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  • Partial list of nominees for the 65th Grammy Awards

    Partial list of nominees for the 65th Grammy Awards

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    LOS ANGELES — A partial list of nominees in the top categories at the 65th annual Grammy Awards, announced Tuesday by The Recording Academy.

    — Album of the year: “Voyage,” ABBA; “30,” Adele; “Un Verano Sin Ti,” Bad Bunny; “Renaissance,” Beyoncé; “Good Morning Gorgeous” (Deluxe), Mary J. Blige; “In These Silent Days,” Brandi Carlile; “Music of the Spheres,” Coldplay; “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” Kendrick Lamar; “Special,” Lizzo; “Harry’s House,” Harry Styles.

    — Record of the year: “Don’t Shut Me Down,” ABBA; “Easy on Me,” Adele; “Break My Soul,” Beyoncé; “Good Morning Gorgeous,” Mary J. Blige; “You and Me on the Rock,” Brandi Carlile featuring Lucius; “Woman,” Doja Cat; “Bad Habit,” Steve Lacy; “The Heart Part 5,” Kendrick Lamar; “About Damn Time,” Lizzo; “As It Was,” Harry Styles.

    Song of the year (songwriter’s award): “abcdefu,” Sara Davis, GAYLE and Dave Pittenger; “About Damn Time,” Melissa “Lizzo” Jefferson, Eric Frederic, Blake Slatkin and Theron Makiel Thomas; “All Too Well (10 Minute Version – The Short Film),” Liz Rose and Taylor Swift; “As It Was,” Tyler Johnson, Kid Harpoon and Harry Styles; “Bad Habit,” Matthew Castellanos, Brittany Fousheé, Diana Gordon, John Carroll Kirby and Steve Lacy; “Break My Soul,” Beyoncé, S. Carter, Terius “The Dream” Gesteelde-Diamant and Christopher A. Stewart; “Easy on Me,” Adele Adkins and Greg Kurstin; “God Did,” Tarik Azzouz, E. Blackmon, Khaled Khaled, F. LeBlanc, Shawn Carter, John Stephens, Dwayne Carter, William Roberts and Nicholas Warwar; “The Heart Part 5,” Jake Kosich, Johnny Kosich, Kendrick Lamar and Matt Schaeffer; “Just Like That,” Bonnie Raitt.

    — Best new artist: Best new artist: Anitta; Omar Apollo; DOMi & JD Beck; Muni Long; Samara Joy; Latto; Månekskin; Tobe Nwigwe; Molly Tuttle; Wet Leg.

    — Songwriter of the Year: Amy Allen; Nija Charles; Tobia Jesso Jr.; The-Dream; Laura Veltz

    — Best pop solo performance: “Easy on Me,” Adele; “Moscow Mule,” Bad Bunny; “Woman,” Doja Cat; “Bad Habit,” Steve Lacy; “About Damn Time,” Lizzo; “As It Was,” Harry Styles.

    — Best pop duo/group performance: “Don’t Shut Me Down,” ABBA; “Bam Bam,” Camila Cabello featuring Ed Sheeran; “My Universe,” Coldplay and BTS; “I Like You (A Happier Song),” Post Malone and Doja Cat; “Unholy,” Sam Smith and Kim Petras.

    — Best pop vocal album: “Voyage,” ABBA; “30,” Adele; “Music of the Spheres,” Coldplay; “Special,” Lizzo; “Harry’s House,” Harry Styles.

    — Best traditional pop vocal album: “Higher,” Michael Bublé; “When Christmas Comes Around…,” Kelly Clarkson; “I Dream of Christmas” (Extended), Norah Jones; “Evergreen,” Pentatonix; “Thank You,” Diana Ross.

    — Best dance/electronic album: “Renaissance,” Beyoncé; “Fragments,” Bonobo; “Diplo,” Diplo; “The Last Goodbye,” ODESZA; “Surrender, Rufus Du Sol.

    — Best rock album: “Dropout Boogei,” The Black Keys; “The Boy Named If,” Elvis Costello and the Imposters; “Crawler,” Idles; “Mainstream Sellout,” Machine Gun Kelly; “Patient Number 9,” Ozzy Osbourne; “Lucifer on the Sofa,” Spoon.

