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Tag: Danny Masterson

  • Actor Danny Masterson’s wife seeks divorce after his rape sentence

    By AFP

    LOS ANGELES: Actress Bijou Phillips filed for divorce from Danny Masterson less than two weeks after the former “That ’70s Show” star was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for raping two women, US media reported Tuesday.

    The model and singer cited “irreconcilable differences” in her petition in a California court, celebrity news website TMZ reported.

    Masterson, found guilty in May of raping the two women in 2001 and 2003 at his home in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles, was sentenced on September 7 to 30 years to life in prison.

    The 47-year-old US actor, who has one child with Phillips, will not be able to seek parole until he is 77 years old.

    Phillips is seeking full custody of their daughter, aged nine, with visitation rights for Masterson, TMZ reported.

    Her lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment by AFP.

    ALSO READ | Ashton Kutcher quits as chair of anti-sex abuse organisation after Danny Masterson ‘support letter’

    Phillips had stayed with Masterson through his two trials — the first was declared a mistrial last year after the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision.

    The jury in the retrial deadlocked on another rape charge against a third woman. That charge was dismissed.

    Masterson rose to fame with the 1998 launch of retro sitcom “That ’70s Show,” where he played the character of Steven Hyde alongside fellow stars Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher.

    He co-starred again with Kutcher on Netflix’s “The Ranch,” but was fired in 2017 and written off the show after Los Angeles police confirmed they were investigating multiple rape allegations against the actor.

    The three women at the heart of the charges against Masterson were members of the Church of Scientology at the time. Two of them said church officials had discouraged them from contacting law enforcement.

    LOS ANGELES: Actress Bijou Phillips filed for divorce from Danny Masterson less than two weeks after the former “That ’70s Show” star was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for raping two women, US media reported Tuesday.

    The model and singer cited “irreconcilable differences” in her petition in a California court, celebrity news website TMZ reported.

    Masterson, found guilty in May of raping the two women in 2001 and 2003 at his home in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles, was sentenced on September 7 to 30 years to life in prison.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    The 47-year-old US actor, who has one child with Phillips, will not be able to seek parole until he is 77 years old.

    Phillips is seeking full custody of their daughter, aged nine, with visitation rights for Masterson, TMZ reported.

    Her lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment by AFP.

    ALSO READ | Ashton Kutcher quits as chair of anti-sex abuse organisation after Danny Masterson ‘support letter’

    Phillips had stayed with Masterson through his two trials — the first was declared a mistrial last year after the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision.

    The jury in the retrial deadlocked on another rape charge against a third woman. That charge was dismissed.

    Masterson rose to fame with the 1998 launch of retro sitcom “That ’70s Show,” where he played the character of Steven Hyde alongside fellow stars Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher.

    He co-starred again with Kutcher on Netflix’s “The Ranch,” but was fired in 2017 and written off the show after Los Angeles police confirmed they were investigating multiple rape allegations against the actor.

    The three women at the heart of the charges against Masterson were members of the Church of Scientology at the time. Two of them said church officials had discouraged them from contacting law enforcement.

  • Ashton Kutcher quits as chair of anti-sex abuse organisation after Danny Masterson ‘support letter’

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: Ashton Kutcher has resigned as chairman of the board of an anti-child sex abuse organisation that he co-founded after he and wife Mila Kunis wrote letters seeking leniency for their former ‘That ’70s Show’ co-star and convicted rapist, Danny Masterson.

    Kutcher stepped down from the board of Thorn, an organisation he founded with then-wife Demi Moore in 2009, on Thursday, the group said in a statement.

    “After my wife and I spent several days of listening, personal reflection, learning, and conversations with survivors and the employees and leadership at Thorn, I have determined the responsible thing for me to do is resign as Chairman of the Board, effectively immediately,” Kutcher wrote in a letter to the board.

    “I cannot allow my error in judgment to distract from our efforts and the children we serve.”

    A Los Angeles judge sentenced Masterson to 30 years to life in prison on September 7.

    The actor was convicted in May of raping two women in 2003, when he was starring on the Fox retro sitcom ‘That ’70s Show’ with Kutcher and Kunis.

    The day after the sentencing, letters to the judge from Kutcher, Kunis and many others were made public.

    In Kutcher’s, he called Masterson a man who in his experience had treated people “with decency, equality, and generosity”.

