Current date/time is Thu 28 Mar 2024 - 10:02
Search found 27 matches for METOO
Random Thoughts
Andre Braugher, ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ star, dies at 61
André Braugher, the dynamic actor known for his outstanding work on such shows as Homicide: Life on the Street and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, has died. He was 61.
Braugher died Monday after a brief illness, his longtime rep Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter.
Braugher starred as master interrogator Det. Frank Pembleton on NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street for all seven seasons of the show’s acclaimed 1993-98 run, then played another cop, Capt. Raymond Holt — this time against type and for laughs — on the 2013-21 Fox-NBC sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
He won his first Emmy in 1998 for outstanding lead actor in a drama series for Homicide after a season that featured one of its most memorable episodes, “Subway.” That was a two-hander in which Pembleton tries to unearth whether a man (Vincent D’Onofrio) pinned between a Baltimore subway train and the platform was pushed onto the track — while also trying to comfort him in his dying moments.
Braugher’s second Emmy came for his performance as the leader of a crew planning a high-stakes heist on the 2006 FX miniseries Thief.
After replacing Wendell Pierce, he stood out — as he always did — as Owen Thoreau Jr. alongside Ray Romano and Scott Bakula on the 2009-11 TNT dramedy Men of a Certain Age. He got two Emmy noms for that, and four for Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
The regal Braugher first made a TV name for himself as Det. Winston Blake on a series of Telly Savalas-starring Kojak telefilms that aired in 1989-90 and was another crime-solver, former Philadelphia cop turned cab driver Mike Olshansky, on the 2002-04 CBS series Hack.
In between, he portrayed a character based on a real-life doctor on the 2000-01 ABC series Gideon’s Crossing, created by Paul Attanasio, the creator of Homicide as well.
He made a career out of playing upstanding individuals.
Braugher was tapped in February to be the male lead on Netflix’s Shonda Rhimes drama The Residence, starring opposite Uzo Aduba. The White House murder-mystery series started production before shutting down amid Hollywood’s dual strikes.
He had already completed filming a lot of his scenes on the series, which was scheduled to resume filming in January. It’s unclear what The Residence, from showrunner Paul William Davies (Scandal), will do in the wake of his death.
Braugher recently portrayed New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet in She Said (2002), which revolved around the two journalists whose reporting led to the prosecution of Harvey Weinstein and sparked the #MeToo movement.
He also starred on the sixth and final season of Paramount+’s legal drama The Good Fight in 2022.
“I may not be the best actor in the world, but I just can’t do the one-dimensional roles. I can’t do cartoons of people,” Braugher told The Washington Post in 1990. “If the role is sweet, I want to turn it ugly. If it is ugly, I want to turn it sweet.”
The youngest of four children, André Keith Braugher was born in Chicago on July 1, 1962. His father worked as a heavy-equipment operator, his mother for the U.S. Postal Service. He attended St. Ignatius College Prep in his hometown, then earned a B.A. from Stanford University and a master’s degree from Juilliard, both after receiving scholarships.
Early on, he was a frequent actor in Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park productions in New York City, playing roles in Richard II, Henry V, Hamlet and As You Like It over the years.
Braugher’s big-screen résumé was impressive: Edward Zwick’s Glory (1989), Gregory Hoblit’s Primal Fear (1996), Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus (1996), City of Angels (1998), All The Rage (1999), Thick as Thieves (1999), Duets (2000), Frequency (2000), A Better Way to Die (2000), Poseidon (2006), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Frank Darabont’s The Mist (2007), Passengers (2008), Phillip Noyce’s Salt (2010) and Spirit Untamed (2021).
Other noteworthy efforts included work in the 1990 Turner telefilm The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson; the 1999 TNT telefilm Passing Glory, directed by Steve James; the 2002 Showtime telefilm 10,000 Black Men Named George, helmed by Robert Townsend; and the 2004 and 2008 miniseries Salem’s Lot and The Andromeda Strain.
Survivors include his wife, actress Ami Brabson (they worked together on Homicide and married in 1991); sons Michael, Isaiah and John Wesley; brother Charles; and mother Sally. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Classical Theatre of Harlem.
In a 2014 interview with The New York Times, Homicide producer Tom Fontana noted that the series began “as an ensemble piece. And it became The André Braugher Show. All the writers wanted to write for him because he was great and because they wanted to see if they could screw him up, throw him off his game.
“He could say so much with his eyes,” Fontana added. “We’d write these incredibly glorious speeches for him, and then you would see him just look at someone, and we’d sometimes go: ‘Drop the monologue. He’s already sold it.’”
- on Tue 12 Dec 2023 - 19:42
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 423
- Views: 2221
Random Thoughts
There were three women that he met through the Church of Scientology and one of them was his girlfriend who accused him. However, at least five women accused him of rape.I don't buy for a moment that three is the real number of his victims but only Masterson and the church know the truth because he drugged and raped his victims just like Cosby, who did it for six decades. He hasn't shown a single ounce of remorse so he didn't stop because he felt bad, he just simply got better at covering up his crimes with the protection of his Cult. In one instance he even sent a friend's son from the church tell one of the victims little girls that her mommy was a liar and she wasn't raped.
Masterson is a fucking monster and to read these details and know the people who chose to support him anyways.....
Masterson, 47, was convicted in May of raping Jane Doe #1 and another woman identified at trial as Jane Doe #2. But the jury could not reach a decision on the third accuser, who was identified as Jane Doe #3 and is a former girlfriend of Masterson’s.
Nevertheless, all three women were allowed to submit sentencing statements to the court Thursday, before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo sentenced Masterson.
This is some of what they said:
Jane Doe #1 told the court that her mother, who remains a Scientologist, has shunned her since she told police 20 years ago that Masterson raped her. She said she broke the church’s “code” by speaking out against an “untouchable” like Masterson.
Ever since, Jane Doe #1 said she acknowledges Mother’s Day by rereading an old letter she got from her mom. “She loved me then, I think. She seemed to care what happened to her daughter.”
The Masterson accuser described how she was not able to find her underwear after the rape and how she smelled of vomit. She said that after reporting the sexual assault she lost “pretty much everything,” including many of the people who were once her friends. She said at age 29 she had to start over.
“And the ugly truth is I didn’t want to live,” she said. “I remember crying myself to sleep and wishing I would not wake up.”
Now a married mother of three daughters, she told the court that Masterson arranged for the son of one of his friends to tell one of her girls that her mother was a “liar” and that Masterson never raped her.
“Mommy, what is rape?” the girl later asked her, she said.
Masterson “has not shown an ounce of remorse for the pain he caused,” she said, and urged the judge to give him a lengthy sentence “for the safety of all women.” She concluded by telling the court there was more she could say about what Masterson did to her but didn’t want to “rip my soul completely open.”
Jane Doe #2 directed part of her statement directly at Masterson, telling him that the day he was convicted something inside her “shifted” for the better.
“But healing is not some linear, simple thing,” she said. “The lasting effects of rape are pernicious as they hack silently away at the daily efforts one tries to make toward a life with meaning. “
She called the Church of Scientology Masterson’s “enabler and protector” and said she had been “a brainwashed member for seven years at the time of the assault.”
At first, she said, she stayed quiet. But in the wake of the #MeToo movement, she said “I could not sit with this secret and tough it out knowing you’d strike again, knowing the danger women were in and that many others needed justice too.”
“In my heart, I had no choice but to come forward,” she said. “And because of already having been threatened with Scientology’s strict policies against reporting members to law enforcement, and deliberately being shown their extensive policies in exacting ruinous punishment on defectors who speak out against its prized members— I decided to report my rape to law enforcement anyway, with the full understanding that my life could be demolished again in a new way for doing so.”
Since then, she said, “I have been terrorized, harassed.”
“But I don’t regret it,” she said. “You disfigured my life. You stole some crucial pieces of my self-worth and lessened my capacity for joy. You made every part of me turn on myself.”
An actor, Jane Doe #2 said her career “nose-dived within a couple months after the rape.”
“Your heinous attack on me snuck its way through my body and my experiences so stealthily, hijacking the life I was building diligently for myself,” she said.
Still, she said, “It is worth noting, since I know you take pride in hurting women, that you never took my integrity.”
In closing, Jane Doe #2 said she forgave Masterson but added: “Your sickness is no longer my burden to bear.”
Jane Doe #3 told the court that she regularly wrestled with this question: “How can I tell anyone that I had gotten myself in a situation where I was regularly mentally and emotionally abused, and raped repeatedly?”
Masterson was both “charming” and controlling and when she began her relationship with the actor she was “an 18-year-old girl with very little life experience.”
“He’d hurt me. He’d ignore me. I’d grovel at his feet apologizing to him for what he did to hurt me. Then he’d show me kindness,” she said.
As a result, Jane Doe #3 said she’s spent most of her life “viewing my body as a crime scene.”
“When you’re raped, it’s not your surface that’s been most defiled,” she said. “It damages you on a cellular level.”
Jane Doe #3 said she has been married for 14 years but can’t bear to sleep beside her husband because of what happened.
“I regularly wake up with deep bruises and scratches on my hands and arms,” she said. “In 2017, I punched a hole in the wall behind my bed during my sleep. I’m always fighting monsters.”
- on Sun 10 Sep 2023 - 10:08
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 423
- Views: 2221
Random Thoughts
Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 16 Years After Rape Conviction
Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 16 years, effectively ensuring the former Hollywood mogul and convicted rapist will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Weinstein’s sentencing was held in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday morning, nearly two months after his Los Angeles trial concluded with a jury convicting him on three counts of rape and sexual assault.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence in New York, after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in that jurisdiction in his 2020 criminal trial. On Thursday, the judge ordered Weinstein to serve his L.A. sentence consecutively after New York.
Before he was sentenced, Weinstein addressed the court, making one final plea to Judge Lisa B. Lench. “I maintain that I’m innocent,” Weinstein said.
“This is about money and coming after me,” Weinstein said. “Please don’t sentence me to life in prison. I don’t deserve it… There are so many things wrong with this case. There is no evidence… This is a setup… I beg your mercy.”