    — Best alternative music album: “WE,” Arcade Fire; “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe You,” Big Thief; “Fossora,” Björk; “Wet Leg,” Wet Leg; “Cool It Down,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

    — Best progressive R&B album: “Operation Funk,” Cory Henry; “Gemini Rights,” Steve Lacy”; “Drones,” Terrace Martin; “Starfruit,” Moonchild; “Red Ballon,” Tank and the Bangas.

    — Best R&B album: “Good Morning Gorgeous” (Deluxe, Mary J. Blige; “Breezy” (Deluxe), Chris Brown; “Black Radio III,” Robert Glasper; “Candydrip,” Lucky Daye; “Watch the Sun,” PJ Morton.

    — Best rap album: “God Did,” DJ Khaled; “I Never Liked You,” Future; “Come Home the Kids Miss You,” Jack Harlow; “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” Kendrick Lamar; “It’s Almost Dry,” Pusha T.

    — Best country album: “Growing Up,” Luke Combs; “Palomino,” Miranda Lambert; “Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville,” Ashley McBryde; “Humble Quest,” Maren Morris; “A Beautiful Time,” Willie Nelson.

    — Best jazz vocal album: “The Evening: Live at Apparatus,” The Baylor Project; “Linger Awhile,” Samara Joy; “Fade to Black,” Carmen Lundy; “Fifty,” The Manhattan Transfer with the WDR Funkhausorchester; “Ghost Song,” Cécile McLorin Salvant.

    — Best jazz instrumental album: “New Standards Vol. 1,” Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh, Nicholas Payton and Matthew Stevens; “Live in Italy,” Peter Erskine Trio; “LongGone,” Joshua Redman, Brad Mehidau, Christian McBride and Brian Blade; “Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival,” Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Genovese and Esperanza Spalding; “Parallel Motion,” Yellowjackets.

    — Best gospel album: “Die to Live,” Maranda Curtis; “Breakthrough: The Exodus (Live),” Ricky Dillard; “Clarity,” DOE; “Kingdom Book One Deluxe,” Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin; “All things New,” Tye Tribbett

    — Best contemporary Christian music album: “Lion,” Elevation Worship; “Breathe,” Maverick City Music; “Life After Death,” TobyMac; “Always,” Chris Tomlin; “My Jesus,” Anne Wilson.

    — Best Latin pop album: “Aguilera,” Christina Aguilera; “Pasieros,” Rubén Blades and Boca Livre; “De Adentro Pa Afuera,” Camilo; “Viajante,” Fonseca; “Dharma +,” Sebastián Yatra.

    — Best Latin urban album: “Trap Cake, Vol. 2,” Rauw Alejandro; “Un Verano Sin Ti,” Bad Bunny; “Legendaddy,” Daddy Yankee; “La 167,” Farruko; “The Love & Sex Tape,” Maluma.

    — Best Latin rock or alternative album: “El Alimento,” Cimafunk; “Tinta y Tiempo,” Jorge Drexler; “1940 Carmen,” Mon Laferte; “Alegoria,” Gaby Moreno; “Los Años Salvajes,” Fito Paez; “MOTOMAMI,” Rosalía.

    — Best reggae album: “The Kalling,” Kabaka Pyramid; “Gifted,” Koffee; “Scorcha,” Sean Paul; “Third Time’s the Charm,” Protoje; “Come Fly Wid Mi,” Shaggy.

    — Best spoken word poetry album: “Black Men Are Precious,” Ethelbert Miller; “Call Us What We Carry: Poems,” Amanda Gorman; “Hiding in Plain View,” Malcolm-Jamal Warner; “The Poet Who Sat By the Door,” J. Ivy; “You Will be Someone’s Ancestor. Act Accordingly.,” Amir Sulaiman.

    — Best comedy album: “The Closer,” Dave Chappelle; “Comedy Monster,” Jim Gaffigan; “A Little Brains, a Little Talent,” Randy Rainbow; “Sorry,” Louis CK; “We All Scream,” Patton Oswalt.

    — Best compilation soundtrack for visual media: “Elvis”; “Encanto”; “Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 4 (Vol 2); “Top Gun: Maverick”; West Side Story.”

    — Best song written for visual media: “Be Alive” from “King Richard,” Beyoncé and Darius Scott Dixson; “Carolina” from “Where the Crawdads Sing,” Taylor Swift; “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” Bloodpop and Stefani Germanotta; “Keep Rising” from “The Woman King,” Angelique Kidjo, Jeremy Lutito and Jessy Wilson; “Nobody Like U” from “Turning Red,” Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell; “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from “Encanto,” Lin-Manuel Miranda.

