NEW YORK - Harvey Weinstein's high-profile sex crimes trial opens on Monday, more than two years after a slew of allegations against the once-mighty Hollywood producer triggered the #MeToo movement that led to the downfall of dozens of powerful men.
The disgraced movie mogul faces life in prison if convicted in a New York state court of predatory sexual assault charges, in a trial expected to last six weeks.
Almost 90 women, including Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, have accused the 67-year-old of sexual misconduct since The New York Times detailed claims against him in October 2017.
But Weinstein, once one of Hollywood's most influential people, is being tried on charges related to just two women, highlighting the difficulty of building cases around incidents that took place years ago.
Former production assistant Mimi Haleyi alleges that the "Pulp Fiction" producer forcibly performed oral sex on her in his New York apartment in July 2006.
The second alleged victim is anonymous. She says Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax Films, raped her in a New York hotel room in March 2013.
"The Sopranos" actress Annabella Sciorra will also give evidence as the prosecution seeks to convince the jury that Weinstein engaged in a pattern of predatory sexual behavior.
A conviction would signal a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement in the fight against sexual harassment and abuse of power in Hollywood and beyond.
"This trial is critical to show that predators everywhere will be held accountable and that speaking up can bring about real change," 25 of Weinstein's accusers said in a statement Friday.
Seven of them, including actresses Rose McGowan and Rosanna Arquette, are due to hold a press conference outside court at 10:00 am (1500 GMT) Monday, 30 minutes after the hearing is scheduled to begin.
Since the #MeToo movement took hold in the wake of a deluge of allegations against Weinstein, almost all men felled from their positions, be it in the world of entertainment or business, have escaped prosecution.
The only other trial on the horizon is that of R&B singer R. Kelly, who was charged last year with several assaults on young women, but allegations of sexual impropriety have dogged him for years.
American comedian Bill Cosby was sentenced to at least three years in prison in September 2018, although proceedings had started in late 2015, two years before the post-Weinstein surge of allegations.
- Jury fight -
Weinstein's trial will be closely watched.
Some 150 journalists, on top of regular court reporters, have requested access to the courtroom which only seats around 100.
Accusers and #MeToo activists could also crowd the public benches in support of Weinstein's alleged victims who are expected to endure brutal cross-examinations.
Weinstein, who has always maintained that his sexual relationships were consensual, is unlikely to testify.
His defense team has been trying to undermine the allegations of the two accusers on the charge sheet since long before the start of the trial.
They have produced emails and text messages which they say show that both remained in friendly contact with the accused for several months after the alleged events.
Monday's hearing is expected to deal with logistical matters and should be short.
The first battle will be over jury selection, which is expected to start on Tuesday and could take two weeks.
In an email interview with CNN, published Saturday, Weinstein suggested he may be able to rebuild his career in the movie business if acquitted.
"If I can get back to doing something good and building places that help heal and comfort others, I intend to do so," he wrote.
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PATNA, INDIA - An Indian mother and her daughter had their heads shaved and were paraded through their village after resisting an attempted rape by men including a local official, police said Friday.
The world's largest democracy has an abysmal record on sexual crime against women, particularly in rural areas where the majority of the 1.3-billion population lives.
Ward councilor Mohommad Khurshid forcibly entered the women's home in the eastern state of Bihar on Wednesday with other men and allegedly attempted to rape the newly married 19-year-old daughter, police told AFP.
When she and her mother -- whose husband tries to make ends meet by begging -- resisted, they were both physically assaulted and Khurshid brought in the local barber to shave their heads, the elder woman told police.
"Until now only six accused in the case have been arrested. Police have been conducting raids to arrest others as they are absconding after the incident," local policeman Sanjay Kumar said.
The councilor and the barber were among those being held, with the case attracting national media coverage and opposition lawmakers hitting out at the state government.
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(Reuters) - Kevin Tsujihara has resigned as the head of Warner Bros as one of Hollywood’s most powerful studios investigates a report that he improperly helped an actress obtain roles at the studio.
He is the latest in a line of executives to lose their jobs in the media business following accusations of improper conduct or sexual harassment.
“It is in the best interest of WarnerMedia, Warner Bros, our employees and our partners for Kevin to step down as Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros,” WarnerMedia Chief Executive John Stankey said in a statement on Monday.
Tsujihara’s departure from the AT&T Inc-owned studio follows a March 6 article in the Hollywood Reporter that said an actress had sought his help in landing roles after they had sex.
The report included text messages between Tsujihara and the actress that appeared to reveal they had sex. Tsujihara has not directly addressed his relationship with the actress, whether they had sex, nor his involvement in helping her career.
