  4. Giulia says:

    I once heard a serial rapist/murderer refer to the killings as “dates.” Harvey’s mentality is similar I think. Apparently sexual violation is his way of saying “hi.”

    • Sasha says:

      From Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker article:
      ‘She said that she often thinks of something Weinstein whispered—to himself, as far as she could tell—after one of his many shouting sprees at the office. It so unnerved her that she pulled out her phone and tapped it into a memo, word for word: “There are things I’ve done that nobody knows.” ‘

      This reminds me of when Robert Durst was talking to himself, whilst still miked, during the taping of ‘The Jinx’ saying, “I killed them all, of course.”

      Who knows what this fat bastard has done and if he has any boundaries, whatsoever.

      • adastraperaspera says:

        Chilling.

      • Bellagio DuPont says:

        @ Sasha

        Exactly. Which is why I wish we would narrow our attention and energies in this guy with a laser-like focus.

        A guy that has done this much that we can readily see……I’d bet anything there’s a LOT more evil lurking in there that we haven’t even begin to unravel yet.

  5. emma33 says:

    I’m not British, but it seems like police there are following up on this awful case and also on some more recent claims of sexual assault (from around 2011 onwards). I really, really hope that they can make something stick, because this is just depraved behaviour.

    • WeAreAllMadeofStars says:

      What’s the statute of limitations over there? This one is almost 35 years ago at this point.

      • Guernsey says:

        There isn’t one, which is how Britain is able to try historic cases. The UK police (as I understand it) take rape claims far more seriously. Where it took place would be more important than the time frame, as UK law does have restrictions on how many places a crime can be reported etc

  6. Nicole says:

    Lord. This is too much. I’m getting more and more pissed that guys like him get to roam around unchecked with supporters. But people who carry marijuana get life sentences. The police could’ve prosecuted him and didn’t. Had he been black this would be different. But again look at Brock turner. Evidence, eye witness and 3 months because he’s a good kid. No he’s a rapist.

    Stop protecting rapists America. I hate this trash fire of a year.

  7. Christine says:

    she is a survivor. To keep going after that trauma with no one knowing….I just can’t imagine. In the last year I’ve been diagnosed with my own PTSD and the only way I can hang on some days is knowing that someone else knows what happened. I cannot imagine the isolation and depth of pain she must have felt. For every single woman who comes forward it feels like not just she takes back some power, but we all become empowered. For Lysette, a brilliant actor, I hope she finds some kind of healing from this.

  8. Megan says:

    The sickest part is Harvey sitting in his luxury suite in Arizona plotting his comeback and his revenge. He is no doubt keeping a list of everyone who is to blame for what is, to him, an inconvenient set back. If he succeeds in his comeback, I won’t be able to see another movie for the rest of my life.

  9. Bunny says:

    I, too, was raped by a co-worker/friend a few years ago. I had been so intoxicated that the only thing I remember feeling was him on top of me and my insides turning so cold from shock that I froze up.

    He started circulating photos at work of me from that night. When I reported it to our HR department, they dismissed it as an incident that occured outside the premises. They questioned why I didn’t fend him off or report him to the police. At that moment, I felt, as all the previous times that I’ve been molested, cat-called, and groped, that I was just as culpable as the men who have harrassed me.

    This is why women can/have indured this for years, in silence without speaking up. We have to be the perfect victim to be taken seriously. Even then you’ll still be assigned some of the blame by how well aquainted you are with the assailant or by the way you were dressed during the assault.

    • Sasha says:

      @Bunny
      Go to the police and report it. There may be similar reports on file. You may also have a civil suit with the HR dep’t.
      If you don’t report it, this bastard will continue unscathed.

    • Katrina says:

      @Bunny. Agree w. Sasha’s advice. You may have a civil suit against your employer. I would go meet w a lawyer.

    • detritus says:

      I believe you. That was not your fault. None of that was your fault, and I’m sorry you were made to feel that way.

      Its hard because we are told at a variety of levels, we say somehing when we first notice creepy behaviour and we are over reacting. We say something when the first minor incident happens, we are overreacting, he didn’t mean it that way, we must have encouraged it. We say something when a major event happens, and ‘why didn’t you say something earlier’.

    • lucy2 says:

      I’m so sorry Bunny.
      I agree, if you think you can do it, go see a lawyer and file a report with the police. If you can’t, it’s OK. You do what you can do. Whatever you choose, you are not alone.

  10. Eric says:

    Vile creatures, all of them:
    Weinstein, Cosby, Ailes, O’Reilly, Trump. And a few dozen more asshats I’m sure. A fresh layer of hell awaits all of you and your complicit army of clowns that enabled this to occur for years.
    See you…
    NEVER

  11. Wren33 says:

    Seriously this past week is triggering. I hate the “me too” thing on Facebook. I don’t want to tell every single high school acquaintance and elderly aunt of mine that I have been raped. I am so happy people are talking but at the same time it is really stressful.

    I can’t imagine what these women are feeling when people are talking about their specific rapist and the pressure to disclose on an international scale.

    • Enough Already says:

      Hugs 🙁

    • Purplehazeforever says:

      I hate the me too thing as well. The Weinstein news broke almost to the day of the anniversary of my assault…how messed up is that…to call it an anniversary…it’s been 27 years & stuff can still trigger you. I hate the month of October for this reason but love Halloween because I can escape from it. I’m not sure if it makes sense. But for years after I participated in trick n treating with my younger brothers and my nephews just to somehow do something completely different from feeling traumatized. My mom & sister knew what happened & understood. I trick n treated until 7 years ago lol…much into my adult years. It helped me more than therapy every did.

      • NeoCleo says:

        I think it’s wonderful that you have found a way to take back Halloween after such a traumatic event. That is strength.

      • Purplehazeforever says:

        @ Neo Cleo…thank you. The first year kids trick n treated at my dorm & I was shaking but I got through it. I remember wearing a wolf mask for a week up until Halloween lol. It was a way to cope. I think Halloween helped me that year to escape & every year since to not think about the rape but what am I’m dressing up as, where am I going, what am I doing. It was a way to refocus my energy & not have repeated panic attacks over the assault.

    • detritus says:

      Its difficult because regardless of how you feel about yourself, people will see you differently once you disclose.
      It almost lessens your power to convince.

      You owe nothing to everyone else, and everything to yourself. Do exactly what you need to do to heal and move on.

  12. minx says:

    Just horrible.

  13. Embee says:

    He bought her a coat after raping her against a coat rack? It’s redundant to say it but what an effing sicko.

  14. Mrs.Krabapple says:

    Somehow the authorities have to put a freeze on his assets and take away his passport. That guy is a real flight risk. He needs to be in prison.