    Kutcher and Kunis apologised the next day in an Instagram video for writing the letters, which Kutcher said “were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or retraumatise them in any way.”

    Kutcher said in his resignation letter, first reported by Time magazine, that he offered “my heartfelt apology to all victims of sexual violence and everyone at Thorn who I hurt by what I did.”

    LOS ANGELES: Ashton Kutcher has resigned as chairman of the board of an anti-child sex abuse organisation that he co-founded after he and wife Mila Kunis wrote letters seeking leniency for their former ‘That ’70s Show’ co-star and convicted rapist, Danny Masterson.

    Kutcher stepped down from the board of Thorn, an organisation he founded with then-wife Demi Moore in 2009, on Thursday, the group said in a statement.

    “After my wife and I spent several days of listening, personal reflection, learning, and conversations with survivors and the employees and leadership at Thorn, I have determined the responsible thing for me to do is resign as Chairman of the Board, effectively immediately,” Kutcher wrote in a letter to the board.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    “I cannot allow my error in judgment to distract from our efforts and the children we serve.”

    A Los Angeles judge sentenced Masterson to 30 years to life in prison on September 7.

    The actor was convicted in May of raping two women in 2003, when he was starring on the Fox retro sitcom ‘That ’70s Show’ with Kutcher and Kunis.

    The day after the sentencing, letters to the judge from Kutcher, Kunis and many others were made public.

    In Kutcher’s, he called Masterson a man who in his experience had treated people “with decency, equality, and generosity”.

    Kutcher and Kunis apologised the next day in an Instagram video for writing the letters, which Kutcher said “were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or retraumatise them in any way.”

    Kutcher said in his resignation letter, first reported by Time magazine, that he offered “my heartfelt apology to all victims of sexual violence and everyone at Thorn who I hurt by what I did.”

  • ‘That ’70s Show’ actor Danny Masterson gets 30 years in prison for raping two women

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: A judge sentenced “That ’70s Show” show star Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison on Thursday for raping two women, giving them some relief after they spoke in court about the decades of damage he inflicted.“When you raped me, you stole from me,” said one woman who Masterson was convicted of raping in 2003. “That’s what rape is, a theft of the spirit.”“You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent,” she said. “The world is better off with you in prison.”Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo handed down the sentence to the 47-year-old Masterson after hearing statements from the women, and pleas for fairness from defence attorneys.The actor, who has been in custody since May, sat in court wearing a suit. Masterson watched the women without visible reaction as they spoke. He maintains his innocence and his attorneys plan to appeal.The other woman Masterson was found guilty of raping said he “has not shown an ounce of remorse for the pain he caused.” She told the judge, “I knew he belonged behind bars for the safety of all the women he came into contact with. I am so sorry, and I’m so upset. I wish I’d reported him sooner to the police.”After an initial jury failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape in December and a mistrial was declared, prosecutors retried Masterson on all three counts earlier this year.Masterson waived his right to speak before he was sentenced and had no visible reaction after the judge’s decision, nor did the many family members sitting beside him. His wife, actor Bijou Phillips, was tearful earlier in the hearing.At his second trial, a jury found Masterson guilty of two of three rape counts on May 31. Both attacks took place in Masterson’s Hollywood-area home in 2003 when he was at the height of his fame on the Fox network sitcom “That ’70s Show.”They could not reach a verdict on the third count, an allegation that Masterson also raped a longtime girlfriend.The judge sentenced the actor after rejecting a defence motion for a new trial that was argued earlier Thursday. The sentence was the maximum allowed by law. It means Masterson will be eligible for parole after serving 25 1/2 years, but can be held in prison for life.“I know that you’re sitting here steadfast in your claims of innocence, and thus no doubt feeling victimized by a justice system that has failed you,” Olmedo told Masterson before handing down the sentence. “But Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person’s voice, and choice. One way or another you will have to come to terms with your prior actions, and their consequences.”The defense sought to have sentences for the two convictions run simultaneously and asked for a sentence of 15 years to life. The prosecution asked for the full 30 years to life sentence Masterson was eligible for.“It’s his life that will be impacted by what you decide today,” Masterson’s lawyer Shawn Holley told the judge before the sentencing. “And the life of his 9-year-old daughter, who means the world to him, and to whom he means the world.”After the hearing, Holley said in a statement that “Mr. Masterson did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted.” She said a team of appellate lawyers has identified “a number of significant evidentiary and constitutional issues” with his convictions, which they are confident will be overturned.Prosecutors alleged that Masterson used his prominence in the Church of Scientology — where all three women were also members at the time — to avoid consequences for decades after the attacks, and the women blamed the church for their hesitancy in going to the police about Masterson.At the sentencing hearing, one of the women, who like Masterson was born into the church, said she was shunned and ostracized for going to authorities in 2004.“I lost everything. I lost my religion. I lost my ability to contact anyone I’d known or loved my entire life,” she said. “I didn’t exist outside the Scientology world. I had to start my life all over at 29. It seemed the world I knew didn’t want me to live.”The church said in a statement after the trial that it has “no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone — Scientologists or not — to law enforcement.” It has also denied ever harassing any of the women.No charges came from the woman’s 2004 police report, but she returned to authorities when she learned they were investigating Masterson again in 2016. The other two women had waited more than 15 years before reporting him to anyone other than church officials.The women testified at both trials that in 2003, they were at Masterson’s home when he drugged them before violently raping them.They said Thursday that the trauma plagued them for the decades that followed, hurting their relationships and filling their lives with fear. But they said his sentencing gave them some relief.“I don’t have to carry your shame around with me anymore,” the first woman who spoke said. “Now you have to hold that shame. You have to sit in a cell and hold it.”Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in “That ’70s Show” from 1998 until 2006.He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written off the show when the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was revealed the following year.While that investigation began before a wave of women shook Hollywood with stories about Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, the conviction and sentencing of Masterson still represent a major #MeToo era success for Los Angeles prosecutors, along with the conviction of Weinstein himself last year.

