Oprah Winfrey’s emotional Golden Globes speech calling for justice and equality has sparked a recirculation of a November report claiming Harvey Weinstein used her to lure women.
Aspiring British actress Kadian Noble claims she was first introduced to Weinstein at an event in London while he was hanging out with Naomi Campbell and had Winfrey “swinging off his arm.”
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“I thought, obviously, this man has something amazing in store for me,” she said during a Manhattan press conference after she filed a sex trafficking lawsuit against the Hollywood heavyweight.
Instead, Weinstein used promises of jobs and career advancement to lure Noble to his hotel room in Cannes, France, where he sexually assaulted her, she said in November.
Weinstein and Winfrey had a longstanding relationship prior to his downfall in the entertainment industry, but he claims Winfrey continued to support him after dozens of women accused him of sexual misconduct.
Sources close to Weinstein told TMZ the disgraced producer repeatedly told his team that Winfrey called him to give advice, telling him he should speak out and defend himself against mounting allegations. Weinstein told them that Winfrey vows to be “right there supporting him” if he spoke publicly about the scandal.
Winfrey’s spokesperson denies that the daytime TV queen ever reached out to Weinstein following the allegations, but said someone from his team contacted her to see if she would talk to him. She told him she would only speak if it was for an interview.
“She was interested if he’d look in the mirror and give her the honest, bone marrow truth,” the rep said, adding that Winfrey was considering a 60 Minutes special with Weinstein.
At Sunday night’s Golden Globes, Winfrey never mentioned Weinstein or any other men accused of sexual misconduct by name, but she called for “a new day on the horizon” if both women and men band together to elicit change.
“In my career, what I’ve always tried my best to do, whether on television or through film, is to say something about how men and women really behave. To say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, persevere, and how we overcome,” she said while accepting the Cecil B. de Mille award. “I’ve interviewed and portrayed people who’ve withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights.”
