By Ariel Zilber For Dailymail.com
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A former close associate of Harvey Weinstein denied accusations this week he procured women for the disgraced movie mogul who stands accused of harassing or assaulting over two dozen actresses.
Fabrizio Lombardo, who once headed Miramax’s operations in Italy, has been accused by four women of acting as a ‘fixer’ for Weinstein by ‘taking care of his women needs, among other things’.
Miramax is a film production company founded by Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein.
‘I have decided to make a denial, it is all fake news,’ Lombardo told the Italian newspaper La Stampa on Thursday.
Lombardo repeated the denials he gave to other media outlets this week about his role in ‘enabling’ Harvey Weinstein’s alleged harassment and assault of women.
Fabrizio Lombardo (right), who once headed Miramax’s operations in Italy, has been accused by four women of acting as a ‘fixer’ for Harvey Weinstein (left) by ‘taking care of his women needs, among other things’. Lombardo this week denied the accusations
Asia Argento, an Italian actress and director, says that Lombardo brought her to Weinstein’s room in 1997 during the Cannes film festival
This week, Argento alleged in The New Yorker magazine that Weinstein orally raped her during an encounter in 1997. It is unclear, however, if Lombardo helped arrange that meeting. Argento tweeted a photo of herself on Sunday she says was taken a few months before the incident
‘I did not hunt for him,’ Lombardo told The Guardian.
‘It is not my style … it is not my relationship with Weinstein.’
Weinstein stands accused of sexual midsconduct against 30 women. Three women have come forward to accuse him of rape.
ShareHe has ‘unequivocally denied’ any ‘allegations of non-consensual sex’ and has said he is hoping to get a ‘second chance.’
Lombardo has been accused by four women of facilitating Weinstein’s alleged crimes against them, according to The Wrap.
Australian model Zoe Brock also wrote this week in a blog post that Lombardo arranged a meeting between her and Weinstein. At that meeting in a hotel in Monaco, Weinstein allegedly got naked in front of her and asked her for a massage
Brock said that when she told Lombardo about what transpired in the hotel room, the Italian executive was ‘very apologetic and kind'
Brock then says that two weeks after the incident with Weinstein, she spent the night sleeping on a sofa in Lombardo's home in Rome
Asia Argento, an Italian actress and director, says that Lombardo brought her to Weinstein’s room in 1997 during the Cannes film festival.
‘Fabrizio Lombardo brought me to Weinstein's room when I was 21 in '97,’ Argento tweeted on Tuesday.
‘He told me it was a Miramax party. Only Harvey was there.’
Earlier this week, Argento accused Weinstein of forcibly performing oral sex on her during an encounter in 1997.
It is unclear if the encounter allegedly set up by Lombardo is the same one in which the alleged rape occurred.
Argento told The New Yorker that she did not speak out about it until now because she was afraid that Weinstein would ‘crush’ her.
‘I know he has crushed a lot of people before,’ Argento said.
‘That’s why this story - in my case, it’s twenty years old, some of them are older - has never come out.’
Lombardo emphatically denies Argento’s allegations, according to The Guardian.
Zoe Brock, the Australian model, wrote a blog post in Medium in which she corroborates Argento’s claim that Lombardo acted as a fixer.
Brock told DailyMailTV earlier this week that when she was 23 years old, she was tricked into being left alone in a room at the Hotel du Cap in Monaco with Weinstein in 1997.
She said she needed to lock herself in a hotel room bathroom after Weinstein disrobed in front of her and asked her for a massage.
A third woman, Sacha Voski, also described how Lombardo ‘relentlessly stalked’ her on Weinstein’s behalf. Voski is a model who lived in Italy at the time of her encounters with Lombardo
‘[Lombardo] is the man who helped fix this meeting for HW and made me feel safe and secure,’ Brock wrote.
‘I believe he was a fixer for HW and is responsible for helping procure women.
‘I believe he was a friend of my agent.’
