An enormous exhibition by the activist artist Ai Weiwei, designed to draw attention to the world’s refugee crisis, is going on view at some 300 sites around New York City.

 

“Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” presented by the Public Art Fund, will be open to the public from Thursday until Feb. 11.

 

A global trend of “trying to separate us by color, race, religion, nationality” is a blow “against freedom, against humanity,” Ai said at a Manhattan press conference Tuesday. “That’s why I made a work related to this issue.”

 

Ai, now based in Berlin, is considered one of the world’s most successful artists.

 

He spent his childhood in a remote Chinese community after his father, a poet, was exiled by Communist authorities. He came to New York City as an art student in the 1980s, then returned to his homeland in 1993, using his art and public platform to address political issues. He was alternately encouraged, tolerated and harassed, spending time in detention and being barred for years from leaving the country.

 

Since his passport was reinstated in 2015, Ai and his team have traveled to 23 countries and territories and more than 40 refugee camps while making a documentary, “Human Flow.”

The New York exhibition will include three large-scale works and ancillary works throughout the city. Ai expressed a special affinity for Manhattan’s Lower East Side, his former home.

Art will be incorporated onto flagpoles, bus shelters, lampposts, newsstands and rooftops. Banners will bear portraits of immigrants from different periods, including historic pictures from Ellis Island. There also will be images from Ai’s “Human Flow” projects.

 

At Central Park’s Doris C. Freedman Plaza, viewers will be able to walk in and around a work titled “Gilded Cage.”

 

The 24-foot-tall symbol of division stands in powerful contrast to one of the most visited urban public parks in the U.S., the Public Art Fund says. “Designed as a democratic oasis and vision of utopia, Central Park has vast open areas, lush forests, and monuments of heroes and explorers,” it says.

Another cage-like structure, about 40 feet tall, is in Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Arch, built in 1892.

 

“When I lived in New York in the ’80s, I spent much of my time in Washington Square Park,” an area that was “a home to immigrants of all backgrounds,” Ai said in a statement.

“The triumphal arch has been a symbol of victory after war since antiquity,” he said. “The basic form of a fence or cage suggests that it might inhibit movement through the arch, but instead a passageway cuts through this barrier — a door obstructed, through which another door opens.”

 

The third large-scale work will be displayed at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, surrounded by some of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. “Circle Fence” features a low, mesh netting around the Unisphere, a 120-foot-diameter globe commissioned for the 1964-65 World’s Fair.

 

The big globe “celebrated both the dawn of the space age and the fair’s broader theme of Peace Through Understanding,” according to the city’s parks department.

 

“Rather than impeding views of the historical site,” says the Public Art Fund, “the installation will emphasize the Unisphere’s form and symbolic meaning, engaging with the steel representation of the Earth.”
…

Marvel’s big green Hulk may not be getting his own standalone movie but actor Mark Ruffalo, who plays the current iteration of the superhero, said the character will get a mini arc within three upcoming Marvel movies.

Hulk, the muscle-bound, larger-than-life green alter-ego of scientist Bruce Banner, appears in the upcoming “Thor: Ragnarok,” out in U.S. theaters on Nov. 3, as a gladiator trapped on a futuristic planet and forced to fight Thor.

The Hulk will also appear in 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and its sequel, 2019’s yet-to-be-titled Avengers 4.

“We’ve taken the arc of a standalone Hulk movie and put it into those three movies, consciously,” Ruffalo said.

Ruffalo, who has spent more time as scientist Banner than as the Hulk in the past two Avengers films, said he relished the opportunity to be in character as the Hulk for the majority of “Thor: Ragnarok.”

“This movie is about just breaking free of the forms and rules, and so I got to break free from what we thought Hulk was to a slightly more fleshed-out character,” he said.

The Hulk, who first appeared in comics in 1962, has had his own standalone television shows and movies in the past, notably 2003’s “Hulk” and 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” films, both from Universal Pictures.

The cinematic rights to Marvel’s Hulk superhero are owned by Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures, while Walt Disney Co. owns Marvel studios and is behind the current success of the superhero movie franchise.

“Ultimately Universal owns the rights there. I don’t see them like hanging out together any time soon to be like ‘Hey, let’s do another Hulk movie’,” he said.
…

The Somali musician Hassan-Nour Sayid — known by his stage name, Aar Maanta — and his band, the Urban Nomads, were supposed to be in Minnesota last week, where they were to kick off a monthlong internship of performances and workshops set up through the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis.

