Former Hollywood producerHarvey Weinstein,has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), as reported by NBC News on Monday, citing sources.
Currently incarcerated at Rikers Island in New York, Weinstein is undergoing treatment for this type of bone marrow cancer while facing trial for rape charges.
Craig Rothfeld, his legal healthcare representative, refrained from commenting on his health status to respect Weinstein’s privacy, as reported by Reuters.
Weinstein, 72, has faced numerous health issues. His legal team previously disclosed that he was hospitalized in September for heart surgery after being transported from Rikers Island.
Having denied any non-consensual sexual encounters, Weinstein was convicted of rape in February 2020, a case that significantly fueled the #MeToo movement.
However, in April, the New York Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, ruling that he did not receive a fair trial due to a judge improperly allowing testimony from accusers with whom he had not been formally charged.
Weinstein is currently awaiting a retrial and faces additional criminal charges from an earlier indictment, to which he has pleaded not guilty. This includes another first-degree criminal sexual act charge and a third-degree rape charge. In September, he also pleaded not guilty to a new charge of sexual assault.
His representatives have previously stated that Weinstein struggles with various health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, and fluid accumulation in his heart and lungs.
The 2020 rape conviction of disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein in New York has been overturned due to concerns over a fair trial.
The New York Court of Appeals ruled that prosecutors in the pivotal #MeToo case called witnesses whose accusations were not part of the charges against him, leading to an unfair trial. As a result, the court ordered a new trial.
Despite this decision, Weinstein, 72, will continue to serve a prison sentence for a separate rape conviction.
The court reached a 4-3 ruling on Thursday, stating that the trial “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
The decision also noted that the trial judge exacerbated the error by allowing Weinstein to be cross-examined in a manner that portrayed him in a “highly prejudicial” light.
“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial.”
One of the dissenting judges however said that with the decision, “this Court continues to thwart the steady gains survivors of sexual violence have fought for in our criminal justice system”.
Accusations against Weinstein surfaced in 2017, sparking the #MeToo movement, which exposed sexual abuse in Hollywood and beyond.
He was convicted in two trials: one in New York, where he received a 23-year sentence in 2020 for raping two women, and another in California, where he was sentenced last year to 16 years for raping a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel.
The decision in New York does not affect his California conviction. Weinstein is currently incarcerated at Mohawk Correctional Facility in New York state, having been previously extradited to LA for trial.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who inherited the case from his predecessor Cyrus Vance, will decide whether to retry Weinstein. Bragg’s office is also handling a criminal hush-money trial involving former president Donald Trump.
Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told the New York Times that the decision was a victory for both his client and “for every criminal defendant in the state of New York”, and commended the appeals court for “upholding the most basic principles that a criminal defendant should have in a trial”.
He added that his client had not immediately been informed of the ruling.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer who represented eight of Weinstein’s accusers, said the decision was “tragic” and “a major step back in holding those accountable for acts of sexual violence”.
“Courts routinely admit evidence of other uncharged acts… the jury was instructed on the relevance of this testimony,” he added. “It will require the victims to endure yet another trial.”
Weinstein co-founded the Miramax film studio, known for producing hits like Shakespeare in Love, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and Pulp Fiction. His eponymous film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018.
In his Los Angeles case, Harvey Weinstein received a sentence of 16 years in prison.
Two months after he was found guilty in Los Angeles of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, the sentence was revealed during a hearing on Thursday, February 23.
The motion for a new trial made by Weinstein’s defence team was denied by Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench, who then moved to sentence the former movie producer.
He could have spent up to 18 years behind bars.
In the months leading up to the 2013 Academy Awards, Weinstein was found guilty in Los Angeles in December of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against an Italian model and actor. The incidents occurred during a film festival.
The jury acquitted him of the sexual battery of a massage therapist and failed to reach verdicts on counts involving two other women.
The Los Angeles trial was the second time Weinstein faced criminal charges for alleged sex crimes. His first criminal trial took place in New York City in early 2020.