“Kevin acknowledges that his mistakes are inconsistent with the company’s leadership expectations and could impact the company’s ability to execute going forward,” Stankey said in his statement.
Stankey did not specify what mistakes Tsujihara made. Only two days before the Hollywood Reporter published its story, Tsujihara was given an expanded, more powerful role as part of a restructuring of AT&T’s WarnerMedia.
“It has become clear that my continued leadership could be a distraction and an obstacle to the company’s continued success,” Tsujihara said in an email to employees on Monday, which was seen by Reuters. “The hard work of everyone within our organization is truly admirable, and I won’t let media attention on my past detract from all the great work the team is doing.”
Tsujihara did not address why he was leaving in the email. Earlier this month, following the Hollywood Reporter story, Tsujihara’s attorney said the executive did not have a direct role in the hiring of the actress in any movie.
AT&T is continuing to work with an outside law firm to complete its investigation into the matter, Stankey said.
That would be the third investigation, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters, and was sparked by the Hollywood Reporter article, which included text messages between the executive, the actress and two business partners.
Tsujihara was cleared in two previous internal investigations related to the matter since late 2017, the sources said. The first, conducted by Time Warner, was initiated at Tsujihara’s request, the sources said, and the second was conducted by AT&T.
AT&T shares rose 0.4 percent and closed at $30.80.
Reporting by Kenneth Li; Editing by Bill Rigby
LOS ANGELES - British actress Emma Thompson has quit an anticipated film produced by California's Skydance studios because it hired former Disney creative director John Lasseter, who is accused of sexual harassment, her publicist told AFP Tuesday.
The two-time Oscar winner was to voice one of the characters in the much touted animated film "Luck," and had already begun recordings, according to the entertainment news site Variety.
But she dropped the project when Skydance announced in early January that it recruited Lasseter, 62, who was forced to leave his position at Disney as animation chief after acknowledging he made staff feel uncomfortable with unwanted hugs.
Thompson wrote to management at the studio to protest the decision to bring on Lasseter, who is famous for transforming Pixar from a small graphics department into the most successful animation studio in the world.
The 59-year-old performer then forwarded her letter to the Los Angeles Times, which published it in full.
"It feels very odd to me that you and your company would consider hiring someone with Mr Lasseter's pattern of misconduct given the present climate in which people with the kind of power that you have can reasonably be expected to step up to the plate," Thompson wrote in the note, whose authenticity her publicist confirmed to AFP.
"If a man has been touching women inappropriately for decades, why would a woman want to work for him if the only reason he's not touching them inappropriately now is that it says in his contract that he must behave 'professionally'?"
"I am well aware that centuries of entitlement to women's bodies whether they like it or not is not going to change overnight," she continued. "Or in a year."
"But I am also aware that if people who have spoken out -- like me -- do not take this sort of a stand then things are very unlikely to change at anything like the pace required to protect my daughter's generation."
ban/mdo/wd/
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CBS Corp CEO Leslie Moonves resigned from the company, the company said on Sunday, amid fresh allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
CBS also announced a deal to end litigation against controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and National Amusements Inc for control of the broadcaster and media company.
Chief Operating Officer Joe Ianiello will take over as interim CEO as the board searches for a replacement, according to the announcement. The settlements end years of uncertainty over the future of CBS and could potentially open the door future deals.
The announcement comes after 6 more women accused Moonves of sexual assault and harassment in a report published on Sunday in the New Yorker magazine.
National Amusements agreed to avoid pressing for a merger of CBS and Viacom, which is also controlled by National Amusements, for at least two years.
In earlier court filings, NAI had dropped support for a deal before it was sued in May by CBS for control of the company. The settlement does not preclude other parties from suggesting a merger or bringing other potential transactions to the board, one source said.
Moonves, 68, who turned CBS from an aging radio and TV broadcaster into a provider of shows to digital platforms, was expected to reap an estimated $100 million in severance.
But Moonves could end up with nothing pending an investigation into allegations of violence against women conducted by law firms hired by an independent committee of the CBS board of directors.
CBS said it and Moonves will donate $20 million of Moonves' severance to organizations supporting the #MeToo movement.
Five current independent directors and one National Amusement-affiliated director have stepped down from the board of directors and 6 new directors have been elected, the company said.
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BUENOS AIRES - American filmmaker Woody Allen has backed the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and said he would have been a "poster boy" for the cause if he hadn't been unfairly maligned.
"It is a good thing they are exposing them," Allen told Argentina's Canal 13 television network.
The publication of bombshell articles about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in October has triggered a watershed moment that has since felled the careers of dozens of powerful men across a variety of industries.