Visa delays, however, have led to the cancellation of the event, and Aar told VOA he thinks it is because the Trump administration has delayed his visa to come to the U.S. because he is Muslim and Somali.

“After months of planning these peaceful events, I was expecting only the inevitable reasons could bring them to a disappointing halt, but now I think it is because of being Muslim and Somali. Why I was discriminated and singled out in the visa process,” Aar told VOA Somali. “I blame the current U.S. government.”

Dual citizenship

Aar is a respected and well-known band leader, with dual citizenship in Somalia and Britain, though he says these qualifications did not help him get a U.S. visa “easily and on time.”

“My four other colleagues — musicians in the band — are Italian, French, Nepalese-Scottish and British-Caribbean, and all received their visas with no trouble. Only me. I think it is because I am the band’s sole Somali and Muslim member,” he said.

He said his passport was held by the U.S. consulate, and he was told his application was placed under “additional administrative processing.”

In an email, a State Department official told VOA they were not able to discuss individual visas.

“Since visa records are confidential under the Immigration and Nationality Act, we are not able to discuss individual visa cases. We would also note that visa applications do not include questions pertaining to religious identity/affiliation. U.S. immigration law does not contain visa ineligibilities based on religious identity/affiliation,” the official wrote.

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who on Tuesday addressed a question by VOA on a visa denial to the ousted Venezuela attorney general, said visa applications are confidential under federal law.

“So visa applications — and those are confidential, so no matter who it is or what the cause is, that’s something that we don’t comment on. I think we’ve talked about that before. They’re confidential under a federal law,” Nauert said.

Musician

Aar — a Somali singer, songwriter, actor, composer, instrumentalist and music producer — moved to the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, on the eve of the civil war in Somalia. He has lived there since, and has received his British citizenship. But he says he always realized that holding a Western passport would not change “his true identity.”

“I was always telling my Somali fans that it does not matter whether you have a British passport or American passport or the passport of any other Western country, you will always and forever remain Somali,” he said.

Under a revised travel order signed last month by President Donald Trump, travelers to the United States from eight countries face new restrictions, which take effect Oct. 18. The new executive order will affect citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Chad, North Korea and Venezuela.

The new restrictions ban Somali immigrants from entry to the U.S., according to immigration attorneys. However, non-immigrants who are seeking business or tourist visas, such as Aar, must undergo additional screening measures.

According to tour organizers, the Urban Nomads have worked with the Cedar Cultural Center twice before, where they performed live music, led songwriting and held poetry workshops for young people. During the planned trip, though, the band would have extended its performances outside the metro area, carrying a message of unity for Somali-American communities.

Surprised by visa challenges

In a written statement, Fadumo Ibrahim, the program’s manager at the Cedar Cultural Center, said she was surprised by the visa challenges the musician faced, given his work with the center in the past.

“This case is a concrete example of how travel restrictions and the travel ban limit artistic voices and freedom,” Ibrahim said. “While it’s obviously important for the artists, it’s equally important for the community who had been anticipating this residency.

“Aar Maanta’s visit to Minnesota would have brought hope and positivity to the Somali and larger communities here at a time when we all really need it,” she said.

Midnimo, the Somali word for “unity,” is a program that features Somali artists from Minnesota and around the world in residencies and events that increase understanding of Somali culture through music.

The center said, “Midnimo is reviving and preserving Somalia’s rich musical traditions while fostering social connections between generations and cultures in the heart of the largest Somali diaspora in North America.”

VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributes to the story.
…

When it opened in 1962, the sleek TWA terminal at New York’s Kennedy Airport was the embodiment of jet-age style. Now, construction is underway to transform the landmark into a $265 million hotel that will conjure the same glamour, smack in the middle of an airport better known for controlled chaos than comfort.

The hotel, being built by New York-based MCR Development, will include two new buildings with 505 rooms, a rooftop pool, an observation deck where guests can watch planes take off and a museum stocked with artifacts, including uniforms lent by former TWA flight attendants.

But the starring feature will be the long-closed TWA Flight Center, designed by architect Eero Saarinen. The center will be preserved, along with its Charles Eames furniture and Noguchi fountain, as the hotel’s lobby.

“I’ve loved the TWA building since as far back as I can remember. It’s such an incredible structure,” said Tyler Morse, CEO of MCR Development. “It’s this cacophony of midcentury modern design all under one roof,” he said. “To bring that back to life was very exciting.”

