Established 1961 21 Lifestyle Music & Movies Wednesday, June 6, 2018 Harvey Weinstein set to plead not guilty in NY

allen movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was said they were raped. The fall of Weinstein trig- Evans tells how he spoke of a possible place expected to plead not guilty yesterday to gered a tsunami in US society as many women in his show for aspiring models “Project Frape and sexual assault charges in New came forward with similar accusations against Runway”, before forcing her into doing indecent York, opening a legal battle for the #MeToo other powerful men in the entertainment world, acts, and then went about the day as if nothing movement that dreams of seeing him behind bars. the media and government. had happened. The prosecutor will still have to The 66-year-old Weinstein was charged with prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Weinstein rape and another sex crime in New York late last New lawsuits committed illegal acts, and with these two month, nearly eight months after his career Benjamin Brafman, Weinstein’s lawyer, is one women specifically. imploded in a blaze of accusations of sexual mis- of America’s most celebrated criminal defense No one, however, expects the lawsuits will be conduct. Weinstein was due in a Manhattan court attorneys. His past clients include former IMF dropped, as was the case for Strauss-Kahn. at 10 am (1400 GMT) for a formal reading of the boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who escaped Indeed, it is the same Brafman who defended the charges: he has been indicted for allegedly forc- criminal prosecution for alleged sexual assault in former IMF director against the same Manhattan ing a woman to perform in descent act on him in 2011. No details about the identity of the two prosecutor, Cyrus Vance. Last week three actress- 2004, and for allegedly raping another at a accusers were given by the prosecutor. Brafman es filed a new lawsuit against Weinstein alleging Manhattan hotel in 2013. said the rape complaint came from a woman who sexual assault. They urged other victims to come If convicted, that crime could put him in had a 10-year affair with Weinstein, but the infor- forward and join the complaint. Melissa Thompson, prison for as many as 25 years. Two women are mation was not confirmed. one of the women filing the class action lawsuit, Hagens Berman. “Deceptive tactics were used to Harvey Weinstein arrives named in this indictment. But nearly 100 have The accusation of forced fellatio comes from said she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein dur- entice her to turn over her visual and audio evi- for a court appearance said since October they were harassed or sexu- Lucia Evans, a marketing consultant who, in 2004, ing a 2011 meeting to discuss a new marketing dence of Weinstein’s conduct (which she did),” it yesterday in New York ally abused by Weinstein over several decades. was an aspiring actress. She told her story in tool. Following public revelations last year about said. “Melissa did not learn that Brafman was actu- City. — AFP That has turned the one-time toast of Hollywood October to the magazine The New Yorker. Her sto- his predatory behavior, Thompson said she was ally then or would later be Weinstein’s lead crimi- into the catalyst of the MeToo movement. Salma ry resembles many other reports of unwanted con- referred to Brafman and another attorney at his nal defense attorney until after turning over the Hayek, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie are tact from stars such as Ashley Judd or Paltrow. But firm, Alex Spiro. video as evidence.” — AFP among more than two dozen actresses who say especially countless were young unknown or just “Thompson was led to believe that Brafman and they were sexually harassed by the producer. A emerging stars who hoped to see the revered pro- Spiro were representing victims against few, including Asia Argento and Rose McGowan, ducer make them Hollywood stars. Weinstein,” said the law firm representing her,

Going ‘Overboard’: Hollywood’s glut of gender-swap remakes

rom the polarizing “Ghostbusters” while female-flipping may seem progressive, in remake to the controversy over female reality it militates against those really fighting Fversions of James Bond and Doctor Who, pay inequality, harassment and other forms of Hollywood’s proclivity for gender-swapped sexism. “Even though I can get excited for a retreads is among its most enduring and con- movie like ‘Ocean’s 8’... at the end of the day it tentious. The trend-seen as empowering or still seems to signify that women’s movies still annoying, depending on who you ask-is get- need some sort of male appeal to get made,” ting fresh attention with “Ocean’s 8” due for said Hazel Cills of female-focused pop culture release on Friday, “Overboard” still in theaters website Jezebel. “A gender-swapped movie and “What Men Want” coming out in January. implies that women aren’t important enough to The new “Overboard” swapped Goldie Hawn get their own, original stories, and thus must from the 1987 comedy for Eugenio Derbez piggy-back on franchises helmed by men that and Kurt Russell for Anna Faris, and has have already proven to be successful.” grossed a healthy $70 million worldwide on an It was an issue that came up when Sandra estimated $12 million budget. Bullock, Cate Blanchett and the rest of the But it was disliked by the vast majority of “Ocean’s 8” cast hosted a news conference at critics, according to online reviews collator New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier Rotten Tomatoes, which dismissed it as a this month. Bullock admitted that initially she In this file photo US filmmaker Woody “remake that fails to clear the fairly low bar set “honestly didn’t think it would work, or get Allen attends the ‘Wonder Wheel’ screen- by the original.” There’s nothing new in made” while Blanchett agreed that, a few short ing at the Museum of Modern Art in New Hollywood, and gender-swapping has been ‘Men are insecure’ denly able to hear women’s thoughts-lends years ago, such a project would have been out York City. — AFP popular since Howard Hawks cast Rosalind With two months to go until its release, its itself more obviously to a gender-flipped of the question. Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit,” “The Russell for “His Girl Friday” (1940) in a part trailer had become the ninth most-disliked remake than most. Hunger Games”) directed while Steven played by a man in the source movie, “The YouTube video in history, with over one mil- Taraji P. Henson, who does the honors in Soderbergh, who made the male versions star- Front Page” (1931). A slew of female-led lion users down-voting it into oblivion. Various “What Men Want” (2019), told AFP at the ring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt remakes followed-from “The Incredible entertainment media estimated the eventual recent CinemaCon industry gathering in Las Damon, serves as a producer. ‘I should be Shrinking Woman” (1981) and “The Next losses for Sony and its partners at somewhere Vegas her role was an empowering statement “The thing that stuck with me about ‘Hunger Karate Kid” (1994) to “American Psycho II: All in the $55-75 million region, despite the film for women, but also a learning experience. Games’ was the impact it had on girls seeing a American Girl” (2002) but were largely seen garnering mainly positive reviews. The fact “You kind of just brush it off as ‘men like sex, protagonist like that, that they could relate to,” the poster as pale imitations. that these movies keep coming out despite the eating and farting.’ I was like, ‘How are they Ross said. “I was with a friend one night and we “Ghostbusters” (2016) could well be stud- missteps is a sign of progress and a “minor going to make this interesting?’” said the were talking about this, and I realized that there ied in future film history classes for the bizarre miracle,” according to Kelly Konda, of the We “Empire” and “Hidden Figures” star. “But then had never been this kind of ensemble. There had boy of backlash it received from the legion of “ghost- Minored in Film entertainment blog. I read the script and I’m like, ‘Wow, men are been a lot of male versions of this. There had bros” who swore lifelong loyalty to the 1984 “This used to be a one-and-done ordeal... really insecure about their looks, just like never been this kickass ensemble of women original. Much of the criticism was grounded However, with ‘Ghostbusters,’ Hollywood took women!’ I think that’s going to be great, for coming together like this.” — AFP #MeToo’: in straightforward misogyny-with a certain a big swing on a female-led project, and didn’t women to see that.” kind of male moviegoer scandalized both by overreact to its failure,” he wrote. The premise the presumption of a remake and by the very of “What Women Want” (2000) — Mel ‘Kickass ensemble of women’ Woody Allen idea of women trying to be funny. Gibson as a marketing executive who is sud- Some Hollywood watchers have argued that merican filmmaker Woody Allen has backed the #MeToo movement Aagainst sexual harassment and said he would have been a “poster boy” for the Superstar Gergiev makes no cause if he hadn’t been unfairly maligned. “It is a good thing they are exposing them,” Allen told Argentina’s Canal 13 tel- apologies for singing Putin’s praises evision network. The publication of bomb- shell articles about movie mogul Harvey ussia has two tsars, one in the Kremlin and propaganda”. Gergiev hit back that he is not homo- Weinstein in October has triggered a the other who sits equally imperiously on the phobic, saying “in all my work I have upheld equal watershed moment that has since felled Rthrone of the Mariinsky theatre in St rights for all people”. Hugely charismatic on the the careers of dozens of powerful men Petersburg as the country’s biggest classical music podium, even at 65 the conductor clocks up an across a variety of industries. star. The globetrotting conductor Valery Gergiev is, average of 275 concerts a year. “I took eight days “I should be the poster boy of the as it happens, a great admirer of his opposite num- off in January. If I get two weeks in August it will be MeToo movement. I’ve worked in movies ber, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Without him, great,” Gergiev told AFP during a stopover in Paris, for 50 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of Russia might have shared “the fate of Syria”, he told where he will give three concerts in the autumn. He actresses, and not a single one has ever AFP. “Twenty years ago Russia was at a low ebb said he draws strength from music and his passion suggested any kind of impropriety at all,” and I am not saying that Putin, on his own, has given from his roots in the Caucasus. it back its international importance, but I’m afraid he continued, adding that the women that’s the case,” he added. working in production in his films had all Gergiev-who sees Putin five or six times a year- been paid the same as men. The 82-year- has been fiercely loyal to the Russian leader, sup- old actor and director said that he was porting his annexation of Crimea, giving Pussy Riot frustrated he was being bracketed with short shift and flying to Syria for a concert in the abusers exposed by