Sharon Waxman

Anand Jon, the 34-year-old fashion designer accused of raping nine models, has been convicted of 16 of the 23 counts of rape and sexual assault against him in Los Angeles County Superior Court. A jury deliberated for about five days before finding Jon guilty of 14 felony and two misdemeanor counts against seven women. The…

  Sure, there's a credit squeeze. And it's been a while since A-list stars have been able to command $20 million salaries at the box office. But there's a celebrity feeding frenzy half a world away from Hollywood, as I found out on a recent trip to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in the United Arab…

Update: Please follow my latest at www.lootbook.com; waxword will have to go quiet for a short while. Please check back later in November, and we will be back. The long-awaited moment is here!  "Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World" is finally available for purchase in bookstores everywhere, and online. Should the…

In the end, Anand Jon, the former fashion designer,  did not testify on his own behalf at  trial for the rape of nine models, despite all his protestations that he wanted to do so. His mother, Shashi, did not testify as expected. His sister, Sanjana, did not testify as expected. His brother-in-law, friends like Marla…

Word on the street: Sir Howard Stringer of Sony has sent out an email warning of major cuts coming down the pike, which has sent a shudder through the ranks of the company based here. I'm hearing no specifics so far, but the sense of the memo is that the cutbacks will be "most severe."

When WaxWord prompts unresponsive organizations to change their ways, we have to tell you. Our investigation of unclaimed residuals at SAG in September has had an amazing result. The guild, apropos of nothing, has launched a campaign to reunite $25 million in “unclaimed residuals” with its proper owners. The list which we posted online at…

After meeting with the Screen Actors Guild last week, the feds – in the person of federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez – met with Hollywood producers and studios on Thursday about the stalemate between the labor union and the production and distribution companies. The meeting has been prompted by SAG's request for federal mediation over the…

Abu Dhabi has its own international airport, designed to jangle the nerves. (Dubai has one too, a sign of its own independence and wealth, though it's only about 90 minutes away.) The passengers are all clustered in one echoing tile blue chamber under a vaulted ceiling, with constant ringing of loud bells and bone-clanking announcements: "Flight…

For the third in a series that started on a cable channel, you've got to be impressed: "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," with the same cast, the same general story (don’t think our heroine Vanessa gets pregnant, for example) and the very self-same Disney we-got-happy-feet vibe, has raked in $42 million this weekend, according…

  They sit on the floor around a low table, inside a sumptuous mansion in Abu Dhabi where a pet falcon, hooded, stands on the floor in the entryway. His Excellency Mahomed Khalaf al Mazrouei, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Media Corporation and head of the state’s Culture and Heritage authority, has invited me to…

I count as very high praise indeed the review by Karl Meyer at Truthdig.net today. Meyer, a former editorial writer at The New York Times and foreign correspondent before that, wrote the definitive book about the issues of plundered antiquities some 35 years ago, called "The Plundered Past." (I refer to it in my introduction.)…