Paris Hilton has opened up about a “scary” experience she allegedly had with convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.
The socialite and businesswoman’s account coincides with the disgraced film producer being sentenced to another 16 years in prison on Thursday (23 February), after he was convicted for three more counts of rape and sexual assault.
Speaking to Glamour magazine, Hilton recalled an incident at Cannes Film Festival in 2000 when she was 19. She talked about attending the amfAR (The Foundation for Aids Research) gala, which Weinstein was hosting, the day after she had met him at lunchtime.
“I was at lunch with my girlfriend and he came up to the table and was like, ‘Oh, you want to be an actress?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I really want to be in a movie,’” she said.
“I was a teenager, so I was impressed by him. I was like, ‘Oh my god, Harvey Weinstein is so cool!’ and he said, ‘Well, we should have a meeting. You can come up to my room and read scripts,’ and I just didn’t want to go, so I never went.”
The following evening at the gala, Weinstein allegedly became aggressive with her, following her into the women’s toilets while screaming: “Ya wanna be a star?”
“I went into the bathroom and then he followed me,” Hilton said. “He tried to open the door, he was hammering on the door, banging on it. And I wouldn’t open it, because I was like, ‘I’m in a stall, why do you want to come in here?’ And I just wouldn’t open it.
“And security came and literally carried him away and he was like, ‘This is my party,’ going nuts. It scared me and freaked me out.”
The Independent has contacted representatives of Weinstein for comment.
Hilton’s autobiography, Paris: The Memoir, is out on 14 March.
It will detail her highs and lows from her privileged but troubled childhood to her “perilous journey through pre-#MeToo sexual politics”.
