WASHINGTON - Celebrities and everyday people continued flooding social media with personal accounts of sexual assault and harassment Monday, responding to calls to break the culture of silence around such abuse.
The massive global response was triggered by the allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is accused of rape and abuse dating back decades.
People shared stories and offered support under multiple hashtags, including #MeToo in English, #balancetonporc ("Rat out your pig") in French, and #quellavoltache ("That time that") in Italian.
American actress Alyssa Milano on Sunday sparked the outpouring with a simple Twitter request that women respond "me too" if they have also been sexually harassed or assault.
Tens of thousands of people replied, making #MeToo the top trending topic.
The posts continued to accumulate Monday, with the intensity of the social media response sharply underscoring the problem's breadth - implicating fashion, entertainment, politics and the lives of everyday people.
Monica Lewinsky - who was at the centre of the White House sex scandal in the 1990s leading to the impeachment trial of former US President Bill Clinton - simply tweeted the hashtag #MeToo without comment.
MORE CELEBRITIES CHIME IN
Responding to Milano's call, Lady Gaga and Sheryl Crow were among those from the music world tweeting their support.
Crow on Monday shared her experience of improper behaviour by a manager "on my first big tour as a backup singer."
"When I went to a lawyer he told me to suck it up bc the guy could do a lot for me," Crow tweeted, "so I wrote songs about it on my first record."
Actress Evan Rachel Wood wrote of being raped more than once, writing, "I instinctually shut down. My body remembered, so it protected me. I disappeared. #metoo."
Prior to Milano's call, American fashion model Cameron Russell took to Instagram last week asking her followers to share experiences of sexual abuse in her industry, using the hashtag #MyJobShouldNotIncludeAbuse.
She has been tweeting some of the hundreds of responses, anonymous stories ranging from recent experiences to some dating back two decades - primarily involving women, sometimes minors, and occasionally men.
"Hearing about #harveyweinstein this week has sparked conversations about how widespread and how familiar his behaviour is," the model and activist wrote.
"We are speaking to each other, we are speaking up, we are speaking to lawyers, and we are speaking to well-resourced reporters," she added.
A common refrain in the accounts by both celebrities and everyday people was that nobody believed the accusers when they spoke out.
"Molested by a family member. Raped as a kid and an adult. Became a drug addict and then overcame. Don't ever give up. I'm here#MeToo," wrote a woman identified as Amy Christensen on her Twitter account.
There were many sympathetic responses from men.
Vinay Ramesh, a tech entrepreneur, encouraged "all my fellow men to learn about #MeToo. The responsibility to stop sexual violence is absolutely on us."
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In part two of the New York Times' explosive expose chronicling decades of sexual harassment allegations waged against studio mogul Harvey Weinstein- several actresses went public with their stories for the first time.
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Gwyneth Paltrow: "I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified," Paltrow said about her experience as a then 22-year-old on the set of 1996's Emma.
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Anjelina Jolie recalled a similar incident. "I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did," Jolie said in an e-mail to the Times.
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Italian film star Asia Argento, the 42-year-old daughter of iconic horror director Dario Argento, said Weinstein forced oral sex on her 20 years ago. She told the publication she had maintained her silence until now for fear that Weinstein would "crush" her.
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Model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, a former Miss Italy finalist, told the New Yorker she met Weinstein March 2015 at a reception for a show he was producing in New York. She said Weinstein "lunged at her, groping her breasts and attempting to put a hand up her skirt" at a meeting in his offices in Tribeca.
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French actress Judith Godreche met Weinstein for breakfast at a hotel in 1996. He later invited her up to his suite to see the "view". But he later asked for a massage and pressed himself against Godreche, even pulling off her sweater.
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Rosanna Arquette: In the early 1990s, Weinstein asked the young actress to stop by a hotel in Beverly Hills to pick up a script. She remembers telling him "I'm not that girl," after he asked her for a massage.
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Rose McGowan: The actress reportedly reached a US$100,000 settlement with Weinstein in 1997, after an "episode in a hotel room at the Sundance Film Festival".