    LOS ANGELES: A judge sentenced “That ’70s Show” show star Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison on Thursday for raping two women, giving them some relief after they spoke in court about the decades of damage he inflicted.
    “When you raped me, you stole from me,” said one woman who Masterson was convicted of raping in 2003. “That’s what rape is, a theft of the spirit.”
    “You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent,” she said. “The world is better off with you in prison.”
    Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo handed down the sentence to the 47-year-old Masterson after hearing statements from the women, and pleas for fairness from defence attorneys.
    The actor, who has been in custody since May, sat in court wearing a suit. Masterson watched the women without visible reaction as they spoke. He maintains his innocence and his attorneys plan to appeal.
    The other woman Masterson was found guilty of raping said he “has not shown an ounce of remorse for the pain he caused.” She told the judge, “I knew he belonged behind bars for the safety of all the women he came into contact with. I am so sorry, and I’m so upset. I wish I’d reported him sooner to the police.”
    After an initial jury failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape in December and a mistrial was declared, prosecutors retried Masterson on all three counts earlier this year.
    Masterson waived his right to speak before he was sentenced and had no visible reaction after the judge’s decision, nor did the many family members sitting beside him. His wife, actor Bijou Phillips, was tearful earlier in the hearing.
    At his second trial, a jury found Masterson guilty of two of three rape counts on May 31. Both attacks took place in Masterson’s Hollywood-area home in 2003 when he was at the height of his fame on the Fox network sitcom “That ’70s Show.”
    They could not reach a verdict on the third count, an allegation that Masterson also raped a longtime girlfriend.
    The judge sentenced the actor after rejecting a defence motion for a new trial that was argued earlier Thursday. The sentence was the maximum allowed by law. It means Masterson will be eligible for parole after serving 25 1/2 years, but can be held in prison for life.
    “I know that you’re sitting here steadfast in your claims of innocence, and thus no doubt feeling victimized by a justice system that has failed you,” Olmedo told Masterson before handing down the sentence. “But Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person’s voice, and choice. One way or another you will have to come to terms with your prior actions, and their consequences.”
    The defense sought to have sentences for the two convictions run simultaneously and asked for a sentence of 15 years to life. The prosecution asked for the full 30 years to life sentence Masterson was eligible for.
    “It’s his life that will be impacted by what you decide today,” Masterson’s lawyer Shawn Holley told the judge before the sentencing. “And the life of his 9-year-old daughter, who means the world to him, and to whom he means the world.”
    After the hearing, Holley said in a statement that “Mr. Masterson did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted.” She said a team of appellate lawyers has identified “a number of significant evidentiary and constitutional issues” with his convictions, which they are confident will be overturned.
    Prosecutors alleged that Masterson used his prominence in the Church of Scientology — where all three women were also members at the time — to avoid consequences for decades after the attacks, and the women blamed the church for their hesitancy in going to the police about Masterson.
    At the sentencing hearing, one of the women, who like Masterson was born into the church, said she was shunned and ostracized for going to authorities in 2004.
    “I lost everything. I lost my religion. I lost my ability to contact anyone I’d known or loved my entire life,” she said. “I didn’t exist outside the Scientology world. I had to start my life all over at 29. It seemed the world I knew didn’t want me to live.”
    The church said in a statement after the trial that it has “no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone — Scientologists or not — to law enforcement.” It has also denied ever harassing any of the women.
    No charges came from the woman’s 2004 police report, but she returned to authorities when she learned they were investigating Masterson again in 2016. The other two women had waited more than 15 years before reporting him to anyone other than church officials.
    The women testified at both trials that in 2003, they were at Masterson’s home when he drugged them before violently raping them.
    They said Thursday that the trauma plagued them for the decades that followed, hurting their relationships and filling their lives with fear. But they said his sentencing gave them some relief.
    “I don’t have to carry your shame around with me anymore,” the first woman who spoke said. “Now you have to hold that shame. You have to sit in a cell and hold it.”
    Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in “That ’70s Show” from 1998 until 2006.
    He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written off the show when the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was revealed the following year.
    While that investigation began before a wave of women shook Hollywood with stories about Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, the conviction and sentencing of Masterson still represent a major #MeToo era success for Los Angeles prosecutors, along with the conviction of Weinstein himself last year.

