Jury orders damages against filmmaker

A jury ordered Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis yesterday to pay at least US$7.5 million (NZ$12.4 million) to a woman who accused him of rape in one of several #MeToo-era cases that have put Hollywood notables’ behaviour on trial recently. The jury also decided that additional punitive damages should be awarded, but the amount is to be decided later. Veering from sex to red-carpet socialising to Scientology, the civil court trial pitted Haggis, known for writing best picture Oscar winners Million Dollar Baby and Crash against Haleigh Breest, a publicist who met him while working at movie premieres in the early 2010s. After a screening afterparty in January 2013, he offered her a lift home and invited her to his New York apartment for a drink. Breest, 36, said Haggis then subjected her to unwanted advances and ultimately compelled her to perform oral sex and raped her despite her entreaties to stop.