Latest news with #MiramaxFilms
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann stares down movie mogul in court after she recounts alleged rape
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann stared down the disgraced movie mogul after taking the witness stand Tuesday, pointing a finger at her eyes as she stalked past the defense table in Manhattan Supreme Court. Mann, 39, had just finished with an emotional recounting of how Weinstein violently raped her in a California hotel at the former Miramax Films head's retrial on sexual assault charges. That finger gesture, and her testimony, led defense lawyer Arthur Aidala to move for a mistrial, calling the description of the alleged Peninsula Hotel attack, which he isn't charged with, 'highly prejudicial.' 'That's absolutely inappropriate, that's inappropriate behavior by her,' Aidala said. Judge Curtis Farber rejected his calls for a mistrial, bringing the number of unsuccessful mistrial motions by Aidala up to nine. Mann, whose testimony began Monday, also took the stand in Weinstein's 2020 trial, but the ex-producer's guilty verdict and 23-year prison sentence was overturned by the state's highest court last year. The retrial, in its fifth week, also featured days of testimony from two other accusers, former TV production assistant Miriam Haley — who also took the stand in 2020 — and Polish model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola. Mann testified Monday that she met the then-married Weinstein in late 2012 or early 2013, and embarked on a 'relationship' with him despite his forcing her to have sex with him in a Midtown hotel in March 2013. Her testimony Tuesday morning centered on a horrifying encounter in the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Mann was getting into a serious relationship with an actor, she said, and she wanted a sit-down meeting with Weinstein. 'I just wanted this agreement that I would be moving on with my life,' she said. But when she wouldn't give up her beau's name, Weinstein exploded in fury, she said. 'His eyes went black, and he was angry,' she said. 'He went into a rage. He lunged at me ... he grabbed me and was pulling me into the room, and it happened to me so fast and so forceful.' She added, 'He dragged me into the bedroom and he threw me on the bed, and he said, 'You owe me one more time.'' Mann said he ripped her pants with such force that his fingernails left scratch marks on her legs. She curled into a ball by the headboard, paralyzed by fear, and he grabbed her ankles, pulled her down and started raping her, she testified. 'At some point I remember his weight on me, and there's so much weight on me. And my head was stuck, and I couldn't breathe. And I just remember everything went black,' she said. She came to on her knees, with Weinstein forcing her into performing oral sex, said. 'And he was done, and I crawled to the bathroom, and I got up, and I remember that I saw myself in the mirror but I didn't know it was me for a moment, and I didn't recognize myself,' she said. Mann appeared overcome with emotion as she described the alleged attack, and had to take a break from her testimony. The pointing incident happened as she left the courtroom. Mann said she was so disoriented she couldn't drive home, and she weighed going to the police and agreeing to take a rape exam at a hospital, but decided against it. 'I just imagined more poking and prodding, and I just imagined I would have to say his name,' she said. 'And I didn't know what happened if I would say his name.' So she took an hourslong shower, resolving, 'I'm going to bury this so deep, and I'm going to forget about this and move on with my life.' Weinstein does not face charges in connection with the allegations from the Peninsula Hotel. Rather, he's charged in connection with the March 2013 rape at Manhattan's DoubleTree Hotel. Over the next several years, she kept in touch with Weinstein, showering him with compliments over email but trying to avoid nighttime meetings alone with him. Still, she said, she had a handful of consensual encounters with Weinstein after she and her actor boyfriend broke up. 'I remember I was devastated after my relationship ended. And sometimes you just want to feel wanted. And I knew that I could be used by someone,' she said. During his cross-examination, Aidala grilled her on how many times he had consensual encounters with Weinstein, a number she said she couldn't remember. He pointed out that she had breakfast with Weinstein hours after the alleged DoubleTree rape, went to a screening of 'August: Osage County' he invited her to, and had tea with him and his daughter a day later. In one contentious moment, Aidala zeroed in on a February 2013 episode in the Montage Hotel in L.A., where Mann said Weinstein forcibly had oral sex with her, and she faked an orgasm to get him to stop. 'When you fake something, it's a form of lying, correct?' Aidala asked, pressing for more detail. 'Tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury how you lied to Mr. Weinstein during your first sexual (encounter).' 'Meg Ryan at the restaurant,' Mann said, referencing a famous scene from the movie, 'When Harry Met Sally.' She added, 'I'm not saying I performed her performance, but I made noises.' Prosecutors jumped up to object to the line of questioning, which Farber shut down. _____