  • Actor Danny Masterson drugged, raped women, prosecutor says

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: Actor Danny Masterson drugged then raped three women at his Hollywood-area home between 2001 and 2003, a prosecutor told jurors Monday in his opening statement in the retrial of the star of “That ’70s Show.”

    Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said Masterson put substances into drinks that he gave to a longtime girlfriend and two women he knew through friend circles around the Church of Scientology, all of whom Masterson is charged with raping.

    “The evidence will show that they were drugged,” Mueller told the jury. The defense denies such evidence exists.

    Direct discussion of drugging was missing from the first trial — which ended in a mistrial when a jury deadlocked on all three counts — with Mueller instead having to imply it through the testimony of the women, who said they were woozy, disoriented and at times unconscious on the nights they described the actor raping them.

    But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo is allowing the direct assertion at the second trial.

    Masterson’s attorney, Philip Cohen, said in the defense opening statement that those hazy stories and assertions are all the prosecution has, and he told jurors, “there is no drugging charge in this case.”

    LOS ANGELES: Actor Danny Masterson drugged then raped three women at his Hollywood-area home between 2001 and 2003, a prosecutor told jurors Monday in his opening statement in the retrial of the star of “That ’70s Show.”

    Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said Masterson put substances into drinks that he gave to a longtime girlfriend and two women he knew through friend circles around the Church of Scientology, all of whom Masterson is charged with raping.

    “The evidence will show that they were drugged,” Mueller told the jury. The defense denies such evidence exists.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Direct discussion of drugging was missing from the first trial — which ended in a mistrial when a jury deadlocked on all three counts — with Mueller instead having to imply it through the testimony of the women, who said they were woozy, disoriented and at times unconscious on the nights they described the actor raping them.

    But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo is allowing the direct assertion at the second trial.

    Masterson’s attorney, Philip Cohen, said in the defense opening statement that those hazy stories and assertions are all the prosecution has, and he told jurors, “there is no drugging charge in this case.”

  • In a #MeToo moment, Hollywood figures face season of trials

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK: The #MeToo movement is having another moment in the spotlight as high-profile sexual assault trials play out in courtrooms from coast to coast.

    Five years after allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein triggered a wave of sexual misconduct claims in Hollywood and beyond, he and “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson are fighting criminal rape charges at trials down the hall from each other in Los Angeles.

    In New York, trials are underway in sexual assault lawsuits against actor Kevin Spacey and screenwriter-director Paul Haggis, both Oscar winners. Spacey’s defence rested Wednesday while lawyers for Haggis and his accuser gave opening statements in an adjacent courthouse. All of the men deny the allegations.

    A forcible touching case against another Academy Award winner, actor Cuba Gooding Jr., wrapped up in New York last week with a guilty plea to a non-criminal harassment violation and no jail time, to the dismay of at least some of his accusers.