Weinstein’s New York trial ended with his conviction on charges of third-degree rape and a criminal sex act. He was sentenced to 23 years in that case, and was serving that sentence when he was extradited to California to face more charges.
During Thursday’s hearing, Weinstein told Judge Lench: “I maintain that I’m innocent. I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1,” in reference to the woman whose testimony led to his conviction, according to The Associated Press.
“Before that night I was a very happy and confident woman. I valued myself and the relationship I had with God,” she saud. “I was excited about my future. Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage.”
Legal uncertainties will remain on both coasts for Weinstein.
New York’s highest court has agreed to hear his appeal in his rape and sexual assault convictions there. And prosecutors in Los Angeles have yet to say whether they will retry Weinstein on counts they were unable to reach a verdict on.
It is not yet clear where he will serve his time while these issues are decided.His New York sentence would be served before a California prison term, though a retrial or other issues could keep him from being sent back there soon.
Weinstein will become eligible for parole in New York in 2039.
A Los Angeles jury has found former Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein guilty of raping a woman.
During the two-month trial, it was revealed that Weinstein had enticed women into private meetings with him before attacking them.
When he is sentenced, the 70-year-old Oscar winner could spend up to 24 years behind bars.
After being found guilty of rape and sexual assault at his first trial in New York two years ago, he has already completed serving 23 years in prison.
Weinstein was found guilty on Monday of two counts of sexual assault and rape against an accuser who will only be identified as Jane Doe 1.
The jury could not reach verdicts on allegations by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, and a woman known as Jane Doe 2. A mistrial was declared on those counts.
The Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction producer and co-founder of the entertainment company Miramax was wearing a grey suit and looked pale at the court in Los Angeles on Monday.
He was not using a wheelchair as he had done at previous court appearances.
When he heard guilty on count one, the former Hollywood producer looked down. Then the court clerk read guilty on count two and he looked at his lawyer. At one point he stared at the jury.
The trial heard from dozens of witnesses in more than four weeks of often emotional testimony.
But Monday’s verdict focused on allegations by four women stemming from 2005-13.
The jury of eight men and four women spent nine days deliberating on three charges of rape and four other sexual assault counts.
The woman whom Weinstein was convicted on Monday of raping, Jane Doe 1, was a Russian-born model.
The trial’s first witness, she testified that she was in Los Angeles for an Italian film festival in February 2013 when the producer arrived uninvited at her Beverly Hills hotel room and raped her.
She said after the verdict: “Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back.
“The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did.
“I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”
Ms Siebel Newsom gave emotional testimony that she was a documentary filmmaker when she was raped by Weinstein in a hotel room in 2005.
California’s first lady said in a statement on Monday after the verdict: “Throughout the trial, Weinstein’s lawyers used sexism, misogyny, and bullying tactics to intimidate, demean, and ridicule us survivors.
“The trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do.”
The only other of the four main accusers to publicly identify herself was Lauren Young.
She said she was a model and aspiring actress and screenwriter when she met Weinstein about a script in 2013.
Ms Young said he had trapped her in a hotel bathroom and sexually assaulted her.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charges involving her.
A massage therapist, Jane Doe 3, testified that Weinstein had trapped and sexually assaulted her in a hotel bathroom in 2010. He was cleared of that attack.
His conviction in New York in 2020 was a landmark moment for the #MeToo movement, which had been calling out widespread sexual abuse and harassment in the film industry for several years.
Weinstein is currently appealing against the New York conviction.
More than 80 women have come forward with accusations of sexual assaultand misconduct against Weinstein spanning several decades.
Journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor helped expose Harvey Weinstein as asexualpredator,propelling the #MeToo movement into the global consciousness, and emboldening women around the world to speak out about sexual abuse.
Carey Mulligan says meeting one of the New York Times’ reporters whose article brought down Harvey Weinstein “was rockstar crush stuff”.
The film She Said shows the efforts that went into Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor’s Pulitzer-prize winning journalism in 2017 which exposed Harvey Weinstein, then one of Hollywood’s most influential producers, as a sexual predator.