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann stares down movie mogul in court after she recounts alleged rape
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann stared down the disgraced movie mogul after taking the witness stand Tuesday, pointing a finger at her eyes as she stalked past the defense table in Manhattan Supreme Court. Mann, 39, had just finished an emotional recounting of how Weinstein violently raped her in a California hotel at the former Miramax Films head's retrial on sexual assault charges. That finger gesture, and her testimony, led defense lawyer Arthur Aidala to move for a mistrial, calling the description of the alleged Peninsula Hotel attack, which he isn't charged with, 'highly prejudicial.' 'That's absolutely inappropriate, that's inappropriate behavior by her,' Aidala said. Judge Curtis Farber rejected his calls for a mistrial, bringing the number of unsuccessful mistrial motions by Aidala up to nine. Mann, whose testimony began Monday, also took the stand in Weinstein's 2020 trial, but the ex-producer's guilty verdict and 23-year prison sentence was overturned by the state's highest court last year. The retrial, which is in its fifth week, also featured days of testimony from two other accusers, former TV production assistant Miriam Haley — who also took the stand in 2020 — and Polish model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola. Mann testified Monday that she met the then-married Weinstein in late 2012 or early 2013, and embarked on a 'relationship' with him despite his forcibly performing oral sex on her in a Midtown hotel in March 2013. Her testimony Tuesday morning centered on an encounter in the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Mann was getting into a serious relationship with an actor, she said, and she wanted a sit-down meeting with Weinstein. 'I just wanted this agreement that I would be moving on with my life,' she said. But when she wouldn't give up her beau's name, Weinstein exploded in fury, she said. 'His eyes went black, and he was angry,' she said. 'He went into a rage. He lunged at me ... he grabbed me and was pulling me into the room, and it happened to me so fast and so forceful.' She added, 'He dragged me into the bedroom and he threw me on the bed, and he said, 'You owe me one more time.'' Mann said he ripped her pants with such force that his fingernails left scratch marks on her legs. She curled into a ball by the headboard, paralyzed by fear, and he grabbed her ankles, pulled her down and started raping her, she testified. 'At some point I remember his weight on me, and there's so much weight on me. And my head was stuck, and I couldn't breathe. And I just remember everything went black,' she said. She came to on her knees, with Weinstein forcing her into performing oral sex, said. 'And he was done, and I crawled to the bathroom, and I got up, and I remember that I saw myself in the mirror but I didn't know it was me for a moment, and I didn't recognize myself,' she said. Mann appeared overcome with emotion as she described the alleged attack, and had to take a break from her testimony. The pointing incident happened as she left the courtroom. Mann said she was so disoriented she couldn't drive home, and she weighed going to the police and agreeing to take a rape exam at a hospital, but decided against it. 'I just imagined more poking and prodding, and I just imagined I would have to say his name,' she said. 'And I didn't know what happened if I would say his name.' So she took an hourslong shower, resolving, 'I'm going to bury this so deep, and I'm going to forget about this and move on with my life.' Weinstein does not face charges in connection with the allegations from the Peninsula Hotel. Rather, he's charged in connection with the March 2013 rape at Manhattan's DoubleTree Hotel. Over the next several years, she kept in touch with Weinstein, showering him with compliments over email but trying to avoid nighttime meetings alone with him. Still, she said, she had a handful of consensual encounters with Weinstein after she and her actor boyfriend broke up. 'I remember I was devastated after my relationship ended. And sometimes you just want to feel wanted. And I knew that I could be used by someone,' she said. _____