The gull-winged terminal, which looked like something out of the TV show “The Jetsons” and opened the same year as the animated series, was a symbol of flight and a favorite project of Saarinen, who also designed the St. Louis Gateway Arch. It closed in 2001 when TWA was acquired by American Airlines.

The iconic structure is protected by the city as a landmark and can’t be torn down, but its destiny was uncertain before the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the region’s major airports, began soliciting bids for a hotel operator several years ago.

 

MCR, which owns 94 hotels in 24 states, was the winning bidder with JetBlue, a 5 percent minority owner.

The hotel is scheduled to open in early 2019. It will be the first hotel at the airport property since the Ramada Plaza, fairly distant from the terminals, closed in 2009. The only other hotels near the airport are budget accommodations a short drive away by shuttle bus or taxi.

The rooms will start at $250 a night. The target clientele, Morse said, will include business travelers as well as aviation “geeks” interested in the landmark TWA terminal and in the location.

Tourists are unlikely to use it as a base for exploring the city. It is a long subway ride or drive from Manhattan, but just minutes from all of the airport’s terminals by monorail.

A scale model of the hotel, built for marketing purposes, opened last month at One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

 

It was filled with retro items like swizzle sticks and a front page from John Glenn’s 1962 space flight. A sound track featuring Frank Sinatra singing “Fly Me to the Moon” and The 5th Dimension’s “Up, Up and Away” plays on a continuous loop while a telescope pointed at Kennedy Airport, 12 miles to the east, links the space to its parent terminal. A mini-fridge is stocked with Tab.

TWA memorabilia includes first-class china and flatware and uniforms worn by pilots and flight attendants. Of particular interest are the paper “Italian toga,” “French maid” and “English wench” outfits from the summer of 1968, when TWA experimented with disposable hostess uniforms.

Chris Betz, event coordinator for the space, said some of the artifacts will go to the museum at the hotel when it opens.

Many of the uniforms and other items came from organizations of former TWA employees that formed after the airline shut down.

“I’m pleased that the building is being taken care of and put to a special, good use, and I really hope they are successful with it,” said Judy Gerling, president of TWA Clipped Wings, a group of former flight attendants.

 

Gerling, who worked for TWA from 1965 to 1989, said air travel was special in the era the hotel will evoke.

 

“Everybody dressed up,” she recalled. “The women wore dresses, hats and gloves. The men wore suits.”

First-class passengers were served their meals in courses with linen napkins.

 

“Even in coach we always had a choice of two or three entrees,” Gerling said. “Now you get a choice of peanuts or not.”

 
…

Arab states may want their turn at the helm of UNESCO, but the barbs hurled by Egypt at rival candidate Qatar during the vote highlights the fractious geopolitics paralyzing the workings of the U.N. cultural agency.

The Paris-based body is known for designating World Heritage sites like the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria and Grand Canyon National Park, but it has struggled for relevance as it becomes increasingly hobbled by regional rivalries and a lack of money.

After two days of a secret ballot that could run until Friday, Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari leads France’s Audrey Azoulay and Egyptian hopeful Moushira Khattab. Three other candidates, including from Lebanon, trail.

The row between Qatar and Egypt has its roots in the crisis engulfing Qatar and its Gulf Arab neighbors that have severed diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Doha after accusing it of sponsoring hard-line Islamist groups, a charge Qatar denies.

“The dispute has been bubbling for several months, but what we’re seeing with the Arab candidates is that they are extremely divided. Some of the clashes are quite virulent,” said one UNESCO ambassador.

Egypt has not shied from making its feelings about Qatar’s UNESCO bid clear.

‘Cannot be sold’

In an interview with Egypt Today and retweeted by the foreign ministry, Egypt’s top diplomat, Sameh Shoukry, suggested Qatar was using its financial power to influence UNESCO’s 58-member executive council.

“It is an organization that is owned by international society and cannot be sold to a particular state or individual,” he was quoted as saying when asked about the Qatari candidate’s campaign pitch that “I’m not coming empty-handed.”

A diplomat at Qatar’s embassy in Paris declined to comment. A Qatari official at UNESCO’s headquarters also declined to comment.

Egyptian candidate Khattab’s first message on Twitter in three months was a retweet of an article in the Israeli press titled “Israel bemoans emerging Qatari victory in UNESCO leadership vote.”