Their work brought about a global reckoning on the sexual abuse of women with the #MeToo movement.
Image: Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey won a Pulitzer prize for their work helping to expose Weinstein
Mulligan – who plays Twohey to Zoe Kazan’s Kantor – told Sky News she was “hugely intimidated” meeting the writers.
“It was rockstar crush stuff…Zoe was in New York and met [them] in person originally, I was still in the UK and so my first meeting was on Zoom, but I was hugely intimidated.
“Not that they’re intimidating people,” Mulligan laughs, “they couldn’t be more lovely, but they are just so impressive, I think we just both wanted them to be happy!”
Shot in the actual New York Times newsroomand with the pace unfolding like a thriller, the film follows the efforts of the journalists to persuade scared sources to go on the record.
Kantor says she and Twohey were “just flabbergasted” to see their investigation turned into a film.
“We started out by investigating a Hollywood producer, so we’re still a little confused about how likenesses of ourselves ended up on the big screen but listen, we’re really moved by it.
“One of the messages of this story, especially as time recedes, is that the number of people who really gave us publishable information about Harvey Weinstein was so small. In the end, we’re talking about like a conference room worth of people and yet look at the impact they had worldwide.”
Mulligan – who’s widely tipped to be Oscar-nominated for the role – says few “could have anticipated what the impact would be” but, in terms of the film industry she says she’s seen “lots of concrete changes” as a result.
Image: Harvey Weinstein is currently serving 23 years in jail
“Codes of conduct, workshops that are for the whole cast and crew that talk about what is expected on set in terms of behaviour – that never existed before,” she explains.
Speaking of how intimacy coordinators are now considered “crucial”, the actress says “we did this for a long time before that was a thing and it’s still sort of shocking to look back and think that was never in place before, it just seems like such an obvious need on a film set.”
Mulligan says the movement the article triggered has even influenced how scripts are written nowadays.
“The way the female characters are described in screenplays now, it’s not perfect but there’s definitely there’s a big shift from, you know, ‘Gorgeous girl in a bikini, beautiful but she doesn’t know it…’ you’re seeing markedly less of that, which I think is very welcome.”
A Norwegian model took the stand in Harvey Weinstein’s trial on Wednesday and testified that the former movie mogul allegedly raped her, masturbated in front of her and propositioned her for a threesome.
The complex testimony spanned a series of events over a number of years. The alleged incidents occurred during industry events such as the BAFTA Awards, New York Fashion Week, the Cannes Film Festival and AFI Fest, as well as an audition for the musical film “Nine,” which was distributed by The Weinstein Company in 2009.
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Weinstein’s defense questioned the woman, known in the case as Natassia M., as to why she agreed to see Weinstein repeatedly after she alleges she was sexually assaulted. She spoke about the power imbalance between her and Weinstein, telling the jury she was concerned that if she didn’t keep up a friendly relationship with Weinstein, he would blacklist her from the biz.
Natassia M. was called by the prosecution to prove a pattern of conduct, as an uncharged witness in the case. (There are four Jane Does and four uncharged witnesses in the trial.)
“He was called ‘One Phone Call Away Harvey,’ meaning he could make you or break you. He was the most powerful person in Hollywood. He created stars,” Natassia M. said on the stand. “The asymmetrical power situation was so large, I felt like there was this powerful guy who could ruin my career, who had the destiny of people’s life in his hands.”
The first time Natassia M. encountered Weinstein, they had no interaction, but she noticed him staring at her across the room. It was 2002 and she was at the restaurant Cipriani in New York City with Naomi Campbell, with whom she was working on a modeling gig.
“He was sitting in a chair at a restaurant, staring at me, gazing at me for a very long time. He would not break his gaze, so I yelled in the restaurant, ‘Who the fuck is that fat fuck who is sliming me?’” she testified, then stating that Campbell said, “That’s Harvey Weinstein.” She said, “I yelled out, ‘I don’t give a fuck who it is. That guy is sliming me.’”
