‘He Told Me I Was Prettier Than Natalie Portman’: Woman Testifies Harvey Weinstein Raped Her in Hotel Room, Threatened To Destroy Her Career

The key witness in Harvey Weinstein’s third New York rape trial on the same charge began her testimony on Monday afternoon. For the third time, former aspiring actress Jessica Mann climbed onto the witness stand to accuse the disgraced movie mogul of raping her at a Manhattan hotel in 2013. “Take a deep breath,” Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg told her witness at Manhattan criminal court on Monday, as a court officer adjusted the microphone. Ms. Mann had entered the courtroom seemingly agitated and nervous. Her voice cracked as she uttered her name into the record. The judge reminded her to speak up. Weinstein, her accused rapist, was sitting in his wheelchair at the defense table, watching her attentively like a director watches an actress perform a scene in a movie.Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during his retrial on April 27, 2026 in New York City. Sarah Yenesel-Pool/Getty ImagesThough the courtroom was no movie set, Weinstein’s trials seem to run in sequels, this being the third in his New York trial trilogy. The first trial took place in 2020, when the Oscar-winning film producer faced Ms. Mann and another accuser, former production assistant Miriam Haley, on a five count indictment in the same lower Manhattan courthouse. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office, at the time headed by Cyrus Vance Jr., had charged Weinstein with a criminal sexual act in the first degree against Ms. Haley, and rape in the first-degree as well as rape in the third-degree against Ms. Mann; plus two additional counts of predatory sexual assault, which each carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, based on his alleged assaults of each accuser. The jury acquitted the film producer of three of the most serious counts, the predatory sexual assault charges and Ms. Mann’s first-degree-rape charge. But it convicted him of Ms. Haley’s accusation, finding that he forcibly performed unwanted oral sex on her in his Soho apartment in 2006 (while she was on her period), and of having committed third-degree-rape against Ms. Mann. The judge sentenced Weinstein to 23 years in prison. Jessica Mann, right, arrives for Harvey Weinstein’s trial in criminal court, followed by Manhattan Assistant District Attorneys Candace White, left, and Nicole Blumberg, in New York, Monday, April 27, 2026. AP Photo/Richard DrewBut in a landmark victory, the New York State Court of Appeals overturned those convictions in 2024, reasoning Weinstein had not received a fair trial because the proceedings included testimony from women – also known as Molineaux witnesses – who had not been part of the case.Weinstein, however, remained incarcerated, because he had been sentenced to 16 years in prison in California for similar allegations. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg decided to bring the case again, adding a new accuser to his retrial, the former Polish model Kaja Soloka. And in 2025, Weinstein, now wheelchair bound and, according to his attorneys, afflicted by multiple illnesses including bone marrow cancer and an infected tongue, was back at Manhattan criminal court.Jessica Mann, center, arrives for Harvey Weinstein’s trial in criminal court in New York, Monday, April 27, 2026. AP Photo/Richard DrewThe jury rendered a split verdict. He was acquitted of the new charge brought by Ms. Soloka, but convicted on the count relating to Ms. Haley. After the jury could not agree on Ms. Mann’s rape charge, the judge declared a mistrial. Weinstein, who has insisted he is not guilty on all charges in both California and in New York, refused to take a plea deal. The district attorney’s office, perhaps equally as stubborn, brought Ms. Mann’s charge before a jury for a third time. A new team of defense attorneys huddled around Weinstein’s table: Marc Agnifilo, Jacob Kaplan, and Teny Geragos, the daughter of celebrity defense attorney Mark Geragos. Their Manhattan firm, Agnifilo Intrater, also represents the alleged killer of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare Luigi Mangione, and was part of the “dream team” that successfully defended the hip hop producer Sean “Diddy” Combs in his federal sex-trafficking trial. Miriam Haley returns to the courtroom after taking a short break from a delay in proceedings before continuing to testify in the retrial of former film producer Harvey Weinstein at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 2, 2025 in New York City. John Angelillo-Pool/Getty ImagesIf they succeed in acquitting their client, it could, perhaps, influence the sentence the judge hands down on his other conviction.Meanwhile, the prosecutor began her examination by asking Ms. Mann about her troubled