Harvey Weinstein will go on trial in October over alleged assault

Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein will go on trial in October in Los Angeles over alleged assaults on five women, a judge ruled Friday. Weinstein, who was charged in Britain this month with the 1996 indecent assault of a woman in London, faces 11 felony charges in California.

The 70-year-old appeared in a Los Angeles court wearing brown prison clothes to be told the date for his next hearing. Prosecutors initially charged the Oscar winner in January 2020 with a number of sex crimes against two women, with the assaults alleged to have taken place years earlier.

They added further counts later in the year involving three other women, dating back as far as 2004. The trial in Los Angeles Superior Court will begin on October 10. It is expected to last around eight weeks.

Weinstein was brought to California from a New York prison where he was serving 23 years for raping an aspiring actress and for a criminal sex act against a former production assistant. His jailing was a landmark in the #MeToo movement, which exploded after a media expose of his behavior.

In total, nearly 90 women including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Salma Hayek have accused Weinstein of harassment or assault. The Pulp Fiction producer has maintained that all his sexual encounters were consensual. 

As allegations poured in, London's Metropolitan Police said it was investigating a string of sexual assault claims against him. Before the allegations against Weinstein emerged, he and his brother Bob were Hollywood's ultimate power players. They co-founded Miramax Films, a distribution company named after their mother Miriam and father Max, in 1979. It was sold to Disney in 1993.

Their hits included 1998's Shakespeare in Love, for which Weinstein shared the best picture Oscar. Over the years, Weinstein's films received more than 300 Oscar nominations and 81 statuettes.

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