When Weinstein’s attorney, Mark Werksman, questioned Natassia M., he asked her, “‘Who is that fat fucking pig?’ Is that what beautiful models call overweight men?”
Natassia M. continued to chronicle her story. After that moment in 2002, she didn’t come across him again until the Cannes Film Festival in 2003 where she was with her friend, the actor Michelle Rodriguez, and they stayed in a hotel room arranged by Weinstein’s company, but had no actual interaction with him. After that, she saw Weinstein at NYFF in 2007 where she was making the press rounds, per her obligations as the face of a major modeling campaign. At NYFF, when she was at a fashion show for work, her publicist arranged for her to take a photo with Weinstein. She says when they took the photo, he was standing right next to his then-wife, Marchesa co-founder Georgina Chapman. “Mr. Weinstein’s first comments out of his mouth were, ‘Where are you staying and what’s your room number?’” Natassia M. says she was “flabbergasted” because she had never spoken to Weinstein before in her life.
The next time she saw Weinstein was soon after, at a BAFTA afterparty in London in 2008. The publicist for her modeling campaign arranged for her to once again take photos with Weinstein, thinking it would be good branding. They had a brief interaction at the industry event, took some photos and that was that. Until Weinstein suddenly barged into her hotel room in the middle of the night, unannounced. Natassia M. explained that she has no idea how Weinstein knew where she was staying, but she was woken up in the wee hours of the morning to Weinstein knocking loudly on her door and shouting his name to let her in. She was confused and opened the door. “He just stormed in,” she said.
“He said, ‘No one gets to be an A-lister unless it goes through me!’” she continued. “I just thought this guy is so powerful, I have no idea what to do in this situation and I completely froze … I was just so scared of this guy. He had so much power.”
Natassia M. said Weinstein told her to “think about all the Oscars” that celebrities have won and thanked him during their acceptance speeches. She told the jury she interpreted that as, “Everybody had to go through him — meaning, comply.”
That’s when Weinstein allegedly raped her. “He took off his pants and pushed me on the bed and climbed on top of me and I said to him, ‘I don’t do the casting couch thing.’” She shared graphic details with the jury, recalling, “It didn’t last that long because I had zero response because I just played dead. He got off me and finished off himself. He ejaculated into his hand … I did not fight him. I did not scream. I literally was frozen … I couldn’t think.”
Weinstein left her hotel room shortly after the alleged assault. When she woke up, she noticed a movie script on her nightstand for “Nine,” the theatrical musical that Weinstein produced in 2009. She assumed Weinstein left the script there for her to see.
She did not call the police to report the alleged incident in London “because if you’re an actress and you’re a problem, you don’t work,” she told the jury. “If you are difficult, that thing goes around Hollywood that this person is difficult.”
Natassia M. did not have any more contact with Weinstein in London, but when she was back in Los Angeles where she lived, she wanted to pursue to role in “Nine,” despite the alleged assault. “I wanted to make the best of this situation,” she said. “I thought I could avoid him, but I wanted to earn the part.”
Back in L.A., she signed up for singing and dancing lessons since “Nine” was a musical, and told the jury that she spent a lot of her money on the training because she was so committed to earning the part. She eventually got an audition, and when she showed up, she was stunned and “horrified” that Weinstein was there. “I couldn’t concentrate on my audition. I was thrown off,” she said. “He was sitting right there and I didn’t know he was going to be there.”
After the audition, Natassia M. sent an email with an MP3 recording of a singing demo to Weinstein and his staff. She explained that she paid herself to use a recording studio for the demo because she was taking the role so seriously. She said that Weinstein responded and instructed her not to send the demo tape to his office, and instead told her to meet his assistant at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. She agreed, thinking she’d meet the assistant in the lobby and would never see Weinstein. “I tried to give her the CD, and she said, ‘No, Mr. Weinstein wants you to follow me and talk about the movie.”
