Published Thursday, April 25, 2024 | 11:45 a.m.
Updated Thursday, April 25, 2024 | 11:45 a.m.
NEW YORK (AP) – New York’s highest court has ruled media mogul Harvey Weinstein deserves a new trial for his 2020 rape conviction. The state’s Court of Appeals says Judge James Burke was “egregious” with improper rulings that including allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the case. Burke is no longer a judge. Weinstein’s lawyers have said he would have testified but he was unwilling to answer questions about allegations that went back four decades. Prosecutors have said Burke’s rulings were proper and allowed them to show a pattern of abuse. The ruling does not mean Weinstein is a free man. He is serving 16 years in prison for rape from a 2022 conviction in Los Angeles.
NEW YORK (AP) – An attorney who represented several women who accused former media mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct says her clients are “feeling gutted” that his 2020 rape conviction in New York has been dismissed. Debra Katz says her clients still believe that their testimony changed the world. Weinstein attorney Arthur Aidala (eye-DAL’-ah) says the dismissal is “a tremendous victory for every criminal defendant in the state of New York.” The Manhattan district attorney’s office says in a statement it will “do everything in our power to retry the case.”
HOUSTON (AP) – A judge has denied Travis Scott’s request to be dismissed from hundreds of lawsuits related to his 2021 Astroworld festival that resulted in 10 people dying when the crowd surged. Judge Kristen Hawkins disagreed with Scott’s claim that he was only responsible for the creative aspects of the festival, not safety planning. An attorney for the family of one of the people killed had argued Scott encouraged people without tickets to break in, and Scott ignored orders to stop the concert as people were getting hurt. The first trial is set to begin May 6.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Actor and comedian Richard Gadd worries about what people will think of him after seeing his series “Baby Reindeer,” but he worries more about “making disingenuous art.” “Baby Reindeer” recreates events in Gadd’s life when a woman stalked him after he gave her a cup of tea. Gadd says he could have taken the “poor me” approach, but he found it more interesting artistically to show that he was “in an extremely bad place.” He says audiences can sniff out when he’s not being straight with them, so he tries to adhere to “radical honesty” in his work. “Baby Reindeer” is streaming now on Netflix.
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) – The premise of the new PBS series “Art Happens Here with John Lithgow” is that John Lithgow is going to art classes with high school students in the Los Angeles area. Lithgow says he purposely went for classes that he’s not good at. That includes jazz singing, ceramics and dance. Lithgow says the series captures his insecurity and his failures, and then his joy when he had a tiny measure of success. “Art Happens Here” debuts Friday on PBS stations – check local listings.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The Rolling Stones will try for a third time to play the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival next Thursday. They canceled in 2019 because Mick Jagger had heart surgery, and the festival canceled in 2021 because of a surge in COVID-19 cases. The festival has 14 stages that showcase music simultaneously, but festival producer Quint Davis says they plan to shut down the other 13 when the Stones take the main stage. Davis says they didn’t want to have 13 stages with nobody in front of them. New Orleans Jazz Fest opens today with Widespread Panic and The Beach Boys. Other performers over the two weekends include Jon Batiste, Chris Stapleton, The Revivalists, Anderson .Paak (PAK) and Heart.
