Harvey Weinstein released on $1 million bail over rape, sex abuse charges

Harvey Weinstein, who was arrested and arraigned on charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex on him, has been released on $1 million bail.

According to USA Today, the disgraced Hollywood producer also agreed to wear a GPS tracker and to surrender his passport after turning himself in to police on Friday.

Weinstein was carrying three books, including Todd Purdum's "Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution," as he got out of a black SUV and walked past the swarm of TV cameras and reporters and through the front door of the New York Police Department's First Precinct in Manhattan on Friday.

His defense attorney Benjamin Brafman told reporters that Weinstein would enter a not guilty plea.

"Mr Weinstein has always maintained that he has never engaged in non-consensual sexual behaviour with anyone. Nothing about today's proceedings changes Mr Weinstein's position. He has entered a plea of not guilty and fully expects to be exonerated," Brafman was quoted as saying in the US media.

Hollywood meets royalty: Actor Markle to wed Prince Harry; Charles thrilled

Britain’s Prince Harry and US actress Meghan Markle announced on Monday they were getting married next year, saying their relationship had blossomed “incredibly quickly” after meeting on a blind date.

Harry, 33, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and fifth-in-line to the British throne, and Markle, 36, best known for her role in the US TV legal drama “Suits”, said they had got engaged in London this month and will wed in the spring next year.

“The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly was confirmation to me that all the stars were aligned, everything was just perfect. This beautiful woman just tripped and fell into my life, I fell into her life,” Harry said in a broadcast interview.

The queen, who had to give her assent for the union, and her husband Prince Philip were delighted, Buckingham Palace said, while Harry also received the blessing of Markle’s parents.

“We’re thrilled. I hope they will be very happy indeed,” his father, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles said.

Harry and Markle, who is a divorcee, met in July 2016 after they were introduced through a mutual friend, with both knowing little about the other.
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Way we tell the story of Hollywood sexual assault and harassment matters

Reporter Paula Froelich claims she once observed Harvey Weinstein assault a woman at a book party. Her editor responded with, “Maybe it’s not really a story.”

As it turns out, Weinstein and others are becoming a never-ending story, as more women reveal experiences with powerful men – not just in Hollywood, but across multiple industries. This story typically has two acts. First come the women’s reports – followed by the inevitable dismissal and undermining of them.

As a scholar who has studied violence against women for more than 20 years and watched public outrage over harassment and assault wax and wane, my question is: Could this time be different?
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Harry Potter at 20: What makes JK Rowling's creation a money making machine

'The wand chooses the wizard, Mr Potter," said Garrick Ollivander to Harry Potter when he visited Ollivanders (makers of fine wands, since 382 BC) for the first time in 1997. Twenty years later, in 2017, a kid does not need to wait for Hagrid to arrive and take him or her to Diagon Alley to purchase their first wands. He or she only needs to pester their parents for it and they can buy it for them, off Amazon. Even an Elder Wand replica can be bought for Rs 1,500. Should a Gryffindor scarf or Hogwarts robes or even a Sorting Hat interest you, they can be easily bought on the internet.

JK Rowling's manuscript had been rejected by eight publishers before Bloomsbury Publishing offered her an advance of £ 2,500 for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first in the series of seven books. The story goes that Rowling had written the book sitting in cafes in Edinburgh where she was living with her daughter, on benefits. Bloomsbury itself couldn't have known that the book it was publishing would transform not only the company but publishing as an industry.

Established in 1986 by Nigel Newton, Bloomsbury had a turnover of £11 million in 1995 which rose to £14 m in 1997 but thanks to Rowling's books rose to £21 m in 1999. In just two more years, it went up to £61 m in 2001, crossing a £100 m in 2005. It helped establish Bloomsbury as the most important publisher in the children's books category. Scholastic Press, an American publisher bought the American rights for $ 105,000 in 1998, by which time the first two books had been published in the UK. The seven Harry Potter books (excluding the spin-offs) have so far, sold more than half a billion books in 73 languages globally.

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