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The Lead E Jean Carroll, a renowned journalist and author, has come forward with her story of alleged sexual abuse and defamation against former US President Donald Trump in a new documentary titled 'Ask E Jean'. Carroll's Journey to the Courtroom Carroll, 82, alleges that Trump sexually abused her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s. She initially confided in trusted friends but buried the memory deep down. However, when Trump branded her a liar and 'whack job', she decided to take him to court. In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding Carroll $5m. In 2024, a second jury awarded Carroll $83.3m for defamation regarding Trump's continued social media attacks. The Documentary: 'Ask E Jean' The documentary, directed by Ivy Meeropol, explores Carroll's life as a journalist, author, and advice columnist. It also delves into her experiences as a woman of strong character and deep resilience who refused to be cast in the role of victim or bit-part player in the Trump cinematic universe. The Impact Analysis Carroll's story has significant implications for the #MeToo movement and the conversation around sexual abuse and defamation. Her courage in coming forward has inspired many women to share their own stories of abuse. The Prediction As the documentary gains attention, it is likely to spark further conversation and debate about the issues of sexual abuse, defamation, and the role of women in society. Carroll's story serves as a testament to the power of resilience and determination in the face of adversity.

The Hollywood Backlash Against #MeTooCate Blanchett has lamented that the #MeToo movement "got killed very quickly" in Hollywood, while speaking at the Cannes film festival. In a wide-ranging conversation on Sunday, the acclaimed actress expressed concern that the tide of #MeToo has been turned in an industry where she has been outspoken about gender equality.Blanchett's Observations on Gender Disparity"It got killed very quickly, which I think is interesting," said Blanchett. "There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say this has happened to me. And the so-called average woman on the street, person on the street, is saying me too. Why does that get shut down?"Blanchett detailed her daily experiences on film sets, stating: "I'm still on film sets and I do the headcount every day. There's 10 women and there's 75 men every morning."The Evolution of Gender Representation in FilmIn 2018, when Blanchett was president of the jury at Cannes, she participated in a red-carpet protest with 81 other women, representing the total number of female directors who had been selected for the Cannes competition lineup, compared with the 1,866 male directors who had been selected over the same period."I love men, but what happens is the jokes become the same," she said. "You just have to brace yourself slightly, and I'm used to that, but it just gets boring for everybody when you walk into a homogeneous workplace. I think it has an effect on the work."Industry Perspectives on ChangeJulianne Moore also spoke at Cannes on the weekend about gender disparity on film sets, saying she believed numbers had improved in the last decade. Speaking at a Kering Women in Motion talk on Saturday, Moore recalled being one of two women on a set around 2016. "I can remember being on a set not too long ago where the only women were me and the third AC [assistant camera]," she said.Blanchett's comments come as she prepares to star in The Brutalist director Brady Corbet's next film, an "X-rated" feature set in the 1970s, alongside Selena Gomez and Michael Fassbender.

Lead: A Director’s On‑Set Crisis and the Quick SaveWhile shooting three consecutive sex scenes for the Paris‑set film Amarres, director Anubha Momin faced a moment of uncertainty. With actors half‑undressed and the lighting wrong, she turned to intimacy coordinator Nathalie Allison, whose precise guidance turned a stilted take into a believable, hot scene.On‑Set Collaboration: How an Intimacy Coordinator Shaped Three Sex ScenesAllison worked side‑by‑side with the director at the monitor, offering concrete instructions such as “imagine an anchor point” to help lead actor Sofia Benner Nihrane find the right physicality. By translating the director’s vague feelings into actionable movements, she enabled the crew to capture intimacy that felt both real and safe.Industry Context: The Rise of Intimacy Coordination in FranceIntimacy coordinators emerged in the late 2010s after #MeToo sparked global calls for consent‑focused set practices. On 15 May 2026, France’s first intimacy‑coordinator training program was officially launched at the Cannes Film Festival by AFDAS and CST, marking a shift from the traditional French belief in artistic improvisation toward structured oversight.Impact on Filmmaking Practices: Safety, Creativity, and Power DynamicsThe role sits between choreographer, mediator and advocate, establishing boundaries before cameras roll and, if necessary, withdrawing from a set to protect actors. While French directors may still resist formal authority, coordinators like Allison provide a vital safety net that can enhance performance without stifling artistic vision.Future Outlook: Formalising the Role and Expanding Training Across EuropeAs more French productions adopt the practice, the expectation is that intimacy coordination will become a standard pre‑production requirement, mirroring Canada’s 2018 mandate. Continued training programmes and industry buy‑in could see the role solidify across Europe, ensuring that intimate storytelling remains both authentic and consensual.

