California Governor Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, has refused to demonstrate in court how she allegedly faked an orgasm, during the trial of her alleged assailant, disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
Siebel Newsom claims that Weinstein raped her when the two met at his suite at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills back in 2005.
While describing in court the alleged sexual assault, Siebel Newsom said she made “pleasure noises” while attempting to make Weinstein climax, according to local media reports.
This claim prompted defense attorney Mark Werksman to ask her exactly how she “indicated her pleasure”, with Siebel Newsom responding that she won’t be doing that and that “This is not ‘When Harry Met Sally’” – an apparent reference to a scene from said movie where Meg Ryan’s character fakes an orgasm while she and Billy Crystal's character are having a meal at Katz's Deli in New York City.
Weinstein’s defense also questioned Siebel Newsom about numerous emails she sent to the producer in the months following the alleged rape.
One of these missives was an invitation to a fundraiser for Gavin Newsom, then the mayor of San Francisco, with Siebel Newsom telling the court now that she was merely “trying to help” her “boyfriend, almost husband”, as Weinstein was a “big Democratic donor.”
In another email, also sent nearly two years after the alleged sexual assault, Siebel Newsom actually thanked Weinstein for securing an invitation for her and her husband to an Oscar party.
“I was just hustling,” the woman told the court when this tidbit was brought to light by Weinstein’s counsel.
Once a successful movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein fell from grace in 2017 after dozens of women accused him of rape or sexual harassment, sparking the social media campaign known as #MeToo.
In 2020, Weinstein was convicted of a rape and a sexual assault and got sentenced to 23 years in prison, though that sentence may increase significantly if charges brought against him by other accusers stick.