Sex

The lawyer representing Harvey Weinstein's rape accuser got before microphones today ... the question is why.

David Ring says his client had a "thorough interview" with the LAPD Thursday, and the #1 priority for her is the criminal investigation.

He says she's 38 years old, from Italy where she was an actress. Ring says she had met Weinstein in Rome prior to the alleged 2013 rape, but that was it. He repeated what she told the L.A. Times ... that Weinstein "bullied" his way into her hotel room and raped her.

Usher's accuser, Quantasia Sharpton, is trying to add some ammo to her herpes lawsuit by questioning another woman who had sexual relations with the singer ... but that woman wants none of it.

In new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, a woman referred to as Jane Doe claims Quantasia is going after "extremely private and embarrassing information" about her sexual history with Usher and wants to drag her in for a deposition.

Jane Doe claims her private info was stolen and leaked without her consent, which is how Sharpton became privy to it and led to her seeking the depo.

According to the docs ... Jane Doe's sexual past and medical info has nothing to do with Sharpton's suit and would only serve to violate her right to privacy and humiliate her.

Kim Porter and her friends have an interesting take on Lupita Nyong'o's encounter with Harvey Weinstein, and it's basically ... at least he included black women.

If that sounds harsh, just watch the clip.

Kim and co. were leaving Catch in WeHo when we asked them about Lupita's story -- that Weinstein pulled his massage move on her, and she had to flee when he tried to get naked.

Diddy's baby mama is definitely horrified, saying, "It's all bad." On the other hand, one of her friends said, "I need a black girl on that list."

The lawyer representing the L.A. woman who is now accusing Harvey Weinstein of rape is determined to let the world know ... he's her lawyer.

Attorney David Ring has already updated his website, boasting his new client ... "David Ring of Taylor & Ring is representing the victim who was raped by Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles in 2013. LAPD has taken a criminal report. The investigation is ongoing. This will be a developing story."

It goes on ... "The victim and Mr. Ring are fully cooperating with the LAPD."

And then there's this ... "The LA Times story follows: Click Here for the full story."

Ring links to a story posted on the L.A. Times website, immediately after the alleged victim spoke to LAPD. She and Ring sat for the interview with the Times.

Ring then put out a media advisory that he will be holding a news conference Friday at 1 PM PT, spilling more details about the case.

Harvey Weinstein's rape accuser already has the LAPD worried, because she orchestrated an interview with a newspaper immediately after going to the cops with her story.

Sources familiar with the investigation tell us, detectives think the almost contemporaneous move to talk to the police and the L.A. Times will make jurors suspicious. Cops say they've routinely had problems with prosecutors when alleged victims go to the media. These cases are hard to prove because they're almost always he said/she said, and when motivation becomes an issue it's problematic.

The detectives are also very concerned she came armed with a civil lawyer, David Ring, who's holding a news conference today to "share more information about the case."

On the other side, the woman says she told her priest and her nanny about the alleged rape. If the disclosures were made on the heels of the alleged rape, it's powerful evidence to support a prosecution.

The woman -- an Italian model/actress -- claims Weinstein raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel in 2013.

Lupita Nyong'o just joined a long list of women accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct ... claiming he tried undressing in front of her in a bedroom.

Nyong'o says she met Weinstein in 2011 at an awards ceremony in Berlin while she was still a student at the Yale School of Drama. Lupita claims several months later, she was invited by Weinstein to join him at his family home in Connecticut for a screening of a film.

Nyong'o says she arrived at Weinstein's home, met his wife and children and Harvey set her up to watch the film in his private screening room. According to Lupita, Weinstein interrupted the film just 15 minutes in and invited her to his private bedroom.

Once in the bedroom, Lupita says Harvey asked if he could give her a massage. The actress says she panicked and offered to give the producer one instead, he obliged, removed his shirt and laid down on the bed.

Nyong'o claims she fled the producer's home when he tried to remove his pants.

McKayla Maroney's mother says the Olympic gymnast is still reeling after going public with allegations she was molested and drugged by the team doctor ... but the family is proud of her.

"She's doing as expected," Erin Maroney said Thursday ... "She's not great, not fine. She's just low-key doing okay."

The 2012 Team USA Olympic gold medalist has claimed Dr. Larry Nassar repeatedly sexually assaulted her under the guise he was performing routine medical care ... starting when she was 13 years old.

Team USA gymnastics stars Nastia Liukin and Laurie Hernandez say they did NOT experience abuse at the hands of former team doctor Larry Nassar -- but they feel horrible for those who did.

"We feel for them," Liukin said on the way to a charity event in NYC ..."Our hearts and prayers go out to all that were affected."

One of those affected is McKayla Maroney -- who says Nassar repeatedly sexually abused her during her gymnastics career ... beginning at age 13.

Maroney's 2012 Olympics teammate Gabby Douglas was also out in NYC last night -- and says she has not spoken with McKayla since she went public with the allegations ... but insinuated that she would be reaching out.

Nick Cannon's advice to parents looking to get their child actors into Hollywood? Don't.

We got Nick out at LAX Wednesday and wanted to get his take on whether kids are safe in the industry following Reese Witherspoon's revelation she was sexually assaulted by a director as a 16-year-old. She confessed the harrowing experience amid Harvey Weinstein's continuing fallout.

McKayla Maroney says she was sexually assaulted by the team doctor for the U.S. women's gymnastics team and Olympic team -- and the abuse started when she was 13 years old.

