Hollywood heavyweights face trail: Harvey Weinstein, Danny Masterson and Paul Haggis in court over sexual abuse allegations

Only two recent Hollywood actors, Kevin Spacey and Johnny Depp, have achieved significant victories in court after a number of high-profile lawsuits. Each of Harvey Weinstein, Danny Masterson, and Paul Haggis is dealing with allegations of sexual assault and protracted legal disputes in which millions of dollars or jail terms might be on the line. Producer of "Scrubs" Eric Weinberg just had his bail request denied; he is now incarcerated till his next hearing.

Harvey Weinstein

[caption id="attachment_55391" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Harvey Weinstein, 70, is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence following a conviction in New York[/caption] The disgraced 70-year-old movie mogul is presently facing multiple rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles. Weinstein entered a not guilty plea even though he is already serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York. In July 2021, Weinstein was extradited to California to face 11 sexual assault allegations filed by four women in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles between 2004 and 2013. Rape, forced oral copulation, restraint-based sexual battery, and force-based sexual penetration are among the offenses. Four additional women will testify at the trial that Weinstein sexually attacked them in addition to the four accusers, even though their complaints did not result in legal action. Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson compared each of them to one of the other four accusers based on the closeness of their accounts in his opening statement and perhaps as a hint to his trial strategy. [caption id="attachment_55394" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Jennifer Siebel Newsom is one of several accusers set to testify in the Harvey Weinstein trial.[/caption] One of the accusers who will testify is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom and a documentary filmmaker. One of the women testified in court on Tuesday that she had endured years of guilt as a result of allegedly letting Weinstein inside her hotel room during a film festival in 2013. She recalled having met the producer earlier that evening and having given him access to her room under the assumption that there was no danger. He immediately started being sexually aggressive. "I was destroying myself," she said. "I was feeling very guilty. Most of all because I opened that door." The woman's name is not being revealed in court. She is being referred to as "Jane Doe 1." "I was feeling guilty that I did something or said something that made him think something could happen between us," she said. She said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on her hotel bed. "I was kind of hysterical through tears," she said. "I kept saying ‘no, no no.'" Actor Danny Masterson from "That '70s Show" is accused of raping three women between 2001 and 2003. On a $3.3 million bond, Masterson has been free since his arrest in June 2020. He entered a not-guilty plea to the accusations. Three of the accusers were women: a new confidante, a longtime friend, and one's longtime fiancée. Like Masterson, all three of the ladies were adherents of the Church of Scientology. Due to the church's strong policies against public involvement with member matters, the accusers were unwilling to bring charges. Since making the accusations public, the women have all left the religious organization. On the testimony stand last week, one of the accusers sobbed as she recounted waking up to Masterson allegedly raping her. She said that he pushed a pillow in her face when she pulled his hair in an effort to yank him away, saying, "I was smothered." "I was unable to breathe." When the prosecutor questioned her about her thoughts at the moment, she responded: "that he intended to murder me. that I would pass away." Another woman claimed that Masterson sexually assaulted her in December 2001 while she was unconscious. According to Variety, she said that Scientology authorities instructed her to "give him sex whenever he wanted." "I just needed to do as I was told and I was not to tell anybody," she said.

Paul Haggis

The Oscar-winning director is being sued for sexual assault in connection with a 2013 incident in which he is said to have assaulted independent publicist Haleigh Breest at his residence after a movie screening. Although he has maintained that their sexual encounter was consensual, following she filed the civil action, a number of women have come forward to make charges against the "Crash" filmmaker. Breest claims that nearly ten years ago, she was assaulted at Haggis' Manhattan house and has subsequently experienced post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. After witnessing Haggis loudly denounce Weinstein on Twitter at the height of the #MeToo movement, she came forward with her account of events. "This man raped me and he’s presenting himself as a champion for women," Breest testified. "It made me extremely upset and want to take action." Breest is seeking unspecified damages in the civil suit. "Over the course of this trial, the jury been able to hear powerful testimony not only from Ms. Breest – but also from several other women who testified about enduring similar experiences at Paul Haggis’s hands," her lawyer, Zoe Salzman, told Fox News Digital. "Following years of attempts by the Haggis team to sidestep and deflect from the serious allegations against him, Ms. Breest feels vindicated that the jury has been able to finally hear all the evidence."