Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
French actor urges lawmakers to investigate sex crimes and sexism in the film industry
PARIS | The woman leading a push for a reckoning about sexual abuse in France’s world-renowned cinema industry urged lawmakers Thursday to establish a commission to investigate sex crimes and sexism in the sector.
With French film-making in the spotlight ahead of the Oscars next month, Judith Godrèche gave emotional testimony to a French Senate commission Thursday recalling her own experiences as a young teenager breaking into the industry.
“Everyone knows that in the film industry, an abuser disguised as a director makes little girls suffer so they cry … He then arranges to meet them in an attic room and takes possession of them for real,” Godrèche said in her opening remarks.
Visibly shaken, she said she didn’t know she had the right to say “no.”
Godrèche, who also lived many years in Hollywood, urged an independent inquiry into misconduct in the French industry, the appointment of independent guardians for underage actors on film sets and other proposals to address past abuses and prevent new ones.
She gave a dramatic speech at France’s version of the Oscars last week, calling on those present to “face the truth” about the issue, years after the MeToo movement shook up Hollywood but faced resistance in France.
“I am speaking as loud as I can and trying to push the door as open as possible, and yet nothing is really happening because of the way the system is being built for years and years,’’ she said in response to questions from The Associated Press on Thursday.
“I think there is something about French society that is somehow still anchored in” the Middle Ages, she said.
Godrèche, 51, has accused two French directors of raping or sexually abusing her when she was 14 and 15 and they were in their 40s. The men deny wrongdoing. She formally filed a complaint earlier this month, and her actions have prompted other women in the industry to speak out about abuse.
She has also accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault when she was 24. By the time she spoke out, the alleged violence had occurred too long ago to prosecute, according to French news reports.
Godrèche said she felt supported in the U.S. when she spoke about Weinstein but less so in France, where she said directors are still held as sacred and hold tremendous power.
“I am hoping that things will change. Will they change? I only believe in action, not in applause,” she said.
Winfrey leaving WeightWatchers board, donating all of her interest in the company to a museum
Former talk show host Oprah Winfrey is leaving WeightWatchers board of directors and donating all of her interest in the company to a museum.
Shares of WW International Inc. tumbled more than 23% in Thursday morning trading.
Winfrey, who told People magazine in December that she was using a weight-loss medication, has served on the company’s board since 2015. She will not stand for re-election at WeightWatchers annual meeting in May.
WW International said in a regulatory filing that Winfrey’s decision “was not the result of any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices.” The size of its board will go from 10 to nine members following its annual meeting, the New York company added.
“I look forward to continuing to advise and collaborate with WeightWatchers and CEO Sima Sistani in elevating the conversation around recognizing obesity as a chronic condition, working to reduce stigma, and advocating for health equity,” Winfrey said.
According to FactSet, Winfrey’s stake of about 1.1 million shares made her the company’s largest individual shareholder, with a stake of 1.43%.
Winfrey said that she will donate her interest in WeightWatchers to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The company said that it supports Winfrey’s decision to donate all of her stake to the museum during WeightWatchers upcoming trading window in March.
“Ms. Winfrey is making the donation to support the NMAAHC’s goal to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans and to eliminate any perceived conflict of interest around her taking weight loss medications,” the company said. “In addition, Ms. Winfrey intends to donate the proceeds from any future exercises of her WW stock options to NMAAHC.”
Nearly a year ago, WeightWatchers said it too was getting into the prescription drug weight loss business with a $106 million deal to buy Sequence, a telehealth provider with annual revenue of about $25 million and about 24,000 members.
Lauper inks deal with firm behind ABBA Voyage for new immersive performance project
STOCKHOLM | Legendary pop icon Cyndi Lauper, who rose to fame in the 1980s with hits such as “Time After Time” and “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” has entered a partnership with the Swedish masterminds behind the immersive virtual concert ABBA Voyage.
The partnership announced Thursday by the Pophouse Entertainment Group co-founded by ABBA singer Björn Ulvaeus, involves the acquisition of a majority share of the award-winning singer-songwriter’s music. The aim is to develop new ways to bring Lauper’s music to fans and younger audiences through new performances and live experiences.
Lauper said she agreed to the sale, for an undisclosed amount, when it became apparent the Swedish company wasn’t just in it for the money. “Most suits, when you tell them an idea, their eyes glaze over, they just want your greatest hits,” Lauper told The Associated Press at the Pophouse headquarters in Stockholm earlier this month. “But these guys are a multimedia company, they’re not looking to just buy my catalog, they want to make something new.”
Four decades after her breakthrough solo album, the 70-year-old Queens native is still brimming with ideas and the energy to bring them to stage.
Lauper said she’s not aiming to replicate the glittery supernova brought to stage in ABBA Voyage where stupefying technology offers digital avatars of the ABBA band members as they looked in their 1970s heyday, but rather an “immersive theater piece” that transports audiences to the New York she grew up in.
“It’s about where I came from and the three women that were very influential in my life, my mom, my grandmother and my aunt,” she said.
Lauper has long advocated for women’s rights and gender equality, and her 1983 hit “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” reinvented by other female artists through the years, has become a feminist anthem. Lauper seems humbled by this responsibility.
It was during the large Women’s March in 2017 following the inauguration of Donald Trump where she saw protesters with signs reading “Girls just want to have fun(damental rights)”that gave her the impetus to raise money for women’s health. So far, she has raised more than $150,000 to help small organizations that provide safe and legal abortions.
“I grew up with three women. I saw the disenfranchisement very clearly. And I saw the struggles, I saw the joy, I saw the love,” she said. “And it made me come out with boxing gloves on.”
Lauper hopes the new show can bring the memories of those women back to life a little, along with “the reasons I sang certain songs, and the things that I wrote about.”
Prince William condemns antisemitism during visit to London synagogue
LONDON | Prince William condemned antisemitism during a visit to a London synagogue on Thursday, the first time he appeared in public after he unexpectedly pulled out of a royal event earlier in the week.
William, the heir to the throne, heard about how Jewish students across the U.K. have been affected by the rise of hatred against the Jewish community during his visit to the Western Marble Arch Synagogue. He also spent time with Renee Salt, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor.
The royal said he and his wife, Kate, the Princess of Wales, are extremely concerned about the rise in antisemitism. “I’m here today to reassure you all that people do care, people do listen and we can’t let that keep going,” he said.
William spoke out last week against the fighting in Gaza and called for the Israel-Hamas conflict to end “as soon as possible.”
While his statement stopped short of calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, he spoke of the “terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack” and urged for more humanitarian support to Gaza.
Reports of both antisemitic and anti-Muslim abuse in Britain have soared since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which triggered Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
William’s absence Tuesday from a memorial service for his godfather, the late King Constantine of Greece, drew significant media attention because it came at a time when William’s father, King Charles III, and his wife are both suffering from health problems.
Palace officials only said that William pulled out of the service at Windsor because of a “personal matter.” They declined to elaborate but said his wife, who is recovering from abdominal surgery she underwent in January, continues to do well.
Charles, who is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, has canceled all his public engagements.
—From AP reports
