NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Harvey Weinstein 's assistants kept a list of female 鈥渇riends of Harvey鈥 to invite to events and sometimes considered them a special category for guest lists, an ex-aide testified Thursday at the former movie mogul's sex crimes retrial.
鈥淎 鈥榝riend of Harvey鈥 was a woman that he鈥檇 meet at events or parties or festivals or 鈥 somewhere,鈥 said Elizabeth Perz, one of his executive assistants from 2011 to 2013.
The then-married Weinstein asked his assistants to invite these women to events, Perz said. It was such common practice that Weinstein's subordinates had a shorthand: 鈥淢ight as well add a FOH column,鈥 Perz advised colleagues by email as they discussed the attendee list for some 2013 awards-season events.
Jurors were shown a roster of well over a dozen names, which Perz said was kept in the office at Weinstein鈥檚 now-defunct production company. The names were broken down by geography, such as 鈥淟A Friends鈥 or 鈥淐annes/Etc/all invites."
One 鈥淟A Friends鈥 entry was Jessica Mann, one of the three women whose allegations are at the heart of the retrial.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty. The once-powerful studio boss, who became a prime target of the #MeToo movement's campaign against sexual misconduct, maintains that he's never had sexual encounters that weren't consensual.
During the last five years, he was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California. But he's on trial again because an appeals court found that his was tainted by prejudicial testimony and . He's charged with raping Mann in 2013 and forcing oral sex on two other women, separately, in 2006.
Mann, who was a hairstylist and aspiring actor when she met Weinstein in the early 2010s, is expected to testify in the coming days or week. The other accusers, and , already have taken the stand.
At Weinstein's 2020 trial, Mann painted a complex and emotional picture of a yearslong relationship that began consensually but became 鈥渄egrading鈥 and volatile and eventually exploded into rape. Still, she kept seeing him and sending warm messages because she wanted him to believe she "wasn鈥檛 a threat,鈥 she testified.
Weinstein's lawyers at the time argued that Mann willingly had a sexual liaison with him to serve her acting ambitions. At one point during his defense's questioning in 2020, she began sobbing so forcefully that court ended early that day.
At the retrial on Thursday, jurors saw messages that Perz had sent to Mann about some Oscars-related parties in 2013.
鈥淗arvey would like to extend an invitation to you鈥 and a friend, Perz wrote.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who alleged they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified, which Sokola, Haley and Mann have done.
