Los Angeles| Former reality star Holly Madison, who earlier dated and lived with ‘Playboy’ founder Hugh Hefner, won’t be called to testify during Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape trial, a judge has ruled.
The defence wanted Madison to take the stand in order to undermine testimony from actress Ashley Matthau, one of the uncharged supporting witnesses.
Matthau, who’s accusing Weinstein of sexual battery, claims the former mogul masturbated on her at his hotel in 2003 in Puerto Rico, where they were shooting Miramax’s ‘Dirty Dancing’ sequel, ‘Havana Nights’.
According a website, Madison is close friends with Matthau. The defence intended to question her about the two partying together at the Playboy Mansion to prove that Matthau wasn’t a “young, sexually inexperienced naif” who was unfamiliar with “the ways of Hollywood”.
“They want to portray her as this innocent girl but they don’t want me to ask about all the fun times she spent frolicking in the grotto at Hugh Hefner’s mansion with Playboy bunnies,” Weinstein’s lawyer Mark Werksman said about Matthau.
“Holly Madison had been down on her luck financially and used Hugh Hefner as a meal ticket,” he said, noting their age difference.
The website adds that when Werksman insisted he should be “entitled’ to ask about Matthau’s relationship with Madison, deputy district attorney Marlene Martinez said “who she partied with has nothing to do with her being assaulted … whatever friendship she has with Holly Madison has nothing to do with her being assaulted.” Judge Lisa B. Lench agreed with the prosecution, ruling against Madison’s testimony.
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