Thread: Sex Trafficking at Cannes Film Festival

Sex Trafficking Mars the Mystique of Cannes Film Festival: "This Crime Is Significant

Each May, young women arrive in the South of France with big-screen ambitions, but even after the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement, their journey to Hollywood often begins with producers promising movie roles and visas in return for sex.

In 2014, Kadian Noble met Harvey Weinstein in the lobby of the Majestic Hotel in Cannes. After some small talk, he instructed the aspiring actress to come upstairs so that he could have a look at her reel. Noble, who was 27 and from the U.K., had previously met the since-disgraced mogul in London, where he told her he liked her look and was eager to cast her in one of his movies. To make the whole matter seem legit, he introduced Noble during that London encounter to Oprah Winfrey, an idol of Noble's.

Before Hollywood's #MeToo awakening in 2017, there was nothing unusual about taking a meeting alone in a hotel room during the Cannes Film Festival. Hundreds of U.S. film companies like The Weinstein Company booked suites at glorious resorts along the Croisette like the Majestic and used them as makeshift offices during the festival and accompanying market.

"It was a case of this man who creates masterpieces has just chosen me, telling me, 'I have something in mind for you. It's going to be good for you,' " Noble tells THR. "It sounds like I was delusional at the time to believe all of that, but I did believe it."

Once they were in the room, Weinstein put Noble on the phone with a man who Weinstein said was a producer. The man spoke so fast that she didn't catch his name. He told her to be "a good girl" and comply with Weinstein's wishes. "He was just like, 'Harvey has told me about you. These things are going to happen for you.' But it was very vague, and it made no sense," she adds.

Weinstein then began watching the actress' reel. What happened next, according to Noble, was sudden and unexpected, culminating with Weinstein sexually assaulting her in the bathroom.

Although Noble's story rings familiar given the number of women who have emerged since October 2017, her lawyer took a novel approach in seeking justice. Attorney Jeff Herman, who has represented alleged sexual abuse victims of director Bryan Singer and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, filed a federal suit in New York in November 2017 accusing the film titan of violating sex trafficking laws (at the time the Noble suit was filed, Weinstein released a statement denying any allegations of nonconsensual sex).

The fact that Cannes has become publicly associated with sex trafficking certainly sparked headlines. And yawns. After all, for decades, the festival — with its booming yacht circuit and influx of wannabe actresses and uber-wealth — had been ground zero for nefarious activity, including sex trafficking in all its myriad forms. What's more surprising is that despite the tidal shift in awareness post-#MeToo, bad behavior on the Cannes party scene persists.

Under the Obama administration, the federal sex trafficking laws were amended to create jurisdiction over U.S. citizens violating these laws in foreign countries. The amendment allowed Herman to make a claim against Weinstein because he's a U.S. citizen and allegedly violated federal sex trafficking laws while in France.

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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/fe...oo-era-1208261

What's this article got to do with 'trafficking' FFS?
Just an attention grabbing headline.
Red to www.hollywoodreporter.

Give it to klondick...he can pass it on.