By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --In an op-ed, Salma Hayek said that her refusals to Harvey Weinstein's advances led to a nightmare experience making the 2002 Frida Kahlo biopic "Frida."
"For years, he was my monster," Hayek wrote in her account, published Wednesday by The New York Times.
Hayek, who regularly starred in films released by Weinstein's Miramax in the 1990s, credited Weinstein with helping her start her career. But she said that the movie mogul would turn up at her door "at all hours of the night, hotel after hotel, location after location."
Her refusals — of massages, showers and sex — enraged him, she wrote. "I don't think he hated anything more than the word 'no,'" wrote Hayek.
When Hayek brought "Frida," which she was producing, to Miramax to distribute, Weinstein made outrageous demands as payback. Hayek said he insisted on rewrites, more financing and, most heinously to her, a sex scene with full frontal nudity.
In order to finish what was a labor of love for Hayek, she agreed. But she said she had a nervous breakdown while shooting the scene. "My body wouldn't stop crying and convulsing," wrote Hayek.
"It was not because I would be naked with another woman," she wrote. "It was because I would be naked with her for Harvey Weinstein."
Even still, Weinstein initially refused to give the movie a theatrical release. He eventually relented after pressure from director Julie Taymor and Hayek. It went on to gross $56.3 million worldwide and land six Oscar nominations, winning two.
Dozens of women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, and numerous women have said he raped them. Weinstein, who is currently under investigation for sexual assault in four cities, has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. Representatives for Weinstein didn't immediately return messages Wednesday.
"Why do so many of us, as female artists, have to go to war to tell our stories when we have so much to offer? Why do we have to fight tooth and nail to maintain our dignity?" Hayak wrote. "I think it is because we, as women, have been devalued artistically to an indecent state, to the point where the film industry stopped making an effort to find out what female audiences wanted to see and what stories we wanted to tell."
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More