Weinstein’s defense, led by Mark Werksman and Alan Jackson, asked the judge to sentence him to only three years, urging her to look to the man he was “before he became accused as a sexual predator,” and saying that he has “become a caricature because of the #MeToo movement.” His attorney noted that Weinstein has medical issues and is a father. “He’s a 70-year-old man in bad health,” Werksman said. “He lived a full, rich and productive life that included being a father five children… He has become to his children the disembodied voice on the telephone.”
Werksman hailed Weinstein’s work in the entertainment industry, urging the judge to recognize his accomplishments. “Mr. Weinstein did a lot of good for a lot of people in a 50-year career,” Werksman said. “He produced hundreds of films that were a joy to millions of people… He was a man that many famous movie stars would thank in their Oscar speeches… He gave generously to charities and political causes.”
After Weinstein and his attorneys spoke, the judge sentenced Weinstein to 16 years for the three charges on which the jury found him guilty. “These are not easy decisions to make, but this is my decision,” Lench said.
All three charges on which Weinstein were convicted were based on the counts relating to Jane Doe #1, a European model who testified she was raped by Weinstein at Mr. C Hotel after the L.A. Italia Film Festival in 2013.
Joe Doe #1 appeared in court, alongside her daughter, to deliver an emotional victim impact statement, crying throughout as she spoke at a podium. She urged the judge to put Weinstein behind bars for life. “There is no prison sentence long enough to erase the damage,” she said. “I hope you give him the maximum sentence allowed.”
“I have been carrying this weight, this trauma, that it was my fault for years,” Jane Doe #1 said, addressing the judge. “Before that night, I was a very happy and confident women… I was excited about my future… Everything changed after… Inside, I had fallen apart. I was punishing myself for what he did to me.”
When Weinstein spoke, Jane Doe #1 was audibly crying, and her tears were heard over his statement. Weinstein told the judge that Jane Doe #1 lied about the entire rape and maintained that he never sexually assaulted her, or even came in contact with her. “The fact is I don’t know this woman and she doesn’t know me,” Weinstein said. “This is a made up story. With all due respect, Jane Doe #1 is an actress and can turn on the tears… This isn’t true.”
Weinstein’s team has focused intently on Jane Doe #1, using her as their argument to request a new trial with a new jury, which the judge shot down on Thursday morning, ahead of the sentencing. Jane Doe #1 will likely be the focal point of their appeal.
Weinstein’s attorneys have argued that the judge wrongly precluded them from introducing relevant evidence and argument, particularly centering around Jane Doe #1. Before the sentencing, Jackson delivered a lengthy argument as to why Weinstein should be granted a new trial, alleging that the judge “allowed perjury on the stand” from Jane Doe #1. He said the defense was “sandbagged by a lie told on the stand,” and claimed the jury “got sucked into the lies of Jane Doe #1.”
Two jurors were seated in the gallery on Thursday, which Weinstein referenced to the judge as support for him. Weinstein’s attorneys said the jury “would never have voted to convict if they knew the truth.” Lead prosecutor, deputy D.A. Paul Thompson, jabbed back at Weinstein’s attorneys, exclaiming, “It is certainly not the defense’s job to go hunt down jurors.”
Before denying Weinstein’s motion for a new trial, the judge said that speculating on whether jurors might have changed their verdict, based on evidence that wasn’t submitted into the case was “speculative” and not “appropriate.”
Shortly after court was dismissed on Thursday afternoon, the two jurors present spoke to reporters in the hallway. They said they had been in communication with the defense, and were interested in coming to Weinstein’s sentencing to gather more information. “I was never here to advocate,” a juror named Michael told Variety. “There is so much we don’t know in this case. The more info, the better because it helps flesh it out.” A juror named Jay said, “We weren’t on anybody’s side,” and expressed that even with more evidence, he’s unsure whether he would have changed his conviction. “I don’t know if he would have been acquitted. I don’t even know if it’s true that she lied,” Jay said. “I don’t feel bad,” he said of Weinstein. “We knew he was going to get sentenced.”
Thursday’s sentencing all but ensures that Weinstein, who will turn 71 years old next month, will spend the remainder of his life in prison, marking a stunning downfall for the the Oscar winner who reigned over Hollywood and was once one of the most powerful individuals in the entertainment industry.
His team, however, is still fighting for Weinstein’s freedom. Werksman and Jackson said on Thursday that they will be appealing the Los Angeles conviction. In New York, the Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in the state, agreed to hear Weinstein’s appeal of his 2020 sex crimes conviction.
In his L.A. trial, which ran from October through December 2022, prosecutors argued that Weinstein was a predator who used his power to lure and attack women in hotel rooms under the guise of a business meeting or audition, while his defense argued that the women willingly engaged in “transactional sex” because Weinstein was so influential in the entertainment industry.
Weinstein initially faced 11 charges in L.A., but four charges, all relating to Jane Doe #5, were dismissed in the midst of the trial. The jury delivered a split verdict, convicting him on the three counts relating to Jane Doe #1 but acquitting him of the sexual battery of a massage therapist, identified as Jane Doe #3. They could not reach a unanimous verdict on the charges involving two other accusers, aspiring actor and screenwriter Lauren Young, known as Jane Doe #2 in the case, and the First Partner of California, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who was Jane Doe #4. The judge declared a mistrial on those three charges.
Weinstein has been accused by more than 100 women who have publicly come forward with allegations of sexual assault, abuse and harassment that have spanned decades. His monumental fall was the fuse the ignited #MeToo in 2017, and the story of his survivors coming forward even inspired a major studio film, “She Said,” which was released in theaters last year. Weinstein has consistently maintained his innocence, denying any accusations of rape or assault, and his legal team has repeatedly stated that their client has unfairly been painted as the poster boy of the #MeToo movement.
Source: Variety
- on Thu 23 Feb 2023 - 15:17
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 8834
Random Thoughts
Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of Rape in L.A. Trial As Jury Reveals Mixed Verdict
After ten days of deliberations, Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape in a Los Angeles trial, the jury found on Monday. The conviction further cements his plunge from one of the most influential producers in Hollywood to the face of what launched the #MeToo movement in 2017.
But the jury acquitted Weinstein of sexual battery by restraint against a different Jane Doe accuser. Jurors also couldn’t reach a decision on three sexual assault charges, including rape.
This trial centered on testimony from four women, all known as Jane Does in court, who accused Weinstein of raping or sexually assaulting them from 2004 to 2013. Four others also testified that they were assaulted, though their claims didn’t lead to charges. In total, prosecutors called 44 witnesses to the stand to make their case against the former movie mogul.
Weinstein faced two counts of rape and five counts of other types of sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year sentence following his conviction by a New York jury in Feb. 2020 of committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree and third-degree rape. He appealed the sentence, but it was affirmed by an appeals court in June.
The jury found Weinstein guilty of three counts — forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and penetration by foreign object — against Jane Doe 1. He was acquitted of sexual battery by restraint against Jane Doe 3. The jury couldn’t reach a decision on the charges Weinstein faced of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation against Jane Doe 4 and sexual battery by restraint against Jane Doe 2.
Jurors started deliberating on Dec. 2. It reached a verdict on the 10th day of deliberations, after roughly 41 hours considering the case.
“I have been advised by my bailiff that you have reached verdicts on certain counts but have not been able to reach them on others,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Lisa Lench.
The judge asked jurors if further arguments or read back of testimony can help them reach a decision on the deadlocked charges.
“I believe we will be unable to reach a verdict,” responded a juror.
The jury will return on Tuesday to hear arguments on aggravating factors. Weinstein currently faces a maximum of 18 years in prison, which could become 24 years depending on how the jury decides on those factors.
Weinstein sat at end of the defense table with his lawyers Mark Werksman and Alan Jackson after the jury walked into the ninth floor courtroom of the Clara Shortridge Foltz courthouse in downtown Los Angeles to announce that it had reached a verdict. He looked down and folded his hands as the first guilty verdict was read.
Werksman, Jackson and Deputy District attorney Paul Thompson, who led the prosecution, declined to comment.
The verdict comes on the heels of a host of other decisions in cases with #MeToo implications. Across the hall of the downtown Los Angeles courtroom in which Weinstein’s trial unfolded, a judge declared a mistrial on Nov. 30 in actor Danny Masterson’s rape case after the jury said it was “hopelessly deadlocked.” In New York, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis was ordered to pay $10 million to a woman who accused him of rape, while actor Kevin Spacey beat a sexual misconduct suit brought by Anthony Rapp, who alleged sexual abuse when he was 14.
Weinstein, who reigned as one of Hollywood’s most influential producers, didn’t testify. The defense primarily focused on poking holes in the testimony of the eight accusers — four Jane Does and four named witnesses whose accusations didn’t lead to charges.
Werksman said Jane Does No. 1 and 2 lied about their accusations, while Jane Does No. 3 and 4 had “transactional sex” with Weinstein to advance their careers.
“Take my word for it — five words that sum up the entirety of the prosecution’s case,” said Alan Jackson, also representing Weinstein, in closing arguments on Dec. 1.
Jane Doe No. 1 — a model and actress — testified that she was raped in a hotel room in February 2013. After demanding to be let in, she alleges that Weinstein started to masturbate before forcing her to perform oral sex and raping her. She reported the incident to law enforcement in 2017.
The Hollywood Reporter doesn’t typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they voluntarily come forward. Several of the women who testified against Weinstein have disclosed that they were assaulted.
Among them is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who was a relatively unknown actress when she met Weinstein at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005 before marrying Gov. Gavin Newsom. She testified that she was raped in a meeting Weinstein set up to discuss her career, bursting into tears when asked to identify the disgraced movie mogul. “He’s wearing a suit and a blue tie, and he’s staring at me,” she said from the witness stand.
Prosecutors detailed a “recorded pattern” among the assaults of Weinstein luring his accusers into an isolated hotel room under the guise of professional meetings.
