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Khaleej Times
5 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein convicted of sex crime in New York retrial
A Manhattan jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty on a sex crimes charge on Wednesday in a retrial after a state appeals court last year overturned the former movie mogul's 2020 conviction. Weinstein, once one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood, was accused by prosecutors in the case of raping an aspiring actress and assaulting two other women. Weinstein, 73, pleaded not guilty and has denied assaulting anyone or having non-consensual sex. The jury found Weinstein guilty on one of the three counts he faced, which stemmed from his alleged assault of former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006. The jury found Weinstein not guilty of a charge stemming from his alleged assault of Kaja Sokola in 2002 when she was a 16-year-old aspiring actress. The jury has not yet reached a verdict on the third count, which charges him with raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. They will resume deliberations on that count on Thursday. In closing arguments on June 3, the prosecution told the 12 jurors that the evidence showed how Weinstein used his power and influence to trap and abuse women. The defence countered that the accusers lied on the witness stand out of spite after their consensual sexual encounters with the Oscar-winning producer failed to result in Hollywood stardom. Jurors reached their partial verdict on the fifth day of sometimes fractious deliberations. The retrial began on April 23. Weinstein has had a litany of health problems and attended the retrial in a wheelchair. A jury had in February 2020 found Weinstein guilty of raping Mann and sexually assaulting Haley. Sokola's allegation was not part of that case. The conviction was a milestone for the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful men. But the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, threw out that conviction in April 2024. It said the trial judge erred by letting women testify that Weinstein had assaulted them, though their accusations were not the basis of the criminal charges. Though the 2020 conviction was thrown out, Weinstein has remained behind bars because of his 2022 rape conviction in California, which resulted in a 16-year prison sentence. He is appealing that verdict. More than 100 women, including famous actresses, have accused Weinstein of misconduct. The retrial was handled by prosecutors with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. They portrayed Weinstein as a serial predator who promised career advancement in Hollywood to women, only to then coax them into private settings where he attacked them. The defense rejected that characterization, saying Weinstein engaged in "mutually beneficial" relationships with his accusers, who ended up with auditions and other show business opportunities. Weinstein co-founded the Miramax studio, whose hit movies included "Shakespeare in Love" and "Pulp Fiction." His own eponymous film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018, five months after sexual misconduct accusations against him became widely publicised. Weinstein has experienced several health episodes while being held at New York City's Rikers Island jail, and in September was rushed to a hospital for emergency heart surgery.
The National
11 hours ago
- The National
Offbeat fashion ambassadors, from Christopher Walken to Metallica, prove industry is looking beyond age
At age 82, Christopher Walken has lost none of his magnetism. The American actor – by turns enigmatic, droll and inexplicably unsettling – has become the latest face of Saint Laurent. Photographed by Glen Luchford, Walken appears in the brand's menswear campaign wearing a roomy lambskin blouson, hands sunk into trouser pockets, gazing out with an air of practised detachment. It is classic Walken and classic Saint Laurent: moody, lean and loaded with presence. This latest casting by creative director Anthony Vaccarello is less about shock value and more about a kind of refined rebellion. Walken, after all, has spent decades crafting characters that exist outside the norm: the haunted veteran in The Deer Hunter (1978) and the tap-dancing enigma in Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice video (2000) are two diverse examples. He is nothing if not unpredictable, a quality that aligns with Saint Laurent's own taste for the off-centre. Vaccarello, whose campaigns have previously featured Michelle Pfeiffer at 66, Charlotte Rampling at 78, and Keanu Reeves and Lenny Kravitz, both well into their 50s at the time, is clearly uninterested in chasing merely youth. Instead, he opts for figures whose faces tell stories: character actors, enduring musicians and artists with personal mythologies, whose wrinkles and reputations become part of the allure. This shift is part of a broader recalibration in casting for the fashion industry. In October 2023, Loewe's campaign starred the late Dame Maggie Smith, then aged 88, seated regally in a vast faux-fur coat. Daniel Craig, ex-James Bond, unshaven in slouchy knitwear, became its menswear muse for autumn/winter 2024. Meanwhile at Balenciaga, former creative director Demna paired 70-year-old arthouse actress Isabelle Huppert with 24-year-old Thai pop star PP Krit Amnuaydechkorn in a clever dialogue