"I should be the poster boy of the MeToo movement. I've worked in movies for 50 years, I've worked with hundreds of actresses, and not a single one has ever suggested any kind of impropriety at all," he continued, adding that the women working in production in his films had all been paid the same as men.
The 82-year-old actor and director said that he was frustrated he was being bracketed with abusers exposed by the movement over allegations he molested his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, in 1992 when she was seven years old.
He was cleared of the charges, first leveled by his then-wife Mia Farrow, after two separate months-long investigations.
"People who have been accused by 20 women, 50 women, 100 women of abuse and abuse and abuse, and I -- who was only accused by one woman in a child custody case, which was looked at and proven to be untrue -- I get lumped in with these people," Allen said.
"This is just so crazy. This is something that has been thoroughly looked at 25 years ago by all the authorities, and everybody came to the conclusion that it was untrue. And that was the end, and I've gone on with my life.
"And now, for it to come back now, it's a terrible thing to accuse a person of. I'm a man with a family and my own children. So of course it's upsetting."
The allegations resurfaced in the wake of the #MeToo movement, leading a string of actors Allen has worked with to distance themselves from him.
Moses Farrow, the adopted son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, released a lengthy personal essay last month, disputing the story and accusing his mother of abuse.
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Actor Morgan Freeman said on Friday any suggestion he assaulted women or created an unsafe workplace is false and apologized to anyone he may have upset after media reported that women have accused him of inappropriate behavior or harassment.
The accusations against the Oscar-winning actor are the latest in a torrent against male actors, filmmakers and agents that have roiled Hollywood since October 2017, leading in some cases to resignations and the halting of projects.
On Friday, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was charged with rape and other sex crimes.
Similar accusations have also engulfed men in US politics and business, and inspired a #MeToo social media movement by victims sharing their stories of sexual harassment or abuse.
CNN reported on Thursday that it spoke with 16 people as part of its investigation into the 80-year-old actor, some of whom also alleged inappropriate behavior by Freeman at his production company, Revelations Entertainment.
"I am devastated that 80 years of my life is at risk of being undermined, in the blink of an eye, by Thursday’s media reports," Freeman said in a statement on Friday, a day after he initially apologized.
"But I also want to be clear: I did not create unsafe work environments. I did not assault women. I did not offer employment or advancement in exchange for sex. Any suggestion that I did so is completely false," he added.
CNN said eight people told the network they were victims of what some labeled harassment and others called inappropriate behavior by Freeman. It said eight others told the network they witnessed the actor's alleged misconduct.
CNN also said other sources denied having seen any questionable behavior by the actor, and that those sources described him as being professional on set and in the office.
Freeman said he is someone who feels a need to try to make women and men feel appreciated and at ease around him. As part of that, he would often try to joke with and compliment women, in what he thought was a lighthearted and humorous way, he said.
"Clearly I was not always coming across the way I intended. And that is why I apologized Thursday and will continue to apologize to anyone I might have upset, however unintentionally," he said.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm any of the allegations.
Freeman, whose career has spanned 50 years and more than 100 movies, won a Oscar in 2005 as best supporting actor for his role as a former boxer in "Million Dollar Baby."
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LOS ANGELES - American actress Ashley Judd on Monday filed a defamation and sexual harassment lawsuit against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, alleging that he damaged her career after she refused his sexual advances.
The civil lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in Santa Monica, alleges that Weinstein caused Judd to lose a part in 1998 in the film "The Lord of the Rings" by making "baseless smears" against her.
The lawsuit, reviewed by Reuters, alleges that Weinstein "was retaliating against Ms. Judd for rejecting his sexual demands approximately one year earlier, when he cornered her in a hotel room under the guise of discussing business."
"Weinstein used his power in the entertainment industry to damage Ms. Judd’s reputation and limit her ability to find work," the lawsuit added.
Weinstein has denied non-consensual sex with anyone. His spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.
Judd was one of the first women in October 2017 to make an on the record allegation of sexual misconduct against Weinstein, which soon afterward evolved into the social media #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault. The Oscar-winning producer has since been accused of sexual impropriety by more than 70 women.
Judd, a leading member of the "Time's Up" movement against sexual harassment in the workplace, is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial.
Judd's representative did not immediately return a call for comment.
The actress said in a statement to the New York Times that any financial recuperation from the lawsuit would be donated to Time's Up "so that women and men in all professions may have legal redress for sexual harassment, economic retaliation and damage to their careers."
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SYDNEY - Australia's embattled deputy leader Barnaby Joyce was accused of sexual harassment Friday, as pressure mounted on him to quit as controversy over an affair with a now-pregnant former aide showed no sign of abating.