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann stares down movie mogul in court after she recounts alleged rape
Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann stared down the disgraced movie mogul after taking the witness stand Tuesday, pointing a finger at her eyes as she stalked past the defense table in Manhattan Supreme Court. Mann, 39, had just gotten done with an emotional recounting of how Weinstein violently raped her in a California hotel at the former Miramax Films head's retrial on sexual assault charges. That finger gesture, and her testimony, led defense lawyer Arthur Aidala to move for a mistrial, calling the description of the alleged Peninsula Hotel attack, which he isn't charged with, 'highly prejudicial.' 'That's absolutely inappropriate, that's inappropriate behavior by her,' Aidala said. Judge Curtis Farber rejected his calls for a mistrial, bringing the number of unsuccessful mistrial motions by Aidala up to nine. Mann, whose testimony began Monday, also took the stand in Weinstein's 2020 trial, but the ex-producer's guilty verdict and 23-year prison sentence was overturned by the state's highest court last year. The retrial, which is in its fifth week, also featured days of testimony from two other accusers, former TV production assistant Miriam Haley — who also took the stand in 2020 — and Polish model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola. Mann testified on Monday that she met the then-married in late 2012 or early 2013, and embarked on a 'relationship' with him despite his forcibly performing oral sex on her in a Midtown hotel in March 2013. Her testimony Tuesday morning centered on a horrifying encounter in the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Mann was getting into a serious relationship with an actor, she said, and she wanted a sit-down with Weinstein. 'I just wanted this agreement that I would be moving on with my life,' she said. But when she wouldn't give up her beau's name, Weinstein exploded in fury, she said. 'His eyes went black, and he was angry,' she said. 'He went into a rage. He lunged at me … he grabbed me and was pulling me into the room, and it happened to me so fast and so forceful.' She added, 'He dragged me into the bedroom and he threw me on the bed, and he said, 'You owe me one more time.'' Mann said he ripped her pants with such force that his fingernails left scratch marks on her legs. She curled into a ball by the headboard, paralyzed by fear, and he grabbed her ankles, pulled her down and started raping her, she testified. 'At some point I remember his weight on me, and there's so much weight on me. And my head was stuck, and I couldn't breathe. And I just remember everything went black,' she said. She came to on her knees, with Weinstein forcing her into performing oral sex, said. 'And he was done, and I crawled to the bathroom, and I got up, and I remember that I saw myself in the mirror but I didn't know it was me for a moment, and I didn't recognize myself,' she said. Mann appeared overcome with emotion as she described the alleged attack, and had to take a break from her testimony. The pointing incident happened as she left the courtroom. Mann said she was so disoriented she couldn't drive home, and she weighed going to the police and agreeing to take a rape exam at a hospital, but decided against it. 'I just imagined more poking and prodding, and I just imagined I would have to say his name,' she said. 'And I didn't know what happened if I would say his name.' So she took an hours-long shower, resolving, 'I'm going to bury this so deep, and I'm going to forget about this and move on with my life.' Weinstein does not face charges in connection with the allegations from the Peninsula Hotel. Rather, he's charged in connection with the March 2013 rape at Manhattan's DoubleTree Hotel. Over the next several years, she kept in touch with Weinstein, showering him with compliments over e-mail but trying to avoid nighttime meetings alone with him. Still, she said, she had a handful of consensual encounters with Weinstein after she and her actor boyfriend broke up. 'I remember I was devastated after my relationship ended. And sometimes you just want to feel wanted. And I knew that I could be used by someone,' she said.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Harvey Weinstein accuser testifies ‘safest thing ... was to check out, endure it' during 2006 sex assault