upbringing and the sexual abuse she suffered in her home town as a teenager. Born and raised in a rural country town in Washington State, Ms. Mann described her home as an “everyone-knows-everybody small town at the base of a mountain.” When, she says, a member of her pentecostal evangelical church physically and sexually assaulted her at age 16, Ms. Mann’s mother told her daughter to keep quiet. It would be “a he-said-she-said situation,” Ms. Mann recalled her mother saying. Her stepfather’s reaction was even worse, she testified. He blamed her. Alleged victim of Harvey Weinstein, Kaja Sokola (C) arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court during Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault re-trial on May 8, 2025 in New York City. Angela Weiss-Pool/Getty Images“It was my fault for turning him on,” Ms. Mann remembered in a cracking, faint voice. “I felt really dirty,” Ms. Mann went on, as one juror wiped tears from his eyes. “I felt a lot of shame because of the desire to feel pure.” Her stepfather also physically abused her, she told the court, while a boyfriend sexually and physically assaulted her. The church community offered little help, she said, it taught women to be “subservient.” Ms. Mann told the jury she was taught from an early age that “The man is the head of the household. Christ is over the man. And the woman is under the man.” Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during his retrial on April 27, 2026 in New York City. Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty ImagesThere came a point when she started cutting herself, she went on. After she got a degree in cosmetology, her biological father bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, where she aspired to pursue her dream of becoming an actress, Ms. Mann remembered. And that’s where she met Weinstein in 2013 at a party. Ms. Mann was 27 years old and the producer was 60. “I thought I just got discovered. He was interested in my look,” Ms. Mann testified. “He told me that I was prettier than Natalie Portman.” Jessica Mann, center, arrives for Harvey Weinstein’s trial in criminal court, followed by Manhattan Assistant District Attorneys Candace White, left, and Nicole Blumberg, in New York, Monday, April 27, 2026. AP Photo/Richard DrewOn the stand, Ms. Mann appeared strikingly young, almost adolescent, not at all like a mature 40-year-old woman. She wore casual, skin-tight blue pants and a loose beige jacket over a white T-Shirt. Her long hair was tied in a pony tail. Weinstein offered to be a mentor to her, she said. He took her to a book store, and bought her “acting books.” She remembered that she shared her traumatic upbringing with him after he had told her that actors use their childhood traumas for their characters, hoping she would convince him that she too had “life experiences.” A few days after their initial meeting in Los Angeles, he invited her to dine with him at the The Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel, where he was staying. He appeared annoyed, she said, at guests that constantly came to the table, telling him they loved his movies. She agreed to take the food “upstairs” and finish the meal in his hotel room. That’s when Weinstein asked her to give him a massage, which she refused. He then directed her to give him a massage, which she described in detail to the jury, explaining how she put the lotion on her hands and how she rubbed it on his back in circular motions. Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial in New York, Monday, April 27, 2026. Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP“I was feeling kind of grossed out,” she recalled. But she said, the experience “wasn’t horrible,” she just wished she wouldn’t “get into that situation again.” But she did. The prosecutor asked her about another hotel incident at the Montage Hotel, also in Los Angeles, where he had invited her and her friend to have some drinks. Weinstein, she claimed, managed again to lure her into a room with a bed, where he allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on her. Ms. Mann said he told her he would not allow her to leave the room, “until you let me do something.” Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during his retrial on April 27, 2026 in New York City. Sarah Yenesel-Pool/Getty ImagesAfter he was finished, he allegedly threatened her. “My friends go far. My enemies don’t set a foot in this town,” she recalled the producer saying. Overall her testimony echoed much of what she had told the juries during the 2020 and 2025 trials. Her direct-examination will continue on Tuesday. The trial is expected to last four weeks.

‘He Told Me I Was Prettier Than Natalie Portman’: Woman Testifies Harvey Weinstein Raped Her in Hotel Room, Threatened To Destroy Her Career

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