across generations. Elsewhere, Prada's eccentric casting history is the stuff of fashion lore: from Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Willem Dafoe walking its 2012 Villains runway, to Jeff Goldblum and Kyle MacLachlan for autumn/winter 2022. Age aside, in a forward-looking Gen-Z moment, Dolce & Gabbana swapped models for social media royalty Lucky Blue Smith and Cameron Dallas in autumn/winter 2016. The two were dubbed 'new princes' by the brand, in a nod to a new digital world. Even the rougher edges of rock have found their way into campaigns: John Varvatos enlisted Iggy Pop in 2006; and Italian menswear house Brioni, under the fleeting tenure of Justin O'Shea, went full throttle by casting Metallica. For the 50th anniversary of its intrecciato bags, Bottega Veneta wove a tapestry of creative talent, enlisting actresses Lauren Hutton and Julianne Moore, musician Neneh Cherry, and author Zadie Smith into a campaign that felt more like an art installation than an advertisement. These are not mere celebrity endorsements, either; they are character studies. Each campaign speaks to fashion's growing desire to frame itself not simply through beauty, but also through narrative, texture and contradiction. Smith may be an award-winning writer and essayist, but through Bottega's lens, she is also a woman of quiet, intellectual style. Kravitz, now 61, is such an artistic force, he wears leather trousers to the gym. That's not to say that enlisting the young and beautiful no longer works. Gucci recruited A$AP Rocky and Ozark actress Julia Garner to front recent fragrance campaigns, while Prada chose pop-sensation Sabrina Carpenter, infiltrating her music videos with subtle product placement. As the face of Prada Beauty, her videos feature a lipstick and even branded candy. What is increasingly apparent, however, is that influence is no longer linear, but rather fluid and searching for a grounded, yet highbrow authenticity. Walken's debut for a major fashion house, then, feels less like a pivot and more like a perfectly timed entrance. Saint Laurent isn't merely dressing an actor, it's absorbing a mythology, and in Walken's case, a distinctly American yet deliciously peculiar one. Cool, it turns out, has very little to do with age and everything to do with narrative control. And no one controls his own story like Walken.
Khaleej Times
15 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Blake Lively breaks silence on legal win against Justin Baldoni
After a judge dismissed Justin Baldoni's $400 million (Dh1.46 billion) defamation claim against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, the couple's publicist Leslie Sloane and the Gossip Girl actor spoke out about the decision on social media. Lively spoke out after a judge dismissed Baldoni's lawsuit against her, Ryan Reynolds, the couple's publicist Leslie Sloane, and The New York Times on June 9. "Like so many others, I've felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us," she wrote in a post on her Instagram Stories, adding, "While the suit against me was defeated, so many don't have the resources to fight back," E! News reported. She shared further that she is "more resolved than ever" to "stand for every woman's right to have a voice in protecting themselves" before sharing a list of organisations dedicated to causes including women's rights, domestic violence and employment law, according to E! News. "With love and gratitude for the many who stood by me," she concluded the post. "Many of you I know. Many of you I don't. But I will never stop appreciating or advocating for you." In Baldoni's suit, the It Ends With Us director and star alleged that Lively "stole" the 2024 film from him and his Wayfarer Studios production company and threatened to "attack" him in the press if her demands were not met. However, Judge Lewis J Liman ruled that the Wayfarer Parties "have not adequately alleged that Lively's threats were wrongful extortion rather than legally permissible hard bargaining or renegotiation of working conditions," according to documents obtained by E! News. The judge, Variety reported, tossed out Baldoni's entire lawsuit -- which also alleged extortion and other claims -- but allowed him to amend and refile a couple of allegations regarding interference with contracts. "Today's opinion is a total victory and a complete vindication for Blake Lively, along with those that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit, including Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Sloane and The New York Times," Lively's lawyers said in a statement. "As we have said from day one, this '$400 million' lawsuit was a sham, and the court saw right through it. We look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys' fees, treble damages and punitive damages against Baldoni, Sarowitz, Nathan, and the other Wayfarer Parties who perpetrated this abusive litigation." Lively has sued Baldoni in federal court for sexual harassment and retaliation, alleging that he and the producers of It Ends With Us launched a smear campaign against her after she complained about conditions on the set of the film. Reynolds, Lively's husband, was accused in the suit of defaming Baldoni by calling him a "sexual predator". The judge found that Reynolds was relying on Lively's version of events, which he had no reason to doubt. The high-profile case is set to go to trial on March 9, 2026.
