‘SATC’ Actor Gilles Marini Says He Was “A Piece Of Meat” For Industry Execs

gilles marini

Gilles Marini, who shot to fame after appearing in the first Sex and the City film as Samantha‘s (Kim Cattrall) hot neighbour, has added his voice to calling out widespread sexual harassment within Hollywood.

The actor (and later Dancing with the Stars contestant) told PEOPLE how he was sexually harassed during and after his time on the hit franchise.

“I was approached by extremely powerful people, especially after Sex and the City,” he said. “I became a piece of meat for many executives in Hollywood.”

He says he told them that it “was not going to fly,” and thankfully the harassment stopped, but spoke about the added stigma that male victims of sexual harassment and assault deal with.

I didn’t see many men use the hashtag #MeToo,” he said. “And the reason is because it’s a stigma, it’s a shame, you lose your manhood. When a young man is affected by being raped, or sexually harassed, or touched … you will never hear [about it] — but those people exist.”

Although Marini says that men who have been harassed or assaulted “will never” go public, that’s not entirely the case. The most recent man to speak publicly was Anthony Rapp (who made allegations against Kevin Spacey), but Terry Crews, James Van Der Beek, and Corey Feldman have all spoken out in recent weeks.

He also slammed Harvey Weinstein checking himself into rehab (read: a luxe, $2,000-a-night Arizona spa) for ‘sex therapy’.

“This man doesn’t need to go to a sexual addiction [treatment] … that is a joke to me,” he said. “When you violate someone, the only place you need to go is jail.”

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