Paris Hilton alleges Harvey Weinstein attempted to open her bathroom door when she was 19

Warning: This article contains mentions of rape and sexual assault.

American media personality and businesswoman Paris Hilton has alleged that she had an uncomfortable incident with Harvey Weinstein at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival when she was just 19.

Hilton made the claim in an interview with Glamour UK, saying she was invited to attend the annual amfAR gala for AIDS research, which Weinstein was hosting that year. They met before the gala. "I was at lunch with my girlfriend and he came up to the table and was like, 'Oh, you want to be an actress?' And I said, 'Yeah, I really want to be in a movie,'" she said.

"I was a teenager, so I was impressed by him. I was like, 'Oh my god, Harvey Weinstein is so cool!' and he said, 'Well, we should have a meeting. You can come up to my room and read scripts'... and I just didn't want to go, so I never went."

According to Hilton, Weinstein became aggressive with her at the event the following night. She claimed that Weinstein chased her into the women's restroom and yelled, "Ya wanna be a star?" at her, reported Variety.

"I went into the bathroom and then he followed me... He tried to open the door, he was hammering on the door, banging on it. And I wouldn't open it, because I was like, 'I'm in a stall, why do you want to come in here?' And I just wouldn't open it," she recalled.

"And security came and literally carried him away and he was like [shouting], 'This is my party,' going nuts. It scared me and freaked me out," she continued.

When asked if she had heard rumors about Weinstein's behavior before meeting him at Cannes, Hilton answered, "Yeah, and it was just someone so powerful in Hollywood who everyone was terrified of."

When contacted by Variety regarding the allegation, a spokesperson for Weinstein denied Hilton's claims. Speaking through his spokesperson from L.A. County Jail, Weinstein said that "this never happened" and that he "never yelled at her and never followed her."

"He had always treated Paris Hilton with the utmost respect and kindness, and always believed they had a cordial relationship," his spokesperson told Variety.

Hilton's interview with Glamour UK was published on the same day that Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison for three counts of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles.

The former film producer has already been serving a 23-year sentence in New York after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault in that state during a criminal trial in 2020, reported Variety. (ANI)