    The confluence is a coincidence, but a striking one, amid a cultural movement that has demanded visibility and accountability.

    “We’re still very early on in this time of reckoning,” said Debra Katz, a Washington-based lawyer who has represented many sexual assault accusers. She isn’t involved in the Haggis, Masterson, Spacey or Weinstein trials.

    Besides their #MeToo reverberations, both Haggis’ case and Masterson’s have become forums for scrutinizing the Church of Scientology, though from different perspectives.

    In the case against Haggis, publicist Haleigh Breest claims that the “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” screenwriter forced her to perform oral sex and raped her after she reluctantly agreed to a drink in his Manhattan apartment after a 2013 movie premiere. She’s seeking unspecified damages.

    She didn’t go public until after the allegations against Weinstein burst into view in 2017 and Haggis condemned him.

    “The hypocrisy of it made her blood boil,” lawyer Zoe Salzman said in her opening statement.

    Jurors will also hear from four other women who told Breest’s lawyers that Haggis sexually assaulted them, or attempted to do so, in separate encounters. One of them testified Wednesday, via videotaped questioning, that Haggis raped her during an after-hours meeting in her office in 1996 when both worked on a Canadian TV show.

    The jury won’t hear, however, that Italian authorities this summer investigated a sexual assault allegation against Haggis, which he denied.

    Haggis maintains that his encounter with Breest was consensual, and defence attorney Priya Chaudhry noted that the other women who are set to testify never took legal action of their own against him.

    “Paul Haggis is relieved that he finally gets his day in court,” Chaudhry told jurors.

    Both sides pointed to what Breest texted to a friend the day after the alleged attack.

    Her lawyer emphasized that Breest wrote that “he was so rough and aggressive. Never, ever again … And I kept saying no.” Haggis’ attorney, meanwhile, said Breest added “lol” — common texting shorthand for laughter — when she mentioned performing oral sex, and that she told the friend she wanted to be alone with Haggis again to “see what happens.”

    Chaudhry argued that Breest falsely claimed rape to angle for a payout. But the attorney also suggested another explanation for the allegations.

    Promising “circumstantial evidence,” she suggested that Scientologists ginned up Breest’s lawsuit to discredit him after he became a prominent detractor.

    The church denies any involvement, and Breest’s lawyers have called the notion a baseless conspiracy theory.

    “Scientology has nothing to do with this case” or with any of Haggis’ accusers, she told jurors. The church has said the same.

    Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals focused on spiritual betterment. Science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard’s 1950 book “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” is a foundational text.

    The religion has gained a following among such celebrities as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. But some high-profile members have broken with it, including Haggis, singer Lisa Marie Presley and actor Leah Remini.

    In a memoir and documentary series, Remini said the church uses manipulative and abusive tactics to indoctrinate followers into putting its goals above all else, and she maintained that it worked to discredit critics who spoke out.

    The church has vociferously disputed the claims.

    Haggis says he was a Scientologist for three decades before leaving the church in 2009. He slammed it as “a cult” in a 2011 New Yorker article that later informed a book and an HBO documentary, and he foreshadowed that retribution would come in the form of “a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.”

    The church, which didn’t respond to a request for comment this week, has repeatedly said Haggis lied about its practices to get attention for himself and his career.

    Masterson’s lawyer, meanwhile, is asking jurors to disregard the actor’s affiliation with Scientology, though prosecutors say the church discouraged two of his three accusers from going to authorities. All three are former members.

    Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday in a $40 million lawsuit brought by actor Anthony Rapp who says Spacey made a sexual pass at him in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey denies the encounter ever happened.

    Weinstein is facing his second criminal trial, this time set in L.A. and involving five women and multiple rapes and sexual assault charges. He is already serving a 23-year prison sentence on a rape and sexual assault conviction involving two women in New York.

    The Associated Press does not usually name people alleging sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Breest and Rapp have done.

    NEW YORK: The #MeToo movement is having another moment in the spotlight as high-profile sexual assault trials play out in courtrooms from coast to coast.

    Five years after allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein triggered a wave of sexual misconduct claims in Hollywood and beyond, he and “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson are fighting criminal rape charges at trials down the hall from each other in Los Angeles.