Donna Fisher’s unpublished manuscript Sheep’s Clothing has taken the inaugural Libraro prize, a £50,000 reader‑led award that aims to sidestep the conventional barriers of the book industry by letting readers shortlist manuscripts uploaded directly by writers. The Libraro Prize: A Reader‑Driven Disruption of Traditional Publishing The Libraro prize was created to empower readers to shape the shortlist from more than 2,000 submissions on the Libraro platform, a digital community of over 15,000 members. After the reader‑curated shortlist, an industry panel—including Joanne Harris and Elly Griffiths—selected Fisher’s novel as the winner. Financial Stakes: £50,000 Prize Package and Market Implications £30,000 in direct prize money £20,000 earmarked for marketing support Option of a book deal with Hachette UK The award also featured a £10,000 reader‑engagement prize, won by Holly Hughes for her commentary on submissions. Industry Ripple: How Community‑Sourced Awards Could Redefine Book Discovery By allowing anyone over 18 worldwide to submit manuscripts without prior publishing credentials, the Libraro model challenges the traditional gatekeeping role of agents and editors. Early‑career writers like Fisher—previously shortlisted for the 2025 Bridport short story prize—gain a direct pathway to major publishing houses. Looking Ahead: The Future of Reader‑Led Publishing Platforms With the success of the inaugural prize, the Libraro platform is poised to expand its membership and attract more submissions, potentially reshaping how literary talent is scouted. Analysts predict that similar reader‑driven initiatives could become a regular feature of the publishing ecosystem, offering publishers a data‑rich talent pipeline while giving readers a stronger voice in cultural production.

The Unlikely Entourage Member Brett Ratner, the director behind the Rush Hour movies and a documentary on Melania Trump, is accompanying Donald Trump to China for his summit with Xi Jinping. Ratner was among the group of CEOs and top executives from major US tech and finance firms, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk and BlackRock’s Larry Fink, who boarded Air Force One. Scouting for Rush Hour 4 Locations Trump’s spokesperson, Victoria Palmer-Moore, said he would use the trip to scout for filming locations for the latest instalment of the Rush Hour franchise. She added that Ratner plans to shoot “a lot” of Rush Hour 4 in China. The Rush Hour Franchise Revival The original Rush Hour was an instant hit in 1998, topping the US box office charts upon its release. Its sequel Rush Hour 2 was also a huge commercial success in 2001, before Ratner’s critically and commercially disappointing Rush Hour 3 was released in 2007. Despite rumours of a fourth film circulating for almost two decades, with Chan suggesting in 2017 that he and Tucker had agreed upon a new script, development had stalled until Trump intervened in late 2025. Ratner's Comeback Trump’s support has allowed Ratner to make a comeback in Hollywood after being sidelined after accusations of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement in 2017. Ratner denies all of the allegations. In 2026, Ratner released Amazon-backed documentary Melania, which followed the first lady during the 20 days before Trump’s second inauguration. The China Connection The president is reportedly a huge fan of Rush Hour, which revolves around detectives James Carter and Yan Naing Lee – played by Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan respectively – as they navigate their cultural differences and investigate crimes in Hong Kong, Paris and Los Angeles. Last November, Trump encouraged billionaire Larry Ellison, the primary financial force behind Paramount Skydance, to bring back the franchise once Paramount went through with its controversial purchase of Warner Bros.

