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Three weeks into the Harvey Weinstein scandal, one of the initial women to come forward in the New York Times' bombshell exposé, actress Ashley Judd, spoke to ABC News in her first television interview since the article's publication.
Thursday's developments as they happen:
Harvey Weinstein filed suit Thursday against the Weinstein Company in an attempt to gain access to his emails and personnel file for the purpose of defending himself,  TMZ and Variety report.
The producer, who was fired from his company on Oct. 8, says the firm has not cooperated with his lawyer thus far.
Weinstein also resigned from the company board of directors on Oct.17, but he has challenged his firing as illegal.
But his lawsuit is not the first filed against the teetering Weinstein Company, shattered by the scandal and in need of a new financial lifeline now that a preliminary deal for an infusion of capital by a major investment firm has fallen through, according to The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
On Tuesday, actress Dominque Huett, 35, filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company alleging that Harvey Weinstein pressured her into sex at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills in 2010 and that his company knew about multiple allegations against him of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s.
The New York Attorney General's Office has also opened a civil-rights investigation into the company.
USA TODAY has reached out to both Weinstein’s rep and the Weinstein Company for comment.
Rose McGowan to speak at Women's Conference Friday in Detroit
In what's being billed as her first major public appearance since the Harvey Weinstein story broke, actress Rose McGowan will give the opening remarks Friday morning at the Women's Convention, organizers confirmed to the Detroit Free Press. The event is being put on by the group responsible for January's Women's March in Washington.
McGowan, who received a financial settlement after accusing Weinstein of raping her at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, will also participate in a panel called "Fighting for Survivors of Sexual Assault in the Age of Betsy Devos," which will include survivors of sexual assault and members of groups fighting sexual violence.
In September, DeVos, who serves as secretary of education under President Trump, scrapped Obama-era guidelines aimed at protecting victims of sexual misconduct on college campuses and said she would come up with a new rule-making procedure for handling assault cases under Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination in education.
Ashley Judd grants first TV interview to ABC News
Speaking to Diane Sawyer, Judd describes arriving at the Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills two decades ago for what she thought was a breakfast meeting with Weinstein.
"I had no warning," she said of the 1997 incident. "I remember the lurch when I went to the (hotel) desk and I said, 'Mr. Weinstein, is he on the patio?' And they said, 'He's in his room,' and I was like, 'Oh, you're kidding me.'"
"But you went up ... because?" Sawyer asks.
"I had a business appointment," Judd replied. "Which is his pattern of sexual predation, (which) is how he rolled."
Once in the room, Weinstein began pressuring her to give and receive massages and to pick out his suit for the day and to watch him shower.
"There's this constant grooming, negotiation going on," she said. "I thought no meant no. There was this volley of no's. Maybe he heard them as yeses. Maybe it turned him on."
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To escape Weinstein's hotel room, which Judd "had totally frozen in my mind the floor plan and where the door was behind me," she resorted to striking a deal with him.
"He just kept coming at me with all this other stuff. Finally, I just said, 'When I win an Oscar in one of your movies, okay.' He said, 'When you get nominated.' I said, 'No, when I win an Oscar.' And then I just fled."
"I think, you know, am I proud of that?" Judd continues, questioning her reaction to Weinstein that day. "I'm of two minds. The part that shapes myself says no. The part of me that understands the way shame works says, that was absolutely brilliant, good job, kid. You got out of there. Well done."
"It's a very important word, shame, and it's a very important thing to talk about so we all do the best we can and our best is good enough. And it's really okay to have responded however we responded."
In a second clip released later Thursday morning, Sawyer asked Judd what she'd tell men who dismiss the epidemic as ambiguous workplace flirtation and who don't understand where the line is or when they've crossed it.
"Get over yourself," Judd responded. "I understand that the world can be confusing for all of us. I'm making a little bit of a joke about it but it's also very serious, you know? If I say no, I mean no, period. No means no. It doesn't mean maybe, it doesn't mean yes. It doesn't mean try again in a different way. It doesn't mean that I'm a killjoy because I didn't find your sexist or your racially-overtoned joke funny."
She emphasized the need to normalize the ability to have a dialog when such situations erupt and to feel empowered to speak up when someone says something offensive.
"I need to be able to say, 'I'm very uncomfortable with that.' And the male person cannot have their own massive, debilitating shame attack and become outrageously defensive."
Instead, she hopes that man will say, "I didn't know that. Tell me more."
Judd also urged parents to pass on a couple of simple lessons to kids: "Boys, if you're in doubt, don't. Girls, if it doesn't feel, right, it's not."
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