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein accuser Miriam Haley told a Manhattan jury disturbing details of how the hulking film mogul sexually assaulted her in his Soho loft, and how she calculated the safest thing she could do was to 'check out' and endure the attack. In her second day of testimony in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, the 48-year-old former TV producer cried as she walked jurors through the 2006 alleged attack, and a second unwanted sexual encounter two weeks later. 'I couldn't get away from his grip. I couldn't get away from him. And I realized I'm getting raped, that's what was happening,' Haley said of the alleged July 10, 2006, assault in Weinsten's loft, where she says he yanked out her tampon and forcibly performed oral sex on her. 'That was my brain calculating: What's the safest thing for me to do right now? So in the end, I just decided to check out and just endure it,' she said. Haley also told her story in 2020, at a trial that ended in the Miramax Films co-founder's conviction on first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape charges. But the state's highest court overturned that conviction in April 2024, ruling that the trial judge shouldn't have allowed testimony from women accusing him of sexual assaults not covered by the charges against him. The retrial covers separate allegations by Haley and aspiring actress Jessica Mann, as well as new allegations by a third woman, Polish model Kaja Sokola. He has pleaded not guilty. Haley on Tuesday testified about how she met Weinstein, and of a series of encounters, some 'very pleasant' and respectful, and others where things took a dark turn, with the mogul asking for a massage or pushing his way into her apartment as he insisted she travel with him to Paris. The July 10, 2006, encounter happened a day before Haley was supposed to travel to Los Angeles on Weinstein's dime to attend the 'Clerks 2' movie premiere. She would up taking the trip, but not going to the screening. Haley said she made it clear to Weinstein that she had no sexual or romantic interest in him throughout their encounters, and that she was looking for work. Weinstein asked her to drop by his apartment before the L.A. trip, and she agreed, she said. 'It would have been odd to say no.' His driver picked her up and took her there, and at first, they talked on his sofa, about two or three feet apart, as a TV showed a comedy program, she testified. Then he lunged toward her and tried to kiss her, and when she got off the sofa he got up and grabbed her, pushing her backward into another room and onto a bed. 'I'm trying to get him off me, and I'm saying no, no it's not gonna happen, no. I told him that I'm on my period, it's not gonna happen, and he didn't listen. Every time I tried to get up he pushed me back onto the bed,' she said. At that point, Haley said she was running through possibilities in her head — would she be able to get to the elevator and out of the building, would Weinstein knock her unconscious if she physically struggled, was his driver standing guard outside — and again decided 'the smartest thing to do was the safest thing to do, to check out, endure it, have it over with and leave.' After the attack she weighed a new set of options — whether to call the police or the media — but felt that because she was working on 'Project Runway' in New York without a work visa, she'd face consequences while Weinstein would use his power and money to turn the tables, said Haley, who was born in Finland and lived in London. A little over two weeks later, on July 26, Haley agreed to meet Weinstein again, in his room at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, hoping to regain some sense of control in the process, she said. Instead of meeting in the lobby, though, he summoned her to his room and 'as soon as he opened the door,' he pulled her inside and to the bed, she said. 'I was just like, 'No, not again.' And he basically just proceeded to undress me. I didn't even remember,' she said. 'At that moment I felt stupid. I just went numb. He proceeded to have intercourse with me and I just laid there like a dead fish.' He called her 'bitch' and 'whore,' she testified. 'I was basically just lying there motionless, more or less, just waiting for it to be over. I did blame myself that time. Because I didn't physically resist, because I had been stupid enough to show up,' she said. Even so, she said, she maintained contact with Weinstein in the weeks to follow. 'I was desperate for work,' she said. 'I was trying to make this situation work in the best possible way for me.' She was also embarrassed that he 'thought so little of me,' she said, explaining, 'I wanted people to think that I had a good connection with this powerful guy.' Her testimony continues Wednesday afternoon. _____
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Harvey Weinstein accuser testifies ‘safest thing … was to check out, endure it' during 2006 sex assault