Joyce, whose National Party rules alongside Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberals, has been front-page news in Australia for two weeks since it emerged he had left his wife of 24 years for his younger former media adviser, who is now expecting their baby boy.
He was accused of "a shocking error of judgement" by Turnbull, with Joyce, who has four daughters, hitting back by calling the prime minister "inept".
Now the 50-year-old is facing a sexual harassment allegation, with his party confirming a complaint had been lodged, reportedly by a West Australian woman.
Joyce was cited by local media as describing the claim as "spurious and defamatory" and was expected to hold a press conference later Friday to address the issue.
He was due to be the acting prime minister this week with Turnbull meeting US President Donald Trump in Washington, but opted to take leave.
With Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also out of the country, the role has been assumed by Senate leader Mathias Cormann, who said any harassment claim must be taken seriously.
"Any allegation of sexual harassment is a very serious allegation," he told reporters Friday.
"I understand that a formal complaint has been made, and that that complaint is being investigated. I mean, at this point, that is really all that I have to say about it."
Colleagues of Joyce are reportedly growing increasingly frustrated with his handling of the love-child scandal.
He has opted to give several media interviews this week, at a time when he was expected to be on vacation and out of the spotlight.
A party meeting on Monday could decide his fate, with one of Joyce's party's backbenchers already publicly calling on him to quit.
A furious Turnbull, who relies on the smaller National Party to govern, has slapped a formal ban on sex between cabinet members and their staff in the wake of the Joyce affair.
He twice declined to offer support for his deputy when asked by reporters in Washington on Thursday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said.
The daily media headlines on the scandal have riveted the Australian public and sparked debate about workplace culture amid the global #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
But it has also highlighted the perilous state of the coalition government, which just a few months ago survived a crisis over lawmakers' dual citizenship that threatened its wafer-thin parliamentary majority.
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LOS ANGELES -- Dressed in white and accompanied by five fellow female artists, pop singer Kesha took the spotlight at the Grammys on Sunday to deliver a powerful ballad as part of the Time's Up movement to end workplace sexual harassment.
Kesha, 30, who has been battling her former record producer Dr. Luke for years in U.S. courts over allegations of emotional and sexual abuse, performed her defiant single "Praying" alongside Cyndi Lauper, Andra Day, Camila Cabello, Bebe Rexha and Julia Michaels and an all-female choir.
Dr. Luke has repeatedly denied Kesha's allegations.
Actress and musician Janelle Monae introduced Kesha, calling for the music industry as a whole to "create safe work environments, equal pay and access for all women."
"We come in peace but we mean business. And to those who would dare try to silence us, we offer you two words: Time's up," Monae said as the audience applauded.
The Time's Up movement was launched by more than 300 Hollywood industry figures earlier this month in response to sexual assault and harassment allegations against powerful men in entertainment, politics and other fields.
"It's not just going on in Hollywood or in Washington. It's right here in our industry as well. Just as we have the power to shape culture, we also have the power to undo the culture that does not serve us well," Monae said.
"Praying" is the lead single from "Rainbow," Kesha's first album in five years following her bitter legal fight over her record contract.
"You brought the flames and you put me through hell; I had to learn how to fight for myself," Kesha sang.
The singer broke down in tears at the end of her performance and hugged the artists accompanying her on stage. Host James Corden, with tears in his eyes, said, "Music often resonates more than the spoken word ever could."
Both "Praying" and "Rainbow" were nominated for Grammy awards this year but lost to Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" song and "Divide" album in the pop categories.
The music industry showed its support for women's equality and freedom from sexual harassment by wearing or carrying white roses at Sunday's Grammy Awards in solidarity with Time's Up.
Lady Gaga spoke the words "time's up" when she performed her song "Joanne," and rapper Kendrick Lamar wore a white rose as he accepted his numerous accolades on stage.
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Woody Allen was thrust to the fore Wednesday of the sexual harassment watershed sweeping the United States when his daughter revived child molestation allegations against the famed director, asking the world to finally believe her.
Dylan Farrow's claim that the director touched her inappropriately as a seven-year-old first surfaced a quarter of a century ago in the wake of her mother's acrimonious split from Allen, who ran off in 1992 with his lover's adoptive daughter from a previous marriage, Soon-Yi Previn, 21 years old at the time.
But the legendary director of more than 50 movies, winner of four Oscars and showered with awards in Europe, has always denied the allegations. The claims were never proven and the 82-year-old director has continued to enjoy a glittering career.
But the sexual harassment firestorm that has brought down Hollywood titans such as Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, and rocked industry, politics and the media, has fueled a growing backlash against Allen.
