Candid conversation. Collin Gosselin offered a rare glimpse at his dynamic with mom Kate Gosselin — and addressed a potential reconciliation.
10.11.2022 - 00:09 / deadline.com
Paul Haggis had an “awkward one-night stand” in 2013 with an infatuated young woman, Haleigh Breest, who wanted more intimacy from the Oscar-winning filmmaker and, when there was none, made up a rape allegation for a #MeToo-adjacent 2017 lawsuit that has “utterly destroyed him,” a lawyer for Haggis told jurors Wednesday in the three-hour first closing argument of his New York sexual assault civil trial.
“There are three ‘R’ words that happened here: rejection, regret and revenge,” said the lawyer, Priya Chaudhry. “And none of these ‘R’ words are rape.”
Breest was, in Chaudhry’s portrayal, a liar who wanted the affections of a famous, accomplished man, and as it dawned on her that he wasn’t interested and had moved on, she shopped different versions of the encounter to different friends and ultimately to lawyers as part of a plan to “get even” — to quote one of her texts — and shake Haggis down for money.
RELATED: Paul Haggis Sexual Assault Civil Trial: Deadline’s Complete Coverage
Chaudhry appealed to the jurors as skeptical, common-sensical New Yorkers to ask whether Breest was, as she testified, the victim of “an extremely violent rape” when she didn’t report it to police and kept the un-damaged but reportedly semen-stained tights that she wore that night as evidence.
She said the DNA testing produced no conclusive evidence of any semen belonging to Haggis, and she asked jurors to consider why they haven’t seen those tights, even though Breest’s lawyers have shown them her dress and sweater from that night.
She also said she expected that Breest’s lawyers, when they deliver their closings, will invoke the name “Harvey Weinstein” often.
“This is not a ‘Did she feel uncomfortable saying no because of the power
Candid conversation. Collin Gosselin offered a rare glimpse at his dynamic with mom Kate Gosselin — and addressed a potential reconciliation.
Almost everything viewers need to know about the mortal consequences of the fentanyl epidemic portrayed in Colin Askey’s new Vancouver-set documentary “Love in the Time of Fentanyl” is contained in one exchange between two users. One man talks about how coming off heroin was hard but manageable, essentially Netflix and chilling in his apartment for a week—but detoxing from fentanyl? That led to the emergency room.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says it is reviewing the status of Paul Haggis’ membership after a civil trial that resulted in the director being ordered to pay $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages. “The Academy will address this matter according to our Standards of Conduct and the due process requirements under California nonprofit corporation law,” the organization said in a news release.
Danny Masterson is a “defendant for whom no never meant no,” said Deputy LA County District Attorney Reinhold Mueller today in his closing argument in the former That ‘70s Show star’s rape trial. “If you were incapacitated in his bed, he would rape you,” the prosecutor said in a downtown LA courtroom Tuesday of the alleged incidents at Masterson’s Hollywood Hills home in the early years of the 21st century.
Jeremy Hunt will deliver the Autumn Statement on Thursday, where he is expected to raise taxes and cut public spending in order to balance the books. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has warned that everyone will have to pay "a bit more tax" and that "sacrifices" will have to be made following the disastrous mini-budget in September.
Every episode of Steven Knight’s new series “Rogue Heroes” begins with a declarative statement: “Based on a true story, the events depicted which seem most unbelievable … are mostly true.” It’s the sort of pithy postmodern title card that might elicit an eye-roll. Yet it also perfectly encapsulates this rollicking tale of the Special Air Service (SAS) formation during World War II. While occasionally deploying anachronistic ‘80s rock songs to lighten the mood and using title cards that can probably be best described as graffiti-chic, “Rogue Heroes” is both utterly unbelievable and, well, mainly true to the facts.
A New York jury today found filmmaker Paul Haggis liable on all three counts of rape and sexual abuse in his treatment of Haleigh Breest, who left a party in Manhattan with him in 2013 and then sued the Oscar winner in 2017 claiming he repeatedly forced sex on her in his apartment that night.
Good Night, And Good Luck, the 2005 feature film directed by and starring George Clooney, is being adapted for the small screen.
Leah Remini is standing up for a fellow former Scientology member — which would ordinarily be commendable. But this time the friend is Paul Haggis — and the setting is his civil rape trial.
Leah Remini testified Monday that Paul Haggis, and not his accuser, is the real victim in his New York sexual assault civil trial.
Women Talking has had Oscar pundits talking since its festival premieres in Telluride and Toronto, with buzz surrounding actors Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw and Polley herself as writer-director, adapting Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel about a group of women who meet to discuss abuse in a small religious colony.Laura Poitras is a past Oscar winner, for her 2014 documentary about whistleblower Edward Snowden, and is heavily favored to enter the doc race again for this year’s All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, centered on photographer Nan Goldin’s attempt to hold Purdue Pharma responsible for the massive rise in opioid deaths (similarly explored in the Hulu series Dopesick last year).Despite plaudits and awards aplenty for his novels and stories, Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro has only written a handful of film scripts, and his latest for the Bill Nighy-starring Living might be his ticket to Hollywood’s big night.
Paul Haggis sparred with a lawyer Friday over the meaning of a woman saying “no,” explaining again that when Haleigh Breest said “no” to him peeling off her tights she was not refusing sex.
Paul Haggis was back on the witness stand today and said the only sex he remembers having with Haleigh Breest at his apartment in 2013 was consensual and limited to oral sex initiated by her.
Paul Haggis took the witness stand today in his Manhattan trial for sexual assault, and the Oscar-winning Crash filmmaker and former Church of Scientology member’s first words when asked by his lawyer Priya Chaudhry how it felt to be testifying were: “I’m incredibly nervous, of course, and I’m very happy. Because for five years I’ve been unable to clear my name.”
Paul Haggis will testify Wednesday in the New York sexual assault civil case brought against him by Haleigh Breest, a lawyer for Haggis said Tuesday. The lawyer, Seth Zuckerman, said that Haggis’ ex-wife, Deborah Rennard, is scheduled to go first, followed by Haggis.