Harvey Weinstein accuser Miriam Haley told a Manhattan jury disturbing details of how the hulking film mogul sexually assaulted her in his Soho loft, and how she calculated the safest thing she could do was to 'check out' and endure the attack. In her second day of testimony in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday, the 48-year-old former TV producer cried as she walked jurors through the 2006 alleged attack, and a second unwanted sexual encounter two weeks later. 'I couldn't get away from his grip. I couldn't get away from him. And I realized I'm getting raped, that's what was happening,' Haley said of the alleged July 10, 2006 assault in Weinsten's loft, where she says he yanked out her tampon and forcibly performed oral sex on her. 'That was my brain calculating: What's the safest thing for me to do right now? So in the end, I just decided to check out and just endure it,' she said. Haley also told her story in 2020, at a trial that ended in the Miramax Films co-founder's conviction on first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape charges. But the state's highest court overturned that conviction in April 2024, ruling that the trial judge shouldn't have allowed testimony from women accusing him of sexual assaults not covered by the charges against him. The retrial covers separate allegations by Haley and aspiring actress Jessica Mann, as well as new allegations by a third woman, Polish model Kaja Sokola. He has pleaded not guilty. Haley on Tuesday testified about how she met Weinstein, and of a series of encounters, some 'very pleasant' and respectful, and others where things took a dark turn, with the mogul asking for a massage or pushing his way into her apartment as he insisted she travel with him to Paris. The July 10, 2006 encounter happened a day before Haley was supposed to travel to Los Angeles on Weinstein's dime to attend the 'Clerks 2' movie premiere. She would up taking the trip, but not going to the screening. Haley said she made it clear to Weinstein that she had no sexual or romantic interest in him throughout their encounters, and that she was looking for work. Weinstein asked her to drop by his apartment before the L.A. trip, and she agreed, she said. 'It would have been odd to say no.' His driver picked her up and took her there, and at first, they talked on his sofa, about two or three feet apart, as a TV showed a comedy program, she testified. Then he lunged toward her and tried to kiss her, and when she got off the sofa he got up and grabbed her, pushing her backward into another room and onto a bed. 'I'm trying to get him off me, and I'm saying no, no it's not gonna happen, no. I told him that I'm on my period, it's not gonna happen, and he didn't listen. Every time I tried to get up he pushed me back onto the bed,' she said. At that point, Haley said she was running through possibilities in her head — would she be able to get to the elevator and out of the building, would Weinstein knock her unconscious if she physically struggled, was his driver standing guard outside — and again decided 'the smartest thing to do was the safest thing to do, to check out, endure it, have it over with and leave.' After the attack she weighed a new set of options — whether to call the police or the media — but felt that because she was working on 'Project Runway' in New York without a work visa, she'd face consequences while Weinstein would use his power and money to turn the tables, said Haley, who was born in Finland and lived in London. A little over two weeks later, on July 26, Haley agreed to meet Weinstein again, in his room at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, hoping to regain some sense of control in the process, she said. Instead of meeting in the lobby, though, he summoned her to his room and 'as soon as he opened the door,' he pulled her inside and to the bed, she said. 'I was just like, 'No, not again.' And he basically just proceeded to undress me. I didn't even remember,' she said. 'At that moment I felt stupid. I just went numb. He proceeded to have intercourse with me and I just laid there like a dead fish.' He called her 'bitch' and 'whore,' she testified. 'I was basically just lying there motionless, more or less, just waiting for it to be over. I did blame myself that time. Because I didn't physically resist, because I had been stupid enough to show up,' she said. Even so, she said, she maintained contact with Weinstein in the weeks to follow. 'I was desperate for work,' she said. 'I was trying to make this situation work in the best possible way for me.' She was also embarrassed that he 'thought so little of me,' she said, explaining, 'I wanted people to think that I had a good connection with this powerful guy.' Her testimony continues Wednesday afternoon.