In the wake of the Time's Up movement launched by Hollywood women to counter sexual harassment and sexism, Allen's estranged, adopted daughter said it was time for the world to finally listen.
"Why shouldn't I want to bring him down? Why shouldn't I be angry? Why shouldn't I be hurt?" she told "CBS This Morning" in her first television interview, excerpts of which were broadcast on Wednesday. The full interview is to air Thursday.
"Why shouldn't I feel some sort of outrage that after all these years, being ignored and disbelieved and tossed aside?" Farrow added.
Asked why people should believe her now, she replied: "I suppose that's on them, but all I can do is speak my truth and hope, hope that somebody will believe me instead of just hearing."
The film director's agent did not immediately respond to an AFP request to comment.
It was a devastating exposé of alleged rape, assault and harassment published by Farrow's brother, Ronan, the biological son of Allen and Mia Farrow, in The New Yorker last October that helped end Weinstein's career.
'Must be re-examined'
Since then, a growing number of actresses, including Greta Gerwig, Rebecca Hall, Ellen Page and Mia Sorvino, have announced they regret working with Allen.
Hall, who appears in his upcoming movie "A Rainy Day in New York" and starred in his 2008 romantic comedy "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," announced on Instagram that she had donated her wage from his latest film to the Time's Up movement.
"After reading and re-reading Dylan Farrow's statements of a few days ago and going back and reading the older ones -- I see, not only how complicated this matter is, but that my actions have made another woman feel silenced and dismissed," she said.
Up-and-coming actor Timothee Chalamet, who also stars in "A Rainy Day in New York" followed suit and also announced he was donating his entire salary from the film to Time's Up, the LGBT Center in New York and anti-sexual violence organization RAINN.
"We are in a day and age when everything must be re-examined. This kind of abuse cannot be allowed to continue. If this means tearing down all the old gods, so be it," wrote Sorvino in an open letter to Farrow in HuffPost last week.
Actor Alec Baldwin, who won acclaim for portraying Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, has been one of the few to publicly defend Allen, saying it was possible to support survivors of pedophilia and sexual assault, and also believe he was innocent.
Dylan Farrow detailed the alleged abuse for the first time in her own words in an open letter published on a New York Times blog in 2014.
In a follow-up New York Times op-ed, Allen repeated his denial and launched a furious attack on Mia Farrow, denouncing her as "more interested in her own festering anger than her daughter's well-being."
A New York judge who presided over the 1994 custody battle between Allen and Farrow ruled that the abuse allegations were inconclusive, but at the same time lambasted the director as "self-absorbed, untrustworthy and insensitive."
Allen remains with Soon-Yi and the couple have two children.
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WASHINGTON - More than 300 top women in Hollywood -- from Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence to Emma Thompson and Cate Blanchett -- unveiled an initiative Monday to tackle pervasive sexual harassment in workplaces, calling special attention to their "sisters" in less than glamorous blue-collar jobs.
The initiative, dubbed Time's Up, caps a year in which the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal touched off a deluge of allegations that brought down powerful men in entertainment, politics and the media, prompting companies, government agencies and even the US federal court system to re-examine harassment policies.
But in an open letter printed in The New York Times, the new initiative lends the star power of its A-list members to the cause of women in less prominent fields, urging support and respect for farmworkers and others whose humble positions leave them vulnerable and voiceless.
"We fervently urge the media covering the disclosures by people in Hollywood to spend equal time on the myriad experiences of individuals working in less glamorized and valorized trades," the group says in its full-page ad.
"To every woman employed in agriculture who has had to fend off unwanted sexual advances from her boss, every housekeeper who has tried to escape an assaultive guest, every janitor trapped nightly in a building with a predatory supervisor, every waitress grabbed by a customer and expected to take it with a smile... we stand with you. We support you."
$15 MILLION GOAL
Last month, the head of Ford Motor Company apologized to employees at two factories in Chicago and promised changes, after a scathing expose by the Times detailed pervasive harassment and mistreatment of women at the plants dating back to the 1990s. It was one of the first major media investigations into sexual harassment in blue-collar workplaces.
Among the specific steps it announced, Time's Up has established a legal defense fund that, in just 12 days, has raised $13.4 million toward a $15 million goal aimed at providing legal aid for women and men who were sexually harassed, assaulted or abused in the workplace.
It has vowed to push for legislation to strengthen laws on workplace harassment and discrimination.
The group insists that more women must be brought into positions of power and leadership, while every woman should have equal benefits, opportunities, pay and representation.
As for Hollywood, it wants "swift and effective change to make the entertainment industry a safe and equitable place for everyone."
