A lot can change in a year. Just ask Harvey Weinstein.
One year ago to the day that he was arraigned on three felony charges of rape and a criminal sex act, Weinstein and his then-wife, Georgina Chapman, dressed to the nines for the amfAR Gala Cannes 2017 at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d’Antibes, France.
Weinstein had been a fixture at the annual charity benefit for years, often appearing onstage with his stable of movie stars to auction off items to support the charity’s work on behalf of AIDS research.
The May 25, 2017 black-tie gala raised $20 million and featured performances by Nicki Minaj, Rita Ora, DNCE and Diana Ross.
Weinstein was a no-show at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for the first time in decades. He is under a cloud of scandal since the wave of public accusations of sexual misconduct over the course of decades.
Within weeks of the first reports by the New York Times and New Yorker last October, more than 80 women came forward to accuse the indie mogul of improprieties ranging from harassment to rape. Weinstein was fired from the film and TV studio he founded, The Weinstein Company, and expelled from the academies behind the Oscars, the Emmys and the BAFTAs.
Chapman also filed for divorce, eventually winning primary custody of the couple’s two young children.
Weinstein has denied any non-consensual sex.
On Friday, he pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, for which he faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
Weinstein’s role with amfAR, a charity co-founded by the late Elizabeth Taylor in 1983, has also come under suspicion in the last year following decades of helping to wrangle celebrities for the event.
Last November, the Times reported that federal prosecutors had opened a criminal investigation into potential fraud from the auction at the 2015 edition of the Cannes amfAR gala. Prosecutors are looking into $600,000 from the amfAR event that went to the nonprofit theater that produced his Broadway-bound musical, “Finding Neverland.”
The matter remains under investigation, though no charges have been filed.