The former U.S. Olympic gymnast went public about the alleged abuse Wednesday morning -- saying Dr. Larry Nassar repeatedly molested her under the guise of administering "treatment."

The 21-year-old says, "Dr. Nassar told me that I was receiving 'medically necessary treatment that he had been performing on patients for over 30 years.'"

"It started when I was 13 years old, at one of my first National Team training camps, in Texas, and it didn't end until I left the sport."

"It seemed whenever and wherever this man could find the chance, I was 'treated.' It happened in London before my team and I won the gold medal, and it happened before I won my Silver."

Maroney says Nassar gave her a sleeping pill on a flight to Tokyo when she was 15 -- "and the next thing I know, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a 'treatment.' I thought I was going to die that night."

McKayla joins a long list of women accusing Nassar of sexual misconduct -- 125 women, including former gymnasts, have already filed suit against him for alleged incidents over the years.

Harvey Weinstein's accusers don't have to resort to GoFundMe to foot their legal bills if they end up suing, because companies are lining up to front the cash.

Who knew there were legal financing companies that invest in cases that are likely to produce a financial jackpot? It seems these companies think suing Harvey Weinstein and TWC will be a cakewalk.

The CEO for Legal-Bay tells us they believe many of the women who might sue will get $50k minimum and as high as 7 figures. The company is on the hunt for actresses who aren't big names but may have had their careers blocked by Weinstein.

Another financing company, Legalist, is offering $100k for litigation costs. A company rep tells us they're not chasing clients, but rather advertising their services on social media. They also think the most likely clients are staffers at TWC and not actresses who often have enough money to sue.

Harvey Weinstein is not giving up -- not even close -- he vows he'll continue making movies, whether it's with The Weinstein Co. or someplace else.

Weinstein's showdown with TWC is set for Tuesday morning in NYC, where he will make his case by speakerphone that he was illegally fired and has a right to retake the reins. His lawyer, Patty Glaser, will be in the Board of Directors meeting to make the case.

Our Weinstein sources say he knows he's "momentarily toxic" but thinks with a little time, writers and actors will seek him out again because of his track record. He believes -- and probably rightly so -- that TWC exists because of him. He believes he can go back and produce movies, or he can just as easily do it somewhere else.

As one source put it, "Harvey's like Judge Judy. She can do her show for CBS, but if she wanted to go to NBC she can do it because it's all about her."

Reese Witherspoon was assaulted by a film director when she was 16 years old and Jennifer Lawerence was told to drop some lbs to star in a film ... just some of the abuse they say they endured coming up in Hollywood.

The Academy Award winning actresses shared the harrowing stories Monday night during the ELLE Women in Hollywood event. The actresses went into great detail on the heels of former studio boss Harvey Weinstein getting ousted from his company after scores of women accused him of decades-old sexual assault and harassment.

Reese says she's not only angry at the director who assaulted her, saying, "[I feel] true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment."

She went on to say she was sexually harassed and assaulted on multiple occasions.

Jennifer said a director once told her to lose 15 pounds in 2 weeks ... and as motivation for her diet? Jennifer said a female producer told her to use naked photos of herself from a previous nude lineup as inspiration.

Most people tend to use the front door when it comes to tricks or treats on Halloween, but Farrah Abraham's going around the back.

Farrah's signed on for another live porn show for CamSoda the day before Halloween but with a literal twist ... she'll be performing anal ... with a toy.

Her last show was hugely successful, drawing 80,000 onlookers which caused the site to crash. CamSoda expects even more people to tune into Farrah's anal cam show on October 30 and says they'll be getting extra support to prevent the site from going down again.

It'll just be Farrah on the screen, no one else but the occasional toy. It's her way of promoting her new show on MTV, "Single AF."

Clever AF.

Harvey Weinstein could be cut off at the knees at Tuesday's Board of Directors meeting, because there are signs the Board might fire him ... which we're told would guarantee litigation.

Harvey, who is still a member of the Board despite being fired from The Weinstein Co., plans to participate in Tuesday's meeting via speakerphone -- he's currently in Arizona for rehab.

As we reported, Weinstein and his lawyer, Patty Glaser, plan to challenge his firing, claiming there was no basis to remove him from the company based on his Oct. 2015 employment contract.

A source from TWC tells TMZ, "Harvey's role in the meeting will be very limited." We know that's not Weinstein's intention -- he and Glaser plan to fight the firing tooth and nail.

Our Harvey Weinstein sources smell a rat, and believe the Board may start the meeting with a motion to kick him off the Board. If that happens, they can disconnect the speakerphone and kick Glaser out of the boardroom.

Lauren Holly says Harvey Weinstein was all business during a meeting in his hotel room ... right up until the moment he ripped off his suit and went to the bathroom in front of her.

The actress, who now lives in Canada, went on daytime talk show "The Social" Monday to speak for the first time about an encounter she says went down in the late '90s. Holly says she wasn't worried about going to Weinstein's hotel room for the meeting -- she says that was common, and he was fully dressed when she arrived.

Lauren says they spoke at length about possible roles, and right in the middle of the conversation he stripped and used the bathroom in front of her. Despite being nude in front of her, she says he never stopped talking business ... even when he jumped in the shower.

However, she says it turned ominous and terrifying when he got out of the shower. Just as scary as the reaction she says she got when she told friends what had happened.

Shades of Angie Everhart, for sure, and more evidence most of Hollywood knew about Weinstein and chose to remain silent.