When she arrived to Weinstein’s room with his assistant, she gave Weinstein the demo tape and he chuckled and tossed it aside, she said. She suddenly realized that the assistant was gone. “He tricked me to coming into his hotel,” she testified. “All of a sudden, I’m in his hotel room.”
She then noticed another woman in the hotel room. “I can’t believe he has me in this fucking suite with a prostitute. And I was furious,” she said, then telling the jury that they propositioned her for a threesome. Natassia M. told the jury that she was upset and felt coerced, but she wanted the movie role, and thought she could manage the situation.
She thought, “I’ll just pretend I’m really innocent, and not do anything … And this prostitute, who I think is a prostitute, is like, ‘Oh she’s so shy,’ and her and Weinstein were laughing. And she gave him a blowjob.” (The judge blocked the prosecution from naming the woman who was allegedly with Weinstein in the hotel room, though she was also associated with another Jane Doe’s allegations, earlier in the trial.) Natassia M. agreed to participate by putting on a robe and watching Weinstein with the other woman, but told jurors she did not engage and put on an act.
“I was still trying to manage the situation because I really wanted to be able to do a quality movie,” Natassia M. explained. “He has you by the fucking throat, knowing that if you don’t comply that your career is down the drain … and that’s not right.”
After that alleged incident at the Peninsula in 2008, Natassia M. did not see Weinstein until a few years later when she said she randomly bumped into him at an Oscars party that she attended with her boyfriend at Soho House in L.A. When Weinstein saw her, he pulled her aside, she testified, and said, “I thought you were going to go to the tabloids.” She told Weinstein she would never “mess around with the most powerful guy in Hollywood,” and he said, “It pays to be my friend.” She thought, “Shit, I have to pretend to be his friend [and] then maybe, he will fix any damage that he’s done to my career.”
After that conversation, Natassia M. believed that Weinstein blacklisted her, so she told the jury that she figured it would be smart to stay in touch with Weinstein for career purposes. She ended up seeing Weinstein a few more times, mostly at her request, when she would contact him to ask for business meetings with her friends, as a favor. She made arrangements to meet with Weinstein at AFI Fest in Los Angeles with one of her producer friends, which she said resulted in Weinstein asking her back to the Montage hotel where she agreed to watch him shower. In New York City, she had set a meeting with Weinstein and her friend who wanted to discuss incorporating his celebrity connections for charity, and Natassia M. told the jury that the business dinner turned into Weinstein guiding her upstairs to his office and groping and masturbating in front of her.
During cross-examination, Weinsein’s defense showed an email where Natassia M. invited Weinstein to a 2011 Cannes Film Festival party where one of her friends was presenting a film. She wrote, “The film has Oscar written all over it” and signed the email, “Love you Harvey.”
Weinstein’s attorney continuously asked Natassia M. why she remained in contact with Weinstein, suggesting that she wanted to use his power for her own benefit. She said that she only wanted to help her friends, and never expected Weinstein to abuse her again and again. “Usually when people ask me to help them, I say, ‘Yes,’” she said. “But you’re asking for help from someone who raped you,” Weinstein’s attorney Werksman retorted.
“This is like the fourth time that you’ve followed along with some assistant against your will?” Werksman continued.
Natassia M. replied, “Against my inner wishes. And yes … when you’re meeting Mr. Weinstein, you hope things are going to get better.” Shifting to another alleged encounter, Werksman sarcastically asked, “Is there where you said, ‘I can’t believe you’ve gotten me in this situation for now the fifth time, so I’m outta here?’”
Trying to prove that Natassia M. knew what she was getting involved with when she saw Weinstein, his attorney looked at her on the stand and said, “You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to get ahead in Hollywood.”
Following the day in court, Gloria Allred, who represents Natassia M., issued a statement to Variety, applauding her client.
“She testified that she told Harvey Weinstein that she did not do ‘the casting couch,’ but despite telling him that, he raped her and engaged in other unwelcome sexual conduct with her,” Allred said, in part. “She was on the witness stand for most of the day, and underwent a rapid fire intense cross-examination by the defense. Despite the many attempts by Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers to discredit her and undermine her testimony, she stood her ground and told her truth. I was very proud of her and the courage that she demonstrated, as she testified in the criminal trial of People vs. Harvey Weinstein today.”
