Harvey Weinstein was in such a rush to
flee his Tribeca office amid sex-assault charges that he left behind his
infamous casting couch, The Post has learned.
Exclusive photos show the well-worn, three-seat sofa still sitting behind a coffee table just steps from Weinstein’s old desk.
The middle seat cushion on the cream-colored, leather-like settee
appears have been turned over — possibly to hide stains from the movie
mogul’s alleged in-office sexual conquests.
“It’s the original casting couch,” said a source who spied the abandoned furniture recently.
Weinstein’s sofa features prominently in the cascade of #MeToo claims against him.
Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez told cops that she was sitting
on it when Weinstein allegedly pawed at her breasts and tried to put his
hand up her skirt during a business meeting in March 2015.
And former assistant Sandeep Rehal said she had to routinely “clean up
the semen on the couch in Harvey Weinstein’s office,” according to her
pending sex-harassment suit against him.
“This happened on a regular basis, three or so times a week when Harvey Weinstein was in New York,” court papers say.
Rehal also claims her job included picking up Weinstein’s used condoms
and the syringes with which he injected an erection drug directly into
his penis in the office.
Weinstein’s wood-arm sofa sits between windows overlooking Franklin
Street in his former corner office on the third floor of 375 Greenwich
St., a historic building that also houses the Tribeca Film Center and
Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Grill restaurant.
Another office that leads into Weinstein’s old lair is outfitted with a
larger, daybed-style gray sofa with throw pillows, as well as a
treadmill, sources said.
That matches a Weinstein Company office described by Lucia Evans, who
told The New Yorker magazine that Weinstein forced her to perform oral
sex on him in a room there that had exercise equipment in it and takeout
boxes on the floor.
Photos of both offices show the floors covered with textured beige
carpeting that’s badly stained and puckered in several places.
And the suite — which a Weinstein-controlled holding company is now
trying to unload — includes a private bathroom with shower that seems
snug for the portly producer.
Sources who have visited the place described it as “disgusting” and said
they were shocked by Oscar-winning producer’s cheap-looking, “ugly as
f- -k” furniture.
“Ikea would have been a step up. This is just bad mahogany from a 1987 estate sale,” a source said.
“It is really nuts. The whole place is so seedy.”
Sources said there are several nearby cubicles whose occupants likely knew everything that went on in Weinstein’s office.
“There’s Sheetrock that is not sound-proof,” a source said. “It must have been so uncomfortable to listen to him.”
Weinstein has denied having “nonconsensual sex.” After his May arrest,
his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said, “Mr. Weinstein did not invent the
casting couch in Hollywood.”
The Weinstein Company vacated the office in October 2017, as first reported by Page Six.
That move came just days after The New York Times and The New Yorker
published allegations that Weinstein had raped, sexually assaulted or
harassed more than a dozen women since 1990.
The New Yorker’s coverage included audio of an NYPD recording that
caught Weinstein apologizing to Gutierrez, but Manhattan District
Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. declined to press charges, saying, “This was
not going to be a provable case.”
Weinstein was charged in May with sexually assaulting Evans, but that
felony count was recently dismissed after prosecutors interviewed a
friend who put her allegations into question.
Weinstein remains charged with raping another woman in 2013 and sexually assaulting a third in 2006.
Weinstein and his brother, Bob, bought the entire third floor of 375 Greenwich St. for $1.1 million in 1989.
It was quietly listed for $10 million three months ago through David
Schechtman of Meridian Investment Sales and Alan P. Miller of Aldo
Advisors, who is now with The Besen Group. The price was recently
slashed to $7.9 million, a source said.
Anyone who buys the space, whose building neighbors include Steven
Spielberg and George Lucas, is likely to gut it and rebuild from
scratch, sources said.
A broker familiar with the property said it was unlikely to fetch more than $6 million.
A sales brochure says the space will be “delivered vacant” and makes no mention of its scandal-scarred previous occupant.
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