Kawari, the Qatari candidate, has so far not reacted to the Egyptian allegations, simply tweeting on Wednesday: “Al-Kawari tipped to head UNESCO.”

Voting lasts over a maximum five rounds. If the two finalists end level, they draw lots.

“You get the impression that some are playing politics and competing for the sake of having a post rather than actually wanting to secure the future of the organization,” said a European diplomat.
…

The once-powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was suspended from the British film academy Tuesday as allegations of his decades of sexual abuse continue to emerge.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts said in a statement Wednesday that Weinstein’s membership had been “suspended, effective immediately.”

The organization, which had previously received money from Weinstein to fund its charitable work, called his alleged sexual transgressions “completely unacceptable and incompatible with BAFTA’s values.”

Weinstein was fired by the board of his production company, the Weinstein Co., on Monday following an explosive New York Times report, in which 13 women accused him of sexually harassing or assaulting them.

On Tuesday, another report from the New Yorker emerged, in which three women accused Weinstein of raping them. Actresses Asia Argento and Lucia Evans went on the record in the New Yorker story to accuse Weinstein of raping them, while another woman chose to remain anonymous.

Among the accusers are some of Hollywood’s A-listers, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette.

The New Yorker story says 16 current and former employees at the Weinstein Co. and Miramax either witnessed or knew of Weinstein’s sexual abuse. According to the report, all of those employees said Weinstein’s sexual deviancy was widely known within the two companies.

The 65-year-old Weinstein oversaw production of many popular films over the last 30 years, including Shakespeare in Love, Pulp Fiction, Sex, Lies and Videotape, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting and Lee Daniels’ The Butler. He ran Miramax and later the Weinstein movie companies with his brother Bob Weinstein.

His fall came quickly after the Times reported on his unwanted sexual advances on women stretching over nearly three decades. The story said Weinstein, who is known in Hollywood for his demanding control of film productions and angry outbursts, had paid confidential settlements to his female accusers.

In a statement last week, Weinstein said that “the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it.” Later, he claimed some of the newspaper’s claims were false and said he would sue for defamation.

Weinstein took a leave of absence from his company Friday, but on Sunday the board said that “in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days,” it had told him that “his employment is terminated, effective immediately.”

High-profile reactions

Weinstein has been big donor in recent years to Democratic politicians in the U.S., including twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. But with the sexual harassment revelations, Democratic political figures scrambled over the weekend to distance themselves from the disgraced filmmaker.

Several Democrat politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren have promised to donate money they received from Weinstein to charities supporting women.

Clinton broke her silence on the matter Tuesday, saying she was “shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein.”

“The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated,” she added in a statement.

“Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status,” former President Barack Obama said in a statement Tuesday. “We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories.”

President Donald Trump said over the weekend he’s “known Harvey Weinstein for a long time” and he is “not at all surprised” by the sexual abuse allegations.

Matt Damon’s first film, Good Will Hunting, won him his first Oscar after Weinstein took a chance on a script from Damon and fellow unknown, Ben Affleck.

“We know this stuff goes on in the world. I did five or six movies with Harvey. I never saw this,” Damon told CNN’s Deadline in an interview published Tuesday.

He added later in the interview: “This morning, I just feel absolutely sick to my stomach.”
…

The World Cup is truly taking shape.

A dramatic day of qualifying matches ended with 23 of the 32-team lineup confirmed to play next year in Russia.

Lionel Messi will be there. Cristiano Ronaldo, too. The United States will not, for the first time since 1986.

The remaining nine spots will be decided next month, but the eight top-seeded nations for the Dec. 1 draw in Moscow are now known. There are still four European playoffs, two intercontinental playoffs and three African qualifying groups to be decided.

Here are some things we learned about the next World Cup:

Star power

Before games kicked off Tuesday, Messi and Ronaldo were not sure of advancing.

It all worked out, to the relief of Argentina, Portugal, FIFA and social media users everywhere. World Cup sponsor Adidas and Nike – who provide the uniforms for Messi and Ronaldo, respectively, on international duty – should also be relieved.

Messi was a savior for Argentina, which likely had to win in the high altitude of Ecuador and trailed in the first minute. The only Argentina player to score in qualifying games this year, Messi’s hat trick led the way to a 3-1 win and a spot at the World Cup.

Ronaldo did not add to his 15 goals in qualifying, but Portugal’s 2-0 win over Switzerland extended the European champion’s winning streak and ensured first place in the group on goal difference.