    — Best score soundtrack for visual media: “The Batman,” Michael Giacchino; “Encanto,” Germaine Franco; “No Time to Die,” Hans Zimmer; “The Power of the Dog,” Jonny Greenwood; “Succession: Season 3,” Nicholas Britell.

    — Producer of the year, non-classical: Jack Antonoff; Dan Auerbach; Boi-1da; Dahi; Dernst “D’mile” Emile II.

    — Best music video: “Easy on Me,” Adele; “Yet to Come,” BTS; “Woman,” Doja Cat; “The Heart Part 5,” Kendrick Lamar; “As It Was,” Harry Styles; “All Too Well: The Short Film,” Taylor Swift.

    — Best music film: “Adele One Night Only”; “Our World”; “Billie Eilish Live at the O2”; “Motomami (Rosalía Tiktok Live Performance)”; “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” “A Band A Brotherhood A Barn.”

    — Best score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media: “Aliens: Fireteam Elite,” Austin Wintory; “Assasin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok,” Stephanie Economou; “Call of Duty: Vanguard,” Bear McCreary; “Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy,” Richard Jacques; “Old World,” Christopher Tin.

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  • Grammy nominations to be announced, with 5 new categories

    Grammy nominations to be announced, with 5 new categories

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    LOS ANGELES — The Recording Academy will announce nominees for the 65th Grammy Awards on Tuesday with some significant additions.

    The academy earlier this year five new categories including songwriter of the year to honor music’s best composer and a special song for social change award.

    The non-classical songwriter category will recognize one individual who was the “most prolific” non-performing and non-producing songwriter for a body of new work. It will take a different approach than song of the year, which awards the songwriters who wrote the lyrics or melodies to one song.

    This year’s announcement will be made on a livestream beginning at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific at https://live.grammy.com/. Among those announcing the nominees this year will be Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly and Smokey Robinson.

    Possible nominees include Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Harry Styles and Adele. Some other hopefuls include Lizzo and Steve Lacy, who both had two of the biggest songs this year.

    The Grammy Awards will be handed out Feb. 5 in Los Angeles.

    The new category for songwriters is a huge step forward. Last year, a rule update allowed that any songwriter, producer, engineer or featured artist on an album nominated for album of the year could ultimately earn a nomination.

    The four other categories include best spoken word poetry album, alternative music performance, Americana music performance and score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media.

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  • CMA Awards honor Loretta Lynn, ‘Buy Dirt’ wins song honor

    CMA Awards honor Loretta Lynn, ‘Buy Dirt’ wins song honor

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Country Music Association Awards have opened with Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Reba McEntire playing tribute to the late country queen Loretta Lynn.

    The superstar trio performed a medley of Lynn’s hits including “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter” as images of Lynn were projected behind them and audience members sang along.

    Lainey Wilson is the leading nominee at Wednesday’s show and Alan Jackson will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Wilson earned nominations in six categories, including female vocalist and album and song of the year.

    Jordan Davis’ “Buy Dirt” won the night’s first honor, for song of the year. The song featured CMA Awards host Luke Bryan, who Davis called to the stage to hug.

    Bryan is co-hosting the show along with NFL great Peyton Manning.

    Joining country’s biggest stars for the evening are Katy Perry and actors Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon, who are playing Tammy Wynette and George Jones in an upcoming Showtime limited series.

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  • Oscar, Tony-nominated writer-director Douglas McGrath dies

    Oscar, Tony-nominated writer-director Douglas McGrath dies

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    Stage, TV and film writer-director Douglas McGrath, who earned a Tony nomination for “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” and an Oscar nod for the “Bullets Over Broadway” screenplay he co-wrote with Woody Allen, has died

    NEW YORK — Stage, TV and film writer-director Douglas McGrath, who earned a Tony nomination for “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” and an Oscar nod for the “Bullets Over Broadway” screenplay he co-wrote with Woody Allen, died Thursday. He was 64.

    The death was announced by the producers of McGrath’s solo off-Broadway show, “Everything’s Fine,” which opened last month. A show representative said the cause was a heart attack. McGrath had written and was starring in “Everything’s Fine,” and was directed by John Lithgow.