Brock said that when she told Lombardo about what transpired in the hotel room, the Italian executive was ‘very apologetic and kind.’
‘I saw Fabrizio later that week and he claimed to have no idea and was very apologetic and kind to me about what happened,’ Brock wrote.
She then described the awkward circumstances of her visit to Lombardo’s home in Rome just two weeks later.
‘He had a really lovely girlfriend called Claudia Gerini and they both invited me to visit them in Rome a couple of weeks later,’ she wrote.
Sharon Waxman is a journalist who first learned of Lombardo's alleged 'fixer' role back in 2004
‘I arrived late in the day and discovered they had only had one bed.
‘When I made it clear I was not going to be their third wheel I slept on a sofa and had to endure the sounds of them having really loud sex.
‘It was too late to train back out, I was too broke to get a hotel and too scared to sleep on the streets.’
Lombardo, however, told the Guardian that he could not recall having ever met Brock.
He also said it wasn’t plausible for someone to serve as an ‘enabler’ for another man’s sex crimes.
‘So you can’t complain with the driver or with the doorman of the hotel who sends the woman up, you see what I mean?’ Lombardo said.
Lombardo also disputed the notion that Weinstein needed him to arrange meetings with women.
‘He can pick up the phone and have lunch or dinner with whoever he wants,’ Lombardo said.
A third woman, Sacha Voski, also described to The Wrap how Lombardo ‘relentlessly stalked’ her on Weinstein’s behalf.
Voski is a model who lived in Italy at the time of her encounters with Lombardo.
‘He just kept coming after me…..calling me 12 times a day…..convincing convincing convincing me….offering me one of his many empty apts he just happens to have laying around Milano,’ Voski wrote in an email to journalist Sharon Waxman.
‘And the “good life” to go along with it…considering I had no aquaintence with him, this all was quite psycho in my eyes. I was definitive with my no’s….it just didn’t matter….he just kept coming….’
A fourth woman, a film producer, preferred to remain anonymous, telling The Wrap that Weinstein and Lombard were seen every year at the Venice Film Festial.
It was learned this week that Russell Crowe (seen far left with Weinstein and Renee Zellweger in Venice in 2005) and Matt Damon called Waxman to vouch for Lombardo as a legitimate film producer at the behest of Weinstein
Waxman endorsed comments by Damon (seen center with Weinstein and Terry Gilliam in 2005) stating that he had no knowledge of the allegations against Lombardo and Weinstein. Waxman also supports Damon's claim that he made no effort to kill a story that contained allegations against Weinstein
‘That was his playground,’ she said of Weinstein.
‘He and Fabrizio set up court at the Excelsior Hotel bar. Girls would come by.’
After Lombardo issued his denials, Argento and Brock reacted angrily on Twitter.
'You saw this?' Argento tweeted to Brock.
'Unbelievable. He denies everything. And his lawyer tries to shame me.'
'He helped Harvey and Rick Schwartz trick me to Harvey's room at the Du Cap also,' Brock replied.
'He is a disgusting little Italian sadist and pervert.'
In 2004, Waxman was a reporter for The New York Times who wrote a story that Miramax Films, which at the time was owned by the Walt Disney Company, sued Lombardo because he was on the studio’s payroll even though he had a full-time job elsewhere.
The original story did not mention Lombardo’s alleged role in procuring women for Weinstein.
It was only after women came forward to accuse Weinstein did Lombardo’s alleged role come into clearer focus.
After Lombardo issued his denials, Argento and Brock reacted angrily on Twitter
Earlier this week, Matt Damon and Russell Crowe came under fire after it was reported that they had called Waxman in an attempt to bury the article she was writing about Lombardo.
Waxman wrote in The Wrap last week that Damon and Crowe called her after she managed to get multiple sources stating on the record that an Italian man being paid $400,000 by Weinstein’s company, who turned out to be Lombardo, knew little about film and was better known for the 'evenings he organized with Russian escorts.'