    In New York, trials are underway in sexual assault lawsuits against actor Kevin Spacey and screenwriter-director Paul Haggis, both Oscar winners. Spacey’s defence rested Wednesday while lawyers for Haggis and his accuser gave opening statements in an adjacent courthouse. All of the men deny the allegations.

    A forcible touching case against another Academy Award winner, actor Cuba Gooding Jr., wrapped up in New York last week with a guilty plea to a non-criminal harassment violation and no jail time, to the dismay of at least some of his accusers.

    The confluence is a coincidence, but a striking one, amid a cultural movement that has demanded visibility and accountability.

    “We’re still very early on in this time of reckoning,” said Debra Katz, a Washington-based lawyer who has represented many sexual assault accusers. She isn’t involved in the Haggis, Masterson, Spacey or Weinstein trials.

    Besides their #MeToo reverberations, both Haggis’ case and Masterson’s have become forums for scrutinizing the Church of Scientology, though from different perspectives.

    In the case against Haggis, publicist Haleigh Breest claims that the “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” screenwriter forced her to perform oral sex and raped her after she reluctantly agreed to a drink in his Manhattan apartment after a 2013 movie premiere. She’s seeking unspecified damages.

    She didn’t go public until after the allegations against Weinstein burst into view in 2017 and Haggis condemned him.

    “The hypocrisy of it made her blood boil,” lawyer Zoe Salzman said in her opening statement.

    Jurors will also hear from four other women who told Breest’s lawyers that Haggis sexually assaulted them, or attempted to do so, in separate encounters. One of them testified Wednesday, via videotaped questioning, that Haggis raped her during an after-hours meeting in her office in 1996 when both worked on a Canadian TV show.

    The jury won’t hear, however, that Italian authorities this summer investigated a sexual assault allegation against Haggis, which he denied.

    Haggis maintains that his encounter with Breest was consensual, and defence attorney Priya Chaudhry noted that the other women who are set to testify never took legal action of their own against him.

    “Paul Haggis is relieved that he finally gets his day in court,” Chaudhry told jurors.

    Both sides pointed to what Breest texted to a friend the day after the alleged attack.

    Her lawyer emphasized that Breest wrote that “he was so rough and aggressive. Never, ever again … And I kept saying no.” Haggis’ attorney, meanwhile, said Breest added “lol” — common texting shorthand for laughter — when she mentioned performing oral sex, and that she told the friend she wanted to be alone with Haggis again to “see what happens.”

    Chaudhry argued that Breest falsely claimed rape to angle for a payout. But the attorney also suggested another explanation for the allegations.

    Promising “circumstantial evidence,” she suggested that Scientologists ginned up Breest’s lawsuit to discredit him after he became a prominent detractor.

    The church denies any involvement, and Breest’s lawyers have called the notion a baseless conspiracy theory.

    “Scientology has nothing to do with this case” or with any of Haggis’ accusers, she told jurors. The church has said the same.

    Scientology is a system of beliefs, teachings and rituals focused on spiritual betterment. Science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard’s 1950 book “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” is a foundational text.

    The religion has gained a following among such celebrities as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. But some high-profile members have broken with it, including Haggis, singer Lisa Marie Presley and actor Leah Remini.

    In a memoir and documentary series, Remini said the church uses manipulative and abusive tactics to indoctrinate followers into putting its goals above all else, and she maintained that it worked to discredit critics who spoke out.

    The church has vociferously disputed the claims.

    Haggis says he was a Scientologist for three decades before leaving the church in 2009. He slammed it as “a cult” in a 2011 New Yorker article that later informed a book and an HBO documentary, and he foreshadowed that retribution would come in the form of “a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.”

    The church, which didn’t respond to a request for comment this week, has repeatedly said Haggis lied about its practices to get attention for himself and his career.

    Masterson’s lawyer, meanwhile, is asking jurors to disregard the actor’s affiliation with Scientology, though prosecutors say the church discouraged two of his three accusers from going to authorities. All three are former members.

    Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday in a $40 million lawsuit brought by actor Anthony Rapp who says Spacey made a sexual pass at him in 1986 when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. Spacey denies the encounter ever happened.

    Weinstein is facing his second criminal trial, this time set in L.A. and involving five women and multiple rapes and sexual assault charges. He is already serving a 23-year prison sentence on a rape and sexual assault conviction involving two women in New York.

    The Associated Press does not usually name people alleging sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Breest and Rapp have done.