Harvey Weinstein will face fewer charges in his current Los Angeles trial with the prosecution announcing that they are not proceeding with a key victim, Jane Doe #5.
Weinstein now faces seven counts that stem from four women, rather than five Jane Does. Initially, he was facing 11 charges and maximum of 140 years in prison, if convicted. Now, the new maximum exposure is 60 years to life plus five.
The charges being dropped are a win for Weinstein, particularly because two of the dismissed charges were counts of rape, which carry the most years — with all five victims involved in the case, he would have faced four rape charges, but now faces two. The remaining counts that Weinstein now faces in the case are two charges of rape and five counts of sexual assault.
Jane Doe #5 was associated to four charges in total (charges 8-11) two of which were counts of forcible rape. The other two charges in the indictment were both counts of forcible oral copulation.
No reason was given for the change, but the move had been expected since the beginning of the trial when the prosecution inexplicably did not mention Jane Doe #5 in their opening statements. Since then, prosecutors had left open the possibility of her testifying, but confirmed on Tuesday that Jane Doe #5 will not testify.
“The defense made a motion to dismiss the charges, and the prosecution could not proceed,” deputy D.A. Marlene Martinez, one of the prosecutors on the case, told Variety in the courthouse hallway on Tuesday, declining to provide any further details.
After Jane Doe #5 was left out of opening statement, the D.A.’s office provided a brief statement to Variety, stating: “While we have no comment at this time, our office is tirelessly ensuring all of the victims in this case receive justice.”
Variety has reached out to attorney Gloria Allred, who was representing Jane Doe #5 in the case. Allred declined to comment.
Today, the final charged witness — Jane Doe #4, Jennifer Siebel Newsom — continues on the stand. The wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom is an actor and filmmaker who alleges that Weinstein raped and sexually assaulted her in 2005 when she was up-and-coming in the entertainment business.
After the jurywas selected on Friday, Hollywood is prepared for the commencement of a fresh trial for Harvey Weinstein, which is slated to begin on Monday in Los Angeles.
Weinstein, who is reportedly in poor condition, has returned to Los Angeles and is being held in a prison cell while on trial for rape and sexual assault.
This court case comes after Weinstein was convicted in New York for other sex crimes, though that verdict is being appealed.
He denies ever having non-consensual sex with anyone.
The LA trial is expected to be much less of a spectacle, but it’s causing many in Hollywood to look back at the #MeToo movement and assess its success.
A recent study by the advocacy group showed that while 83% of respondents felt that progress has been made since 2017, a staggering 69% said they had personally experienced abuse or misconduct at work since the movement began.
“It’s lost momentum,” Women in Film executive director, Kirsten Schaffer, said of the movement for equal rights and representation for women.
Seasoned film producers often ask their stars to shoot sex sceneson the first day of filming. That way, an actor can’t change their mind about nudity halfway through a film when recasting would prove expensive.
That still happens in Hollywood, five years after stories of systemic sexual assault and harassment rocked Hollywood and ignited the #MeToo.
But now, it’s likely an intimacy coordinator will be on set making sure actors feel comfortable and safe as they simulate sex.
Schaffer continues: “I think there is forward motion. And that’s why it’s not super depressing,” she says, adding that five years ago the response to #MeToo was intense, with “so many people caring about it, putting new policies in place, launching programmes”.
And many people in Hollywood say those policies are working.
Actresses say they’re offered more interesting roles, and there are more opportunities for female crew members, writers and directors.
Rosanna Arquette, one of Weinstein’s first public accusers, was part of the Screen Actors Guild committee which helped introduce intimacy coordinators on set, to make sure everyone is comfortable in any scene requiring nudity.
“A lot of people were against the intimacy coordinators, but you know, a lot of abuse did happen that way,” Ms Arquette told the BBC.