    “The company of ‘Everything’s Fine’ was honored to have presented his solo autobiographical show,” the producers said in a statement. “Everyone who worked with him over the last three months of production was struck by his grace, charm, and droll sense of humor, and sends deepest condolences to his family.”

    McGrath began his writing career on the staff of “Saturday Night Live” and went on to pen the plays “Checkers,” “The Age of Innocence” and the musical “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” which ran on Broadway from 2013-2019.

    “Doug was smart, funny, talented, kind, a great friend, and a wonderful storyteller who leaves a legacy of love and laughter,” King wrote in tribute on Instagram.

    McGrath was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay of 1994’s “Bullets Over Broadway,” which he co-wrote with Allen. The screenplay was used as a basis for Allen’s 2014 Broadway stage adaptation.

    McGrath’s other films included “Emma” starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and “Nicholas Nickleby” starring Charlie Hunnam, both of which he wrote and directed. He also wrote and directed the 2006 Truman Capote biopic “Infamous,” starring Toby Jones.

    He earned two Emmy Awards nominations for directing two documentaries for HBO: “His Way,” about legendary music promoter and movie producer Jerry Weintraub, and “Becoming Mike Nichols.”

    He is survived by wife, Jane Read Martin, and son Henry McGrath.

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  • ‘The Crown’ returns to blur the line between royals, fiction

    ‘The Crown’ returns to blur the line between royals, fiction

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    LOS ANGELES — When “The Crown” returns Wednesday after a two-year absence, the splintering marriage of Charles and Diana and more woes for Queen Elizabeth II are in the drama’s elegant but intrusive spotlight.

    There’s swirling off-stage drama as well for the Netflix series that began with Elizabeth’s marriage in the late 1940s and, in its fifth season, takes on the British royal family’s turbulent 1990s. The queen famously labeled one stretch her “annus horribilis” — Latin for “horrible year.”

    The safe distance of history is gone in the 10 new episodes set within recent memory for many and whose stories, sight unseen, have been denounced. The death of Queen Elizabeth, 96, in September adds an uneasy dimension: We speculate freely about the famous before and after they’re gone, but is more owed a country’s beloved and longest-serving monarch?

    Among the prominent critics is Judi Dench, an Oscar-winner for her role as Elizabeth I in “Shakespeare in Love.” In a letter to The Times of London, the actor blasted elements of the drama as “cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.”

    She called for each episode to carry a disclaimer labeling it as fiction. It’s a demand that Netflix has heard before and continues to resist, framing the series as drama inspired by historical events. Series creator Peter Morgan was unavailable for comment, Netflix said.

    Dench is not amused by the streaming service’s intransigence.

    “The time has come for Netflix to reconsider — for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years,” she wrote.

    Her plea followed a rebuke of the series from former Prime Minister John Major, shown in the new season being lobbied by Prince Charles — now King Charles III — to help maneuver the queen’s abdication. A spokesman for Major labeled the scene as false and malicious.

    Cast members including Jonathan Pryce, who plays Elizabeth’s stalwart husband Prince Philip, beg to differ with the series’ detractors.

    “The queen is in no danger from ‘The Crown,’” Pryce told The Associated Press. He said critics are lambasting the new season despite ignorance of it, reminding him of what the British once termed “the Mary Whitehouse effect.”

    Whitehouse had “a huge following and she criticized programs she’d never seen,” he said. “I think a lot of the protests this time, people haven’t seen this series. They don’t know how these issues are treated. I have to say they’re treated with a great deal of integrity and a great deal of sensitivity.”

    Imelda Staunton, stepping in as the latest actor to play Elizabeth, defended the series, its award-winning creator and its viewers.

    “I think it’s underestimating the audience,” Staunton told AP. ”There have been four seasons where people know it’s been written by Peter Morgan and his team of writers.”

    Morgan, writer of the movie “The Queen” and play “The Audience,” both starring the Oscar- and Tony-winning Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II, has made royals a specialty. The recent criticism may suggest his winter of discontent is ahead, but Morgan has it easier than another writer who feasted on the British monarchs as material: William Shakespeare, who dramatized the reigns of seven kings.

    All were in the past, with Shakespeare treading lightly around the rulers of his time, Elizabeth I and James I.

    “We all imagine it being sort of sweetness and light, and we’ve all seen ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and everyone’s sitting around drinking. Actually, it was like Stalinist Russia in many ways,” Shakespearean expert Andrew Dickson said of the rigidly controlled society in which the bard worked circa 1585 to 1613.

