Minka Kelly has claimed Harvey Weinstein offered her "a lavish life filled with trips around the world" if she agreed to be his girlfriend.
The 65-year-old film producer – who stands accused of sexually harassing a number of female employees over a period of almost three decades – has been accused by the ‘Friday Night Lights’ star of asking her to keep his comments quiet when she declined his offer.
She claimed: "I met Harvey at an industry party. The following day, my agent said he wanted to see me for a general meeting. The location was set for his hotel room. I wasn’t comfortable with going to his room and said so. The following day, we sat down with an assistant in the hotel restaurant … [He went on about] movies he could put me in, then asked the assistant to excuse us.
"As she walked away, he said, ‘I know you were feeling what I was feeling when we met the other night’ and then regaled me with offers of a lavish life filled with trips around the world on private planes etc. IF I would be his girlfriend. Or, ‘We could just keep this professional.’ All I knew was not to offend this very powerful man and to get out of the situation as quickly as possible.
"I told him while flattered, I’d like to keep things professional. He said, ‘Fine. I trust you won’t tell anyone about this.’ I said, ‘Of course not. Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me,’ – the only way I could think to shut it down gracefully and excuse myself."
After the meeting, Kelly told her agent and the pair of them "marvelled at his audacity, reinforced my instinct not to offend him & laughed at how glad I was to get out of there".
Minka also leant her support to other women who have spoken out about the alleged sexual harassment they have experienced and apologised for being "complicit in protecting his behaviour".
She concluded in her post on Instagram: "I’m sorry for obliging his orders to be complicit in protecting his behavior, which he obviously knew was wrong or he wouldn’t have asked me not to tell anyone in the first place. For making him feel ok about the gross things he was saying and that I felt my only route was to say I was flattered
"For not insisting that my reps never allow anyone to take a meeting in a hotel room (with him or anyone else), because I honestly don’t know what might have happened if I’d just showed up as originally scheduled. I am appalled for all the women being told these occurrences are in any way their fault.
"No more Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood does not solve the problem but maybe the more voices sharing their stories and adding support to the countless women and men who have suffered through abuse of power, the less it will be tolerated."
Weinstein has denied many of the claims made against him, but recently revealed he is "trying his best" to "get help". He has been fired from his own production company and his wife of 10 years, Georgia Chapman – with whom he has two kids, India, seven, and Dashiell, four – has announced she is leaving him.
Minka Kelly alleges Harvey Weinstein promised her ‘lavish life’
