By Larry Neumeister
NEW YORK (AP) --Filmmaker Paul Haggis choked up and wiped away tears while finishing his defense Friday from the witness stand against a civil trial rape claim by a publicist.
Haggis, 69, reached for tissues after his lawyer finished questioning him a final time following cross examination that began Thursday and stretched into Friday afternoon.
After three days of testimony, the winner of Oscars for "Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby" was emotional as he described himself as "a very flawed human being."
He also said he made "Crash," a 2004 film about Los Angeles individuals forced to confront racial issues when their vastly different lives cross one another, because he "couldn't figure out how to be good."
The remark by Haggis prompted his attorney, Priya Chaudhry, to ask if his self-criticism was a reference to sexually assaulting anyone.
"Oh, God no!" he answered.
Chaudhry's questions came after attorney Ilann Maazel confronted Haggis with dozens of inconsistencies between his testimony from the witness stand and a video recording of a deposition in which he was asked many of the same questions.
Maazel represents Haleigh Breest, 36, who testified earlier in the trial that Haggis took her to his Manhattan apartment for a drink after a January 2013 screening afterparty. She said he pushed her on a bed, pulled her clothes off, aggressively demanded oral sex and — after she took a shower — raped her. She is seeking unspecified damages.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Breest has done.
In one instance of an inconsistency in testimony, Maazel tried to show that Haggis had admitted to over 25 affairs while he was married rather than 20 affairs.
He also elicited testimony about physical violence between Haggis and an ex-wife, with Maazel saying Haggis once hit her so hard that she had bruising.
"She had a black eye," Haggis responded. Haggis also said he was the victim of "a very fiery person" who hit and punched him over the years.
The trial resumes Monday. Jurors were told that closing arguments are likely on Wednesday, when they would probably begin deliberations.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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