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Rose McGowan and Rosanna Arquette came forward with accounts of abuse by Weinstein in 2017
Many aspiringactors say the industry has changed for the better. When we visited an acting class five years ago, many told us horror stories of the fear they face going into auditions – the very real fear that they might be sexually assaulted or propositioned in exchange for a role.
At the Michelle Danner Acting Studio this week, aspiring stars spoke to the BBC about their experiences auditioning and performing in low-budget films hoping to get their big break. Aside from a few sleazy propositions, most said they’d been treated with respect.
Ms Danner, who runs the acting studio and directs movies, says the casting couch will never fully disappear but that people are much more careful now.
Auditions have become much more safe and more formal experiences, with monitors and rules about the number of people in a room. And due to the pandemic, many are now taking them via video phone.
“The fears are real,” says Ms Danner, adding that people feel empowered to speak up now more than ever if there is misconduct at work.
“The #MeToo movement created that, and there’s no going back. I don’t think you can ever close the door to what has started.”
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Weinstein was known for producing films such as Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction
The Academy of Motion Pictures has responded to criticism of Hollywood by significantly diversifying its membership, inviting more women and people of colour to be part of the group which hosts the Oscars.
According to the Center for the Study of Women in Film in Television, female characters accounted for just 35% of major characters in the top 100 grossing films in 2021, down three percentage points from the previous year.
And after reaching historic highs in 2020, the percentage of women directing top-grossing films declined in 2021. The number of women working as directors on the top 100 films retreated from 16% in 2020 to 12% in 2021.
But more women are producing film and TV – 32% of producers (up from 30% in 2020).
Many powerful female players like Reese Witherspoon have started their own production companies, to make the kind of films and TV shows they want to see. That urge has spread throughout the industry.
At the Danner acting school, actresses Josephine Hies and Meitar Paz have started producing as well as acting so they can have more control over the stories they tell.
As a producer you have “a different power in how you tell stories” and power over which stories are told, Hies said.
IMAGE SOURCE, UNIVERSAL PICTURES Image caption, Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star in She Said, a new film about journalists investigating Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein’s downfall is now immortalized in a film. She Said stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as the New York Times reporters who investigated the sexual harassment and abuse claims against Weinstein. It’s due to hit cinemas in the US in November, and Weinstein’s lawyers failed in their attempt to delay its release, claiming it would prejudice the jury that’s just been selected against him.
At the film’s New York premiere, the stars rubbed shoulders with many of Weinstein’s accusers, some of whom have roles in the film.
Rowena Chiu, Weinstein’s former assistant who says he sexually assaulted her and then coerced her into signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement, or NDA, says she hopes the film will inspire healthier workplaces.
She came forward 20 years after the alleged assault to tell her story because she thought it was important to say that it wasn’t just Hollywood actors who were targeted.
“It’s important that we uphold the legal system. There were dozens of women he assaulted and only a handful can testify,” she said.
“I’m not involved in Hollywood. I don’t work in Hollywood,” she said.
New York state’s highest court will hear arguments from Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers and prosecutors and then decide whether to uphold the conviction or order a new trial
Harvey Weinstein has been given permission to appeal his rape and sexual assault conviction.
The written decision was sent to Weinstein’s lawyers and according to Reuters, it contained no details on what grounds may have led to the decision.
It means New York state’s highest court will hear arguments from Weinstein’s lawyers and prosecutors and then decide to uphold the conviction or order a new trial.
In June, a lower appeals court upheld the conviction, rejecting arguments that the Manhattan trial judge made several errors that tainted the trial.
In a 45-page ruling, the appellate court said trial Judge James Burke properly exercised his discretion in allowing prosecutors to bolster their case with testimony from three women who accused Weinstein of violating them but whose claims did not lead to charges in the New York case.
Weinstein, 70, is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence in California, where he was extradited in 2021 as he awaits trial on charges that he sexually assaulted five women in Los Angeles and Beverley Hills from 2004 to 2013.
