Gwyneth Paltrow is opening up about being sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein, revealing new details about how her boyfriend at the time, Brad Pitt, defended her after the incident. And according to Paltrow, the altercation between Pitt and Weinstein was quite heated.

While chatting with Howard Stern this week, the actress discussed Weinstein's "weird" behavior, which she first disclosed last fall to the New York Times, shortly after the first allegations against the producer were made public.

"It was out of the blue," Paltrow told Stern of the time Weinstein cornered her in his hotel room, shortly after she signed on to make "Emma" for Miramax, Weinstein's then-studio. "I was blindsided."

The actress said she considered Weinstein a father figure, and immediately told Pitt about the bizarre incident.

"I was very shaken by the whole thing," Paltrow told Stern. "I had signed up to do two movies with him. I was afraid."

Shortly after, the couple was attending the 1995 opening of "Hamlet" on Broadway, and saw Weinstein there. According to Paltrow, that's when Pitt sprang into action, pulling the producer aside and making it clear that his bizarre behavior should never be repeated.

"It was like the equivalent of throwing him against the wall," Paltrow told Stern, adding that Pitt recounted what happened after the run-in. "He said, 'If you ever make her feel uncomfortable again, I'll kill you,' or something like that. It was great."

Stern pointed out that maybe Paltrow didn't need Pitt to treat her like a damsel in distress, but the actress insisted that even now, "I love him for this."

" ... It was so fantastic because what he did was, he leveraged his fame and power to protect me at a time when I didn't have fame or power yet," Paltrow said. "He's the best."

Pitt had previously confirmed to the Times that this altercation took place, though the details were kept under wraps until now. Paltrow and Pitt began dating in 1994, and were briefly engaged before calling it quits in 1997.

[via: Howard Stern]