As Harvey Weinstein stripped off his clothes, pulled down her dress, and groped her breast in a hotel bathroom in 2013, Lauren Marie Young says he also offered a chilling excuse for his lewd behavior: "This is what all actresses do to make it." Young's account of her encounter with then-one of Hollywood's most powerful movie makers came on Wednesday after she was called to the witness stand at Weinstein's New York City rape trial in a final push by prosecutors to show there was a pattern to how he preyed on women, the AP reports. Weinstein persisted by masturbating, despite her telling him, "'No, no, no' the whole time," Young told jurors as the last of six women to testify at the trial about alleged series of sexual assaults by the defendant; the 67-year-old, who insists any sexual encounters were consensual, is charged with assaulting two of them.
Young began her testimony by describing how she put on her favorite dress before heading off to a meeting with Weinstein where she expected to "network and pitch my ideas." After he invited her up to his Beverly Hills hotel room, Weinstein lured her into the bathroom while a friend of his who helped arrange the meeting, Mexican model Claudia Salinas, closed the door behind them, she said. The witness testified that after Weinstein was nude, he kept her from escaping by pushing her against the sink and blocking her way to the door. "I felt so trapped and I was in shock," she told jurors, fighting back tears. She said she pleaded with Weinstein not to hurt her before he finally stepped out of the bathroom. She pulled up her dress and walked out to find Salinas "still standing right there," she said. "I shot her an evil look and I left as quick as I could." She'll return to the stand Thursday.
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