Ex Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein goes on trial in LA, the place he as soon as reigned

By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES: Five years after ladies’s tales about him made the #MeToo motion explode, Harvey Weinstein is happening trial within the metropolis the place he as soon as was a colossus on the Oscars.

Already serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York, the 70-year-old former film mogul faces totally different allegations together with a number of that prosecutors say occurred throughout a pivotal Oscar week in Los Angeles. Jury choice for an eight-week trial begins Monday.

Weinstein has been indicted on 4 counts of rape and 7 different sexual assault counts involving 5 ladies, who will seem in courtroom as Jane Does to inform their tales. He has pleaded not responsible.

Four extra ladies can be allowed to take the stand to present accounts of Weinstein sexual assaults that didn’t result in fees, however which prosecutors hope will present jurors he had a propensity for committing such acts.

Starting within the Nineties, Weinstein, by means of the corporate Miramax that he ran along with his brother, was an innovator in working broad and aggressive campaigns selling Academy Award nominees. He had unmatched success, pushing movies like “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Artist” to greatest image wins and changing into among the many most thanked males ever throughout Oscar acceptance speeches.

Miramax and its successor The Weinstein Co. have been based mostly in New York, the place Weinstein lived and did enterprise, however that did not diminish his presence in Hollywood.

“He was a creature of New York, but he was also a creature of Los Angeles,” stated Kim Masters, editor at giant for The Hollywood Reporter and a longtime observer of the film business. “He had this huge Golden Globes party that was always well beyond capacity when he was in his heyday. He was the King of Hollywood in New York and LA.”

It was throughout Oscars week in 2013, when Jennifer Lawrence would win an Academy Award for the Weinstein Co.’s “Silver Linings Playbook” and Quentin Tarantino would win for writing the corporate’s “Django Unchained,” that 4 of the 11 alleged crimes happened.

Like a lot of the incidents within the indictments, they occurred underneath the guise of enterprise conferences at luxurious motels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, which Weinstein used as his California headquarters and the place he might be seen throughout awards season and all year long. He was handled as greater than a VIP.

At a pre-trial listening to, the chauffeur who drove Weinstein round Los Angeles testified that even he was allowed to take as a lot as $1,000 in money in Weinstein’s identify from the entrance desk of the lodge the place the mogul was staying.

By the time tales about him in The New York Times and The New Yorker in October of 2017 caused his downfall, Weinstein’s energy to seemingly will movies to win awards had diminished, and his firm had fallen into monetary bother.

“His stature changed, he was no longer the king of Oscar, which was really what made him vulnerable,” Masters stated.

The Los Angeles trial is more likely to be far much less of a spectacle than the New York proceedings, and never merely as a result of it is a sequel and Weinstein is already serving a protracted sentence.

Foot visitors is sparse and there’s no grand entrance on the downtown LA courthouse that is internet hosting the trial. Weinstein won’t be seen to any media horde or protesters exterior as he was in Manhattan, as he’ll be ushered into the courtroom straight from jail — as soon as he is modified kind his jail garb right into a go well with — throughout a brief hallway the place no cameras are allowed that might seize him.

Only a dozen reporters, together with two sketch artists, can be allowed into the small courtroom every day, in comparison with a number of dozen in New York.

Weinstein can even be represented by totally different legal professionals in Los Angeles, Alan Jackson and Mark Werksman. They have expressed worries that the films might play a job within the trial.

The movie “She Said,” which fictionalizes the work of two New York Times reporters and their bombshell tales on Weinstein, is ready to be launched halfway by means of the trial on Nov. 18.

Weinstein’s legal professionals misplaced a bid to have the proceedings delayed over the movie, with the choose rejecting their argument that publicity surrounding it will prejudice a possible jury towards him.

“This case is unique,” Werksman stated at a pretrial listening to. “Mr. Weinstein’s notoriety and his place in our culture at the center of the firestorm which is the #MeToo movement is real, and we’re trying to do everything we can to avoid having a trial when there will be a swirl of adverse publicity toward him,” Werksman stated at a pretrial listening to.

Weinstein’s trial is one in every of a number of with #MeToo connections which have begun or are about to start because the fifth anniversary of the motion’s largest second passes, together with the rape trial of “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson simply down the corridor from Weinstein’s and the New York sexual assault civil trial of Kevin Spacey.