The accusations against Weinstein date to a time when he was at the apex of his powers in Hollywood. Over 40 years in the industry, he played a part in launching the careers of countless A-listers and award winners.
- on Mon 19 Dec 2022 - 16:19
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 8834
The DC Connected Universe (The Batman 2 Delayed a Full Year to October 2026)
With a 2023 Slate Hobbled by Controversial Stars, Warner Bros. and DC Stick to 2022 Titles in Muted Comic-Con Appearance
For most of the 2010s, Warner Bros. cast a massive shadow at San Diego Comic-Con. Between its substantial presence on the showroom floor and a pull-out-all-the-stops presentation in Hall H that could stretch well beyond two hours, the studio was second to none — not even its main rival, Marvel Studios — in its ability to leverage the largest fan convention in North America to its advantage.
This year, the studio took a decidedly different approach. It skipped the show floor completely, including a presence for DC Comics. And while it did use its hour-long panel in Hall H to showcase two of its 2022 releases — “Black Adam” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” — the studio’s biggest DC movies for 2023, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and “The Flash,” were completely MIA. There was no mention of other DC titles like “Batgirl” (expected to debut this year) and “Blue Beetle” (the first Latino superhero film), nor updates on the future of Gal Gadot’s “Wonder Woman” and Robert Pattinson’s “The Batman.” (Meanwhile, persistent internet rumors of an appearance by “Man of Steel” star Henry Cavill also proved to be as unfounded as they seemed.)
Instead, “Shazam! 2” star Zachary Levi bantered with costars Lucy Liu, Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer and director David F. Sandberg, while Helen Mirren and Rachel Zegler appeared in a scripted video message in which Mirren celebrated her female costars by saying, “Yay, pussy power!”
It was up to Dwayne Johnson, in costume as Black Adam, to bring the drama, emerging on a raised platform surrounded in smoke and sending a bolt of lightning into the audience — activating blue lights in lanyards handed out to the Hall H audience.
The crowd lapped it up, but there was a palpable sense that they were eager for more: An audience member asked Levi if Shazam would fight Superman (Levi played dumb and then winked at the audience), and Johnson was asked how Black Adam would fare against the man of steel. (Johnson’s eyebrow-raising reply: “It probably all depends on who’s playing Superman.”)
As for “Aquaman 2” and “The Flash,” studio insiders have said those films are too far away on the schedule to warrant a big splash at Comic-Con. But in previous years, Warner Bros. has used Hall H as a launching pad for films well beyond the calendar year. The 2014 panel for the studio included the first-ever look at 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Zack Snyder first announced 2016’s “Batman v Superman” at Comic-Con in 2013; the panel for the film was held in 2015.
Both “Aquaman 2” and “The Flash” completed shooting months ago, giving their respective directors, James Wan and Andy Muschietti, plenty of time to put together some sizzling footage to whip up the buzz commensurate with the characters’ stature among the Comic-Con faithful.
“Aquaman 2,” however, costars Amber Heard, who just spent months at the center of one of the ugliest public court battles in Hollywood history against her ex-husband Johnny Depp. A jury found in June that they both defamed each other, but Depp was awarded millions more in damages against Heard, who was also relentlessly ridiculed and excoriated by Depp’s fans on social media. (She filed a notice of appeal on July 21.)
And “The Flash” star Ezra Miller is facing multiple allegations of abusive behavior, including choking a woman in Iceland and harassing another woman in her home in Berlin, as well as two arrests in Hawaii this year — once in March, for disorderly conduct and harassment, and another a month later, for second-degree assault. (Miller has never commented on the allegations of misconduct against them; a source close to the situation told Variety in June that the actor is privately focusing on their health and healing, hoping to address the allegations at some point in the future.)
The circumstances of Heard and Miller’s situations are quite different. However, in both cases, Warner Bros. is facing down an impossible dilemma without much precedent, even in the #MeToo era: How to promote their escapist superhero franchises when their stars are embroiled in toxic scandals that overwhelm all other conversation about them.
In the case of “Aquaman 2,” Walter Hamada, who runs the studio’s DC unit, testified in a video deposition in the Heard-Depp trial that the studio did consider recasting Heard in the role of Mera opposite star Jason Momoa because the actors “didn’t have a lot of chemistry together.”
“Editorially they were able to make that relationship work in the first movie, but there was a concern that it took a lot of effort to get there,” Hamada said. It’s not exactly a rousing endorsement for a movie.
Mera, however, isn’t the central character for “Aquaman,” and promotion for the film could downplay Heard’s presence. That isn’t possible for “The Flash,” which is built around Miller’s performances as multiple versions of their speedster character, Barry Allen. Though the studio could replace Miller for any future “Flash” movies, calls to reshoot Muschietti’s film with a new actor are financially untenable.
The Flash was referenced during the panel, in the “Shazam! 2” trailer, just not by name; though the character appeared on screen, Miller’s face did not. (By contrast Aquaman and Batman get a full name-check in the trailer, with Momoa and Ben Affleck’s faces both appearing on screen.)
At some point, Warner Bros. will need to engage the DC fan base about these films and the actors within them. But rather than try to navigate these choppy waters in front of some 6,000-plus superfans at Comic-Con, Warner Bros. elected to avoid them altogether — for now.
- on Sat 23 Jul 2022 - 13:30
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The DC Connected Universe (The Batman 2 Delayed a Full Year to October 2026)
- Replies: 624
- Views: 6878
In Memorium (Kenneth Mitchell, Star Trek: Discovery and Jericho Actor, Dead at 49)
Christopher Plummer Dies: Oscar Winner & ‘Sound Of Music,’ ‘All The Money In The World’ Star A True Hollywood Legend
Christopher Plummer, who starred in The Sound of Music, won an Oscar for Beginners and was nominated for All the Money in the World and The Last Station, died peacefully today at his home in Connecticut, his family confirmed. Elaine Taylor, his wife and true best friend for 53 years, was by his side.
Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and manager of 46 years said; “Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humor and the music of words. He was a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come. He will forever be with us.”
Plummer spent the past 75 years as a stalwart of stage and screen, the latter of which covered more than 100 film. He is best known for playing Captain John Von Trapp in 1965 Robert Wise-directed classic The Sound of Music, but he won his Oscar for the 2010 film Beginners, and he was most recently Oscar nominated for the Ridley Scott-directed All The Money In The World. In that film, he replaced Kevin Spacey in the role of J Paul Getty, after Spacey had an #MeToo downfall. Plummer most recently costarred in the ensemble of the Rian Johnson-directed Knives Out.
Raised in Montreal, Plummer began his professional career on stage and radio in both French and English. After Eva Le Gallienne gave him his New York debut (1954) he went on to star in many celebrated productions on Broadway and London’s West End winning accolades on both sides of the Atlantic.
He won two Tony Awards for the musical Cyrano and for Barrymore plus seven Tony nominations, his latest for his King Lear (2004) and for his Clarence Darrow in Inherit the Wind (2007); also three Drama Desk Awards and the National Arts Club Medal. A former leading member of the Royal National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier and the Royal Shakespeare Company under Sir Peter Hall, where he won London’s Evening Standard Award for Best Actor in Becket; he has also led Canada’s Stratford Festival in its formative years under Sir Tyrone Guthrie and Michael Langham.
Since Sidney Lumet introduced him to the screen in Stage Struck (1958), his range of notable films include The Man Who Would Be King, Battle of Britain, Waterloo, Fall of The Roman Empire, Star Trek VI, Twelve Monkeys and the 1965 Oscar-winning The Sound of Music. More recent films include The Insider as Mike Wallace; (National Film Critics Award), the acclaimed A Beautiful Mind, Man in the Chair, Must Love Dogs, National Treasure, Syriana and Inside Man. His TV appearances, which number close to 100, include the Emmy-winning BBC Hamlet at Elsinore playing the title role; the Emmy-winning productions The Thornbirds, Nuremberg, Little Moon of Alban and HBO’s Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight earning him seven Emmy nominations and taking home two Emmys. He was last seen in the Canadian series, Departures. Apart from honors in the UK, USA, Austria and Canada, he was the first performer to receive the Jason Robards Award in memory of his great friend, the Edwin Booth Award and the Sir John Gielgud Quill Award. In 1968, sanctioned by Elizabeth II, he was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada (an honorary knighthood). An Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at Juilliard, he also received the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. In 1986 he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and in 2000 Canada’s Walk of Fame. Plummer’s projects include the highly praised animated films Up, 9 as well as the title role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam.
He played the great novelist Tolstoy opposite Helen Mirren in The Last Station for Sony Classics where he received his first Academy Award nomination in 2010. He followed that up the next year with another nomination and a win for Best Supporting Actor in Beginners from writer/director Mike Mills and appeared in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that same year. In July and August 2012, he returned to the Stratford Festival to perform his one-man show that he created entitled A Word or Two, directed by Des McAnuff. In 2013, he starred opposite Oscar winner Shirley MacLaine in Elsa & Fred directed by Michael Radford, Hector And The Search for Happiness directed by Peter Chelsom, Danny Collins opposite Al Pacino and Annette Benning for writer/director Dan Fogelman and The Forger opposite John Travolta directed by Phillip Martin. In 2015, he starred in Remember, directed by Atom Egoyan and in 2017 The Exception, based on the novel “The Kaiser’s Last Kiss” co-starring Lily James, Jai Courtney and Janet McTeer and The Man Who Invented Christmas, co-starring Dan Stevens. That same year he replaced Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World, earning him his fourth Golden Globe and third Academy Award nominations. Boundaries for Sony Classics, co-starring Vera Farmiga in 2018, and Last Full Measure with Sebastian Stan, Ed Harris and Samuel L. Jackson. He was recently seen in the very successful KNIVES OUT starring Daniel Craig and Chris Evans. His recent self-written best selling memoir, In Spite of Myself (Alfred A. Knopf Publishers) praised by critics and public remains a best seller.
