Judge rejects Weinstein appeal over sex trafficking charge

Harvey Weinstein lost an effort Monday to get a federal appeals court to quickly decide whether sex trafficking claims can legally be brought against him.

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan rejected the request by the disgraced movie mogul to immediately go to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the analysis by a fellow judge who died earlier this year was "careful and convincing." read more »

Former Tinder exec sues ex-CEO and IAC on claim of sexual assault

Former Tinder exec Rosette Pambakian has filed a lawsuit against Tinder’s ex-CEO, dating service Match and parent company IAC, alleging sexual harassment.

The lawsuit alleges that the former Tinder CEO Greg Blatt, who left the company in 2017, “groped and sexually harassed” Pambakian at a company holiday party. read more »

The Jeffrey Epstein–Victoria’s Secret Connection

Images of women and girls as thoughtless and hypersexual have contributed to a culture of sexual abuse and impunity

Jeffrey Epstein reportedly told women and young girls that he was a modeling scout for Victoria’s Secret. The financier never worked for the lingerie retailer, or even, technically, for its parent company, L Brands. But he had a close relationship with the head of L Brands, Leslie Wexner, assuming an unusual degree of control over Wexner’s assets and personal life, according to reporting by The New York Times. Epstein seems to have exploited his proximity to Victoria’s Secret to facilitate his alleged crimes.

According to Alicia Arden, a model and actress, this was Epstein’s ruse when he lured her to a Santa Monica hotel room and assaulted her in 1997. When Maria Farmer, who worked the door at Epstein’s New York mansion, asked why so many young girls were going in and out of his home, she says she was told that they were auditioning to be models for the lingerie brand. Some of them, she told The New Yorker, were wearing school uniforms. read more »