When Harvey Weinstein wanted to meet Aishwarya Rai Bachchan 'alone': The revelatory post by her talent manager

Several actresses from across the world have come out alleging sexual harassment and assault against a major Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, ever since The New Yorker broke the story that he had raped a few former actresses and models. Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cara Delevingne, and Rose McGowan among others have come out to narrate their stories alleging that Weinstein made sexual advances on them and had asked for sexual favours.

In fact, Cara wrote a long Instagram post revealing her story and how she dealt with the Academy Award winner in the past. She had posted:

When I first started to work as an actress, i was working on a film and I received a call from‎ Harvey Weinstein asking if I had slept with any of the women I was seen out with in the media. It was a very odd and uncomfortable call….i answered none of his questions and hurried off the phone but before I hung up, he said to me that If I was gay or decided to be with a woman especially in public that I’d never get the role of a straight woman or make it as an actress in Hollywood. A year or two later, I went to a meeting with him in the lobby of a hotel with a director about an upcoming film. The director left the meeting and Harvey asked me to stay and chat with him. As soon as we were alone he began to brag about all the actresses he had slept with and how he had made their careers and spoke about other inappropriate things of a sexual nature. He then invited me to his room. I quickly declined and asked his assistant if my car was outside. She said it wasn’t and wouldn’t be for a bit and I should go to his room. At that moment I felt very powerless and scared but didn’t want to act that way hoping that I was wrong about the situation. When I arrived I was relieved to find another woman in his room and thought immediately I was safe. He asked us to kiss and she began some sort of advances upon his direction. I swiftly got up and asked him if he knew that I could sing. And I began to sing….i thought it would make the situation better….more professional….like an audition….i was so nervous. After singing I said again that I had to leave. He walked me to the door and stood in front of it and tried to kiss me on the lips. I stopped him and managed to get out of the room. I still got the part for the film and always thought that he gave it to me because of what happened. Since then I felt awful that I did the movie. I felt like I didn’t deserve the part. I was so hesitant about speaking out….I didn’t want to hurt his family. I felt guilty as if I did something wrong. I was also terrified that this sort of thing had happened to so many women I know but no one had said anything because of fear.

A post shared by Cara Delevingne (@caradelevingne) on Oct 11, 2017 at 10:39am PDT

 

Many shared this post praising the actress for coming out strong and for having the courage to speak. When Variety chose to report on it, the comments section got flooded with several responses. And one such comment happened to be another revelation.

It was by Simone Sheffield who said she had been the talent manager to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Hollywood. In the comment posted by her, there’s a mention of Weinstein wanting to meet Aishwarya alone. Here’s the post:

While there’s no statement from Aishwarya on the issue, it won’t be surprising to know if that was the reality going by the slew of actresses and models alleging sexual harassment.

As is, the entire case has once again highlighted the reality of the glamour world and how actresses and models have always been subjected to the reality of casting couch and sexual favours, no matter how much influential or grand the director/producers are.