- on Fri 5 Feb 2021 - 10:27
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: In Memorium (Kenneth Mitchell, Star Trek: Discovery and Jericho Actor, Dead at 49)
- Replies: 569
- Views: 15420
Random Thoughts
joey con carne wrote:Johnny Depp lost his libel lawsuit this morning.
He continues to prove my point that he's nothing but a useless addict and a pile of shit.
Johnny Depp is a wife beater.
Such is the finding of a British court, ruling against Depp’s claims of libel by The Sun newspaper. If nothing else proves how deeply Depp is divorced from reality, it’s that he ever brought this suit.
A former globally famous and beloved movie star, whose singular talent and looks made him a Gen X icon of cool and a one-man Disney franchise — who else could have straddled that line, let alone have invented it? — has lost everything. This is the biggest celebrity self-destruction since Lena Dunham showed photos of her removed uterus to a New York magazine profiler and wondered, without irony, why people find her an off-putting over-sharer.
Now, Depp will forever be known as not just a wife beater, but — due to the sheer volume of detail elicited at trial — a hopeless addict and alcoholic who used a tampon applicator to snort coke, who once sliced off part of his finger and used the bloody stump to scrawl hateful messages to then-wife Amber Heard, who pissed all over the floor in an attempt to write even more hateful words, a 50-something man unsure how he came to lose his entire $650 million fortune.
Oh, and the poop found in the Heard-Depp marital bed, ruled the judge, most likely came not from a vengeful Heard but one of the couple’s dogs.
A high court reduced to ruling on defecation.
Justice Andrew Nichol’s 129-page finding leaves no doubt that Depp is guilty. Here are Depp’s doctor’s notes, damning text exchanges in which Depp repeatedly apologizes to Heard for unspeakable acts, Depp’s admission of “the Monster” within, pathetic instances of childlike temper tantrums, humiliating blackouts on private planes and in luxury mansions.
“I simply do not accept,” Nichol wrote, “that [Depp] simply chose to sleep in the toilet.”
During a text exchange with actor Paul Bettany, Depp writes, “Let’s burn Amber!!! . . . Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f—k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.”
Has Depp not heard of the #MeToo movement? Is he unaware of what happened to Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Les Moonves — men who had nothing near his accrued goodwill? How could Depp not see he’d be left more uninsurable than Robert Downey Jr. at his lowest, banished for life from the Magic Kingdom?
Ah, here’s how: After Depp’s first consult with Dr. David Kipper in May 2014, Kipper wrote, “Mr. Depp is a 50-year-old male who has had a lifelong history of self-medicating behaviors involving multiple substances of abuse,” so dangerously addicted that “I would not recommend withdrawal until he completes his current work.”
Kipper’s later assessments: Depp “actually romanticizes the entire drug culture and has no accountability for his behavior . . . he has no patience for not getting his needs met.”
Kipper also recommended a medically supervised 24-hour detox.
It didn’t take. Nor, found the judge, did Depp’s multiple promises to never hurt Heard again.
It’s shocking to read Johnny Depp, who for decades presented himself as the most evolved and gentle rebel, a doting daddy who once loved nothing more than playing Barbies with his little girl, writing a text message calling Heard “this . . . mushy, pointless dangling overused flappy fish market.”
Johnny Depp talks about women the way Trump does. Who would have ever thought it?
This trial hasn’t just ended Johnny Depp. It ends any pretense that the public-facing image of any Hollywood star, no matter how beloved, should be taken to resemble the private one. It’s another terrible outcome of a terrible year, another loss, confronting Depp as he is, a late-stage Elvis surrounded by yes-men deputized to keep the boss drugged up and in denial.
It’s all such a drag — unless you’re Johnny Depp, transmitting from another planet. Moments after the ruling, his lawyers told the press “it would be ridiculous” for Depp not to appeal.
- on Mon 2 Nov 2020 - 14:07
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 11241
Random Thoughts
Rusty wrote:UltimateMarvel wrote:Rusty wrote:UltimateMarvel wrote:
I also think about moving to Texas if ever I'm able to or get the opportunity ...
#MeToo
Wait, can't tell if you're serious. You would move all the way to Texas? I thought it was nice in Australia?
Australia is cool, but I've always had a thing for Texas. Had I got my shit together when I was younger and could afford to travel, I'm pretty sure I would have landed in Texas.
Nobody who has their shit together, goes to Texas...
- on Wed 21 Oct 2020 - 19:51
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 11241
Random Thoughts
UltimateMarvel wrote:Rusty wrote:UltimateMarvel wrote:
I also think about moving to Texas if ever I'm able to or get the opportunity ...
#MeToo
Wait, can't tell if you're serious. You would move all the way to Texas? I thought it was nice in Australia?
Australia is cool, but I've always had a thing for Texas. Had I got my shit together when I was younger and could afford to travel, I'm pretty sure I would have landed in Texas.
- on Wed 21 Oct 2020 - 17:36
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 11241
Random Thoughts
Rusty wrote:UltimateMarvel wrote:
I also think about moving to Texas if ever I'm able to or get the opportunity ...
#MeToo
Wait, can't tell if you're serious. You would move all the way to Texas? I thought it was nice in Australia?
WyldeMan wrote:Have either of you ever been to Texas cause I have and I sure as hell wouldn't live there.
No, I've never been. But friends and family members said nothing but nice things. Why, what's bad abut it? Talk to me.
joey con carne wrote:I've passed through and I'm okay with it. For $400k you can get a legit four or five bedroom house and property taxes are only like $8,000. In NY, that would be like a million and 20k in property tax. I'm thinking either Plano or Frisco. Both are about 20 minutes away from downtown Dallas. I can dig that.
I've got a few friends who want to go there as well so I wouldn't be alone LOL. We all hate New York and can't wait to GTFO. This state is going to shit. We currently have a $30 billion dollar deficit due to shitty management and I can just feel my taxes are going to go up now. A lot of the rich are leaving NYC (or already left during the pandemic and are not coming back because they realize they can pay less in taxes everywhere else). There is so much inventory in Manhattan now and no one wants to come back. So who's shoulder will this fall on? The middle to upper middle class. Me. I'm going to get fucked soon and I don't like it.
I've been to NY more than a decade ago and it's definitely not for me. It's only good for a quick visit.
- on Wed 21 Oct 2020 - 13:09
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 11241
Random Thoughts
Rusty wrote:UltimateMarvel wrote:
I also think about moving to Texas if ever I'm able to or get the opportunity ...
#MeToo
Have either of you ever been to Texas cause I have and I sure as hell wouldn't live there.
- on Tue 20 Oct 2020 - 22:39
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 11241
Random Thoughts
UltimateMarvel wrote:
I also think about moving to Texas if ever I'm able to or get the opportunity ...
#MeToo
- on Tue 20 Oct 2020 - 22:19
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 11241
Random Thoughts
OH SHIT! Alyssa Milano just fucked with a whole lotta relationships with one tweet!!!!!!!!!!!BTW, Sex Strike?? GREAT BAND NAME!!!
Alyssa Milano Calls For Sex Strike To Protest Restrictive Abortion Laws
Alyssa Milano, one of the leaders of the #MeToo movement, is taking a different approach to battling the so-called “Heartbeat Bill” anti-abortion bill recently codified in Georgia, with similar measures under consideration in other states.
In this case, Milano has advocated a #NoMas approach, calling on women to refrain from sex while their rights to their own bodies are at issue by state legislatures.
“Our reproductive rights are being erased,” Milano said via Twitter. “Until women have legal control over our bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. JOIN ME by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back. I’m calling for a #SexStrike. Pass it on.”
So far, the tweet has won strong approval (although the demographics of supporters weren’t broken out), generating more than 10,000 likes and 4,000 retweets since its apperance on Friday. #SexStrike was also trending on Twitter Saturday.Our reproductive rights are being erased.
Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy.
JOIN ME by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back.
I’m calling for a #SexStrike. Pass it on. pic.twitter.com/uOgN4FKwpg
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) May 11, 2019
- on Sat 11 May 2019 - 15:12
- Search in: General Chat
- Topic: Random Thoughts
- Replies: 990
- Views: 13417
The Predators Thread
Les Moonves Out at CBS Following Multiple Sexual Assault Allegations
Les Moonves is officially out at CBS: The network head has stepped down after 15 years as chairman and CEO at the Eye network, following serious sexual assault allegations leveled against him, CBS announced on Sunday evening.
Moonves’ departure as CEO and chairman of CBS is effective immediately. Chief Operating Officer Joseph Ianniello will serve as President and Acting CEO while the CBS Board searches for a permanent successor.
In addition, CBS will donate $20 million of Moonves’ potential severance to one or more organizations that support the #MeToo movement and gender equality in the workplace.
The allegations against Moonves first came to light in a New Yorker story by Ronan Farrow, in which six women — including actress Ileana Douglas — accused Moonves of touching and kissing them without their consent. Several of the women said they believe that refusing Moonves’ advances hurt their careers in Hollywood. Moonves responded with a statement admitting that he “may have made some women uncomfortable” throughout his career, but insisting that he “never misused [his] position” at CBS.
A second wave of allegations were reported by Farrow in a follow-up story first published on Sunday. That piece included six additional incidents that allegedly took place between the 1980s and 2000s. Among them were accusations made by veteran television executive Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb — who accused Moonves of physically restraining her, forcing her to perform oral sex on him, exposing himself to her and throwing her up against a wall — and Moonves’ former assistant Jessica Pallingston, who alleged that she, too, was coerced into performing oral sex, and became verbally abusive when she denied subsequent advances.
Moonves worked as an executive for CBS for more than two decades, joining the network in 1995 as president of CBS Entertainment. He was promoted to chairman and CEO of CBS in 2003, overseeing an era where the Eye network was TV’s most-watched network for an incredible 15 years. (NBC finally edged out CBS in total viewers last year.) He’s married to Julie Chen, who hosts Big Brother and The Talk for CBS; Chen issued a statement of support for her husband shortly after the allegations began to make headlines.
