In October 2017, New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey first reported significant allegations of sexual misconduct by Weinstein. And recently, Disney heiress Abigail Disney herself came out to tell the story of Weinstein’s predatory ways.
Women from all facets of Hollywood, from top actresses to anonymous assistants, began accusing Harvey Weinstein of sex crimes. And a woman in Poland has finally found the rock that’s been choking her for nearly two decades, get moving. Kaja Sokola, now a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist who cares for patients with eating disorders and addictions, has finally found the courage to stand up to Weinstein and hold him accountable for all the wrongs he has done to her. caused.
A bouquet of false promises
It was in 2022 when Sokola first met the Hollywood mogul at a party, where she was a guest of her then modeling agency – NEXT Model Management. She was only 16 at the time and had just moved from Poland to New York on her own. Weinstein, 50, has taken a liking to the starry-eyed young model and is completely new to the game.
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“He said, ‘If you want to be an actress, I see you have potential and I’d like to meet you for lunch and discuss it. “” was what the big producer told Sokola. This conversation changed the girl’s life and became a memory she would never forget.
Three days after the party, Weinstein asked his driver to pick up the young model from her home. They sat side by side in the car when he asked her age, then were dropped off at her Soho apartment. There, the then 16-year-old model realized that they were completely alone and in a situation she hadn’t exactly anticipated.
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Minutes after entering the apartment, Weinstein assaulted Sokola and then ejaculated on the floor. The terrified girl tried to leave but was held back by the producer. And somehow that became a part of her for the next few years that she stayed in the United States.
2019, A Newly Minted Bill and Kaja Sokola
Sokola is Weinstein’s youngest known victim. At the time of the incident, she was just 16, giving her the ability to sue her abuser under New York’s new child victim law, passed in 2019. Lawyers representing Weinstein say their client has “categorically and adamantly” denied Sokola’s claims. According to representatives,
“A timeline of events, corroborated by other evidence, including testimony, will rebut allegations of sexual abuse of Ms. Sokola as a minor, which legally had to be alleged in her complaint in order to prosecute Mr. Weinstein under the Child Victims Act and not be time-barred due to the overrun of the statute of limitations.
Weinstein had spoken to Sokola about famous actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow and Penelope Cruz, and how he had helped them advance their careers. And somehow made her want that he could do the same for her. The young model who had always wanted to be an actress, after the incident fell into depression, developed eating disorders and became nothing more than a shell of herself.
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An acquaintance from Sokola said:
“She came back a different person, more like introverted or maybe she was just, her head a bit in a different world, but never said anything. I could see that something was going on. I can see it by his appearance.
An endless cycle
Harvey’s constant promises to make her the next star, and to fail at every turn, began to make her doubt her own abilities. Sokola says the Miramax founder would constantly keep her on her toes:
“All the time he was like, ‘You know what? It really is possible for you. I have an eye, of course. I know who’s gonna make it, and you will. But you have to be good to me and then I’ll be good to you, and that’s just between us. You have to remember that.
He got her on shows like Project track and put her in touch with big names in the fashion world. One of the many people she made contact with was Marilyn Gauthier, founder of Marilyn Agency in Paris and New York. But according to the agency, which was sold a decade earlier, they have no contact information on the then-model.
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Many such incidents followed, empty promises and an endless cycle of shattered hopes and dreams. And it went on for more than half a decade before Sokola quit modeling at the age of 23.
Weinstein: Hollywood’s Open Secret, Says Disney
But Sokola and his lawyer aren’t just going after Harvey Weinstein. They also attack its enablers. The biggest being Bob Weinstein, Miramax and Disney. Miramax was owned by Disney until 2005, and the Soho incident happened in 2002.
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Disney heiress Abigail Disney herself has said it’s high time a company that supported Weinstein at the height of his predatory times came forward and took responsibility for doing nothing to stop him, even when she knew everything that was going on. .
“Harvey was an open secret” Disney says, “I mean, it wasn’t even a secret. Everyone knew what Harvey was talking about, and that was fine as long as everyone saw him as, “Well, that’s how business is done.” No one had the moral clarity to step in and say, ‘Well, not here. We don’t do that here. I think Disney needs to step up. When you’ve done a bad thing, even if it’s just by stepping back and letting something happen, it’s still a bad thing to do. And you have to take responsibility.
Disney, the company, has yet to comment on this or the accusations made by Sokola. But for a company like her to admit to such wrongdoing, one can only hope it happens one day. Even if they weren’t actively involved, they were still involved. And for Weinstein’s victims, even getting an apology from them would be a step towards victory.
Source: Rolling Stone
