British actress Julia Ormond is taking on the biggest beasts in Hollywood in her quest for justice after an alleged sexual assault in 1995 by convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.
Last week a New York Supreme Court judge ruled that her lawsuit against her former agents at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) could proceed, as could actions against Walt Disney Co and Miramax.
By continuing down this road, Ormond will be taking on CAA bosses Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane — two of the most powerful men in Hollywood.
Ormond’s lawyer, Meredith Firetog, told me this week that her client was being ‘incredibly brave’ in shooting for the big dogs.
‘The fact is that Harvey Weinstein, as powerful as he was, did not commit these sexual assaults in a vacuum,’ Firetog said.
‘They were made possible by powerful people and institutions that enabled him.’
Seeking justice: Julia Ormond in 1994’s Legend of the Fall
Julia Ormond attends the Taormina Film Fest in 2019
By continuing down this road, Ormond will be taking on CAA bosses Bryan Lourd (left) and Kevin Huvane (pictured right with Meryl Streep) – two of the most powerful men in Hollywood
Ormond, originally from Surrey, filed a suit last October, citing CAA for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, as well as Walt Disney Co. and Miramax — accusing them of negligent supervision and retention.
The actress, who shot to fame in 1994 when she appeared alongside Brad Pitt in Legends Of The Fall, alleged that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in December 1995, after a business dinner in New York City.
The disgraced movie mogul insisted on continuing discussions at Ormond’s Manhattan apartment – provided for her by Miramax as part of a two-year deal – according to the complaint.
Once there, Ormond, who was so ‘inebriated’ she could not put her keys in the door, says despite her protests, Weinstein ‘stripped naked’, forced her to give him a massage, climbed on top of her, masturbated, and then forced her ‘to perform oral sex on him’.
A few weeks after the alleged assault, Ormond was filming in Copenhagen and was informed Weinstein was planning to visit her.
She was ‘horrified’, according to the suit, and called her agents at CAA, Lourd and Huvane, to ‘plead with them to prevent Weinstein from coming to Copenhagen’.
They declined to intervene, the suit alleges. She further alleges that the pair — currently CAA’s co-chairmen — showed neither ’empathy’ nor ‘surprise’ but instead cautioned her about speaking out.
Lourd and Huvane are not named as defendants in the suit, but are mentioned throughout it.
Lourd, formerly married to Carrie Fisher, now represents George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johansson.
Huvane handles Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Aniston.
‘The men at CAA who represented Ormond knew about Weinstein,’ the lawsuit claims.
‘So, too, did Weinstein’s employers at Miramax and Disney. None of these prominent companies warned Ormond that Weinstein had a history of assaulting women, because he was too important.’
Weinstein’s attorney Imran H. Ansari has ‘categorically denied’ the allegations. CAA also says that the suit is ‘baseless’.
In addition it claims that Ormond’s attorneys asked CAA to pay $15 million — in exchange for their client not making public allegations against the agency. An offer it rejected.
Weinstein (pictured at Manhattan Criminal Court in May 2024) is currently serving 16 years for rape and sexual assault
In its ruling last week, the court decided that: ‘The complaint sufficiently alleges that CAA failed to protect the plaintiff from Weinstein, failing to warn her of his alleged reputation while at the same time negotiating the production company agreement between the plaintiff and Miramax, and later arranging the dinner meeting between the plaintiff and Weinstein.’
Neither Lourd nor Huvane responded to requests for comment but a spokesperson for CAA said in a statement: ‘We respectfully disagree with the Court’s ruling and continue to believe there is no legal or factual basis for Ms. Ormond’s claims against CAA.’
Weinstein, 72, is currently serving 16 years for rape and sexual assault.
Blink and miss Brad and George
Brad Pitt and George Clooney have been buddies since 2000, when Clooney was single, Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston, and both were filming Ocean’s Eleven.
They’ve not worked together since Burn After Reading in 2008. But the double act is back with the big budget film Wolfs, in which they play a couple of wise-cracking professional assasins.
George Clooney (left) and Brad Pitt (right) have been buddies since 2000 since filming for Ocean’s Eleven (pictured)
The omens for the picture, which premieres in Venice next weekend, are not great — it’s getting only a limited, one-week theatrical release from September 20, before going out on Apple TV+.
Sources blame a string of super-expensive box office misfires. Killers Of The Flower Moon, Napoleon and Argylle (all Apple efforts) cost a combined $700 million (£550 m) and took only $466 million (£366 m) at the box office.
Rupert Everett filming in Wales
Rupert Everett, who has played umpteen aristocrats –and has baronets in his family tree – is heading downstairs.
He is in Wales filming Madfabulous, a new British indie film in which he plays the valet of the outrageous fifth Marquess of Anglesey, who blew his fortune on diamonds and theatrics and died at the age of 29.
The Marquess is played by Callum Scott Howells.
Phoebe’s £60m for Lara Croft remake
It is almost five years since Phoebe Waller-Bridge signed her first $60 million deal with Amazon to develop, write – and possibly star in – some blockbuster television series.
And this summer the perfectionist actress and writer (who describes herself as ‘creatively controlling’) has finally turned in her first script, for a big budget adaptation of the Tomb Raider video game.
Amazon head Vernon Saunders says: ‘We’ve got great material. Phoebe is really good. We’re really excited. We’ve got to find our Lara Croft, so that global-wide search will start sooner rather than later.’
The video game has already spawned a number of underwhelming screen adaptations: two best-forgotten movies in 2001 and 2003, starring Angelina Jolie and another in 2018 with Alicia Vikander playing Lara.
An animated series, featuring the voice of Hayley Atwell, is due out in October.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge attends the UK premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in 2023
Waller-Bridge is aware that her process hasn’t been exactly speedy, and she has taken on some acting in non-Amazon projects, notably Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny and the animation If, in the meantime.
