Carrie Fisher once hand-delivered a cow’s tongue wrapped in a Tiffany box to a predatory Hollywood producer, a friend of the late actor has claimed.

Screenwriter Heather Robinson said that Fisher had intervened after the unnamed executive, identified as an Oscar winner, had tried to force himself on Robinson while in his car.

Robinson told Arizona radio station 94.9 MixFM that two weeks after recounting the incident to Fisher, she received an email from the Star Wars actor saying that she had personally delivered a Tiffany box to Sony studios, where the executive was based.

“It was a cow tongue from Jerry’s Famous Deli with a note that said: ‘If you ever touch my darling Heather or any other woman again, the next delivery will be something of yours in a much smaller box,’” Robinson recalled.

Robinson said that she had never spoken of the incident, which took place in 2000, because of fear of retribution. “It happened so quickly that I was ashamed of myself. I thought that I had done something wrong. I thought that, having lunch or dinner with him, I was asking for it. So I stayed quiet for years, because I didn’t want the retribution,” she said.

The screenwriter added that the current scandal surrounding Harvey Weinstein was just part of a larger culture of abuse in Hollywood. “It happens all the time,” she said. “There’s a very well-known director who I’ve been friends with for a long time. I thought that he was amazing. I got a message from somebody that said ‘I just wanted you to know that I appreciated you speaking up and this person raped me and you should know that.’”

Weinstein, who was sacked by the board of The Weinstein Company last week, has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by more than 40 women. Sallie Hofmeister, a spokesperson for Weinstein, said: “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein. With respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.”

Fisher died in December 2016 after suffering a medical emergency on an international flight. The actor was best known for her role as Leia Organa in the Star Wars film series and appeared in a number of other films including The Blues Brothers, When Harry Met Sally... and Hannah and Her Sisters.