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Ashley Judd: The accused Weinstein of inviting her to his hotel room, appearing in a bathrobe, offering her a massage, and asking her if she wanted to watch him take a shower.
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Former actress and screenwriter Louisette Geiss held a news conference where she alleged that her encounter with Weinstein took place at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. He invited her to his office for a meeting, and soon excused himself and returned naked, wearing only a bathrobe. He later asked that she watch him masturbate.
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Mira Sorvino: The actress starred in several of Weinstein's films, told The New Yorker that he sexually harassed her and tried to pressure her into a physical relationship while they worked together.
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British actress Romola Garai told The Guardian she felt "violated" following a meeting with Harvey Weinstein in his London hotel room when she was 18 in which he was in a bathrobe. Garai said that once she was in the room the two had a brief discussion about film but she felt "belittled" by his "abuse of power."
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Model and actress Cara Delevingne accused Weinstein of propositioning her and attempting to kiss her after a meeting about an upcoming film. "He said to me that if I was gay or decided to be with a woman especially in public, that I'd never get the role of a straight woman or make it as an actress in Hollywood," Delevingne said in a statement.
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French actress Lea Seydoux became the latest in a string of female Hollywood stars speaking out against Weinstein. Also subjected to his advances, she alleged "everyone" in Hollywood "knew what Harvey was up to".
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In a revealing piece written for Variety, Heather Graham revealed that Weinstein asked her to have sex with him in exchange for being included in his movie in the early 2000s. He told Graham that he had an agreement with his wife in which he could sleep with whomever he wanted whenever he was out of town. "I walked out of the meeting feeling uneasy," Graham wrote.
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Kate Winslet has revealed in an interview with Los Angeles times why she didn't thank the disgraced film producer in her 2009 Oscars speech. "That was deliberate. That was absolutely deliberate," Winslet said. "I remember being told. 'Make sure you thank Harvey if you win'. And I remember turning around and saying, 'No I won't. No I won't.' ... If people aren't well-behaved, why would I thank him?""
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British actress Lysette Anthony said he had attacked her in her London home in the late '80s. Anthony said
It happened after she had got to know the producer when she starred in the 1982 film Krull, according to The Telegraph.
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Kate Beckinsale also came forward about Weinstein sexually harassing her when she was just 17 and hampering her career. She posted her statement to Instagram with a picture of her as a teenager and wrote that when she was called to meet him at the Savoy Hotel in London, Weinstein opened the door in a bathrobe. She left the room "uneasy but unscathed".
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Actress Eva Green has said she felt "shocked and disgusted" after an encounter with Weinstein in which she allegedly had to "push him off" during a business meeting. The Bond girl gave her statement after her mother told a French radio that her daughter "was a victim of this horrible man".
AROUND THE WORLD
Italian actress Asia Argento, who has accused Weinstein of sexual abuse, offered another bombshell, saying a Hollywood director had raped her and that an Italian director had exposed himself to her when she was a minor.
"Hollywood big shot director with Napoleon complex gave me GHB (the "date rape" drug) and raped me unconscious. I was 26 years old," she tweeted using the hashtag #quellavoltache, in remarks that sparked outrage in her home country.
Argento did not name either of the men she accused.
In France, the top-trending hashtag #balancetonporc, started by journalist Sandra Muller, brought forth stories from women of being sexually harassed at work or in the street.
Muller began the hashtag recounting how her former boss had called her "my type of woman" and then commented on her breasts.
In Britain, Labour MP Stella Creasy tweeted her own claims of harassment, "like millions of women & girls all around the world. Shame is on the attackers, not me."
Similar stories spread in the Arab world, from Tunisia to Egypt and Dubai, describing incidents suffered by women at work or in public spaces, and denouncing "rape culture".
More than 20 women - a who's who of Hollywood - have come forward to accuse Weinstein of rape, assault and sexual harassment.
Weinstein, who insists any sexual encounters were consensual, was expelled last week from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
