On this day five years ago, New York Times reporters Jodi Cantor and Meghan Twohey released their investigation into Harvey Weinstein’s alleged cover-up of his decades-long pattern of sexual harassment and assault. After months or even years had passed, fresh accusers and defendants emerged from the ashes of that terrible reckoning, which is still going strong.
Several high-profile #MeToo cases have come together this week, with the focus ultimately returning to original villain Harvey Weinstein. This month, the disgraced film producer, along with actors Kevin Spacey and Paul Haggis and directors Paul Haggis and Danny Masterson, will all stand trial for acts that came to light when #MeToo was still blazing in the entertainment industry.
Spacey’s trial begins first in a federal court on Thursday in New York. He is accused by fellow actor Anthony Rapp of an assault at Spacey’s home in Manhattan in 1986 when Rapp was 14. The “Rent” and “Star Trek” actor, the first to bring accusations against Spacey in 2017, is seeking $40 million in his civil trial – the first time Spacey will face a jury after multiple men leveled accusations of misconduct against him.
Individuals are urging for the broadcast of Spacey’s trial on television:
The Kevin Spacey trial should be televised.
Hollywood should NOT have MSM telling us what's true.
— ThatUmbrellaGuy (@ThatUmbrella) October 5, 2022
Further claims against Spacey resulted in criminal proceedings in the United Kingdom, where he pled not guilty this summer and faced a second trial next June, as well as his dismissal from Netflix’s “House of Cards.” A judge this summer affirmed a $31 million damage claim for “House of Cards” producer MRC for the costs of writing him out of the Netflix series.
Kevin Spacey posted a video on YouTube in which he threatened his enemies; one of his critics later committed suicide:
Remember when Kevin spacey
made a YouTube video threatening his enemies and then one of his accusers died of an apparent suicide and we were all just like “cool”?— Willie Muse (@Williesillie2) October 6, 2022
The jury selection process for Weinstein’s second criminal trial begins next Wednesday in Los Angeles. Weinstein was convicted of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual conduct in New York City in 2020. While his appeal, in that case, is pending, the former Weinstein Company CEO has been serving a 23-year term. The Los Angeles criminal case, which is anticipated to last six weeks or longer, features 11 additional felony counts against him, including sexual assault on five women between 2004 and 2013. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 140 years in jail.
A famous rapper, A$AP Rocky from the hip hop group ASAP Mob from Los Angeles, also faces assault charges over a 2021 Hollywood shooting.
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In addition, Masterson is facing criminal charges in the same downtown Los Angeles courthouse from three women who allege they met the “That 70s Show” star through the Church of Scientology and were abused in the early 2000s. Masterson faces a possible penalty of 45 years to life in prison if convicted in a trial that may take up to a month.
Lawyers representing Masterson, a prominent Scientologist, had attempted to keep the Church of Scientology and its influence out of his trial.
However, Paul Haggis successfully urged that the role of Scientology be included in his trial because the former Scientologist wanted to claim he was the victim of a smear campaign by the organization he left and later openly condemned.
The Oscar-winning “Crash” filmmaker was originally accused of sexual assault in a 2017 civil action filed by publicist Haleigh Breest, a case that was delayed by the epidemic and court backlogs for over six years.
Four additional women have come forward with allegations since then, including three in support of Breest’s complaint and a British national who accused Haggis of raping her in June during a film festival in Italy, where Haggis may yet face prosecution.
#MeToo movement began five years ago, but the battle for justice is older. Tarana Burke invented the word “Me Too” on MySpace in 2006, more than a decade before the hashtag sparked a protest movement and altered Hollywood.
“The hashtag did it nicely that people are paying notice, but we can’t forget that women have been courageous for years.”
It is quite likely that each of the four cases will be closed before the month of December.
