This is a great story about the incomparable Carrie Fisher. Although it has a humorous takeaway and even a moment of catharsis, it is, at its heart, another story about sexual assault at the hands of a powerful Hollywood player. Heather Ross told her story when she called in to a radio show in her hometown of Tucson. Heather, who was known professionally as Heather Robinson, worked for America Online as a customer service rep. It was through this job that she met several celebrities in chat rooms, including Carrie. Carrie and Heather became very good friends and that friendship continued until Carrie’s death last year (it crushes me every time I write it). Carrie encouraged Heather to become a screenwriter, which led to Heather writing the screenplay for The Perfect Man. At some point Heather, who had no desire to act, only to write and produce, agreed to what she thought was a business lunch with an Oscar-winning producer to discuss her involvement on a project. She had no reason to think it was anything other than a meeting. But two minutes after he picked her up, he was on top of her with his hand on her neck. She describes the whole incident for those who want to hear it. When she pushed back, he got angry and told her she’d never work in this town again but ultimately let her out on the side of the road and she was able to run away. Heather did tell a few people, one of whom was Carrie. That was when Carrie decided to pay the producer a little visit.

The Star Wars actress’ longtime friend, Heather Ross, opened up to a Tucson, Arizona, radio station 94.9 MixFM about her own experiences with sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood, in the wake of the allegations leveled at producer Harvey Weinstein.

Ross revealed that an unnamed Oscar-winning producer (not Weinstein) had invited her for dinner and, when he picked her up, he pulled the car over and climbed in top of her, pinning her seat.

Ross managed to push the producer off her but as she fled, he said, “You’ll never make a movie in my town and get the F out of my car,”, she told the radio show.

When Ross confided in her friend Fisher, the late actress took matters into her own hands.
“About two weeks later, she sent me a message online and she said, ‘I just saw [blank] at Sony Studios,” Ross said. “I knew he would probably be there, so I went to his office and personally delivered a Tiffany box wrapped with a white bow.”

Ross continued, “I asked her what was inside and she said, ‘It was a cow tongue from Jerry’s Famous Deli in Westwood with a note that said, ‘If you ever touch my darling Heather or any other woman again, the next delivery will be something of yours in a much smaller box!’”

She added that knowing Fisher had her back left an impact on her.
“It felt validating to know, ‘Okay, first of all, this woman who I love as a friend was not just a fake Hollywood friend. That’s who she was. She spoke out and she put things out there in your face,” she said.

[From People]

This just reinforces everything I know and love about Carrie. I don’t think Carrie was making light of anything, I think hers was a very powerful statement especially, as Heather explained, since she stood there while he opened it and read the note. However, that was some Medici-level message. I hope it resonated. I hope he heard and listened and some poor woman was spared from his advances as a result.

Heather makes the point that young up-and-coming actresses are not the only victims. As Kristen Stewart pointed out, it was anybody looking to get ahead in the business. At the end of the interview, Heather said she just received a note from another friend about an award-winning director whom Heather highly regarded. The friend told Heather that this director had raped her. Heather brought this up to say one of the few silver linings in this is that women are feeling safe enough to speak their truth. I agree, I am heartened to know that victims find they can finally tell their stories. I also think we should all prepare to receive news about people we admired that we don’t want to hear – but we still need to listen.

Photo credit: WENN Photos