Waxman says the actors called her to vouch for Lombardo and the allegations about Weinstein were stripped out of the piece by her editors.
Lombardo denied the allegations at the time. However, the claim the article was quashed has led to a scourge of bad press for Damon, with actresses like Jessica Chastain and Rose McGowan - one of the alleged victims - calling him out on Twitter.
On Tuesday, Damon spoke with Deadline Hollywood to set the record straight - saying he didn't know about the decades of abuse and would never have tried to cover up such a story.
Damon told Deadline that he was asked to speak about Lombardo, who he worked with on The Talented Mr Ripley, because Waxman was writing a negative story about the Miramax Italy head.
'Harvey had called me and said, they’re writing a story about Fabrizio, who I knew from The Talented Mr. Ripley. He had organized our premiere in Italy and so I knew him in a professional capacity and I’d had dinner at his house.
'Harvey said, Sharon Waxman is writing a story about Fabrizio and it’s really negative. Can you just call and tell her what your experience with Fabrizio was. So I did, and that’s what I said to her,' Damon said.
He says he had no idea the serious allegations Waxman was investigating.
'For the record, I would never, ever, ever try to kill a story like that. I just wouldn’t do that. It’s not something I would do, for anybody,' Damon said.
Waxman has since spoken out to say that she 'endorses' Damon's side of the story, tweeting Tuesday that he 'wasn't informed' on the sexual harassment allegations.
Below are some of the women who have accused Weinstein of harassing them, or other women.
Angelina Jolie said she had to turn down Weinstein's advances as a young actress
Gwyneth Paltrow: The star told the New York Times that Weinstein touched her and suggested having joint massages in the bedroom before she started shooting Emma. She said she told her then boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident and he confronted the mogul
Angelina Jolie: Jolie told the Times she had to turn down advances from Weinstein in the late 1990s and she chose never to work with him again. She said she warned other women about him
Louisette Geiss:Actress was called to a late night meeting with Weinstein. He allegedly emerged in a bathrobe and told her he would green light her script if she watched him masterbate. She left the meeting
Judith Godreche: The French actress says Weinstein tried to massage her and pull off her sweater after asking her up to his Cannes suite to see the view in 1996
Dawn Dunning: Aspiring actress says she was called to a meeting about future film projects. When she arrived Weinstein presented her with three scripts for his next three movies which he would let her star in, only if she had three-way sex with him. She fled the hotel
Tomi-Ann Roberts: Weinstein met her when she was serving tables and told her to meet him at his home. When she arrived he was in the bath and told her she would give a better audition if she was naked. She says she refused and left
Asia Argento: The Italian actress has accused Weinstein of forcibly performing oral sex on her when she was 21. 'He terrified me, and he was big. It wouldn't stop. It was a nightmare.'She said she went on to have consensual sex with him over the years that followed. She documented the alleged attack in her 2000 film Scarlet Diva
Katherine Kendall: The Swingers actress was told Weinstein had to stop off in his apartment to pick something up after a screening. He changed into a bathrobe and told her to massage her. When she resisted she said the mogul returned naked and chased her
Lucia Evans: Aspiring actress claims Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him. Speaking to the New Yorker, she said that she suffered years of trauma after the incident which occurred in a 'casting meeting' in a Miramax office in Manhattan
Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that Weinstein attempted to get her into a hotel bedroom and massage her when she was 22
Mira Sorvino: The Mighty Aphrodite actress told the New Yorker that Weinstein tried to massage her in a hotel room at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival. He then went to her home in the middle of the night but she called a male friend to protect her. She said turning down the mogul adversely affected her career
Rosanna Arquette:The actress also said her career suffered after she rebuffed Weinstein's advances. At a hotel meeting he tried to put her hand on his erect penis, she claims
Rose McGowan: The actress, who made her breakthrough in 1996 in the Weinstein-produced slasher revival movie Scream, reportedly sued Weinstein after he approached her during production of that movie. She signed a non-disclosure agreement at the close of the suit and has only referred to him obliquely in social media since. On Sunday she referred to being abused by a 'monster' and has previously referred to being raped by a studio head
Career suicide: Mira Sorvino revealed how her career nose-dived after she turned down Weinstein's advances
Ashley Judd: Judd's film roles include the thriller Kiss the Girls - and says that during the filming of that movie Weinstein repeatedly asked her to watch him shower. She was one of the women who spoke out to The New York Times this week, saying: 'Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it's simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.'