The Detective RenaissanceLace up your gumshoes! Hard-boiled detectives are back on the scene, fedoras pulled low, cigarettes sparked up. Nicolas Cage is leading the charge in Prime Video's Spider-Noir, a shadowy spin on Spider-Man that drops in May – available to stream in black-and-white for the diehards. It promises all the hard-edged hallmarks of a good film noir: fast-paced, slangy dialogue, femme fatales, and a heavy-drinking detective at its centre – albeit one with web shooters rather than a snub-nose revolver.He's not the only PI in the frame this year. Apple TV is adapting Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir series into a series starring Colin Firth, while a new NBC pilot promises Jake Johnson as a "cynical and heartbroken" sleuth. And Brad Bird's animated noir, Ray Gunn, is finally hitting Netflix after almost 30 years in development.The Noir CycleSo what's prompted this return to darkness? Perhaps it's a sign of the times. When Marvel first published the original Spider-Noir comic in 2009 – itself set during the Great Depression – the world was in the throes of a recession. That, it seems, is the noir rhythm: hard-boiled fiction swells in popularity at times of social strain, growing cynicism and shaken trust. When the going gets tough, the saxes start playing.Charles Ardai, who co-founded publishing house Hard Case Crime in 2004, says this cycle began with hard-boiled crime fiction's Depression-era debut. "It emerged in the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 30s," he says of the genre, "where it was a reaction to the perhaps excessively urbane and intellectual British mysteries of the time: murders in vicarages and drawing rooms, puzzles to be decorously solved." In contrast, hard-boiled stories were rough and rugged, and initially enjoyed by hard-up readers who relished "the vicarious thrill of looking in on a life even worse than theirs", says Ardai.The Cultural MirrorIt's no coincidence, he adds, that these gruff, rumpled characters tend to re-emerge "when the world is going to hell and it isn't at all clear if the good guys are going to prevail". Sadly, history has provided many such hellscapes. In the shadow of Auschwitz and Hiroshima, noir flourished. "Less two-fisted action then, and more grappling with existential dread," Ardai says. During the cold war, Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me, Deadly tapped into the paranoia and uncertainty of the time. And post-Watergate, with cynicism at its peak, Chinatown, Night Moves and The Long Goodbye all hit cinemas in rapid succession.Today, the cycle is faster, the shocks coming quicker. The "war on terror". The recession. Trump. #MeToo. Covid-19. Ukraine. Trump again. Epstein. Iran. It's hardly surprising that hard-boiled detectives are out in force for 2026. Such characters are machine-tooled for these moments, when our faith in the system collapses and the truth feels particularly out of reach.The Genre's EvolutionBecause of this, the hard-boiled detective can be transposed effectively across genres. "It's a versatile 'super story' that can be turned in many directions," says Jonathan Lethem, whose debut novel Gun, With Occasional Music fused Philip K Dick-style sci-fi with gloomy-alley noir. It's a similar genre-crunching flavour to that of Spider-Noir, and Lethem – who has written for Marvel comics in the past – notes that Spider-Man's duality makes him a natural candidate for the hard-boiled treatment. "He's resilient, but he's the 'superhero as impostor'," the author says of the wall-crawler. "And hard-boiled characters often get to have it both ways, to be an outlaw and existential loner figure."The Future of ShadowsThe real pull of these stories, though, isn't legal or logistical – it's emotional. When all hope feels lost, noir doesn't offer escape, it offers recognition. It lets us wallow. Because, as Ardai puts it: what reader, "bitterly disappointed or frankly terrified", would choose a story of order and justice when the world outside suggests neither?Further fueling this "re-noir-ssance" is the entry of classic detective characters into public domain. In January, Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon entered public domain, putting Sam Spade back on the case in the legacy sequel Return of the Maltese Falcon. In the next decade, more hard-boiled icons will follow: Perry Mason himself and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe are set to shrug off their copyrights, opening the door for new stories.As our world continues to face uncertainty and upheaval, the hard-boiled detective – that battle-scarred figure shaped by postwar trauma and shattered romanticism – remains our cultural mirror, reflecting our anxieties while offering a cathartic space to process them. The noir renaissance of 2026 is more than just entertainment; it's a cultural response to our troubled times.