Not all of the world’s best players will be in Russia: Wales forward Gareth Bale, Chile striker Alexis Sanchez and rising American star Christian Pulisic all were eliminated.

Also missing? At least 20 unfilled sponsor slots in FIFA’s planned commercial program.

Top-seeded teams

Portugal and Argentina went from the fringes to the top-seeded pot of teams as the Nos. 3 and 4 teams in the FIFA rankings.

The top seven-ranked teams – FIFA will confirm the list on Monday – join host Russia in Pot 1. They include top-ranked Germany, the defending champions, Brazil, Belgium, Poland and France.

Russia’s ranking, somewhere in the 60s, could be worst in the draw, but is because the host nation has not played high-value competitive qualifying games.

Spain won’t be one of the seeded teams, and should be the one to avoid from Pot 2.

FIFA picked a new draw format with seeding pots entirely decided by October’s rakings instead of geographical divide. No two teams from the same confederation can be drawn together, except for Europeans. With 14 UEFA members in the draw, FIFA allows a maximum of two in each of the eight groups.

If Serbia lands as an outlier in Pot 4, it could set up the toughest group with either Brazil or Argentina and another European team.

New boys

Iceland and Panama are the two World Cup newcomers so far.

Iceland is beloved worldwide after its run to the 2016 European Championship quarterfinals and will be the smallest nation by population – only 330,000 – ever to play at a World Cup. Expect the country’s trademark thunderclap salute between players and fans to be admired and copied across the tournament.

Panama’s unlikely 2-1 win Tuesday over already-qualified Costa Rica relied on a “goal” that never crossed the line, and an 88th-minute strike from Roman Torres.

Panama took the last direct qualifying place in CONCACAF region, and the United States fell away after a surprising 2-1 loss at Trinidad and Tobago.

Vibrant visitors

Expect many of Iceland’s population to land in Russia, and most will be personal friends of the team.

Iceland’s blue and white hordes were a must-see experience at Euro 2016 even before their team eliminated England in the last 16.

For sheer euphoria, Egypt’s qualification this week to end a 28-year absence was hard to beat. Egypt already ranks in FIFA’s top 10 of nations whose residents have requested tickets to the 64 games in Russia.

Color and noisy good cheer would also be guaranteed if either or both of Ireland or Northern Ireland advance through the European playoffs next month.

Politics

The elimination of Ukraine this week removed a huge potential problem for FIFA.

Teams from Russia and Ukraine have been kept apart for security reasons in competition draws since 2014. It would have struck an awkward tone at the Dec. 1 draw at the State Kremlin Palace.

Syria’s exit against Australia on Tuesday also removes the chance of the team’s impressive run being used for propaganda by the regime of President Basher Assad, an ally of Russia.

Russian organizers say there will be no repeat of violent clashes involving its fans at the past two European Championships, including against Poland in Warsaw and England in Marseille.

Russia cannot be in a group with top-seeded Poland, but could draw England from Pot 2.

Video review

On the field, FIFA still has issues to resolve in refereeing games.

It wasn’t up to FIFA to prevent Panama’s “ghost” goal, but the technology system will be used at all 12 Russian stadiums for the World Cup.

FIFA is on the clock to decide if referees should get help from video review, however.

Decision-making was slow and often confused at the eight-nation Confederations Cup in Russia this year. Reviews once predicted to last mere seconds stretched to three minutes, and still seemed to get things wrong.

Top-level German and Italian league games are using Video Assistant Referees this season and, again, have provoked anger from team officials.

FIFA’s rule-making panel is scheduled to make a decision in March, maybe based more on hope than expectation.

 

 
…

The Biltmore Estate is the largest privately owned home in the United States. Built near Asheville, North Carolina, it is still owned by the descendants of one of America’s richest families, the Vanderbilts. It is a tourist attraction and a reminder of the so-called Gilded Age of the late 19th century. VOA’s Maria Morton takes us there.
…

American director David Lynch will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the upcoming Rome Film Fest.

The festival opens Oct. 26 with director Scott Cooper’s Hostiles, starring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike, and runs until Nov. 5.

The 39 official entries include a sport section, with movies including Borg/McEnroe, I, Tonya with Margot Robbie playing figure skater Tonya Harding, and boxing drama A Prayer Before Down by director Jean Stephane Sauvaire.

The festival features onstage discussions with the likes of actors Ian McKellen and Vanessa Redgrave, director Nanni Moretti and composer Michael Nyman.