Emma De Caunes: French actress Emma de Caunes said that she met Weinstein in 2010, soon after he told her he had a script he was producing based on a book with a strong female character. Weinstein offered to show her the script, and asked her up to his hotel room, where he began to take a shower. He then emerged naked and with an erection, asking her to lay down with him on the bed and telling her that many had done so before. 'I was very petrified,' said de Caunes. 'But I didn’t want to show him that I was petrified, because I could feel that the more I was freaking out, the more he was excited.'
Zelda Perkins was 25 when, as an assistant of Weinstein's in London, she reportedly confronted the mogul for harassing her and 'several' other women; she later settled out of court
Lauren O'Connor: A former employee of The Weinstein Company, she told executives there in the fall of 2015 that there was 'a toxic environment for women at this company' after one of her colleagues told her that Weinstein had pressured her into massaging him while he was naked, the NYT said.
Ambra Battilana: An Italian actress and model, she told the NYT that in March 2015 Weinstein invited her to his New York office. There, she said, he asked if her breasts were real before grabbing them and putting his hands up her skirt. She reported the alleged incident to police, but they did not press charges. According to the NYT, Weinstein later paid her off.
Laura Madden: An ex-employee, she told the NYT that Weinstein had asked her to give him massages from 1991 onwards, while they were both in London and Dublin. 'It was so manipulative,' she told the NYT. 'You constantly question yourself - am I the one who is the problem?' Weinstein denied knowledge.
Emily Nestor: Nestor was a temporary employee of the Weinstein Company for just one day in 2014 when Weinstein approached her and offered to boost her career in exchange for sex, the NYT reported.
Zelda Perkins: An assistant of Weinstein's based in London in 1998; then 25, she reportedly confronted Weinstein after she and 'several' others were harassed and later settled out of court.
Elizabeth Karlsen, an Oscar-winning producer, said a female executive told her almost 30 years ago that she had found Weinstein naked in her bedroom in a Miramax-rented property
Elizabeth Karlsen: The Oscar-nominated producer of Carol and The Crying Game, among others, told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday that almost 30 years ago, an unnamed young female executive who had worked at Miramax with Weinstein had found him naked in her bedroom one night. The exec was in a house rented by Miramax at the time to cut its overheads.
Liza Campbell: A freelance script reader, she told the UK's Sunday Times that Weinstein had summoned her to his hotel room in London before telling her to get in the bath with him.
Lauren Sivan: The former Fox news host said that Weinstein trapped her in a closed restaurant and masturbated in front of her to completion in 2007. He took her to a closed restaurant beneath a club she had visited and attempted to kiss her, then when she refused he cornered her and made her watch him touch himself, according to The Huffington Post.
Jessica Hynes: The British actress, best known for her roles in the Bridget Jones movies and for co-creating and co-writing the sitcom Spaced, said she was invited to audition for Weinstein when she was 19 - in a bikini. Hynes, formerly known as Jessica Stevenson, said she refused to wear the skimpy item - and lost the job.
Romola Garai: British actress Romola Garai said she felt "violated" following a meeting with Harvey Weinstein in his London hotel room when she was 18 in which he was in a bathrobe. Garai, best known for her role in "Atonement", said she had already been hired for a part but was told to audition privately with the Hollywood mogul because 'you had to be personally approved by him'. "Like every other woman in the industry, I've had an 'audition' with Harvey Weinstein," she told The Guardian. 'So I had to go to his hotel room in the Savoy and he answered the door in his bathrobe. I was only 18. I felt violated by it'.
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