Where is Claudia Salinas now? Lauren Young says actress 'locked her in bathroom' with Weinstein
WARNING: This article contains details of incidents of sexual assault that some readers may find traumatic. Discretion is advised
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: An actress recounted to a jury on Monday, November 7, how she was sexually assaulted by disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. This is just one of the allegations brought against the convicted sex offender by several women. At Weinstein's Los Angeles rape trial, Lauren Young told jurors that the incident took place during the early stage of her career, when she hoped to meet the former film producer about a script she wrote in 2013.
However, it turned out to be the worst nightmare in her life as she alleged that actress Claudia Salinas intentionally locked her and Weinstein in a bathroom of the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. That was not the end of it though, as the Filipina-American actress added that Weinstein masturbated on her. His penis was described as "disgusting" by Young who reportedly said it looked like it "had been chopped off and sewn back on."
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Lauren, who is the younger sister of the Miss World 2013 Megan Young, had previously delineated the harrowing experience she endured at the hands of the disgraced mogul back in his February 2020 New York trial. Weinstein's attorney Alan Jackson picked apart Young's testimony in an animated cross-examination later on Monday. He pounded his fist on the podium and dramatically acted bits of it, inducing a rare reaction from his client, who laughed at his narration.
Young's claims were reportedly debunked by Jackson who instead said that she "felt that you were locked in there," but wasn't actually, and then added that she "felt" she was "being sexually assaulted," but she "was not," reported by Daily Mail. Now, although Weinstein, 70, is facing another 11 counts of sexual battery by restraint for rape and sexual assault, Young was not one of the accusers whose allegations led to his conviction for the same crimes and his eventual 23-year prison sentence. If he gets convicted, Weinstein could face life in a California prison.
Young was working as a model in early 2013 but she wanted to be an actress and a screenwriter. She told jurors that she was able to arrange a meeting with Weinstein through her then-friend Salinas, who was also the producer's personal assistant, on the night of February 19, 2013, about a script she was working on. Initially Young told the detectives that the assault took place a year before, just days after she had been at a dinner with Weinstein at a Beverly Hills restaurant.
Jackson was quick to pounce upon Young's claims and tried to find loopholes by bringing up her previous confusion about the site of the assault. She admitted that she could not name the hotel in her first three interviews with authorities, the most recent of which was in 2020. "I had pushed it out of my memory," Young said, according to Daily Mail. Jackson pressed by asking her, "Are you sure as you sit here today that you actually went up to Harvey Weinstein's hotel room that night?" "Yes I'm sure," she responded.
Weinstein was distracted and uninterested in anything Young had to say at that time. She told the court that he suggested to her that she might be a reality television host on a show like 'America's Next Top Model', which his company helped produce.
The 29-year-old said at one point that Weinstein told her that he had to get ready to present an award to Quentin Tarantino at the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival and also added that he was willing to continue the discussion with her if she accompanied him to his room. So Young said she followed Weinstein into his suite at the Montage and into his bathroom. She thought that there would be another door on the other side, and he was leading her somewhere else but was shocked to see Salinas close the door behind them, and that she was "trapped."
Jackson later showed the jury photos of the door on a hinge and tried to rip apart her testimony. Jackson claimed that her "dramatic description" of the door sliding closed past Salinas' face was "completely false."
Patricia Clarkson says Harvey Weinstein "bullied me terribly." She stars in #SheSaid, a new film about the New York Times' investigation of the movie mogul. pic.twitter.com/vixPy4g9AD
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) November 7, 2022
"Do you want to change your statement about being trapped and locked in that bathroom?" Jackson asked. "You're describing a full-blown kidnapping, right?" Jackson pointed out that Young had told the detective she was "positive" the door was locked because she was "tugging" on it.
"And the problem is, the door doesn't lock from the outside, and it's not a sliding door, right?" he pushed. She responded, "I felt trapped." "I'm not asking what you felt, I'm asking what you said," he fired back. "I felt locked in there — I was describing how I felt," Young responded. Jackson shot back, "You felt that you were locked in there, but you were not locked in there. You felt that you were being sexually assaulted, but you were not." "I was definitely sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein," Young said.
Where is Claudia Salinas now?
The 39-year-old mexican model and actress is currently set to appear for the Harvey Weinstein sex-crime trial on Wednesday, November 9, after Young alleged that she 'trapped' her along with Weinstein in a bathroom of the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. According to The Daily Beast, Salinas previously denied Young's claims in New York and testified on behalf of the defense. “That never happened,” Salinas testified in 2020. “If I had done that, I would remember that. I would never close the door behind anybody, ever.”
Salinas has a few movie and television credits to her name, including as a dancer in 2004 movie 'Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights'. As a fashion blogger she is known as Miss Salinas, which is the name of her blog.