Lynch is being honored 40 years after the release of his first feature film Eraserhead. The festival cites his films of “surreal atmosphere, hypnotic images and non-linear plots.”
…

The last privately owned Leonardo da Vinci painting and one of fewer than 20 by the Renaissance artist known to still exist is hitting the auction block, Christie’s announced Tuesday.

Salvator Mundi, an ethereal portrait of Jesus Christ that dates to about 1500, is expected to sell for about $100 million at Christie’s in November, making it among the most highly valued works ever to be sold at auction.

“This is truly the Holy Grail of art rediscoveries,” said Alan Wintermute, Christie’s senior specialist for Old Master paintings, explaining that the portrait sometimes called “the male Mona Lisa” had long been thought to have been lost or destroyed.

The portrait depicts Christ in vivid blue and crimson robes holding a crystal orb.

First recorded in the private collection of King Charles I, the work was auctioned in 1763 before vanishing until 1900, by which time Christ’s face and hair had been painted over, which Wintermute said was “quite common” practice.

Sold at Sotheby’s to an American collector in 1958 for 45 pounds, it again sold in 2005 as an overpainted copy of the masterwork, he said.

The new owner started the restoration process, and after six years of research it was authenticated as da Vinci’s more than 500-year-old masterpiece, which culminated in a high-profile exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2011.

The auction house did not identify the seller, a European private collector who acquired the work after its rediscovery in 2005 and lengthy restoration. The painting stands as the first discovery of a da Vinci painting since 1909.

Salvator Mundi will be sold at Christie’s in New York at its November 15 sale of postwar and contemporary art following public exhibitions in Hong Kong, London and San Francisco.

“We felt that offering this painting within that context is a testament to the enduring relevance of this picture,” said Loic Gouzer, chairman of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art.

Speaking to its $100 million estimate, Wintermute said, “There has never been anything like it sold, and so the market will decide.”

The same sale at Christie’s will feature Andy Warhol’s monumental Sixty Last Suppers, a piece from one of the pop artist’s final series before his death in 1987.

The 32-foot, multiple-image work is estimated to fetch $50 million.
…

Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is accused of raping three women in a report published Tuesday by the New Yorker. The accusation comes as Weinstein is engulfed in a scandal involving his decades-long sexual harassment of women in the film industry.

Actresses Asia Argento and Lucia Evans went on-the-record in the New Yorker story to accuse Weinstein of raping them, while another woman chose to remain anonymous.

According to the report, 13 women accused Weinstein of sexually harassing or assaulting them. Several of those accusations were previously reported by the New York Times, which published a story last week detailing eight sexual assault claims against Weinstein. All of those accusations resulted in financial settlements.

Among the accusers are some of Hollywood’s A-listers, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette.

The New Yorker story says 16 current and former employees as the Weinstein Co. and Miramax either witnessed of knew of Weinstein’s sexual abuse. According to the report, all of those employees said Weinstein’s sexual deviancy was widely known within the two companies.

Weinstein was fired by the board of the Weinstein Co. on Monday following the explosive Times report.

The 65-year-old Weinstein oversaw production of many popular films over the last 30 years, including “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” “The English Patient,” “Good Will Hunting” and “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.” He ran Miramax and later the Weinstein movie companies with his brother Bob Weinstein.

His fall came quickly after Times reported on his unwanted sexual advances on women stretching over nearly three decades. The story said Weinstein, who is known in Hollywood for his demanding control of film productions and angry outbursts, had paid confidential settlements to his female accusers.

In a statement last week, Weinstein said that “the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it.” Later, he claimed some of the newspaper’s claims were false and said he would sue for defamation.

Immediate termination

Weinstein took a leave of absence from his company on Friday, but on Sunday the board said that “in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days,” it had told him that “his employment is terminated, effective immediately.”

Weinstein has been big donor in recent years to Democratic politicians in the U.S., including twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. But with the sexual harassment revelations, Democratic political figures scrambled over the weekend to distance themselves from the disgraced filmmaker.

Several Democrat politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have promised to donate money they received from Weinstein to charities supporting women.

Clinton broke her silence on the matter on Tuesday, saying she was “shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein.”  “The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated,” she added in a statment.

President Donald Trump said over the weekend he’s “known Harvey Weinstein for a long time” and he is “not at all surprised” by the sexual abuse allegations.
…

The Hollywood establishment, slow to react to the initial sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, began speaking out against him more forcefully Monday after the powerful studio boss was fired by his own company.