- on Sun 9 Sep 2018 - 17:11
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
In Memorium (Kenneth Mitchell, Star Trek: Discovery and Jericho Actor, Dead at 49)
ER's Vanessa Marquez Shot and Killed During Altercation With Police
Vanessa Marquez, an actress best known for her role as a nurse on “ER,” was shot and killed by South Pasadena police on Thursday, authorities confirmed on Friday.
Officers were called to Marquez’s home in the 1100 block of Fremont Avenue by a landlord to check on her welfare. When the officers arrived around 12 p.m., she was suffering from seizures and appeared unable to take care of herself. Officers called out paramedics and a mental health clinician, and continued to talk with her. After about 90 minutes, Marquez, 49, armed herself with a BB gun and pointed it at the officers, causing them to open fire, said Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Mendoza.
South Pasadena, a municipality separate from neighboring Pasadena, is eight miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Mendoza told reporters that Marquez appeared to be going through “mental problems” and seemed to be “gravely disabled.”
She appeared as Ana Delgado in the Edward James Olmos-starring film “Stand and Deliver” in 1988, and in 27 episodes of “ER” as nurse Wendy Goldman. Her other credits include the series “Malcom & Eddie” and “Wiseguy.”
Last October, Marquez alleged that she was blacklisted from “ER” by co-star George Clooney after complaining of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.
“Clooney helped blacklist me when I spoke up abt harassment on ER.’women who dont play the game lose career’I did,” she wrote on Twitter.
Clooney issued a statement at the time saying he had nothing to do with casting on the show.
“I had no idea Vanessa was blacklisted,” he said. “I take her at her word. I was not a writer or a producer or a director on that show. I had nothing to do with casting. I was an actor and only an actor. If she was told I was involved in any decision about her career then she was lied to. The fact that I couldn’t affect her career is only surpassed by the fact that I wouldn’t.”
Marquez also wrote on social media that she was suffering from immune disorders, including celiac disease. She said several times that she was diagnosed as “terminal,” was suffering from chronic pain, and was “homebound.”
Marquez had alleged she was groped on the set of “ER” well before the #MeToo movement last fall. She claimed that when she complained to the producers, she was exiled.
“I was blacklisted and my career was over at 26,” she wrote on Facebook in January 2017. “Why are women afraid to speak up ‘at the time?’ Because everything they’ve ever worked for is RIPPED away from them. For being a goddamn victim and expecting protection.”
She also wrote extensively about her health problems and said she was entering “that Norma Desmond stage that some actors do. Watching their old stuff on tv.”
“A person only has so much strength and I’m afraid I’ve used all mine up,” she wrote. “Why couldn’t my dream have lasted for more than just those few years?”
- on Sat 1 Sep 2018 - 7:31
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: In Memorium (Kenneth Mitchell, Star Trek: Discovery and Jericho Actor, Dead at 49)
- Replies: 569
- Views: 15420
Top Gun: Maverick (May 27, 2022)
joey con carne wrote:This part of the article annoyed me. What’s wrong with saying he isnt interested in working with female singers for this collaboration? People are so fucking sensitive these days.
“BOYCOTT KENNY LOGGINS AND TOM CRUISE AND TOP GUN. THEY HATE WOMEN. #METOO #IMRETARDED”
No, assholes, he has an artistic vision for his god damn song and that vision includes a male singer. He doesn’t hate women. People are stupid these days. And you know that is why that explanation is in the article. It is to prevent retarded folks from jumping to conclusions.
It's probably cause two dudes serenading each other on a ballad about riding together into the danger zone sounds like gay code for meeting in a men's public toilet. Using a powerful woman of rock's voice someone like a Lzzy Hale would make the song not so fucking gay but gay is what they've committed to and there's no going back.
- on Thu 7 Jun 2018 - 11:06
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: Top Gun: Maverick (May 27, 2022)
- Replies: 10
- Views: 683
Top Gun: Maverick (May 27, 2022)
WyldeMan wrote:The rockers that I'm interested in are male."
To be clear, Kenny Loggins wasn't saying he isn't interested in female rockers, but it's just that the ones being looked at to possibly collaborate with for this new take on Danger Zone are male.
This part of the article annoyed me. What’s wrong with saying he isnt interested in working with female singers for this collaboration? People are so fucking sensitive these days.
“BOYCOTT KENNY LOGGINS AND TOM CRUISE AND TOP GUN. THEY HATE WOMEN. #METOO #IMRETARDED”
No, assholes, he has an artistic vision for his god damn song and that vision includes a male singer. He doesn’t hate women. People are stupid these days. And you know that is why that explanation is in the article. It is to prevent retarded folks from jumping to conclusions.
- on Thu 7 Jun 2018 - 10:33
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: Top Gun: Maverick (May 27, 2022)
- Replies: 10
- Views: 683
The Predators Thread
Bill Cosby Found Guilty On All Counts In Sexual Assault Retrial
After years of sexual assault accusations, Bill Cosby is now a convicted felon.
A Montgomery County jury of seven men and five women returned guilty verdicts today on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for Cosby’s January 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand. Constand, a former Temple University employee, lost consciousness after Cosby gave her three blue pills and a sip of wine. She came to with Cosby digitally penetrating and groping her and forcing her hand on his penis.
The jurors spent nearly 15 hours over two days deciding the verdict.
Victims of Cosby sitting in the Norristown, PA, courtroom shrieked and cried in delight after the first verdict was announced. The comic sat forward on the edge of his chair, showing little emotion.
Judge Steven O’Neill didn’t announce a date for sentencing, but state law requires it within 100 days of a conviction. Cosby, 80, could face up to 30 years in prison, a stiff fall from grace for the pioneering actor who’s amassed tens of millions of dollars over his career and became known as “America’s Dad” renowned for his wholesomeness and wisdom after starring in the landmark The Cosby Show.
Cosby originally had escaped guilt during a trial last year after the jury was deadlocked over five days of deliberations. His attorneys also had pursued more than a dozen court hearings and numerous attempts to get the charges dropped since he was first charged on December 30, 2015.
Despite more than 50 women coming forward with sexual assault claims against Cosby, the alleged assault of Constand has been the only one contested in court. With the statute of limitations having expired for the rest of them, the fate of Cosby rested solely in the hands of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
Its prosecution was buoyed this time around by O’Neill allowing five other accusers to testify. Last year, just one other accuser could take the stand. Cosby’s lawyers had motioned to prevent the other accusers from testifying, fearing a #MeToo atmosphere would take over the courtroom. The attempt was to no avail.
Janice Dickinson, Heidi Thomas, Janice Baker-Kinney, Lise-Lotte Lublin and Chelan Lasha provided testimony that they were drugged by Cosby with wine or pills, matching Constand’s story. All of the women except for Lublin said they were sexually assaulted by him. The prosecution called it Cosby’s “signature plan.” At times, they rebuked strong questioning from the defense, such as when attorney Kathleen Bliss asked Thomas whether she was testifying to help Constand.
“I want to see a serial rapist convicted,” Thomas said.
Unlike last year, when Cosby’s previous attorneys attempted to cast the Cosby-Constand relationship as romantic, they categorized her this time around as a gold-digger, pointing to the $3.4 million settlement she received from Cosby. The strategy was apparent from lawyer Tom Mesreau’s opening statement, when he said, “Does it sound like Mr. Cosby betrayed her or that she betrayed him and tried to milk him for over $3 million?”
Barbara Ashcroft, a Temple University law professor and former prosecutor in the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, said the defense may have gone too strong in this direction. The idea may have backfired because it set up a burden the defense needed to meet — and didn’t.
“When you put out that kind of defense the jurors are looking for that throughout the trial,” said Ashcroft, who also advises the Department of the Navy on sexual assault cases. “If that’s your narrative, you better come through.”
The prosecution addressed the gold-digger accusations head on. District Attorney Kevin Steele pre-empted the defense by mentioning the settlement amount in his opening statement. Assistant district attorney Kristen Feden began her questioning of Constand by asking her why she was in the courtroom.
“For justice,” Constand said.
- on Thu 26 Apr 2018 - 11:23
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
Ashleigh Banfield Rips Aziz Ansari Accuser on HLN, Calls Allegations 'Reckless and Hollow'
In the wake of sexual assault allegations against Master of None star Aziz Ansari, HLN host Ashleigh Banfield had some brutally honest words for Ansari’s accuser on Monday.
In a Jan. 13 article on Babe.net, 23-year-old photographer Grace (an alias) detailed a date with Ansari that ended in an uncomfortable — and by her account, nonconsensual — sexual encounter with the actor. After the article was published, Ansari said in a statement that “it was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.”
On Monday’s broadcast of her HLN program Crime & Justice, Banfield addressed Ansari’s accuser with an open letter, criticizing her for putting Ansari in the same category as men like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey.
“You had a bad date. Your date got overly amorous,” Banfield began. “After protesting his moves, you did not get up and leave right away. You continued to engage in the sexual encounter. By your own clear description, this was not a rape, nor was it a sexual assault. By your description, your sexual encounter was unpleasant.”
Banfield, looking incredulous, continued by asking Grace what she had hoped to accomplish by going public with this story.
“I have to ask you, what exactly was your beef? That you had a bad date with Aziz Ansari?” she asked. “Is that what victimized you to the point of seeking a public conviction and a career-ending sentence against him? Is that what you truly thought he deserved for your night out?”
Banfield concluded by acknowledging the #MeToo movement, which she said has taken a hit because of Grace’s “reckless and hollow” accusations against Ansari.
“You have chiseled away at a movement that I, along with all of my other sisters in the workplace, have been dreaming of for decades,” she said. “A movement that has finally changed an oversexed professional environment that I, too, have struggled through at times over the last 30 years in broadcasting… I hope the next time you go on a bad date, you stand up sooner, you smooth out your dress and you bloody well leave. Because the only sentence that a guy like that deserves is a bad case of blue balls, not a Hollywood blackball.”