And it called on women to wear black at Sunday's Golden Globes as a statement against gender and racial inequality, and to raise awareness about the group's efforts.
'DEAR SISTERS'
The open letter in the Times, which also appears in the Spanish-language La Opinion, opens with the words "Dear Sisters" in large, bold type, and closes with the words "in solidarity," followed by the names of the 300 women.
Several of Weinstein's accusers signed the open letter. They include Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale, as well as Salma Hayek, whose lengthy account of mistreatment by Weinstein -- "my monster," she called him -- was widely circulated on social media after appearing last month in The New York Times.
Weinstein has denied some of the allegations, including Hayek's assertion that he pressured her to do a nude sex scene in one movie.
Other prominent women lending their names to the Time's Up cause are actresses Natalie Portman, America Ferrera, Amy Schumer, Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, Keira Knightley, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Susan Sarandon, Uma Thurman and Viola Davis; producer Shonda Rhimes; Universal Pictures chair Donna Langley; feminist activist Gloria Steinem; lawyer and ex-Michelle Obama chief of staff Tina Tchen and Nike Foundation co-chair Maria Eitel.
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Celebrity chef Mario Batali said on Monday that he has stepped away from his restaurant company and ABC said it asked him to step aside as co-host of a daytime food and talk show after he was accused of sexual harassment in a report by an online food trade publication.
Eater New York reported that four women, who were not identified, accused Batali of touching them inappropriately in a pattern of behavior that spanned at least two decades. Three worked for the chef during their careers, according to Eater New York.
Batali said in a statement emailed by his representative Risa Heller, "I apologize to the people I have mistreated and hurt. Although the identities of most of the individuals mentioned in these stories have not been revealed to me, much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted."
"That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses," he said. "I take full responsibility and am deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort I have caused."
Reuters could not independently confirm the accusations.
Batali said in the statement that he was stepping away from day-to-day operations of his businesses as he works to regain people's trust and respect.
Batali's reputation as a master of seasonal Italian food turned him into a restaurant executive, television star, cookbook author and one of the world's most recognizable chefs. He premiered on Food Network in 1997 on the show "Molto Mario" and in 2011 helped launch "The Chew" on ABC.
B&B Hospitality Group, which services about 24 restaurants owned by Batali and other chefs, said in an emailed statement that it takes such accusations seriously.
"We have had systematic policies and training about sexual harassment for over 10 years, including a detailed procedure for employees to report complaints to senior management," B&B Hospitality Group said. "All members of management have participated in these trainings, including Mr. Batali."
"Mr. Batali and we have agreed that he will step away from the company's operations, including the restaurants, and he has already done so," the company said in the statement.
The ABC Television Network, a unit of Walt Disney Co , said in a statement, "We have asked Mario Batali to step away from The Chew while we review the allegations that have just recently come to our attention."
"ABC takes matters like this very seriously as we are committed to a safe work environment. While we are unaware of any type of inappropriate behavior involving him and anyone affiliated with the show, we will swiftly address any alleged violations of our standards of conduct.”
Food Network said in an emailed statement that it was suspending plans to relaunch "Molto Mario" in light of the accusations.
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NEW YORK - Netflix on Friday dumped Kevin Spacey, saying it would be involved in no further production of its hit series "House of Cards" that includes the actor, now facing a mounting slew of sexual assault allegations.
The streaming service also said it was abandoning the release of an upcoming film "Gore" that had also starred the 58-year-old actor, whose glittering career is now collapsing around him.
"Netflix will not be involved with any further production of 'House of Cards' that includes Kevin Spacey," a Netflix spokesperson said.
The channel said it would work with the show's production company, MRC, "during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the show."
"We have also decided we will not be moving forward with the release of the film 'Gore,' which was in post-production, starring and produced by Kevin Spacey," the spokesperson added.
Eight current or former employees on the award-winning "House of Cards" told CNN that Spacey turned the set into a "toxic" environment through a pattern of sexual harassment of younger, male crew members.
Spacey is also reportedly being investigated by British police for assault in 2008, has been accused of attempting to rape a 15-year-old boy in New York and of making advances on a 14-year-old boy.
The actor, who plays corrupt US president Frank Underwood on the Netflix series, declared that he was "beyond horrified" by the first allegation to be made public, from actor Anthony Rapp, which he claimed not to remember.
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NEW YORK - Netflix late Friday dropped Kevin Spacey, whose career is in free-fall over spiraling sexual assault accusations as police gather evidence for a possible arrest warrant against Harvey Weinstein for alleged rape.
The two-time Oscar winner Spacey, for years considered one of the most gifted actors of his generation, and whose collaboration with Netflix put the streaming giant on the map, has in just days gone from esteemed actor to entertainment pariah.
