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Lese-Ansicht

‘Cocaine is the Gollum of drugs’ – and other things we learned from Anthony LaPaglia’s surprisingly juicy memoir

The actor opens up about almost playing Tony Soprano, why Quentin Tarantino ‘flipped out’ at him and how he’s ‘pretty much broke’ now

Maybe once a year we get a celebrity memoir that is as good on the juicy stuff – the Hollywood gossip – as the interior excavation; and boy does Anthony LaPaglia deliver both in his new memoir, The Life We Choose. “They say acting is the cheapest form of therapy,” writes the actor, best known for his roles in Without a Trace, Empire Records, Lantana and Frasier. “And that was lucky for me, because, coming up in the way I did, Christ knows I needed it.”

The memoir reveals a lot about his abusive childhood in Adelaide, at the hands of his father, Egidio; and how he went from working as a shoe salesman to moving to the US, to work on Broadway and in Hollywood.

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© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

© Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

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Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years after sexual assault conviction

Sentencing comes after years of appeals and retrials in case involving former TV production assistant Miriam Haley

Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years on Wednesday after being convicted of sexually assaulting former TV production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 at his Manhattan apartment.

Haley appeared in court on Wednesday morning and delivered a victim impact statement.

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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

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Weinstein Will Be Resentenced in California Rape Case

The disgraced film producer had been given 16 years in prison in one of several prosecutions that have had him behind bars since 2020.

© Pool photo by Adam Gray

The former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein in court in Manhattan this month.
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California appeals court upholds Weinstein’s rape conviction but says he must be resentenced

In California, Weinstein was convicted in December 2022 of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault and sentenced to 16 years in prison

Harvey Weinstein’s 2022 rape and sexual assault conviction was upheld Friday by a California appeals court, but the three-judge panel said the former movie executive must be resentenced.

The unanimous decision came a day after prosecutors in New York decided Weinstein would not face a fourth trial there, dropping the #MeToo-era case on Thursday after the accuser said she could not bear to testify again.

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© Photograph: Adam Gray/POOL Bloomberg/AP

© Photograph: Adam Gray/POOL Bloomberg/AP

© Photograph: Adam Gray/POOL Bloomberg/AP

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New York prosecutors seek to drop Harvey Weinstein rape charge

Accuser declines to testify in fourth trial after May mistrial with prosecutors citing her ‘extraordinarily taxing ordeal’

Manhattan prosecutors on Thursday moved to drop a third-degree rape ⁠charge against Harvey Weinstein after the woman accusing the disgraced movie mogul of assaulting her said she did not want to testify in ⁠what would have ⁠been ​a fourth trial.

Weinstein’s third trial in New York state court over an allegation that he raped ⁠aspiring actress Jessica Mann ended in a mistrial in May after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

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© Photograph: Adam Gray/POOL Bloomberg/AP

© Photograph: Adam Gray/POOL Bloomberg/AP

© Photograph: Adam Gray/POOL Bloomberg/AP

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‘Seriously the best boss ever’: inside the world of Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant

No one’s name appears in the Epstein files more than that of Lesley Groff, his assistant. Reading through the thousands of emails, a troubling question arises: what did she know?

Jonathan Whitcomb, attorney for Lesley Groff, 5 June 2020

“She did not know.”

FBI interview with Lesley Groff, 24 September 2021

Groff met with a headhunter, and he told her that “there was a job to organize one man’s life. This man was EPSTEIN, a Manhattan socialite. GROFF had never heard of EPSTEIN before this.”

Interview with Lesley Groff in the New York Times, 5 February 2005

“It comes down to the bond. I know what he is thinking and I know when I need to be fast. It’s a nice roll we are on.”

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© Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty

© Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty

© Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty

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Harvey Weinstein’s New York retrial ends in mistrial with jury deadlocked

Weinstein has been convicted of other crimes in the US and is already behind bars but move leaves rape charge in limbo

Harvey Weinstein’s retrial in New York on a rape charge ended in a mistrial on Friday after the jury deadlocked in the closely watched criminal case that another jury had already failed to decide last year.

The disgraced former Hollywood mogul has been convicted of other sex crimes on the US east and west coasts and is already in jail. But Friday’s declaration of another mistrial leaves the New York rape charge in limbo after three trials.

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© Photograph: Spencer Platt/EPA

© Photograph: Spencer Platt/EPA

© Photograph: Spencer Platt/EPA

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How to find a career you love – for gen Z and everyone else: ‘You don’t want your life’s compass to be dread’

In her new book, New York Times investigative journalist Jodi Kantor has set her mind to helping young people find their life’s work. What should they, or anyone else who feels lost and overwhelmed right now, do to get started?

Early last year, the investigative journalist Jodi Kantor was asked to give the commencement address to students at Columbia University in New York. The place was in chaos – amid continuing pro-Palestinian protests students were expelled, or arrested and detained by immigration officials, while President Trump had ordered a $400m withdrawal of federal funding (which was later reinstated as part of a settlement with the administration). Kantor was “horrified” to see what had happened at Columbia – her alma mater, where she was sacked from her first journalism job at the student paper– “a place and campus I loved, a place that stands for discussion and ideas and progress. I said: ‘I’ll do it if I can speak to the students first.’”

She spoke to several. They didn’t want to talk about Israel or Gaza, or Trump, or what was happening at the university and its implications for free speech. “They said: ‘Our class, despite all of its political differences, is united in anxiety over one question. When everything feels so broken, how do we start? How do we find our life’s work in this environment?’”

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© Photograph: Maria Spann/The Guardian

© Photograph: Maria Spann/The Guardian

© Photograph: Maria Spann/The Guardian

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Weinstein on trial again for 2013 rape charge after previous jury deadlocked

Weinstein switched legal teams for this retrial, but his new attorneys are echoing their predecessors’ themes

Prosecutors once again portrayed Harvey Weinstein as a one-time Hollywood power player who used his sway as a tool of sexual assault, painting a now-familiar picture on Tuesday at a rape retrial nearly eight years after the former movie tycoon’s arrest.

“This case will come down to power, to control and to manipulation,” said Candace White, a Manhattan assistant district attorney, to jurors as opening statements began in the bellwether #MeToo case, with Alvin Bragg, the district attorney, watching from the audience.

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© Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

© Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

© Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters

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Lisa Bloom on the fight for Epstein’s victims: ‘So many powerful men were enablers’

The US lawyer on her fearsome reputation, the criticism she faced for advising Harvey Weinstein, and how 40 years of legal experience did not prepare her for the Epstein files

If Lisa Bloom had been advising Peter Mandelson or the then Prince Andrew before their calamitous attempts at reputation-salvaging television interviews, she would have encouraged them to listen beforehand to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims – or, at the very least, to their lawyers – to understand something of what the women endured.

“Or even just watch some of the powerful documentaries that have been made, centering the victims, telling their stories,” Bloom says, pausing for a moment, closing her eyes and shaking her head to convey silent incredulity. “I’d have wanted them to become really enlightened about it. But you really can’t instil compassion in someone if they don’t have compassion. It’s hard to implant it in there.”

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© Photograph: Jessica Pons/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jessica Pons/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jessica Pons/The Guardian

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Mordfall Rob Reiner: Die Reiner-Morde haben einen dunklen Schatten über Los Angeles gelegt

Nick Reiner soll seine Eltern Rob und Michele ermordet haben. Im Gefängnis steht er nun unter 24-Stunden-Beobachtung, ihm könnte die Todesstrafe drohen. Für seine Verteidigung hat er einen prominenten Anwalt engagiert.

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