Two lawsuits against Harvey Weinstein are to be settled for a proposed $18.9m (£15.3m), the New York Attorney General has announced. The fund would be distributed between dozens of women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
However, lawyers representing six of the women who have accused the disgraced film producer have criticised the proposal as a “complete sellout”.
Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape.
What is the new settlement?
The settlement, announced on Tuesday, would resolve a lawsuit filed in 2018 against Weinstein, his production company and his brother by the New York Attorney General’s office.
It would also settle a separate class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of women who accused Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault.
“After all the harassment, threats, and discrimination, these survivors are finally receiving some semblance of justice,” Attorney General Letitia James said.
“Women who were forced to sign confidentiality agreements will also be freed from those clauses and finally be able to speak.”
The proposed settlement will still require approval from a federal judge and bankruptcy court.
What has the response from accusers been?
Lawyers Douglas H Wigdor and Kevin Mintzer, who represent six accusers, criticised the proposed settlement because it did not require Weinstein to accept responsibility or personally pay out any money.
“The proposed settlement is a complete sellout of the Weinstein survivors and we are surprised that the attorney general could somehow boast about a proposal that fails on so many different levels,” they said.
“While we do not begrudge any survivor who truly wants to participate in this deal, as we understand the proposed agreement, it is deeply unfair for many reasons.”
However, another of Weinstein’s accusers, Louisette Geiss, said: “This important act of solidarity allowed us to use our collective voice to help those who had been silenced and to give back to the many, many survivors who lost their careers and more.
“There is no amount of money that can make up for this injustice, but I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished today.”
In February, Weinstein was convicted in New York City of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act, and later sentenced to 23 years in jail.
Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault.
He was found guilty in a trial in New York last month, a dramatic fall from grace for one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures.
The 67-year-old appeared in court on Wednesday in a wheelchair.
His lawyers had appealed for leniency, saying even the minimum sentence of five years could be a “life sentence”.
But prosecutors argued Weinstein should be given the maximum possible sentence given his “lifetime of abuse” towards women and “lack of remorse” for his actions.
Weinstein addressed the court for the first time on Wednesday, saying he had “deep remorse” but described him and other men as “totally confused” by events in comments seen as critical to the #MeToo movement.
Dozens of women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct, including rape, against Weinstein since October 2017.
He has consistently denied wrongdoing and these were the first charges to make it to trial.
Weinstein still faces further criminal charges, for rape and sexual assault, in Los Angeles.
His lawyers have vowed to appeal against his conviction.
What was he convicted of?
Weinstein was found guilty of committing a first-degree criminal sexual act against production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and of the third-degree rape of aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
New York jurors acquitted him of the most serious charges, of predatory sexual assault, which could have seen him given an even longer jail term.
All six women who testified against him during his trial sat together on Wednesday as he was sentenced and told to register as a sex offender.
The two women he was convicted of assaulting both read out victim impact statements in court.
“It scarred me deeply, mentally and emotionally,” Ms Haley, who is also known as Mimi Haleyi, said of the assault where Weinstein forced oral sex on her. “What he did not only stripped me of my dignity as a human being and a woman, but it crushed my confidence.”
Ms Mann criticised Weinstein’s lawyers for trying to “twist the truth” during the trial, and said she hoped for a future where “we no longer have to worry about monsters hiding in our closet”.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr thanked the court for the tough sentence, saying it put “predators and abusive partners” elsewhere in society “on notice”.
“Harvey Weinstein deployed nothing less than an army of spies to keep them silent. But they refused to be silent, and they were heard,” he said of the women who testified. “Their words took down a predator and put him behind bars, and gave hope to survivors of sexual violence all across the world.”
The US Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) praised the significant prison term Weinstein was given.
“This case – and the national reckoning about the pervasiveness of sexual violence it sparked – will have a lasting legacy,” president Scott Berkowitz said in a statement. “We hope that survivors will feel encouraged to come forward, knowing that it can truly make a difference in bringing perpetrators to justice.”
