The retrial of former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein over an alleged 2013 rape saw former actress Jessica Mann, now 40, describe a harrowing incident she says involved a forced threesome with Weinstein and an Italian actress. Mann, testifying for a third day, broke down repeatedly as she recounted events she says occurred at the Doubletree Hotel in Midtown on March 18, 2013.
Mann’s case is part of a drawn-out legal saga: Weinstein’s 2020 conviction was overturned on unrelated grounds, he was retried in Manhattan last year and convicted on a different sexual-assault charge, but the jury deadlocked on the rape charge tied to Mann, prompting the current New York retrial.
Mann said the 2013 episode followed an initial meeting with Weinstein in Los Angeles, where she viewed him as a mentor and believed she’d been discovered. On her first trip to New York, while staying at a hotel near Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, she said Weinstein appeared in the lobby early. She testified she tried to dissuade him from booking a room, but he pulled her aside, grabbed her and warned, “Don’t embarrass me in public.”
She said Weinstein then took her to a room where the encounter turned violent. Mann testified she tried to leave and forced the door twice, but he slammed it and trapped her. She said he demanded, “Undress now!” and when she resisted he grabbed both her arms. “He just treated me like he owned me,” she said.
Mann also described having “a full-on breakdown” when Weinstein allegedly tried to direct her to have a threesome with Italian-born actress Emanuela Postacchini at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel in February 2013; she testified she panicked and ran into a bathroom. She said she had at one point been in a consensual relationship with Weinstein because she hoped it might develop into a loving relationship.
Mann further testified about a separate incident later in 2013, saying Weinstein raped her after she told him she had found true “love” with an actor, and that she lost consciousness beneath his weight.