    Plays were approved by the master of the revels, a sort of civil servant with the power of censorship, said Dickson, author of “Worlds Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare’s Globe” and “The Globe Guide to Shakespeare.” Authors could and were imprisoned, or worse, for transgressions, he said.

    “His very few representations of royals recent to his time were pretty flattering, and and early audiences even called them patriotic,” said Harvard teacher-scholar Jeffrey R. Wilson, author of “Shakespeare and Trump” and “Richard III’s Bodies.” Theater in general was viewed as illusory and deceptive, he said.

    “He told this politicized version that was flattering to the powers that were in his time,” Wilson said. It became the “dominant framework for telling English royal history all the way through the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s now called the ‘Tudor myth,’” he said, a reference to the House of Tudor that ruled for more than a century.

    It’s problematic if people similarly begin recounting the Netflix show’s “fictionalized version of history as fact,” he said.

    Lesley Manville, who plays the queen’s sibling Princess Margaret this season, said she defers to those in charge of “The Crown” on whether a disclaimer is or isn’t warranted.

    “For my part, I can only be crystal clear that what I’m doing is a drama,” Manville said. “We’ve never supported it to be anything other than a drama about a real family, a very world famous family.”

    Staunton said she’s grateful that the season addresses a period that was “quite tumultuous, and therefore that creates quite a good drama.” She traced the recent protests about the series directly to the queen’s death.

    “There’s no doubt that if we were releasing the series two years ago there wouldn’t be this amount of sensitivity, which again is absolutely understandable,” Staunton said. She found herself deeply affected by the queen’s death, which she learned of after a day of taping on the show’s sixth season.

    “’Why am I feeling so distraught?’” she recalled asking herself. “But of course I’d been living with her for two and a half years” of preparation and production.

    For Pryce, working on the series has provided a better understanding of the royal family.

    “They’ve always been a part of society and it looks like they’re going to continue for some time,” he said. “I’m looking forward to King Charles’ reign, and seeing what he can do to change things.”

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  • Leslie Jordan, versatile Emmy-winning actor, dies at 67

    Leslie Jordan, versatile Emmy-winning actor, dies at 67

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    LOS ANGELES — Leslie Jordan, the actor whose wry Southern drawl and versatility made him a comedy and drama standout on TV series including “Will & Grace” and “American Horror Story,” has died. The Emmy-winner, whose videos turned him into a social media star during the pandemic, was 67.

    “The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan. Not only was he a mega talent and joy to work with, but he provided an emotional sanctuary to the nation at one of its most difficult times,” a representative for Jordan said in a statement Monday. “Knowing that he has left the world at the height of both his professional and personal life is the only solace one can have today.”

    The native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who won an on outstanding guest actor Emmy in 2005 for his role as Beverly Leslie in “Will & Grace,” had a recurring role on the Mayim Bialik comedy “Call me Kat” and co-starred on the sitcom “The Cool Kids.”

    Jordan’s other eclectic credits include “Hearts Afire,” “Boston Legal,” “Fantasy Island” and “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” He played various roles on the “American Horror Story” franchise series.

    Jordan died Monday in a single car crash in Hollywood, according to reports by celebrity website TMZ and the Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.

    Jordan earned an unexpected new following in 2021 when he spent time during the pandemic lockdown near family in his hometown. He broke the sameness by posting daily videos of himself on Instagram.

    Many of Jordan’s videos included him asking “How ya’ll doin?” and some included stories about Hollywood or his childhood growing up with identical twin sisters and their “mama,” as he called her. Other times he did silly bits like complete an indoor obstacle course.

    “Someone called from California and said, ’Oh, honey, you’ve gone viral.’ And I said, ’No, no, I don’t have COVID. I’m just in Tennessee,” said Jordan. Celebrities including Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Alba and Anderson Cooper, along with brands such as Reebok and Lululemon, would post comments.

    Soon he became fixated with the number of views and followers he had, because there wasn’t much else going on. By the time of his death, he amassed 5.8 million followers on Instagram and another 2.3 million on TikTok.

    “For a while there, it was like obsessive. And I thought, ’This is ridiculous. Stop, stop, stop.′ You know, it almost became, ’If it doesn’t happen on Instagram, it didn’t happen.’ And I thought, ‘You’re 65, first of all. You’re not some teenage girl.’”

