29 January, 2018 - 06:04
Jet-lagged commuters arriving at Cape Town International Airport this week might have questioned their pilot's GPS as they passed the fa ade of Kinshasa International Airport bustling with Congolese taxi drivers, traders under colourful umbrellas and travellers hurrying for check-in. By Mike Behr
The only clue that they had not landed in a parallel universe were the cameras filming an episode of the new Amazon and ITV series The Widow starring UK A-lister Kate Beckinsale.
According to Variety magazine, the eight-part series follows Georgia Wells (Beckinsale), a woman who has cut herself off from her previous life but is pulled back to face that world after seeing her supposedly deceased husband on the news.
The thriller takes her into the depths of the Congo, where danger and revelation greet her at every turn as she stops at nothing to get to the truth about her past.
Beckinsale recently starred in Marc Webb's The Only Living Boy in New York, which was released on Amazon in August last year, as well as Amazon's Love & Friendship, based on Jane Austen's novel Lady Susan.
The 44-year-old's movie credits include the Underworld franchise, 2012's Total Recall and 2004's Van Helsing.
Last year she was in the news after her Instagram posting of an encounter with US film producer and executive Harvey Weinstein, the focus of serial sex abuse allegations at the Savoy Hotel when she was 17.
I assumed it would be in a conference room which was very common. When I arrived reception told me to go to his room. He opened the door in his bathrobe. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him.
After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed.
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A few years later, he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting. I realised he couldn't remember if he had assaulted me or not.
I had what I thought were boundaries - I said no to him professionally many times over the years - some of which ended up with him screaming at me calling me a c**t and making threats, some of which made him laughingly tell people: Kate lives to say no to me.'
It speaks to the status quo in this business that I was aware that standing up for myself and saying no to things, while it did allow me to feel uncompromised in myself, undoubtedly harmed my career.
I would like to applaud the women who have come forward, and to pledge that we can from this create a new paradigm where producers, managers, executives and assistants and everyone who has in the past shrugged and said, well, that's just Harvey/Mr X/insert name here', will realise that we in numbers can effect real change.
For every moment like this there have been thousands where a vulnerable person has confided outrageous unprofessional behaviour and found they have no recourse, due to an atmosphere of fear.
I had a male friend who, based on my experience, warned a young actress who said she was going to dinner with Harvey to be careful. He received a phone call the next day saying he would never work in another Miramax film; the girl was already sleeping with Harvey and had told him my friend had warned her off.
Let's stop allowing our young women to be sexual cannon fodder.
www.iol.co.za
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29 January, 2018 - 06:04 
