Ambra Battilana Gutierrez: ‘Where was Everyone in 2015?’

Why did it take two and a half years for the world and Hollywood to take Batillana’s allegations seriously?  After all, she only wanted to tell the truth.

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez is an Italian model who, when she was 22, accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, of groping her.  Battilana told the New Yorker that she met with Weinstein in his New York office in 2015.  Their talks took a twist when Weinstein asked if her breasts were real.  She says he grabbed her breast and put his hands up her skirt and asked for a kiss while she protested and told him to stop.

Battilana managed to escape from the hotel room, and called a friend who accompanied her to the police station to report the incident.  While she was at the police station, she received a call from Weinstein who asked to meet with her again.

At the request of the NYPD, Battilana agreed to meet with Weinstein the following day in an undercover operation to get Weinstein on tape. The next day at her meeting at the Tri Beca Grand Hotel with Weinstein,  Weinstein was recorded by the police apologizing and admitting to having groped Battilana, but seemingly unrelenting, asked her to go up to his room again.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office decided that a criminal charge was not supported after what they called a thorough investigation. They became suspicious when they learned that Battilana had previously testified that she had witnessed Silvio Berlusconi’s sex parties when she was 19, and that when she was a minor, she had accused a boyfriend of forced sex. The D.A.’s office decided she had credibility issues.

Asia Argento, who has accused Weinstein of raping her, and as a result, was humiliated by the Italian press, said that it was part of the Italian mentality, given that until the 1960s you could kill your wife if she had cheated, and it was called a murder of honor. Until 1996, rape was considered to be a crime against morals and not against a person, Argento said.

After the Battilana allegations, Weinstein went on being himself and did not pay the consequences.  His lawyers dismissed the accusations and, donated $10,000 to the New York district attorney’s re-election campaign.

Battilana’s credibility was crushed and she was labeled by many media outlets and tabloids an opportunist, a blackmailer, not a serious victim, and that she just wanted a part in one of Weinstein’s movies.

However, the New Yorker spoke to sources who told them that police had no reason to doubt Battilana’s account, and that police had gathered more than enough evidence to prosecute Weinstein.

Battilana could not get work for months as a result of the smear campaign by mainstream and tabloid media.  Due to the hesitation on the part of the dictrict attorney’s office, Battilana must have lost faith in the system because she allegedly reached a settlement with Weinstein and left town.

In a world where gropers and sexual harassers are convicted on substantially less evidence, it is totally appalling that the police did not protect Batillana and prosecute Weinstein.  The fact that the media and tabloids ridiculed these two women for speaking out is absolutely disgusting.  Not to mention that now many of these media sources continue to report about the sexual assaults without any remorse of how they had initially smeared Batillana and Argento’s reputations.

When asked about Weinstein’s behavior, Hillary Clinton said she thought it was “disgraceful” and “heartbreaking.” Just as Trump was once caught on camera bragging about sexually assaulting women in the Hollywood Access tape, Clinton said, “After all, we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office,”

Clinton commended the brave women who have told their stories and said that this debauched behaviour cannot be tolerated in any industry.

In Italy, where people tolerated Silvio Berlusconi for so long, here in the U.S. we have Trump, who has also mocked, demeaned and humiliated women and their achievements.  Much like Berlusconi, Trump’s mentality is that he can do whatever he wants to further his own interests; precisely what Weinstein did for three decades.

But just as Berlusconi’s attitude promoted a revolt from women and women’s groups in Italy, the American media and public needs to stop perpetuating female stereotypes, sexual harassment and domestic abuse.  Sexual harassment and abuse is not just a Hollywood thing, it is happening in a lot of workplaces and a lot of industries.

It is commendable that many actresses and other women have come forward to tell their truths. Their actions give other victims of sexual harassment and abuse the courage to seek justice.

If Battilana’s allegations had been pursued in 2014, and the allegation’s of so many others all over the world, perhaps today there would be more protection by the authorities from sexual harassment and assault.

Currently Ambra Battilana Gutierrez continues her career as a model and is working on a movie based on her experiences.

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