By Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
Lee Daniels, Lulu Wang and Taraji P. Henson are among the talent participating in a series of virtual panels about inclusion and equity in Hollywood hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The organization that puts on the Oscars said Thursday that the panels rolling out through September and October will be available to the public.
Topics will include navigating Hollywood as a Black gay man, with Daniels and "Moonlight" screenwriter Tarrell Alvin McCraney, Latino erasure in Hollywood, with Marvel executive Victoria Alonso, documentaries, color-conscious casting and gender parity. There will also be a town hall focused on the organization's Black membership.
Entitled "Academy Dialogues: It Starts with Us," the series is part of the film academy's push to further equity and inclusion in its ranks and in the entertainment industry.
"These conversations may be uncomfortable for some, but they are necessary to broaden the stories that are getting told and increase opportunities for those who have been excluded," said Lorenza Muñoz, EVP, Member Relations and Awards, in a written statement.
The series launched last month with a conversation between Whoopi Goldberg and civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson about the power of narrative. It's currently available on YouTube.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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