Reportedly being investigated by British police for assaulting a man in London in 2008, he has been publicly accused of attempting to rape a 15-year-old boy in New York and of making advances on a 14-year-old.
Already dropped by his publicist and agent, Netflix became the latest entity to cut ties with Spacey, saying it would be involved in no further production of its hit series "House of Cards" that includes the 58-year-old. Production of the last and final season, which had been due to air in 2018, has already been suspended.
The streaming service also said it was abandoning the release of an upcoming film "Gore" that had also starred the actor, whose glittering career is now collapsing around him.
"Netflix will not be involved with any further production of 'House of Cards' that includes Kevin Spacey," a spokesperson said.
The channel said it would work with the show's production company, MRC, "to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the show."
Eight current or former employees on the award-winning "House of Cards" told CNN that Spacey turned the set into a "toxic" environment through a pattern of sexual harassment of younger, male crew members.
In London, police said that they had opened an investigation into an allegation of sexual assault. Officers do not publicly identify the subject of an inquiry unless they are charged, but British media said it was Spacey.
Since the allegations first surfaced Sunday, Spacey has made no comment other than declaring he was "beyond horrified" by the first allegation dating back 31 years, which he claimed not to remember.
- 'Credible' rape claim -
It remains unclear if "House of Cards" can now go ahead in any form.
Actor Anthony Rapp opened the floodgates by saying the actor tried to "seduce" him and lay on top of him when he was 14 years old at Spacey's New York apartment 31 years ago.
A 48-year-old East Coast artist told Vulture he began a sexual relationship with Spacey when he was 14 that ended when he was 15 after the actor, then 24, allegedly tried to rape him.
Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos was another who claimed he fended off "unpleasant" advances while at The Old Vic, the London theater where Spacey was artistic director from 2003-2015.
Weinstein, once one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, and Spacey are the most high-profile scalps in a month-long torrent of allegations bringing down like dominoes male power players from the worlds of politics, finance, entertainment and journalism.
Some 100 women have since early October accused Weinstein, a father of five, of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape, sparking police investigations in London, Los Angeles and New York.
On Friday, New York police confirmed that officers were gathering evidence for a possible arrest warrant in connection with Weinstein's alleged double rape of "Boardwalk Empire" actress Paz de la Huerta at her New York apartment in late 2010.
"She put forth a credible and detailed narrative to us," NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters. The former producer, his career in tatters, denies any non-consensual relations.
"If this person was still in New York and it was recent, we would go right away and make the arrest, no doubt. But we're talking about a seven-year-old case and we have to move forward in gathering evidence first," said Boyce.
"We have an actual case here," he added. "Mr Weinstein is out of state. We would need an arrest warrant to arrest him. So right now we're gathering our evidence. We continue to do so. Every day."
The Manhattan district attorney's office confirmed it had assigned a senior sex crimes prosecutor to the case.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK - One of America's top TV personalities Monday accused Fox News of protecting disgraced former presenter Bill O'Reilly in the face of sexual harassment allegations.
Speaking on her morning NBC show, ex-Fox anchor Megyn Kelly said she sent an email to several Fox News executives in November 2016, expressing her outrage at O'Reilly's alleged behavior.
Her comments came after the New York Times reported Saturday that last January, O'Reilly, who has since been fired, settled a sexual harassment claim by Fox legal analyst Lis Wiehl for $32 million. Months later, he was offered a new contract -- but forced out again in mid-April after the Times revealed details of five other settlements.
Kelly -- who joined NBC earlier this year -- said she had mentioned settlements between the presenter and several woman in her email, claiming management was aware of them.
She also alleged that Bill Shine, Fox News co-president at the time, called her to say he would "take care of Bill O'Reilly."
Speaking on the Times' podcast "The Daily" a few days before Saturday's report was published, O'Reilly insisted he had "never had one complaint filed against me by a coworker... in 43 years."
Spokesman Mark Fabiani defended O'Reilly's conduct Saturday.
"In the more than 20 years Bill O'Reilly worked at Fox News, not one complaint was filed against him with the Human Resources Department or Legal Department by a coworker, even on the anonymous hotline," he said in statement published on O'Reilly's website.
Fox News' parent company, 21st Century Fox, told AFP it has taken action to "transform" Fox News, including "increasing the channels through which employees can report harassment or discrimination."
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source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES - After keeping a low profile for months, Taylor Swift has put herself back in the spotlight in a bare bottom-groping trial, whose potential for embarrassment many celebrities would do their best to avoid.
