Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein, was last month found guilty of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
Weinstein, 67, convicted of rape and sexual assault against two women, sealing his dizzying fall from powerful Hollywood studio boss to archvillain of #MeToo campaign.
Weinstein's lawyers advised him that he did not need to testify because the evidence presented in this case was "anaemic at best," according to Arthur Aidala, one of his lawyers.
Writer Paul Feldsher testified for the defence that actress Annabella Sciorra told him in the early 1990s that she had a sexual encounter with Weinstein but did not say she had been raped.
Weinstein, who was subdued in his interactions with reporters during the trial's first week, seemed looser as he left the courthouse, proclaiming “It went great today. The lawyers killed it."
The head of the French film academy Alain Terzian said it "should not take moral positions" about giving awards as Roman Polanski's new film "An Officer and a Spy" is up for 12 Cesars, the French equivalent of the Oscars.
In emotional testimony at Weinstein's trial, Sciorra described him barging into her New York apartment late at night in the early 1990s and attacking her while she was wearing a nightgown.
Prosecutors paint Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator who used his clout and power to abuse women for decades.
The case, now puts Weinstein in deep legal peril on both coasts.
The disgraced movie mogul faces life in prison if convicted in a New York state court of predatory sexual assault charges, in a trial expected to last six weeks.
Insurers for the former Weinstein Co studio would fund the payout and Weinstein would not be required to admit wrongdoing or to pay anything, the New York Times said.
A group of about 40 activists blocked the screening of the French premiere of Polanski's film "J'accuse" at a theatre in Rue Champollion, although the film was shown at some other theatres in Paris.
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