A new report has found that media coverage of violence against women and girls has reached a 'dismal' low, despite a proliferation of high-profile cases of men abusing women and children, and a rise in AI-assisted violence against women and girls. The analysis of 1.14bn online stories published worldwide between 2017 and 2025 found that the proportion of articles including terms related to misogynistic abuse dropped to 1.3% of all global online news in 2025, the lowest level in that period.Coverage peaked at 2.2% in 2018, the height of the #MeToo movement. In Africa, where multiple conflicts have involved extreme levels of sexual violence, coverage sank to a nine-year low of 1.18% in 2024. The report also found that when misogyny-related stories are covered, men's perspectives and opinions dominate, with 1.5 men quoted for every one woman in stories about misogyny.The research identified a failure to address the structural nature of misogyny that enables abuse through long-standing prejudices and power imbalances. One in nine women worldwide have experienced violence from men in the last 12 months and one in three women have been subject to physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. The report recommended solutions to improving coverage of violence against women and girls, including putting female journalists and editors in charge of shaping coverage, and victims and survivors of violence at the heart of the story.

A Lahore court has ruled in favor of Pakistani singer Ali Zafar in his defamation case against fellow singer Meesha Shafi. On Tuesday, the court ordered Shafi to pay Zafar 5 million rupees ($17,900) in damages.Zafar sued Shafi for defamation in 2018 after she accused him of sexual harassment in Pakistan’s highest-profile #MeToo case.The court’s ruling states that a 2018 social media post by Shafi and an interview she gave to a lifestyle magazine contained “false, defamatory and injurious imputations” against Zafar. The court found that her allegations of sexual harassment of a physical nature had not been proved to be true or shown to be made for the public good, and therefore constituted actionable defamation.The court's decision has sparked concerns that it may set a “deeply troubling precedent” that could discourage victims of sexual harassment from speaking out. Nighat Dad, Shafi's lawyer, stated that the appeal is likely to challenge the judgement on several grounds, including the trial court's selective interpretation of evidence and failure to consider material evidence presented by Shafi.The dispute between Shafi and Zafar has unfolded over several years, with both parties filing complaints against each other. Shafi’s original complaint of sexual harassment against Zafar has been pending before the Supreme Court for several years, and her civil defamation suit against Zafar is also still pending.

Kimberly Belflower's revisionist take on Arthur Miller's classic The Crucible re-spins the witch-hunts for the #MeToo generation. Set in 2018, the play follows a classroom of teenagers—mostly girls—as they attempt to establish a feminist club, an effort seemingly sparked by contemporary news headlines. This original approach addresses adolescent girlhood in the direct aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, though the production takes time to build momentum.The narrative centers on Beth (Holly Howden Gilchrist), the class academic; Ivy (Clare Hughes), whose father faces workplace misconduct allegations; Nell (Lauryn Ajufo), the new student; and Raelynn (Miya James), a pastor's daughter dealing with relationship betrayal. Shelby (Sadie Soverall), though absent for much of the play, plays a crucial role in the unfolding drama.Set in a small-town Georgia high school, the feminist club concept initially proves controversial until a charismatic teacher, Carter Smith (Dónal Finn), suggests expanding it to include boys. Directed by Danya Taymor and performed continuously in under two hours, the script pivots around the students' study of Miller's play alongside their developing understanding of intersectional feminism.The production captures the girls' internalization of societal micro-aggressions with humor and pathos, incorporating pop music tributes to artists like Lorde, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé. While the dialogue authentically portrays adolescent female relationships, the review notes these connections are sometimes flattened by their cuteness rather than reflecting the sharp edges typical of this transitional life stage.A significant parallel emerges between Miller's John Proctor—a morally complex character who ultimately maintains his principles—and the predatory male figure in the contemporary narrative. The review suggests a false equivalence between these characters, as the modern figure is portrayed as a serial abuser rather than a morally conflicted individual.The play concludes with an emotional climax as students reinterpret scenes from The Crucible through interpretive dance, symbolizing their liberation while acknowledging that the predator remains in their midst. This ending, while thematically resonant, is described as feeling neat and easy despite its powerful emotional impact.Despite these criticisms, the production effectively captures the zeitgeist of 2018 for a generation of girls coming of age in the shadow of the Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement, raising questions about the movement's lasting impact and current relevance.