Mel Gibson cleared to testify about conversation he had with one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers

The long-delayed Los Angeles rape trial of disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein will begin Monday after a jury was selected today in a downtown courtroom.

Maane Khatchatourian News Editor, Variety.com Former reality star Holly Madison won’t be called to testify during Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape trial, a judge ruled on Tuesday. The defense wanted Madison to take the stand in order to undermine testimony from actress Ashley Matthau, one of the uncharged supporting witnesses. Matthau, who’s accusing Weinstein of sexual battery, claims the former mogul masturbated on her at his hotel in 2003 in Puerto Rico, where they were shooting Miramax’s “Dirty Dancing” sequel, “Havana Nights.”  Madison, who dated and lived with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner from 2001 to 2008, is close friends with Matthau. The defense intended on questioning her about the two partying together at the Playboy Mansion to prove that Matthau wasn’t a “young, sexually inexperienced naif” who was unfamiliar with “the ways of Hollywood.”

Naomi Judd always supported her daughters when they needed her the most.

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer plan to argue that the imprisoned producer did not sexually assault Jennifer Siebel Newsom almost 20 years ago, but had “consensual sex” with California’s now First Partner.

Maane Khatchatourian News Editor, Variety.com When Jennifer Siebel Newsom was caught in the midst of a sex scandal in 2007, she reached out to Harvey Weinstein for help. Siebel Newsom, who was identified by the L.A. Times as Jane Doe 4 last week, emailed Weinstein in 2007, two years after he allegedly raped her, seeking advice for how to handle “bad press” when then-boyfriend Gavin Newsom admitted to having an affair with his campaign manager’s wife. Siebel Newsom defended Newsom, who was the mayor of San Francisco at the time, and made disparaging comments about the woman, calling her the “culprit” in this affair. A judge ruled on Monday that Weinstein’s defense can introduce the email, but can’t question Siebel Newsom about its details.

Last week’s world premiere for She Said in New York has afforded Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan an opportunity to reflect on the task they just undertook, to tell the story behind the story of Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s 2017 reporting for the New York Times that first exposed the harrowing abuses of Harvey Weinstein. It was a monumental journalistic achievement, and the impact of their reporting, as well as that of the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow published just a few days later, brought about a seismic shift in industry attitudes to abuse, cracking open a door that survivors of Weinstein and the many other abusers exposed since have been able to step through. Kantor, Twohey and Farrow would go on to share the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting.

Mel Gibson can testify about what he learned from one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, a judge ruled Friday in the rape and sexual assault trial of the former movie mogul.

Harvey Weinstein’s accusers in the sexual assault trial of the incarcerated film mogul.Judge Lisa B. Lench ruled in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday (October 15) that the actor can testify about what his masseuse and friend alleged had happened to her.

Mel Gibson can be called to testify against Harvey Weinstein in the disgraced movie mogul's rape and sexual assault trial.Judge Lisa B. Lench ruled that prosecutors can call the actor to the witness stand to corroborate allegations made by Jane Doe 3, who claims Weinstein sexually assaulted her after giving him a message at his hotel back in 2010.

Actor Mel Gibson can testify in Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault and rape trial, Judge Lisa B. Lench ruled on Friday. Lench ruled that Gibson can testify about what he learned from one of Weinstein's accusers.

Mel Gibson could possibly take the stand in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes trial here in Los Angeles.

One of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault accusers, Ashley Judd, is speaking out on her role in the film "She Said." "She Said," which debuts Nov. 18, highlights the work of journalists who exposed Weinstein in 2017.  Weinstein, 70, is serving a 23-year prison sentence following a conviction in New York. Weinstein, who is on trial in Los Angeles, was granted permission to take his appeal of his 2020 sex crime conviction to the New York State Court of Appeals.

Mel Gibson could possibly take the stand in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes trial here in Los Angeles.

Maane Khatchatourian News Editor, Variety.com Mel Gibson can be called to testify against Harvey Weinstein at the producer’s upcoming Los Angeles rape trial, a judge ruled on Friday. Prosecutors want to call the actor to support the allegations of Jane Doe 3, who claims that Weinstein sexually assaulted her after she gave him a massage at his hotel in 2010. According to Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez, the woman later told Gibson about the incident during a massage, and Gibson’s testimony would help buttress her allegation. Judge Lisa B. Lench allowed prosecutors to call Gibson to the stand. She also denied a defense request that they be allowed to ask Gibson about racist and antisemitic statements he has made over the years. But the defense will be allowed to ask whether Gibson holds a grudge against Weinstein.

Antonio Ferme editor In 2017, investigative journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor exposed Harvey Weinstein’s numerous sexual assault scandals and the Hollywood system that enabled him. Five years later, the story behind the influential New York Times report is being told on screen. At the worldwide premiere of “She Said” at the New York Film Festival, director Maria Schrader explained why she believes this story “deserves to be seen on the big screen.” “Hollywood has the duty to tell the really vital stories of our times,” Schrader told Variety on Thursday night. “It’s not about just the wrongdoings of one person but a whole system protecting him. This is something we can find in any kind of industry and even small businesses.”

Intimacy coordinators, new protocols and safeguards and “things that seem very small on the page” have made Hollywood a better place for women in the MeToo era unleashed by the New York Times’ Oct. 5, 2017 investigation of Harvey Weinstein, said Zoe Kazan, who plays journalist Jodi Kantor in Maria Schrader’s She Said.

Mel Gibson is forced to keep a deadly killer from slaughtering his whole family in the tense new trailer for his thriller On The Line.In the trailer, which was released Thursday, Gibson is revealed to be the host of a radio call-in show who takes a call from a man who is about to break into the helpless host's home.The controversial actor and director, 66, has mostly worked on a series of low-budget action films in recent years in the wake of domestic violence allegations and racist, sexist and anti-Semitic statements he has made. In harm's way: Mel Gibson, 66, stars as a radio host on the line with a man threatening to kill his whole family in the first trailer for On The Line, released ThursdayThe trailer for On The Line, which is written and directed by Romuald Boulanger, opens with Elvis Cooney (Gibson) showing off his deep, crackling voice as he urges his listeners to call in to his show, which is also titled On The Line.He's briefly seen at home as he tucks his daughter in for bed and shares a warm moment with his wife, before the action cuts back to the studio. His first caller of the evening is a man named Gary, who after some creepy heavy breathing announces that he's 'going to do something really screwed up tonight.' Elvis asks if he is at home, but Gary tells him he is at someone else's home.'It belongs to somebody not very nice,' he says sinisterly.

Harvey Weinstein appeared in court again on Wednesday in Los Angeles in his rape and sexual assault trial that began on Monday. On Tuesday, Weinstein’s lawyer, Mark Werksman, asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench for help regarding his client’s holding cell.

Manori Ravindran International Editor “She Said” screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz has said the New York Times journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story in 2017 fed her chapters of their book as they were writing it in order to bring the novel to screen sooner. Speaking as part of a Variety-sponsored London Film Festival panel on screenwriting, the British scribe of such films as the Keira Knightley-fronted “Colette” and Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Ida” described working closely with reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey to write Universal’s film adaptation of their 2019 book. The process took around four years, said Lenkiewicz. “I started working on it before I read the book,” said the Devon-born writer, who had six “freeing” weeks of writing on her own before even getting sight of a chapter.