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New York Post
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Michelle Williams complains living with Ryan Gosling was ‘horrible' when filming ‘Blue Valentine'
It was no la la land. For Michelle Williams, living with Ryan Gosling while filming the 2010 drama 'Blue Valentine' wasn't all it was cracked up to be. 'We shot the first part where they're young and in love and everything is going really well and then we took a two-week break and we lived together. Office hours, baby, like, 9 to 5. Professional situation,' the actress, 44, said on Monday's episode of Dax Shepard's 'Armchair Expert' podcast. Advertisement 'So we did these improvisations during the day to, honestly, find out ways to annoy each other and to destroy this thing that we had made.' 7 Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams attend the 'Blue Valentine' premiere during the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Getty Images Williams revealed production didn't want a break from filming, but she and Gosling, 44, were 'having such a hard time letting go of the thing we loved.' Advertisement The film's director, Derek Cianfrance, would pop into the shared living space and leave them with a 'scenario' in hopes of Williams and Gosling furthering their estrangement. Williams reminisced on when Cianfrance, 51, would come back and say: 'After you've had this frustrating day, now you're going to go take your daughter to the amusement park and try and have a good time.' 7 Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling in 'Blue Valentine.' ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection 7 Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling in the 2010 romance drama. ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection Advertisement As she put it, 'It was fun.' 'Try selling that to a producer,' Williams teased about the freedom she and Gosling had to build out their characters and relationship. The pair went as far as to burn their characters' wedding photos. 7 Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling as Cindy and Dean. ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection Advertisement 'We learned how to annoy each other. It was horrible,' the 'Dying for Sex' star recalled. 'I don't want to give you reasons to hate me. We were having such a good time. The party has to be over so soon?' 'You don't have to hate me, because now I hate me,' she stated about how the tables turned during filming. 'I'm annoying. We [were] calling forth all our worst qualities!' 'Blue Valentine' followed Cindy (Williams) and Dean (Gosling) as a couple whose relationship goes downhill after falling in love in their 20s. 7 Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling as Cindy and Dean in 'Blue Valentine.' ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection Williams earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her portrayal of Cindy but ultimately lost to Natalie Portman in 'Black Swan.' Gosling, meanwhile, got candid about being fully immersed in the role back in 2010 while talking to NPR. 'During the month, we tried to dismantle this thing that we had been building,' the 'Barbie' alum told 'Fresh Air' contributor Dave Davies at the time. '[Originally,] we all worked really hard to create this love story portion, when they're falling in love. We wanted it to feel genuine and real and true. And we spent all of this time building it up, and then we had to tear it down.' 7 2010's 'Blue Valentine.' ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection Advertisement Touching on just how realistic the actors got, Gosling confessed, 'We also celebrated fake Christmas and put up Christmas trees, and baked birthday cakes and bought birthday presents, and went to Sears.' 'We fought all day, and then we'd have to take [our characters' daughter] Faith to the family fun park … whatever we could do to create real memories, so when it came time to shoot the [last] part of the film, we were drawing on real memories.' For 'The Fall Guy' actor, making 'Blue Valentine' was the first time he forgot he was in the middle of creating art. 7 Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Getty Images Advertisement 'Most movies, you have to try and forget you're making a movie, because there are trailers and booms and lights and marks, and it's everywhere,' said Gosling. 'And with this, you're trying to remember that it is a movie, because it's so easy to get lost in it.' Although the film was muddled with controversy as it received an NC-17 rating at first – something that confused the Hollywood vet. The NC-17 means a movie is deemed too mature for children under 17 years old and is only suitable for adult audiences. 'I was very confused. It seems like I don't really understand this rating system,' Gosling shared at the time. 'I was told it's because my character performs oral sex on his wife, and I thought, 'There's plenty of movies with men receiving oral sex from women with R ratings.' It seemed like a double standard. On top of that, it seemed like there are horror movies that are like torture-porn that are R rated. What a lot of people don't understand about the NC-17, which I didn't understand, is that you can't show it in major theater chains — and you can't even air spots for your film on television. It really stigmatizes the movie.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Harvey Weinstein trial prosecutors call witnesses to set up testimony for accuser Jessica Mann