- on Thu 18 Jan 2018 - 9:29
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
All Sheedy kicked off a lot of talk about James Franco following his Golden Globe wn on Sunday after she tweeted #MeToo and several more women have joined the conversation. On top of his predatory behavior with grown women, Franco also has a thing for underage girls as we all pretty much knew after that Snapchat incident when he tried to bang that 15 year old but as it turns out she wasn't the only jail bait Franco was hunting for. He has always been such a creepy fucker, that honestly he is not the least bit surprising of a reveal and I wouldn't mourn the loss of his career as I've avoided pretty much everything he's made for nearly a decade now.- on Wed 10 Jan 2018 - 5:26
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
U.S.A. Gymnastics Paid McKayla Maroney for Silence in Sex Abuse Case, Lawsuit Says
Olympic gold medalist [b]McKayla Maroney said the U.S.A. Gymnastics team paid her a settlement and pressured her to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the sexual abuse she and others suffered at the hands of the team doctor, Larry Nassar. The claims were made in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Her lawyer, John Manly, who was not involved in negotiating the original settlement, argues that the agreement was illegal as they obscured abuse of minors. The case names United States Olympic Committee, U.S.A. Gymnastics, Nassar, and his former full-time employer, Michigan State University, as defendants.[/b]
The suit alleges that the gymnast “was forced to agree to a non-disparagement clause and confidentiality provision,” which held “a six-figure liquidated damages clause over the head of McKayla Maroney and her parents.” Manly said in a statement:The U.S. Olympic Committee and U.S.A. Gymnastics were well aware that the victim of child sexual abuse in California cannot be forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of a settlement. Such agreements are illegal for very good reasons—they silence victims and allow perpetrators to continue committing their crimes. That is exactly what happened in this case.
U.S.A. Gymnastics struck the deal in 2016, as rumors of Nassar’s abuse began to spread. Dozens of women from the four Olympic games for which he was the women’s gymnastics team’s physician have since come forward with accusations of sexual assault, including [b]Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, both members of the 2012 London Olympics’ “Fierce Five” along with Maroney. The Wall Street Journal, reports that Maroney’s settlement was $1.25 million. Hers is the only settlement with U.S.A. Gymnastics known at this time. (Nassar has since pleaded guilty to federal child-pornography charges and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison earlier this month. Vanity Fair has reached out to Nassar’s attorney as well as Michigan State for comment.)[/b]
A spokesperson for U.S.A. Gymnastics said in a statement that they entered into confidential negotiations at the request of her lawyer at the time, [b]Gloria Allred. “In 2016, McKayla’s attorney at the time, Gloria Allred, approached U.S.A. Gymnastics, requesting that the organization participate in a confidential mediation process. U.S.A. Gymnastics cannot speak to the mediation process, which is confidential and privileged under California law.” (Allred declined to comment.)[/b]
“Although U.S.A. Gymnastics is disappointed by today's filing, we applaud McKayla and others who speak up against abusive behavior—including the despicable acts of Larry Nassar,” the statement went on. “We want to work together with McKayla and others to help encourage and empower athletes to speak up against abuse.”
For its part, the U.S. Olympic Committee denies being a part of the settlement. U.S.O.C. spokesperson [b]Mark Jones said in a statement:[/b]We were first made aware of the possibility that a U.S.A. Gymnastics physician had sexually abused U.S.A. Gymnastics athletes in the summer of 2015 when we were informed by U.S.A. Gymnastics. At that time, U.S.A. Gymnastics indicated that they were in the process of contacting the appropriate law-enforcement agencies. We are heartbroken that this abuse occurred, proud of the brave victims that have come forward, and grateful that our criminal-justice system has ensured that Nassar will never be able to harm another young woman. We are hopeful that with the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s continued education and prevention efforts, as well as their investigative and adjudicative authority, we will help ensure that tragedies like this will never happen again.
Maroney violated the settlement’s terms when she posted about her abuse under the #MeToo hashtag that coalesced after the [b]Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment and assault scandal broke this October. She’s since deleted her social-media accounts, but she said that her abuse at the hands of Nassar began when she was 13. “I had a dream to go to the Olympics, and the things that I had to endure to get there were unnecessary and disgusting,” she wrote. “For me, the scariest night of my life happened when I was 15 years old. I had flown all day and night with the team to get to Tokyo. He’d given me a sleeping pill for the flight, and the next thing I know, I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a ‘treatment.’ I thought I was going to die that night.”[/b]
Manly told ESPN that Wednesday’s filing could expose Maroney to countersuit from U.S.A. Gymnastics, but he feels that it’s unlikely the organization would triumph. “People need to understand the courage it took to put out that Twitter post. She not only was exposing her humiliating story, but she was also putting herself at legal risk,“ he said.
“I want people to understand that this kid had no choice. She couldn’t function. She couldn’t work,” Manly continued. “[U.S.A. Gymnastics] were willing to sacrifice the health and well-being of one of the most famous gymnasts in the world because they didn’t want the world to know they were protecting a pedophile doctor.”
- on Thu 21 Dec 2017 - 13:41
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
Danny Masterson has been accused of raping yet another woman.
On Wednesday actress Bobette Riales tweeted, in no uncertain terms, that she was raped by the former "That 70s Show" star.
She added that she wasn't seeking anything other than "justice and to prevent this from ever happening to anyone else."
In closing Riales vowed, "My truth will be heard." She tagged a previous accuser, Chrissie Bixler, whom she applauded for her "strength."
Bixler responded to Riales' tweet, saying that she was "so proud."
Riales is one of four other women who have accused Masterson, 41, of violently raping them in the early 2000s. He has been under investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for nearly a year, law officials confirmed to the Daily News.
As a result of the mounting allegations against him, Masterson was recently dropped from his Netflix series, "The Ranch."
On Dec. 5, a spokesperson issued a statement to the Huffington Post about Masterson's firing."As a result of ongoing discussions, Netflix and the producers have written Danny Masterson out of 'The Ranch.' Yesterday was his last day on the show, and production will resume in early 2018 without him," the statement read.
Masterson vehemently denied rape accusations.
A representative for the actor released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, suggesting that the allegations against Masterson — a noted scientologist — were motivated by victims' association with Leah Remini, who left the church.
"We are aware of (the alleged victim's) 16-year-old allegations. It was only after (the alleged victim) was in contact with Leah Remini that she made allegations of sexual assault by Mr. Masterson," the rep stated.
I stayed quiet long enough. Danny Masterson repeatedly raped me. All I seek is justice and to prevent this from ever happening to anyone else as it has for some time. My truth will be heard. I applaud her strength as well. @ChrissieBixler #metoo #sisters
— Bobette Riales (@RialesMBobette) December 21, 2017
"The alleged incident occurred in the middle of their 6-year relationship, after which she continued to be his longtime girlfriend. Significantly, during their long relationship she made numerous claims that she was previously raped by at least 3 other famous actors and musicians."
The statement went on, accusing the victim of continuing to reach out to Masterson after their relationship ended, even going as far as threatening his wife.You are amazing. I’m so proud of you. He will never do this to another human being ever again. He’s a thief in the night, but he overlooked some incredibly valuable things we still possess. Our voice. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
— chrissie carnell-bixler (@ChrissieBixler) December 21, 2017
"When Danny ended the relationship she continued to pursue him, even making threats to beat up his current wife Bijou Phillips unless she left him. In fact, we are informed by the Church that the only demand (alleged victim's) made of the Church after Danny broke up with her was asking for their help to intervene so the breakup would not be permanent," it read.
Masterson has not yet responded to the latest allegations against him.
- on Thu 21 Dec 2017 - 10:46
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
‘Silicon Valley’ Star T.J. Miller Accused of Sexually Assaulting and Punching a Woman
Ever since his college days, allegations of sexual violence have followed the acclaimed comic and ‘Silicon Valley’ actor. Now, his accuser comes forward.
Warning: This story includes graphic content.
An alleged victim of former Silicon Valley star T.J. Miller is coming forward with accusations that Miller hit and sexually assaulted her while in college.
The accusations were eventually addressed by a student court at George Washington University and have been buzzed about in Hollywood and stand-up circles for years.
“He just tried a lot of things without asking me, and at no point asked me if I was all right,” the woman told The Daily Beast. “He choke[d] me, and I kept staring at his face hoping he would see that I was afraid and [that he] would stop… I couldn’t say anything.”
Miller’s alleged victim, who asked to remain anonymous, said she is coming forward now in part because of the societal awakening to issues of sexual assault and harassment that has come in the aftermath of misconduct allegations that have rocked the entertainment industry. The Daily Beast is withholding her identity because of her fears of retribution. But for the purposes of this piece, we will call her Sarah.
Miller has told friends over the years that he was wrongfully accused. And in a statement to The Daily Beast, Miller and his wife, Kate, denied any wrongdoing. Instead, they cast themselves as the victims.
Sarah “began again to circulate rumors online once [my and Kate’s] relationship became public. Sadly she is now using the current climate to bandwagon and launch these false accusations again,” the Millers wrote. “It is unfortunate that she is choosing this route as it undermines the important movement to make women feel safe coming forward about legitimate claims against real known predators.”
“Miller began ‘shaking [her] violently’ and punched her in the mouth during sex.”
But it’s not just Sarah who has come forward. The Daily Beast has corroborated details of her story—which includes two separate incidents—with five GW contemporaries and spoke to numerous associates of both her and Miller.
Two of the GW contemporaries say they were in the off-campus house where the incidents allegedly occurred. The contemporaries later testified in student court about hearing the sound of violent thuds or seeing bruises on Sarah.
Three other contemporaries said they comforted and counseled Sarah in the aftermath of the incidents. Matt Lord was one of them. An ex-boyfriend of Sarah’s, he told The Daily Beast that he continues to believe her story more than a decade after the fact.
“I attended George Washington University for undergraduate studies from 2000 until December 2003... I had a romantic relationship with [this] woman, who spoke with me about T.J. Miller sexually assaulting her,” Lord, who currently works as an attorney in Montague, Massachusetts, wrote in a statement to The Daily Beast. “At the time I believed the statements she made regarding the assault by Mr. Miller, and I continue to believe the statements she made are true. She was engaged in student conduct proceedings regarding the sexual assault, and I remember the emotional toll that the assault and the subsequent conduct hearings placed on her.”
