Rose McGowan’s lawsuit against Weinstein dismissed
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by actress Rose McGowan alleging that Harvey Weinstein engaged in racketeering to silence her and derail her career before she accused him of rape.
Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed the suit on Monday because McGowan, who fired her lawyers last month and was acting as her own attorney, failed to meet filing deadlines that had been extended for her.
Wright had dismantled much of McGowan’s suit last year, but has now thrown it out entirely. Its central claim, that Weinstein violated federal racketeering law, was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
Weinstein Spokesman Juda S. Engelmayer said in an email Tuesday that “out of the public glare, with proper time, legal work, evidence and facts, this is the way we believe these suits will ultimately all go. A chapter is put behind as Mr. Weinstein keeps going forward to demonstrate the truth.”
A representative for McGowan who could comment could not immediately be found. She has not commented on the dismissal on social media.
The suit filed in 2019 in Los Angeles said that Weinstein, along with two of his former lawyers and an Israeli intelligence firm, conspired to defraud, smear and marginalize McGowan as she was preparing to name Weinstein during the run-up to the explosion of the #MeToo movement late in 2017.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were victims of sexual abuse, unless they come forward publicly as McGowan repeatedly has.
In a different Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday, a judge rejected a motion from Weinstein’s attorneys to dismiss a criminal indictment of Weinstein for 11 counts of sexual assault. Weinstein’s lawyers had argued that an expert in “rape trauma syndrome” was improperly used by prosecutors in grand jury testimony.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape and seven other sexual assault counts. He is awaiting trial. No date has been set.
The 69-year-old former movie mogul is serving a 23-year prison sentence after convictions of rape and sexual assault in New York.
Opera to present Blanchard’s ‘Champion’ in April 2023
The Metropolitan Opera will present its premiere of Terence Blanchard’s first opera, “Champion,” about closeted gay boxer Emile Griffith, in April 2023 following the success of the composer’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” on the opening night of this season.
“Champion” premiered at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis on June 15, 2013. Blanchard and librettist Michael Cristofer intend to make revisions for the Met performances, which will be in a revamped version of the original James Robinson production.
Met music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin, emphasizing 21st century music in his repertoire, will conduct a cast starring bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the young Griffith, bass-baritone Eric Owens as the retired boxer and soprano Latonia Moore as the boxer’s mother. The mother’s role is being revised after being sung by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves during the original run.
Nezet-Seguin conducted “Fire,” the Met’s first work by a Black composer, to open the season and the company premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s “Eurydice” last month. He is set the lead the world premiere performance of Kevin Puts’ “The Hours” in a concert version with the Philadelphia Orchestra on March 18, then conduct its first staged performances at the Met next season.
The Met will present its second work by a Black composer, Anthony Davis’ 1986 work “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” starting Nov. 3, 2023.
California’s governor writes
children’s book about dyslexia
SACRAMENTO, Calif — California Gov. Gavin Newsom still can’t spell the word “dress.” He can’t read aloud from a piece of paper in public. That’s why his speeches are long, mostly from memory and sprinkled with some awkward moments when his words bump into each other.
Newsom accepts these challenges as part of his dyslexia — a common learning disability that makes it harder for him to read and do many things related to reading. He’s had dyslexia for most of his life, but it came into sharper focus for him recently after watching some of his own children fall behind in reading.
That prompted him to search for picture books about dyslexia to use with his kids. But he was surprised when he did not find many. So he wrote one.
“Ben & Emma’s Big Hit,” published by Philomel books, comes out Tuesday. The book tells the story of a young boy named Ben who uses baseball to cope with his dyslexia, along with the help from a caring teacher and a friend.
The book is presented as a bridge to help some children with dyslexia understand why it’s harder for them to read. But beyond that, it’s a semi-autobiographical account of Newsom’s childhood that offers a glimpse of what shaped his personality and his politics.
“It doesn’t go away. I’m dealing with this every day,” Newsom said in an interview with The Associated Press. “So many folks (with dyslexia) do give up, and that has tragic consequences. And others that don’t (give up) start to discover that this is the greatest gift in their life and they can’t imagine a life without it. That’s really been my experience.”
Newsom, a Democrat, left California on Monday to kick off a book tour in New York with interviews at national media outlets. He has pledged to donate all proceeds from the book to the International Dyslexia Association.
Newsom said his dyslexia caused him to make a lot of mistakes in school that isolated him and made him feel anxious about reading. He said he often pretended to be sick to get out of reading in class.
But over time, Newsom said making mistakes made him resilient, which he said has become a useful tool in the world of politics.
Chopin’s last piano gets its 19th-century features back
WARSAW, Poland — The last piano on which Frederic Chopin played and composed in Paris is being renovated by a U.S. expert who is giving it back its original mid-19th century characteristics.
Paul McNulty is spending days at the Frederic Chopin Museum in Warsaw filling in some cracks in the soundboard and putting in wire strings like the ones used by Paris piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel — Chopin’s favorite — in 1848.
“We’re very, very close to the character and the identity of this instrument when we put the correct strings on, everything else being in very good condition,” McNulty told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Pleyel made the instrument, with serial number 14810, available to Chopin, already seriously ailing at the time, in the fall of 1848. After Chopin’s death in October 1849, the piano was bought by his Scottish student and friend, Jane Stirling, who then offered it to Chopin’s eldest sister, Ludwika Jedrzejewiczowa.
The piano arrived in Warsaw in 1850 — it still bears the red customs seal of Russia that ruled Warsaw at the time. It survived two world wars, including the destruction of the 1944 Warsaw Rising.
Given the provenance and the good condition of the instrument, McNulty said it is “priceless.”
Texas-born McNulty says this is the “best preserved Pleyel piano in the world,” despite having quite a dramatic history. It was played, but treated well by Chopin’s family and was not used for concert performances, also because of a failed renovation attempt.
It had most of its iron wire strings changed for much stronger and tighter modern ones during renovation in the late 1950s that destroyed its tone and put strain on the whole structure.
McNulty and museum authorities believe the current work will bring it as close as possible to the sound that Chopin heard.
“We hope it will sing for us again,” said Aleksander Laskowski, spokesman for The Frederic Chopin Institute that houses the museum.
“So an opportunity to hear the sound of Chopin’s piano as he heard it when he composed is quite likely,” Laskowski said.
By The Associated Press
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