Rosanna Arquette hit back at claims by Harvey Weinstein's attorney that the disgraced movie mogul's rape charges are the result of actresses rebranding the "transactional sex" they had with him in light of the #MeToo movement.
Weinstein, 70, is currently standing trial in Los Angeles, where he is charged with 11 counts of rape and sexual assault involving five women. He is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for a sexual assault conviction in New York. If convicted in Los Angeles, he faces up to 140 years in prison.
The film producer's attorney, Mark Werksman, this week told jurors that they should be prepared to listen to a "firehose of false and unprovable allegations" from women who had consensual sexual interactions with Weinstein, but were now embarrassed and lying about the truth years later.
Pointing to Weinstein, Werksman said, per Variety: "Look at my client. He's not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Do you think these beautiful women had sex with him because he's hot? No, it's because he's powerful."
Werskman went on to say that while the culture in Hollywood today has changed, there was a time when "transactional sex" was the norm. Referring to the proverbial Hollywood "casting couch," Werksman added that "sex was a commodity" for "rich and powerful men, like my client."
"Transactional sex... it may have been unpleasant... and now embarrassing. [But] everyone did it. He did it. They did it," the attorney added.
Arquette, who is one of Weinstein's accusers, on Tuesday responded to the "disgusting quotes from Harvey Weinstein's attorney," in a post shared on Twitter.
— ✌🏼rosanna arquette (@RoArquette) October 25, 2022
"Assault is not transactional sex. Rape is not transactional sex," said Arquette, who starred in the Weinstein-produced film Pulp Fiction. "And abuse of power is abuse of power. Yes, he's no Clooney. He's scarcely the same species.
"This monster—this 'beast,' as his own attorney calls him—belongs exactly where he is: in a place where he'll never see women again for the rest of his life, let alone have the opportunity to assault and rape them.
"It's not really a just punishment for what he did; but at this point, Harvey Weinstein can sit in his cell, whip out his gangrenous penis (as he so loves to do)... and go f**k himself. We're not on the menu anymore."
In signing out on the post, Arquette, 63, described herself as an "actress/sexual assault survivor."
The New York Times published an article in October 2017 detailing allegations of Weinstein sexually harassing or assaulting actresses, former Weinstein Company employees, and other unnamed victims. The allegations go back to the 1980s.
In Arquette's case, she stated that she went to Weinstein's hotel room in the early 1990s to pick up a movie script. Weinstein allegedly opened the door wearing nothing but a bathrobe and asked her to give him a massage before grabbing her hand and pulling it toward his penis.
Arquette, who has supported other Weinstein accusers but did not give evidence in his New York trial, said that she rebuffed his alleged advances leading to him derailing her film career in purported retaliation.
"This is a man that is a real predator," she said in January 2020, per The Guardian. "He's destroyed many women's lives."
It was announced in June of this year that Weinstein will be charged in the United Kingdom with two further counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1990s.
The charges relate to an incident with a woman in London that allegedly took place in August 1996, said the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service.
Accusations of Weinstein's sexual abuse became a leading trigger of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, which sought to end sexual harassment not only in Hollywood but by all people in positions of power.
Newsweek reached out to legal representatives of Weinstein for comment.
Specialists from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) sexual assault hotline are available 24/7 via phone (1 (800) 656-4673) and online chat. Additional support from the group is also accessible via the mobile app.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