In the years since, Miller has attempted to address the lingering allegations by occasionally making light of them. He’s privately joked about committing violence against a woman in his past, according to three sources in the comedy world. Perhaps that is why some female performers and comedy professionals tell The Daily Beast that they have declined to work with Miller, citing a perceived history of abusive behavior.
The incidents took place at GW where Miller was a student and Sarah was taking classes but not matriculating. They fell in with the same GW comedy troupe, receSs, during which time they struck up a relationship. “I felt relatively safe with T.J. at the time,” Sarah explained.
But months into their relationship, which started in the fall of 2001, Sarah said the first troubling encounter took place. She recalled having “a lot to drink” and admitted that there are “parts of [the incident] I don’t remember.” She stressed that “it is important to me to cop to that… [and] I’m not interested in forcing a pretend memory on anyone… 15 years later, I remain terrified of accusing someone of something they didn’t do, but I have a visual and physical memory of that.”
However, Sarah said she has a distinct memory that as they were “fooling around” at her place, Miller began “shaking me violently” and punched her in the mouth during sex.
Sarah said that she woke up the following morning with a fractured tooth and a bloodied lip. When she asked Miller about it that morning, he claimed, according to Sarah, that she had simply fallen down drunkenly the past evening.
She was unsettled by the incident, but said that she did not know many people in D.C. and continued to see Miller. She had lost her virginity to him and, at least for a brief window, he was someone she trusted.
“I couldn’t bring myself [at the time] to believe this had happened... It was me not wanting it to be true.”
“I couldn’t bring myself [at the time] to believe this had happened,” Sarah said. “It was me not wanting it to be true.”
A few days after the first incident, Sarah got word that she would no longer be participating in receSs. She was upset and disappointed and said that she called Miller to confide in him. She had not fully processed the first encounter, she said, and Miller was still someone she believed she could turn to in a time of stress and vulnerability.
They soon met at a college party, and left in a cab to head back to the apartment she had been renting with her roommates. When they arrived back at her home, they began to engage in consensual sex—but then Miller became violent again, Sarah said. She emphasized that she had not had more than two drinks that evening, and that her memory of the following “five-hour” ordeal was and is “crystal-clear.”
“We started to fool around, and very early in that, he put his hands around my throat and closed them, and I couldn’t breathe,” she recalled. “I was genuinely terrified and completely surprised. I understand now that this is for some people a kink, and I continue to believe it is [something] that should be entered into by consenting parties. But, as someone who had only begun having sexual encounters, like, about three months earlier, I had no awareness this was a kink, and I had certainly not entered into any agreement that I would be choked.
“I was fully paralyzed,” Sarah continued.
Sarah claimed that she was “choking audibly”—to the point that her roommates could hear what was happening and rushed over to knock on her bedroom door. Sarah said she then got up and walked to her door in a robe, and one of her roommates asked if everything was OK.
“I don’t know,” she responded, before shutting the door, “I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“He pulled me back to bed and more things happened,” Sarah said. “He anally penetrated me without my consent, which I actually believe at that point I cried out, like, ‘No,’ and he didn’t continue to do that—but he also had a [beer] bottle with him the entire time. He used the bottle at one point to penetrate me without my consent.”
During the incident, Sarah said she “froze.” She says she “wasn’t prepared” for what had happened and that she “didn’t want to believe it was happening.”
Miller finally left her apartment around 5 a.m. The next morning, Sarah said she confided in her roommates about what had happened. One of those housemates, who is currently a Maryland resident and stay-at-home mom who asked not to be named in this story, confirmed as much to The Daily Beast.
“I knew T.J. was in her bedroom and I was in my bedroom, which was a wall away,” the source said. “My [other] roommate was in my bedroom with me and we heard a loud smacking noise, and we were concerned… The very next day when we talked to [Sarah] she was very upset, and… had said he had hit her in a very violent way.”
Katie Duffy, a former GW student and another of Sarah’s ex-housemates, said she had not realized that the “T.J.” from that night was the famed actor and comedian until informed by The Daily Beast. (She conceded she “had to Google him.”) But she recalled the incident much as Sarah had described it.
“One night, she had [Miller] back, and late at night… [a housemate and I] heard quite a lot of fighting [sounds] and banging, and loud, violent sounds [in the room next to us],” Duffy said. “So we knocked on the door of our housemate [Sarah], and asked if she was OK. She did indicate she was OK. Whatever response she gave, we felt we didn’t have to intervene further, at least at the time… Looking back, I wish we had done more to intervene, but we didn’t know what was going on… This is a girl I didn’t know very well, but it didn’t mean I didn’t have the power to go into that room, and remove her from that situation, and protect her. We did what we thought was the right thing at the time. It wasn’t enough.”
The next morning, Duffy recalled, Sarah came down to the small kitchen where other housemates were having coffee and breakfast. Her physical appearance raised alarm.
“She looked like she had been through a rough night—I recall seeing bruises [on Sarah],” Duffy said. “One roommate asked if she wanted to go to the police. Others offered to take her to the hospital, given how she looked.”
Sarah ultimately declined. Duffy moved out shortly thereafter, and said she hasn’t spoken to Sarah since, simply because “we didn’t know each other well.”
In the days and weeks that directly followed the alleged sexual assaults, Sarah’s friendship with Miller disintegrated completely. She said they met once more, days after that second night, to talk about what had happened; “T.J. said it was a ‘trust thing’… and that he thought I was into it,” Sarah recalled.
As they drifted apart, she asked mutual friends of Miller’s about the incident. According to Sarah and those close to her, the responses were fairly uniform, to the effect of, “Yeah, that’s just T.J.” The only other time she would see him over the next year was at a female comedy group show that she attended. “T.J. showed up to heckle, and I remember being so angry,” she said, “and had to leave.”
“She looked like she had been through a rough night—I recall seeing bruises... One roommate asked if she wanted to go to the police. Others offered to take her to the hospital.”
It would be almost a year—following much deliberations, counsel, and support from friends—before Sarah went to GW’s campus police to tell them what had happened. By then, Miller was in his last year at the university.
“I was not ready to process what was happening [the prior year], and I have spent a lot of time in my life apologizing for not having shouted ‘no,’ and for not having told my roommates to get him out of here,” Sarah said, explaining why she didn’t go to campus police a year earlier. “I was not ready to reconcile the events taking place with the person I had known. It was so disorienting and so physically traumatic.”
Like other female college students in similar circumstances, Sarah did not want to take the case to the cops since nearly a year had passed, and there was no remaining physical evidence. Instead, her allegations were handled by the “student court” at the university.
At this point, Sarah asked her housemate—the current Maryland mom who heard the “loud smacking noise”—if she would testify in the student court process, and she agreed.
“I testified in student court about the noise I had heard and how upset she was after the incident,” Sarah’s former housemate recalled to The Daily Beast. “T.J. was there with a lawyer during the student court proceeding.”
That housemate subsequently asked Duffy if she’d testified. “I was happy to,” Duffy said, recalling that she did not see Sarah at the student court during her testimony, but said that Miller, his father, and his attorney were there.
“I was asked why I hadn’t done anything [more] if I was so worried… and I said, well, the noises were loud enough that it did prompt us to ask what was wrong, so we did do something,” Duffy said. “I felt very uncomfortable, the way they were challenging me on it.”
Sarah said that the student court grilled her about “all my habits,” including what she had to drink, and how much, on both nights. She was asked if she had ever heard of erotic asphyxiation, and was asked if they had ever discussed the sexual practice, which she had not.
After a trial period that lasted a couple of weeks, Sarah said that the university told her that the issue had been resolved.
A GW spokesperson would only tell The Daily Beast that “because of federal privacy law, we are not able to provide information about current or former students’ education records,” in response to inquiries regarding a campus PD report or the student court proceedings. The federal law GW is referencing is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
GW did confirm, however, that Miller graduated in 2003, but did not comment on whether he “graduated early” due to any unique circumstance. Other knowledgeable sources told The Daily Beast that Miller was “expelled after he graduated”—an outcome that appeared to be an attempt by the university to satisfy both parties.
Sarah said she had lost acquaintances over her allegations, several of whom were her former comedy-troupe cohorts, most of whom ended up supporting Miller.
Four of these friends spoke to The Daily Beast, though none agreed to do so on the record. Each of these friends was in the college comedy troupe or matriculating at GW at the time. And all of them presented the same general portrait of Miller as a gregarious and generous person who “couldn’t have done this,” as several said.
“I’ve known T.J. since college, always known him to be a very caring person, and respectful, particularly toward women,” one friend said. “And he loves his wife very, very much.”
Another source, who testified in student court (via phone, post-graduation) on Miller’s behalf, said it was unimaginable that T.J. could do “anything like that.”
“I have never heard of another woman [who dated him in college] make any kind of allegation or insinuation that he was anything but a good guy,” the friend continued. Another friend insisted that Miller “was the type of person if you took him to a strip club, he would want to talk to the strippers, not hit on them.”
No one has accused Miller of hitting on strippers.
A source also produced a set of email exchanges between Miller and someone who dated Sarah later in life. The emails, one of which was presented without the conversation that preceded it, didn’t directly address the incident itself but instead showed both parties trying to come to a more amicable understanding. Sarah told The Daily Beast that she was simply under “some social pressure to be cool about this at the time, and didn't necessarily see myself as having any other option to resolution.”
One of Miller’s friends said he “believed [Sarah] knew she was making this up” to “intentionally and maliciously fabricate” a sexual-assault allegation. This friend could not offer any evidence to support such a claim, nor could another person, who wasn’t a friend of Miller’s but shared a similar view and testified on his behalf.
Kate and T.J. Miller made similar accusations in a statement provided weeks after first learning that The Daily Beast was reporting on these incidents.
“We met this woman over a decade ago while studying together in college, she attempted to break us up back then by plotting for over a year before making contradictory claims and accusations,” the Millers wrote.