    The spotlight led to new opportunities. Earlier this month he released a gospel album called “Company’s Comin’” featuring Dolly Parton, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder and Tanya Tucker. He wrote a new book, “How Y’all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived.”

    It was Jordan’s second book, following his 2008 memoir, “My Trip Down the Red Carpet.”

    “That sort of dealt with all the angst and growing up gay in the Baptist Church and la, la, la, la, la. And this one, I just wanted to tell stories,” he told The Associated Press in a 2021 interview. Among the anecdotes: working with Lady Gaga on “American Horror Story”; how meeting Carrie Fisher led to Debbie Reynolds calling his mother and the Shetland pony he got as a child named Midnight.

    In a 2014 interview with Philadelphia magazine, Jordan was asked how he related to his role in the 2013 film “Southern Baptist Sissies,” which explores growing up gay while being raised in a conservative Baptist church.

    “I really wanted to be a really good Christian, like some of the boys in the movie. I was baptized 14 times,” Jordan said. “Every time the preacher would say, ‘Come forward, sinners!,’ I’d say ‘Oooh, I was out in the woods with that boy, I better go forward.’ My mother thought I was being dramatic. She’d say, ‘Leslie, you’re already saved,’ and I’d say, ’Well, I don’t think it took.”

    Jordan said he considered himself a storyteller by nature.

    “It’s very Southern. If I was to be taught a lesson or something when I was a kid, I was told a story,” he told AP.

    —-

    Mark Kennedy and Alicia Rancilio in New York contributed to this report.

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  • Suit over rape claim against filmmaker Haggis heads to trial

    Suit over rape claim against filmmaker Haggis heads to trial

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    NEW YORK — Opening statements are expected Wednesday in a civil case brought by a publicist who accused Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis of raping her almost a decade ago.

    Jury selection began Monday in a Manhattan courtroom.

    The lawsuit was filed in 2017 as a wave of sexual misconduct accusations against prominent men was propelling the #MeToo movement to new visibility. At least four other women subsequently alleged that Haggis, a screenwriter known for “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby,” sexually assaulted them or tried to do so.

    The New York lawsuit centers on publicist Haleigh Breest’s allegation that Haggis offered her a ride home from a movie premiere, invited her to his Manhattan apartment for a drink, rebuffed her suggestion that they go to a public bar instead, and then raped her at the apartment.

    The filmmaker, who declined to comment as he left court Monday, maintains that the encounter was consensual.

    His defense may also feature an allegation of sinister intrigue: His lawyers have suggested that the Church of Scientology engineered false accusations of sexual misdeeds to ruin Haggis, a former longtime member who became an outspoken critic.

    The church has said it had no involvement in the allegations against Haggis, and his accuser’s lawyers have called it “a shameful and unsupported conspiracy theory unworthy of any trial proceeding.”

    But Judge Sabrina Kraus ruled last month that Haggis’ lawyers can bring up Scientology, saying that “the jury is entitled to be informed of any possible motive (the) plaintiff may have and about the church’s efforts to discredit Haggis.”

    No criminal charges were filed in connection with Breest’s accusation. Her lawsuit could mean a financial penalty, but not prison or probation for Haggis if she prevails. She is seeking unspecified damages.

    After the suit was filed in late 2017, three other women told her attorneys and The Associated Press that Haggis had sexually assaulted them or attempted to do so. One said he had raped her. In response, his lawyer said Haggis “didn’t rape anybody.”

    Kraus ruled last month that those three women can also testify as part of Breest’s effort to demonstrate Haggis’ “intent and lack of consent.”

    Jurors won’t be allowed to hear that Haggis was detained for about two weeks at an Italian hotel in June while authorities investigated allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman there. Haggis was in Italy for an arts festival.

    Haggis’ Italian attorney said the filmmaker was innocent, and in early July, a judge released him while prosecutors considered whether to pursue their inquiry. The judge concluded that Haggis hadn’t engaged in “constrictive violent behavior,” according to the newspaper Corriere della Sera.

    The Associated Press does not usually name people alleging sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Breest has done.

    The Canadian-born Haggis wrote “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash,” which won back-to-back Academy Awards for best picture in the mid-2000s. He also directed and was a producer of “Crash,” which garnered him and Bobby Moresco the best original screenplay Oscar in 2006. The next year, Haggis was nominated in the same category for “Letters from Iwo Jima.”

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