the movement over ‘Solo’ running on empty but still ruins of Palmyra. He has also performed in the allegations he molested his adoptive breakaway republic of South Ossetia-which is only daughter, Dylan Farrow, in 1992 when she recognized by Moscow. And this month Gergiev was seven years old. He was cleared of the top at North American theaters will again be center stage with Putin-who coasted charges, first leveled by his then-wife Mia to another electoral victory in March-as Russia Farrow, after two separate monthslong investigations. olo: A Star Wars Story” clung to “Adrift” from STX Films, at $11.6 million. hosts the World Cup finals. The president’s huge popularity “is something “People who have been accused by 20 the top spot in North American The movie stars Shailene Woodley and In this file photo Russian President Vladimir Putin the western world has difficulty understanding”, women, 50 women, 100 women of abuse theaters this weekend but again Sam Claflin in the true-life story of a (left) shakes hands with Mariinsky Theatreís “S Gergiev said, but to him and many other Russian Artistic Director, Valery Gergiev, during an award- and abuse and abuse, and I-who was only fell below expectations, taking in $29.4 young couple whose sailboat is slammed citizens the reason is clear-he has guaranteed sta- accused by one woman in a child custody million, just over a third its opening-week- by a hurricane in mid-ocean, leaving ing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow. — AFP bility and restored Russia’s pride. The vast country, case, which was looked at and proven to end receipts, said box office tracker Claflin badly injured, the boat in ruins and he argued, does not want to be plunged back into Hyperactive be untrue-I get lumped in with these peo- Exhibitor Relations. That left the movie Woodley having to find the way back the chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. Having lost his father at the age of 14, he left his ple,” Allen said. “This is just so crazy. This well behind two recent predecessors in the without navigation or communication “We certainly don’t want the fate of Syria, Iraq or native North Ossetia at 18 for St Petersburg. “My is something that has been thoroughly popular sci-fi franchise: 2016’s “Rogue tools. In its sixth week out, Marvel’s Libya,” he said. “One thousand times no to that.” mother gave me the force to go that bit further,” he looked at 25 years ago by all the authori- One” made $64 million in its second week- “Avengers: Infinity War” took $10.6 mil- said. But as well as winning him a global following, ties, and everybody came to the conclu- end while last year’s “The Last Jedi” did lion for fourth place. World Cup concert Gergiev’s hyperactivity has also drawn brickbats. sion that it was untrue. And that was the even better, at $72 million. The film, starring Robert Downey Jr., Gergiev will conduct a star-studded gala concert After eight years at the head of the London end, and I’ve gone on with my life. “And Some film analysts blame “Star Wars” Benedict Cumberbatch and Scarlett in Moscow’s Red Square with the cream of Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, The Guardian accused him now, for it to come back now, it’s a terrible fatigue. Even by the standards of today’s Johansson, has grossed $643 million talent and French-Italian tenor Roberto Alagna the of spreading “his considerable talent far too thinly, thing to accuse a person of. I’m a man sequel/prequel-heavy Hollywood, the fran- domestically and is the fourth biggest night before the World Cup kicks off on June 14. For so that routine and sometimes under-prepared per- with a family and my own children. So of chise from Disney-owned Lucasfilm has global release of all time, with $1.97 bil- his part, Putin has pumped 21.6 billion rubles ($700 formances have been far too frequent.” Similar criti- course it’s upsetting.” been prolific. Starring Alden Ehrenreich as lion. In fifth place domestically was million) into a new operahouse at the Mariinsky and cism has followed him to Germany where he now The allegations resurfaced in the wake a younger version of the swashbuckling Paramount’s rom-com “Book Club,” which praised Gergiev as “one of the outstanding musi- leads the Munich Philharmonic. “I have been hear- of the #MeToo movement, leading a space pilot, “Solo” has amassed a cumula- made $7 million. It stars Jane Fonda, cians of our time”, lavishing him with a Hero of ing that criticism for 20 years and that has not string of actors Allen has worked with to tive global total of $264 million, pushing it Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Labor medal after reviving the Soviet honor. stopped me leading great western orchestras,” he distance themselves from him. Moses into 15th place for 2018. A strong second Steenburgen as aging friends whose deci- Even those in the West who have attacked replied, batting it away as adroitly as he does Farrow, the adopted son of Mia Farrow with $23.2 million was Fox’s “Deadpool 2,” sion to read the steamy “Fifty Shades” Gergiev for his “collusion with a tyrant”, do not attacks on his politics.—AFP and Woody Allen, released a lengthy per- the 11th installment in the X-Men series, trilogy ends up stimulating more than just deny his talent nor his drive. “Gergiev is a great sonal essay last month, disputing the story starring Ryan Reynolds as the fast-talking their intellects. — AFP conductor,” said Peter Tatchell, the British rights and accusing his mother of abuse. — AFP “Merc with the Mouth.” activist who once gatecrashed an opening night in In third spot was a new release, London to protest at Russian laws against “gay