The 22-year-old Italian model who is accusing major film figure Harvey Weinstein of groping her breasts and private parts last Friday is reportedly not intimidated by the producer’s money, or his standing within the industry.
A source close to aspiring model and actress Ambra Battilana told the New York Daily News Tuesday the beauty “knows that Harvey has money and power and that he’s going to come after her.”
“But she’s confident,” the person claimed. “She’s not afraid of Harvey.”
Battilana, a former Miss Italy contestant, alleges Weinstein, who is 63 and married with five children, touched her private area and breasts at around 6 p.m. Friday, while the pair were inside his New York City office at the Tribeca Film Center. Police questioned Weinstein on Saturday, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has yet to determine whether to file charges.
She posted this photo on Instagram the day of the alleged assault:
#BeItalian ph by Cameron Davis. #ItalianModel #AmbraBGutierrez #Repost
A photo posted by Ambra B Gutierrez (@ambrabgutierrez) on Mar 27, 2015 at 1:04pm PDT
The young woman is one of two models who allegedly witnessed one of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous “bunga-bunga” orgies. In 2013 she offered testimony against Berlusconi, when she told an Italian court that she had seen young models performing “stripteases” during sex-themed parties at Berlusconi’s mansion. She also claimed the former head of state patted her on the backside and asked her to disrobe at the sex party.
Representatives for Mr. Weinstein have dismissed Battilana as an opportunist with no credibility and are citing similar accusations made by the woman in her past.
As a minor in 2011, a 17-year-old Battilana sued an unnamed 70-year-old Italian businessman for sexual assault. Only identified only as Mr. G., the man said he considered a relationship between the two consensual, despite Battilana’s age.
According to the Daily News, Italian newspaper il Giornale reported in 2011 that it obtained the complaint Battilana filed against Mr. G. According to the Italian news outlet, Battilana admitted she had accepted cash payments from him in exchange for sexual liaisons. “To my great embarrassment, he began to ask me questions about my sexual tastes and explained in great detail his erotic fantasies,” she said in her 2011 complaint, also admitting she was forced to accept money because her family suffered from “severe poverty.”
She posted this photo online Sunday:
A photo posted by Ambra B Gutierrez (@ambrabgutierrez) on Mar 29, 2015 at 8:59am PDT
According to the source, as reported by the Daily News, Battilana is not surprised by Weinstein’s attack on her credibility. Her attorney insists she was “disgusted” by the alleged Friday night assault.
“When she was describing what happened, her face became contorted,” said attorney Mark Heller. “It was that look of someone who was creeped out… She’s a very young woman who was relating her disgust that a much older man — an old man in view of someone her age — conducted himself like that.”
Weinstein and Battilana had met one day prior to the alleged assault, when he invited her to his office for a business meeting Friday. A security camera captured her entering the building at 6 p.m. Friday and leaving rapidly 31 minutes later, the source told the Daily News. She reportedly placed a phone call as she exited the property, and was “very upset,” as she called a friend, the source said. Then she went to police.
A person affiliated with The Weinstein Company told Page Six this week that the allegations by Battilana were a “blackmail attempt” and insisted that the acclaimed producer “did nothing wrong.” A spokesman for Weinstein then said: “We are cooperating fully with the authorities and are confident that we will be fully vindicated. We will have no further comment.”
According to the Daily News’ source, Battilana has received offers of nearly $100,000 from different media outlets to go public with her story, but has turned them down.