Her deal was renewed in January 2023, which surprised some in Hollywood who felt that the streamer was ‘saving face’ by continuing with it.
However Waller-Bridge explained last year: ‘They’ve been with me along this process, where I’m like: ‘I’m getting there, but I want it to be ****ing amazing.’
Her first project for Amazon was to have been writing and starring in their Mr & Mrs Smith TV series, alongside Donald Glover. However she walked away in September 2021.
She said in an interview last year: ‘I worked on that show for six months fully in heart and mind and really cared about it – still care about it. Creative collaboration is like a marriage, and some marriages don’t work out.’
Glover said: ‘It might’ve just been cultural. I don’t think we ever felt comfortable enough with each other.’
She has also been working on a TV series based on the Claudia Lux novel Sign Here.
The downside to playing Jackson Lamb
Slow Horses star Gary Oldman — who plays greasy-haired, flatulent slob of a spy Jackson Lamb — says the role has just one down side. Because Apple film at such a pace — four seasons in four years — he doesn’t have time to chop off his long, lank hair and regrow it in the interim.
‘I kind of have to carry him around with me, and dress it up to try and look less Lamb in my normal, everyday life,’ he laments.
But he concedes that is nothing compared to transforming himself into Winston Churchill for the 2017 film Darkest Hour, which required more than 200 hours in make-up.
Slow Horses returns to Apple TV+ on September 4 and will feature new characters played by Joanna Scanlan, Hugo Weaving and Ruth Bradley.
Slow Horses star Gary Oldman plays greasy-haired, flatulent slob of a spy Jackson Lamb
Bradley, as MI5 operative Emma Flyte, tells Lamb that he looks like ‘a man who gropes people on buses’.
Lamb responds with mock outrage: ‘You are being hurtful about my appearance. I might have to call HR.’
Keaton not fussed by doomed Batgirl movie
Batman star Michael Keaton is surprisingly chirpy on the topic of his cameo role as the caped crusader in the doomed Batgirl movie, which was canned without release by Warner Bros in 2022.
Its makers and stars were horrified when the studio said that for ‘strategic reasons’ they weren’t going to release the $90 million film.
But Keaton was not fussed. ‘Big fun, nice cheque.’
Michael Keaton, who played Batman (pictured), is one of the stars of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival next week
Now he is one of the stars of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which has its premiere at the Venice Film Festival next week.
Although he reprises his role as the mischievous ghost of the title, the film is mostly about the mother-daughter relationship between two other characters: Lydia and Astrid Deetz (Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega).
Regrets? You must be joking
Her performance in new BBC2 comedy drama We Might Regret This has delighted the critics, yet Canadian Kyla Harris (right) had never acted professionally before.
‘I was riddled with self doubt when I auditioned,’ admits Kyla, who plays tetraplegic Freya in the six-part series, which started on Monday.
‘And one of the best experiences of my life was seeing a photograph of the executive producer, Ash Atalla, with his thumbs up, signifying that the role was mine.
Kyla Harris in the BBC3 comedy drama We Might Regret This
‘I’ve acted in community shows before, and always wanted to perform professionally, but the opportunities weren’t there after an accident left me wheelchair-bound 25 years ago.’
Hear Ye, hear Ye! I’ve got a few demands…
Tonight, Kanye West will appear on stage at the Goyang Stadium in Seoul, South Korea — his first show outside the US since last summer.
It can be revealed that the American rapper, who now prefers to be called ‘Ye’, is going to perform atop a giant sand dune, with around 40 truckloads of golden sand delivered this week, as per the artist’s orders.
So what does it take to keep Ye happy on the road? Sources reveal his rider includes a jaw-dropping list of demands, including 24 rooms in a five-star hotel for his own personal use.
For himself and wife Bianca Censori, who is travelling with him, Ye specifies that their hotel must be a Ritz, Four Seasons or Aman group (the luxe resorts owned by Russian tycoon Vladislav Doronin).
The crew can be put up at a different hotel, but it must still be a five-star establishment.
At the gigs, the crew must wear black, and must not use their phones at all — or partake of alcohol, tobacco or drugs.
At each concert venue, Ye needs four private — lockable — rooms, containing only black furniture (two couches, two chairs and a festival table).
There are to be no plastic bottles, plates or utensils. He wants black hand towels — which must be ‘pre-washed — plus another ten large bath towels. Also black. And one box of unscented baby wipes.
While many artists like food back stage (Madonna’s catering demands are legendary, and Macca insists on vegetarian fare for the crew and himself), Ye asks only for a fruit platter.
To wash it down he has 24 bottles of water, and four of fruit juice. Booze is banned.
Kanye West (left) and wife Bianca Censori (right) attend the Marni RTW Fall 2024 in Milan, Italy on February 23, 2024
At each concert venue, Ye (pictured) needs four private rooms, containing only black furniture. He wants black hand towels plus another ten large bath towels. Also black. And one box of unscented baby wipes
One thing which he is particularly picky about is phone chargers. He wants two different iPhone chargers and specifies: ‘NO bootleg Apple products.’ (I sympathise — nothing’s more frustrating than not being able to charge your phone.)
Ye had hoped to do a global tour but, in the wake of repeated controversies and continuing erratic behaviour, only a handful of dates have been booked.
After Seoul he was to have played his ‘Vultures Listening Experience’ in Taiwan, but that concert was reportedly cancelled mid-week amid issues with the local pro- duction supplier.
Kanye played a number of dates in the US this spring.
At one concert, while sporting a Jason Voorhees ‘Friday The 13th’ mask, he rapped: ‘I’m still crazy, bipolar, anti-Semite. And I’m still the king!’ Which led to the event’s livestream being cut off.