On October 5, 2017, five years ago today, The New York Times published a bombshell expose revealing decades of sexual harassment, discrimination and abuse by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, launching the #MeToo movement. See Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades - The New York Times (nytimes.com). In...
The highly anticipated movie Borat 2 was released today, bringing with it a scene featuring President Trump’s Lawyer Rudy Giuliani in an particularly compromising position with actress Maria Bakalova, who is playing a journalist in the scene. Giuliani, who was told that this was an interview about the pandemic response,...
On June 30, the New York Attorney General’s Office announced that they had reached a settlement of nearly $19 million with Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, The Weinstein Company, and company board members and executives, hailing it as a major victory on behalf of victims of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct. However, just...
We are thrilled to congratulate director/producer Nancy Schwartzman on the recent nomination of her film Roll Red Roll for a Peabody Award! The Peabody Awards recognize exceptional storytelling in news, television, documentary film, radio and public service programming, and are known as one of the highest honors in media. Roll Red Roll, which tells the...
Amidst the spread of consequential news this week, one item that was particularly consequential was the sentencing of Harvey Weinstein. On Wednesday, Judge James Burke issued a 23-year prison sentence for Weinstein’s conviction on two felony sex-crime charges. The disgraced movie mogul was convicted of rape in the third degree...
In the wake of the #Metoo movement and the strengthening of laws concerning sexual harassment claims, employers have been encouraged to promptly and aggressively investigate claims of harassment or sexual misconduct in the workplace. While failing to take such accusations seriously certainly creates legal risk, a flawed or biased investigation...
RPJ Partner Nicole Page’s new article, entitled, "Need to Know: Nicole Page on the 'New Realities' of Running a Prodco in the #MeToo Era," was published today on Realscreen.com. Ms. Page is a featured columnist for Realscreen, sharing legal perspectives on issues impacting the production landscape.
On July 24, 2019, RPJ Partner Helen D. (“Heidi”) Reavis gave a presentation entitled “#MeToo Today” to Columbia University Law School’s U.S. Business Law program open to foreign lawyers and MBA graduate students. Ms. Reavis spoke to the students on the historical context in which the #MeToo movement arose, as...
By Jill Kahn Marshall In a continuation of the 2018 push for new and stronger laws addressing harassment in the workplace in the wake of the #MeToo movement, the New York State Legislature was at it again last month, expanding many of the newly strengthened provisions addressing sexual harassment to...
In the post-#MeToo era, New York and California lead the way with new workplace anti-harassment legislation. Those states are also the primary locations for the majority of film and television production in the country. In such an industry where the lines between work and social environments are frequently and easily...