Among those weighing in were his longtime allies and beneficiaries Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Kevin Smith and Judi Dench. They spoke up with a combination of disgust over his alleged behavior and remorse or defensiveness over their own business entanglements with him. Even the actors’ labor union SAG-AFTRA joined the chorus in condemning the disgraced movie mogul, calling reports of his alleged conduct “abhorrent and unacceptable.”

Director Kevin Smith, whose movies Clerks and Chasing Amy were produced by Weinstein, noted on Twitter that the producer financed the first 14 years of his career.

“Now I know while I was profiting, others were in terrible pain,” Smith wrote. “It makes me feel ashamed.”

Weinstein, 65, was fired Sunday by the Weinstein Co., the studio he co-founded, three days after a bombshell New York Times expose alleged decades of crude sexual behavior on his part toward female employees and actresses, including Ashley Judd. The Times said at least eight settlements had been reached with women.

Streep, who once called Weinstein “God” while accepting the Golden Globe for The Iron Lady, condemned his alleged conduct as “inexcusable” while also saying she did not know about it before.

“The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported,” Streep said in a statement.

Stories of his behavior, she said, were not universally known in Hollywood.

“Harvey supported the work fiercely, was exasperating but respectful with me in our working relationship, and with many others with whom he worked professionally,” Streep continued. “If everybody knew, I don’t believe that all the investigative reporters in the entertainment and the hard news media would have neglected for decades to write about it.”

Similarly, Dench, whose awards and nominations have been inextricably linked for two decades to Weinstein, first at his company Miramax and then at the Weinstein Co., said in a statement that she was “completely unaware” of the “horrifying” offenses.

“I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered and wholehearted support to those who have spoken out,” she wrote.

Dench won a best supporting actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and a nomination for Philomena.

Not all were completely blindsided, however.  

Kate Winslet, who won an Oscar for The Weinstein Co.’s The Reader said in a statement that the alleged behavior is “without question disgraceful and appalling.”

“I had hoped that these kind of stories were just made up rumors, maybe we have all been naïve,” Winslet wrote.

Glenn Close had also heard the “vague rumors” of his inappropriate behavior toward.

“Harvey has always been decent to me, but now that the rumors are being substantiated, I feel angry and darkly sad,” Close said in a statement to the New York Times. “I’m angry, not just at him and the conspiracy of silence around his actions, but also that the `casting couch’ phenomenon, so to speak, is still a reality in our business and in the world: the horrible pressure, the awful expectation put on a woman when a powerful, egotistical, entitled bully expects sexual favors in exchange for a job.”

Close called on everyone to unite on both an institutional and personal level to create a new culture of, “respect, equality and empowerment.”

In ousting him from the company, the Weinstein board of directors said it was reacting to “new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days.” It did not elaborate.

A studio insider who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that the Weinstein Co. plans to change its name.

Also, Weinstein’s name will be stripped from the TV series Waco and Yellowstone, among other projects.

Actress Lena Dunham tweeted Sunday night, “Easy to think Weinstein company took swift action but this has actually been the slowest action because they always always knew.”

Under Weinstein’s leadership, the Weinstein Co. has been a dominant force at the Oscars. It accomplished the rare feat of winning back-to-back best picture Academy Awards with The King’s Speech and The Artist.

In recent years, however, Weinstein’s status has diminished because of money shortages, disappointing box-office returns and executive departures.

His other movie credits over the years include Pulp Fiction and The English Patient.

Since the Times article, more accounts of predatory behavior have followed.

In a HuffPost report, TV anchor Lauren Sivan detailed an alleged 2007 encounter with Weinstein. Sivan, then working at a New York cable channel, said Weinstein cornered her in the hallway of a New York City restaurant closed to the public and masturbated in front of her.

Sivan said she had rejected an attempt by Weinstein to kiss her, and he responded: “Well, can you just stand there and shut up?”

The swift fall of one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures has turned up the pressure on many in the industry to speak out.

“What Harvey Weinstein did was abhorrent. He admits he did it. Why should anyone be silent in their disgust and support for his victims?” director Judd Apatow said on Twitter.

SAG-AFTRA said in its statement Monday said that everyone has the right to work in an environment free of discrimination and harassment. It provided the number for their safety hotline too.

“There is more to be done by all of us to ensure the safety of women in the industry,” the organization said.
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