Prosecutors set the stage Thursday for Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann to take the stand in the disgraced movie mogul's sexual assault retrial in Manhattan. Mann, now 39, testified at Weinstein's trial in 2020 that she was trying to break into acting in 2013 when he raped her in a New York hotel on March 18, 2013, and again later that year in a Beverly Hills hotel room. She's expected to take the stand again in the retrial, after the state's highest court threw out Weinstein's guilty verdict last year. Jurors on Thursday heard from one of Weinstein's assistants, Elizabeth Perz, who testified that Weinstein invited Mann and her friend, actress and model Talita Maia, to an Oscar viewing party in February 2013. She also told jurors how Weinstein's assistants maintained a running 'FOH' or 'Friends of Harvey' list. 'A Friend of Harvey was a woman that he'd meet at events or parties or festivals or wherever,' Perz testified. Perz testified about spotting prescription bottles and empty bottles in Weinstein's bags, and when asked to describe the medications she saw, she responded, 'It's for erectile dysfunction.' Mann is expected to testify about getting into a toxic and confusing relationship with the twice-her-age movie producer after she moved to Los Angeles from Washington state, and acknowledge that several of their sexual encounters were consensual. The charges against Weinstein involve an alleged episode at a Midtown hotel in 2013 when Mann said no and Weinstein didn't listen, raping her. Jurors also heard from Marci Liroff, a longtime casting director who now works as an intimacy coordinator on film sets, who testified that she agreed to see Mann and Maia at the Weinstein Company's insistence while she was casting the 2014 film 'Vampire Academy.' She was instructed to keep Weinstein out of the casting process, but ultimately acquiesced, she said. 'I didn't think it was a wise choice … to say no to Mr. Weinstein,' she said. 'I have a career to look after.' She did so reluctantly, she said, because Mann was too tall, too old, and not a strong enough actress to play the teenage vampire 'Mia.' The part went to another actress. Weinstein's lawyer, Diana Samson, pressed Liroff on whether she resented having to see Mann, and she responded that she simply didn't have the time to see people she didn't think were right for the role. 'I did make the time because I was forced into it. Do you understand? I kept getting phone calls from the Weinstein Co. saying Harvey needs you to meet these women,' she said. The Manhattan Supreme Court retrial has featured days of testimony from two other accusers, former TV production assistant Miriam Haley, and Polish model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola. Haley also testified at Weinstein's 2020 trial, which ended with a jury finding him guilty of raping Mann and of criminal sex act based off Haley's allegations. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison, but the state state Court of Appeals overturned that conviction, ruling 4-3 that the trial court judge, James Burke, shouldn't have allowed testimony of 'uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,'
BreakingNews.ie
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Weinstein's office kept list of female ‘friends of Harvey', ex-aide tells trial
Harvey Weinstein's assistants kept a list of female 'friends of Harvey' to invite to events and sometimes considered them a special category for guest lists, an ex-aide has said at the former film mogul's sex crimes retrial. 'A 'friend of Harvey' was a woman that he'd meet at events or parties or festivals or – somewhere,' said Elizabeth Perz, one of his executive assistants from 2011 to 2013. Advertisement The then-married Weinstein asked his assistants to invite these women to events, Ms Perz said. Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan in New York (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool) It was such common practice that Weinstein's subordinates had a shorthand: 'Might as well add a FOH column,' Ms Perz advised colleagues by email as they discussed the attendee list for some 2013 awards season events. Jurors were shown a roster of well over a dozen names, which Ms Perz said was kept in the office at Weinstein's now-defunct production company. The names were broken down by geography, such as 'LA Friends' or 'Cannes/Etc/all invites.' Advertisement One 'LA Friends' entry was Jessica Mann, one of the three women whose allegations are at the heart of the retrial. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty. The once-powerful studio boss, who became a prime target of the #MeToo movement's campaign against sexual misconduct, maintains that he has never had sexual encounters that were not consensual. During the last five years, he was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California. Advertisement But he is on trial again because an appeals court found that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial evidence and overturned that conviction. He is charged with raping Ms Mann in 2013 and forcing oral sex on two other women, separately, in 2006. Harvey Weinstein in state court in Manhattan in New York (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool) Ms Mann, who was a hairstylist and aspiring actor when she met Weinstein in the early 2010s, is expected to give evidence in the coming days or week. The other accusers, Miriam Haley and Kaja Sokola, have already given evidence. Advertisement At Weinstein's 2020 trial, Ms Mann painted a complex and emotional picture of a years-long relationship that began consensually but became 'degrading' and volatile and eventually exploded into rape. Still, she kept seeing him and sending warm messages because she wanted him to believe she 'wasn't a threat', she said. Weinstein's lawyers at the time argued that Ms Mann willingly had a sexual liaison with him to serve her acting ambitions. At one point during his defence's questioning in 2020, she began sobbing so forcefully that court ended early that day. Advertisement At the retrial on Thursday, jurors saw messages that Ms Perz had sent to Ms Mann about some Oscars-related parties in 2013. 'Harvey would like to extend an invitation to you' and a friend, Ms Perz wrote. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who alleged they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified, which Ms Sokola, Ms Haley and Ms Mann have done.