LOS ANGELES: Five years after ladies’s tales about him made the #MeToo motion explode, Harvey Weinstein is happening trial within the metropolis the place he as soon as was a colossus on the Oscars.

Already serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York, the 70-year-old former film mogul faces totally different allegations together with a number of that prosecutors say occurred throughout a pivotal Oscar week in Los Angeles. Jury choice for an eight-week trial begins Monday.

Weinstein has been indicted on 4 counts of rape and 7 different sexual assault counts involving 5 ladies, who will seem in courtroom as Jane Does to inform their tales. He has pleaded not responsible.

Four extra ladies can be allowed to take the stand to present accounts of Weinstein sexual assaults that didn’t result in fees, however which prosecutors hope will present jurors he had a propensity for committing such acts.

Starting within the Nineties, Weinstein, by means of the corporate Miramax that he ran along with his brother, was an innovator in working broad and aggressive campaigns selling Academy Award nominees. He had unmatched success, pushing movies like “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Artist” to greatest image wins and changing into among the many most thanked males ever throughout Oscar acceptance speeches.

Miramax and its successor The Weinstein Co. have been based mostly in New York, the place Weinstein lived and did enterprise, however that did not diminish his presence in Hollywood.

“He was a creature of New York, but he was also a creature of Los Angeles,” stated Kim Masters, editor at giant for The Hollywood Reporter and a longtime observer of the film business. “He had this huge Golden Globes party that was always well beyond capacity when he was in his heyday. He was the King of Hollywood in New York and LA.”

It was throughout Oscars week in 2013, when Jennifer Lawrence would win an Academy Award for the Weinstein Co.’s “Silver Linings Playbook” and Quentin Tarantino would win for writing the corporate’s “Django Unchained,” that 4 of the 11 alleged crimes happened.

Like a lot of the incidents within the indictments, they occurred underneath the guise of enterprise conferences at luxurious motels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, which Weinstein used as his California headquarters and the place he might be seen throughout awards season and all year long. He was handled as greater than a VIP.

At a pre-trial listening to, the chauffeur who drove Weinstein round Los Angeles testified that even he was allowed to take as a lot as $1,000 in money in Weinstein’s identify from the entrance desk of the lodge the place the mogul was staying.

By the time tales about him in The New York Times and The New Yorker in October of 2017 caused his downfall, Weinstein’s energy to seemingly will movies to win awards had diminished, and his firm had fallen into monetary bother.

“His stature changed, he was no longer the king of Oscar, which was really what made him vulnerable,” Masters stated.

The Los Angeles trial is more likely to be far much less of a spectacle than the New York proceedings, and never merely as a result of it is a sequel and Weinstein is already serving a protracted sentence.

Foot visitors is sparse and there’s no grand entrance on the downtown LA courthouse that is internet hosting the trial. Weinstein won’t be seen to any media horde or protesters exterior as he was in Manhattan, as he’ll be ushered into the courtroom straight from jail — as soon as he is modified kind his jail garb right into a go well with — throughout a brief hallway the place no cameras are allowed that might seize him.

Only a dozen reporters, together with two sketch artists, can be allowed into the small courtroom every day, in comparison with a number of dozen in New York.

Weinstein can even be represented by totally different legal professionals in Los Angeles, Alan Jackson and Mark Werksman. They have expressed worries that the films might play a job within the trial.

The movie “She Said,” which fictionalizes the work of two New York Times reporters and their bombshell tales on Weinstein, is ready to be launched halfway by means of the trial on Nov. 18.

Weinstein’s legal professionals misplaced a bid to have the proceedings delayed over the movie, with the choose rejecting their argument that publicity surrounding it will prejudice a possible jury towards him.

“This case is unique,” Werksman stated at a pretrial listening to. “Mr. Weinstein’s notoriety and his place in our culture at the center of the firestorm which is the #MeToo movement is real, and we’re trying to do everything we can to avoid having a trial when there will be a swirl of adverse publicity toward him,” Werksman stated at a pretrial listening to.

Weinstein’s trial is one in every of a number of with #MeToo connections which have begun or are about to start because the fifth anniversary of the motion’s largest second passes, together with the rape trial of “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson simply down the corridor from Weinstein’s and the New York sexual assault civil trial of Kevin Spacey.