Yet Swift, one of the biggest names in pop music, shows no signs of wanting to shake off the attention accompanying a sexual assault trial underway this week in Colorado, despite scant support from other female stars.
Instead of settling out of court, Swift, 27, is expected to take the stand and testify in the civil case against a former Denver DJ.
The DJ, David Mueller, 55, sued Swift, claiming he lost his job after she told his manager that he had grabbed her bare buttocks during a meet-and-greet session in Denver four years ago. Mueller has said he is innocent and did nothing inappropriate.
Swift countersued Mueller for assault and is seeking a symbolic $1 in damages to make the point that "you can say no when someone puts their hand on you," her lawyer told the Denver court in opening statements.
Mueller has said he is innocent and did nothing inappropriate.
Her typical strategy has been to write "a nasty song about the person," said Howard Bragman, the founder of Hollywood PR firm Fifteen Minutes. "So clearly, she wants to make a point and she believes she is in the right."
"It's wildly unusual for someone of her caliber to go through with one of these lawsuits. Ninety-nine percent of the time they are settled," said Bragman.
He said trials are unpredictable and can bring up questions over people's sex lives "and no celebrity wants to put themselves up for that kind of situation."
Swift, who has 85 million Twitter and 102 million Instagram followers, has said in depositions she wants the case to serve as an example to other women "who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts."
Yet the country-turned-pop star, who has a mixed track record on feminist issues, is not so far getting the support she might expect from her peers for taking a stand.
In January, Swift was accused on social media and by female commentators of being an opportunist feminist for not doing more to support the massive women's marches across the United States that brought the likes of Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Madonna onto the streets. She did not respond.
Despite donating $250,000 to Kesha in 2016 for her own sexual assault legal battles, the "Tik-Tok" singer has been silent so far about Swift's case. Lady Gaga, who has spoken about being raped when younger, has also said nothing, as has Madonna.
The Denver trial follows a difficult 12 months for the singer after a much-ridiculed 2016 summer fling with British actor Tom Hiddleston. She also feuded with Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Katy Perry.
Previously ubiquitous on social media and red carpets, Swift subsequently dropped out of public view. A single tweet in May sending prayers to the victims of the Manchester bombing in England has been her only Twitter posting in more than six months.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Leela de Kretser and Lisa Shumaker
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WASHINGTON - Fox News and its ousted chief Roger Ailes were hit Monday with a fresh sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a female contributor who says she was denied a job after refusing the chairman's advances.
The lawsuit by Julie Roginsky, a political strategist who was a contributing commentator, came eight months after Ailes, a confidant of the cable network's founder Rupert Murdoch, was forced out over an earlier harassment suit.
Monday's complaint filed in New York state court said Ailes repeatedly made sexual advances and inappropriate comments to Roginsky.
It said Ailes often looked down Roginsky's dress and made clear his sexual intentions during their meetings, and that when she rebuffed him, he refused to give her a promised hosting opportunity.
"Roginsky refused to engage in a sexual relationship with Ailes. As a result, Fox News and Ailes retaliated," the lawsuit said.
A lawyer for the former Fox News chief rejected the description of Roginsky's meetings with him as "total hogwash."
"Mr. Ailes vociferously denies her allegations," said a statement issued by the office of his counsel Susan Estrich.
"This copycat complaint is not about discrimination or retaliation. This is about someone who wants to pile on in a massive character assassination in order to achieve what she did not accomplish on the merits."
Roginsky's lawsuit also named Fox News co-president Bill Shine, claiming he refused Roginsky a permanent job at Fox, in part because she failed to side with Ailes in the harassment suit filed against him by on-air host Gretchen Carlson.
According to the suit, Shine retaliated against Roginsky "because of her complaints of harassment and... because (she) refused to malign Gretchen Carlson and join 'Team Roger' when Carlson sued Ailes for sexual harassment."
Roginsky seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages in the complaint against the cable channel, which did not immediately respond to an AFP query.
Ailes stepped down as chairman of Fox News and the Fox Business Network on July 21 last year in a chain of events touched off when Carlson filed a lawsuit accusing Ailes of firing her because she resisted his sexual advances.
Ailes denied the allegations but reportedly was forced to resign under pressure.
In September, Fox News settled the Carlson lawsuit for a reported $20 million, and apologized for her treatment on the job.
Separately, The New York Times reported this past weekend that Bill O'Reilly, a star Fox News commentator, has been accused of harassment by at least five women associated with the network.
It said the company and O'Reilly had paid the five women a total of $13 million in the cases that span 15 years.
O'Reilly did not deny the allegations, but said his prominence made him "vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative publicity."
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source: news.abs-cbn.com