CTV News
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Weinstein's office kept a list of women ‘friends of Harvey,' an ex-aide testifies
Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan in New York, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool) NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein 's assistants kept a list of female 'friends of Harvey' to invite to events and sometimes considered them a special category for guest lists, an ex-aide testified Thursday at the former movie mogul's sex crimes retrial. 'A 'friend of Harvey' was a woman that he'd meet at events or parties or festivals or — somewhere,' said Elizabeth Perz, one of his executive assistants from 2011 to 2013. The then-married Weinstein asked his assistants to invite these women to events, Perz said. It was such common practice that Weinstein's subordinates had a shorthand: 'Might as well add a FOH column,' Perz advised colleagues by email as they discussed the attendee list for some 2013 awards-season events. Jurors were shown a roster of well over a dozen names, which Perz said was kept in the office at Weinstein's now-defunct production company. The names were broken down by geography, such as 'LA Friends' or 'Cannes/Etc/all invites.' One 'LA Friends' entry was Jessica Mann, one of the three women whose allegations are at the heart of the retrial. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty. The once-powerful studio boss, who became a prime target of the #MeToo movement's campaign against sexual misconduct, maintains that he's never had sexual encounters that weren't consensual. During the last five years, he was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California. But he's on trial again because an appeals court found that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial testimony and overturned that conviction. He's charged with raping Mann in 2013 and forcing oral sex on two other women, separately, in 2006. Mann, who was a hairstylist and aspiring actor when she met Weinstein in the early 2010s, is expected to testify in the coming days or week. The other accusers, Miriam Haley and Kaja Sokola, already have taken the stand. At Weinstein's 2020 trial, Mann painted a complex and emotional picture of a yearslong relationship that began consensually but became 'degrading' and volatile and eventually exploded into rape. Still, she kept seeing him and sending warm messages because she wanted him to believe she 'wasn't a threat,' she testified. Weinstein's lawyers at the time argued that Mann willingly had a sexual liaison with him to serve her acting ambitions. At one point during his defense's questioning in 2020, she began sobbing so forcefully that court ended early that day. At the retrial on Thursday, jurors saw messages that Perz had sent to Mann about some Oscars-related parties in 2013. 'Harvey would like to extend an invitation to you' and a friend, Perz wrote. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who alleged they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified, which Sokola, Haley and Mann have done. Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press
The Independent
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Weinstein's office kept a list of women 'friends of Harvey,' an ex-aide testifies
Harvey Weinstein 's assistants kept a list of female 'friends of Harvey' to invite to events and sometimes considered them a special category for guest lists, an ex-aide testified Thursday at the former movie mogul's sex crimes retrial. 'A 'friend of Harvey' was a woman that he'd meet at events or parties or festivals or — somewhere,' said Elizabeth Perz, one of his executive assistants from 2011 to 2013. The then-married Weinstein asked his assistants to invite these women to events, Perz said. It was such common practice that Weinstein's subordinates had a shorthand: 'Might as well add a FOH column,' Perz advised colleagues by email as they discussed the attendee list for some 2013 awards-season events. Jurors were shown a roster of well over a dozen names, which Perz said was kept in the office at Weinstein's now-defunct production company. The names were broken down by geography, such as 'LA Friends' or 'Cannes/Etc/all invites." One 'LA Friends' entry was Jessica Mann, one of the three women whose allegations are at the heart of the retrial. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty. The once-powerful studio boss, who became a prime target of the #MeToo movement's campaign against sexual misconduct, maintains that he's never had sexual encounters that weren't consensual. During the last five years, he was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California. But he's on trial again because an appeals court found that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial testimony and overturned that conviction. He's charged with raping Mann in 2013 and forcing oral sex on two other women, separately, in 2006. Mann, who was a hairstylist and aspiring actor when she met Weinstein in the early 2010s, is expected to testify in the coming days or week. The other accusers, Miriam Haley and Kaja Sokola, already have taken the stand. At Weinstein's 2020 trial, Mann painted a complex and emotional picture of a yearslong relationship that began consensually but became 'degrading' and volatile and eventually exploded into rape. Still, she kept seeing him and sending warm messages because she wanted him to believe she "wasn't a threat,' she testified. Weinstein's lawyers at the time argued that Mann willingly had a sexual liaison with him to serve her acting ambitions. At one point during his defense's questioning in 2020, she began sobbing so forcefully that court ended early that day. At the retrial on Thursday, jurors saw messages that Perz had sent to Mann about some Oscars-related parties in 2013. ' Harvey would like to extend an invitation to you' and a friend, Perz wrote. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who alleged they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified, which Sokola, Haley and Mann have done.