“She was asked to leave our university comedy group because of worrisome and disturbing behavior, which angered her immensely, she then became fixated on our relationship, and began telling people around campus ‘I’m going to destroy them’ and ‘I’m going to ruin him,’” the statement continued.
When asked about these claims, Sarah’s responded, “Of course not.”
“He was a friend to me before [the incidents], and he had been there for me before that,” she said. “I didn’t want him in jail. I didn’t hate him. He was someone I cared about… I don’t want to mess up his life. But he behaved in a way towards me that I have to live with… [and] I don’t think it’s appropriate that I carry this by myself.”
If Sarah was eager to settle scores with Miller, she certainly didn’t show it. When The Daily Beast first started looking into this story, those close to her said for months that she had expressed no desire to come forward and was actively avoiding media inquiries. Only weeks after the advent of the #MeToo movement did that seem to change.
Miller soon left his alma mater and became a star in stand-up comedy. He then began appearing in major Hollywood productions, and landed a starring role on the critically lauded HBO show Silicon Valley. But despite the lack of public accusations since his time at George Washington, whispers about what happened in his college years followed him.
Four female comedians and bookers who spoke to The Daily Beast said that they had heard of the alleged sexual misconduct at GW. Some of these comics had heard about the accusations from Sarah directly, and have since warned women in stand-up comedy about Miller.
But some know about the sexual-assault allegations because Miller talked about them himself when confiding in friends and associates.
Four sources in the L.A. and Chicago comedy scenes—including JC Coccoli, a Los Angeles-based producer who briefly dated Miller in 2009—said they each first heard of the allegations because Miller had told them about them or referenced them in private conversation, or at small gatherings before or after shows. Miller did so in the context of vehemently denying “rumors” circulating in various comedy communities. Other times, he would crack jokes about punching a woman he knew in college, two other comics independently told The Daily Beast.
Maura Brown, a comedy festival organizer and publicist who used to work in L.A. and has since uprooted to Portland, Oregon, said she has also heard about the Miller allegation for years.
“Very commonly, women have warned each other [in entertainment] about him… and about what happened in college,” Brown told The Daily Beast.
Brown noted that starting in 2013, when she first heard about the allegations, she “never wanted to work with him [ever], and never wanted to work on the same projects as him,” and that “this convinced me to not try to book him or promote him in any way.”
“I didn’t want him in jail. I didn’t hate him. But he behaved in a way towards me that I have to live with… I don’t think it’s appropriate that I carry this by myself.”
Still, Miller, whose star is increasingly rising in Hollywood these days, continues to have friends in high places in the entertainment world.
Miller is set to appear in several major film projects, including an upcoming movie co-starring Kristen Stewart and another starring Ryan Reynolds. This year, HBO aired his stand-up special, and Comedy Central started airing The Gorburger Show, what Miller has previously told The Daily Beast is his “passion project” about a murderous alien talk-show host.
Sarah, his alleged victim, no longer lives in L.A., where she resettled not long after auditing at GW. She says she had a “wonderful experience doing improv and comedy” in the local comedy scene, and tried to put what happened with Miller behind her.
“I had to see him at my improv school [in L.A.], which I, shortly after, stopped going to, and see him at stand-up shows, and I stopped doing stand-up [eventually in L.A.],” Sarah said. “It doesn’t help that when I was living in L.A. I had to keep seeing his name on billboards, and on bus stops, and it just didn’t… stop.”
She added, “It is unfathomable to me that he doesn’t understand that he actually put me through something I have to live with, that I never would’ve chosen, that completely, completely set the tone for my sexual adult life, that I actively had to spend years and years… un-programming.”
- on Tue 19 Dec 2017 - 14:20
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
Minnie Driver, Alyssa Milano Call Out Matt Damon For “Tone Deaf” Comments About Sexual Assault
Minnie Driver and Matt Damon are reconnecting — but it’s under circumstances that could be better. The Oscar-nominated actress recently took to Twitter to slam her Good Will Hunting co-star about his recent comments about sexual assault.
In the wake of the deluge of sexual misconduct accusations involving Harvey Weinstein and Ben Affleck, two men who Damon has worked closely with, the Downsizing actor spoke to Peter Travers on ABC on Thursday about the cloud of allegations hovering over Hollywood. He pointed out that the men being accused are being put into “one big bucket” and then said that there is a “spectrum of behavior.”
“You know, there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?” he said in the interview. “Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right?”
When Driver received word of his comments, she took to Twitter saying, “God God, SERIOUSLY?” From there, she did not hold back and continued to drag Damon and other men who share the same opinions.
“Gosh it’s so interesting how men with all these opinions about women’s differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem (profoundly unsurprising),” she tweeted.Gosh it’s so *interesting how men with all these opinions about women’s differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem( *profoundly unsurprising)
— Minnie Driver (@driverminnie) December 15, 2017
This was followed by an enormous amount of support from other women. In an interview with the Guardian, Driver said that she felt the need to say something and that men “cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level.”
“I honestly think that until we get on the same page, you can’t tell a woman about their abuse,” continued Driver. “A man cannot do that. No one can. It is so individual and so personal, it’s galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms, whether he intends it or not.”
Other women in Hollywood came forward to criticize Damon’s clouded point of view including Alyssa Milano. In a series of tweets, Milano addressed Damon in a series of tweets saying that women are outraged “because we were silenced for so long.” She went on to compare sexual harassment, misconduct, assault, and violence to cancer saying that it is a “systemic disease.” She concluded, “The tumor is being cut out right now with no anesthesia. Please send flowers.”Dear Matt Damon,
It’s the micro that makes the macro.
(Thread)
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 16, 2017We are in a “culture of outrage” because the magnitude of rage is, in fact, overtly outrageous. And it is righteous.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 16, 2017I have been a victim of each component of the sexual assault spectrum of which you speak. They all hurt. And they are all connected to a patriarchy intertwined with normalized, accepted–even welcomed– misogyny.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 16, 2017We are not outraged because someone grabbed our asses in a picture. We are outraged because we were made to feel this was normal. We are outraged because we have been gaslighted. We are outraged because we were silenced for so long.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 16, 2017There are different stages of cancer. Some more treatable than others. But it’s still cancer.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 16, 2017Sexual harassment, misconduct, assault and violence is a systemic disease. The tumor is being cut out right now with no anesthesia. Please send flowers. #MeToo
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 16, 2017
- on Mon 18 Dec 2017 - 7:44
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
Uma Thurman Posts #MeToo Message, Calls Out Harvey Weinstein: ‘You Don’t Deserve a Bullet’
Uma Thurman took to Instagram on Thanksgiving to post a cryptic #MeToo message and called out Harvey Weinstein in the process.
“I am grateful today, to be alive, for all those I love, and for all those who have the courage to stand up for others,” the actress said in her message.
“I said I was angry recently, and I have a few reasons, #metoo, in case you couldn’t tell by the look on my face,” she continued an apparent reference to her response to a question about sexual misconduct in a “Access Hollywood” interview two weeks ago.
While she didn’t make any specific accusations, she wished a happy Thanksgiving to everyone except disgraced indie mogul Harvey Weintstein and what she called his “wicked conspirators.” She said she’s glad his downfall is “going slowly.”
“You don’t deserve a bullet,” she added, before hinting at further revelations.
“Stay tuned,” concluded the actress, who dropped CAA as her agency earlier this week.
Thurman has worked several times with Weinstein, including on her Oscar-nominated breakout role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film “Pulp Fiction” as well as two “Kill Bill” movies.
Thurman also starred in “Beautiful Girls” and “Burnt,” two films that were distributed by Weinstein-owned companies.
It’s not the first time that Thurman has hinted at personal conflict with Weinstein since he was fired by The Weinstein Company in the wake of multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault. (He has denied engaging in nonconsensual sex but is under investigation by authorities in New York, L.A. and London.)
“I don’t have a tidy soundbite for you, because — I have learned — I am not a child and I have learned that… when I’ve spoken in anger, I usually regret the way I express myself,” she said, carefully choosing her words in the “Access Hollywood” interview.
“So I’ve been waiting to feel less angry… and when I’m ready, I’ll say what I have to say.”
- on Fri 24 Nov 2017 - 6:10
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
Weeds star Elizabeth Perkins has yet to elaborate on details but she's joined the #MeToo movement by naming James Woods. First Amber Tamblyn and now Perkins...- on Mon 13 Nov 2017 - 14:54
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397
The Predators Thread
Another Actress Accuses Ed Westwick Of Sexual Assault
A former actress has come forward accusing Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick of raping her in 2014. The allegation comes just days after actress Kristina Cohen claimed Westwick raped her in February 2014. Westwick denied Cohen’s claims on Tuesday, writing on Twitter, “I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.”
Aurélie Wynn, whose stage name was Aurelie Marie Cao before she gave up acting, wrote on Facebook today (read it here) that Westwick raped her in July 2014. She says she told her boyfriend about it, but he didn’t believe her, blamed her and broke up with her.
According to Wynn, when she told her friends about the alleged incident, they told her not to tell anyone – that she didn’t want to be “that girl,” and that no one would believe her.
Wynn’s account is very similar to Cohen’s and involves allegedly being raped by Westwick after falling asleep in a spare bedroom following a party. The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating Cohen’s claims after she filed a police report Tuesday morning.
Said Wynn said in her post: “I am so incredibly thankful all of this is finally coming to light and that there is justice in the world. I believe you Kristina Cohen and thank you for speaking up so eloquently and really encompassing what young female actresses have to go through at the hands of men like Ed Westwick. Without you I would not have had the strength to speak up publicly about my ordeal. #metoo”
When contacted tonight for comment, Westwick’s rep’s office at Affirmative Entertainment hung up the phone when told it was a Deadline reporter. Subsequent calls went directly to voicemail. Wynn did not respond to a request for comment.
- on Thu 9 Nov 2017 - 8:46
- Search in: Movies
- Topic: The Predators Thread
- Replies: 277
- Views: 10397