BuzzSugar

ABC to Make Maid in Manhattan TV Series

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:30:05 PDT

Apparently, this is really going to happen: ABC plans to make a TV series based on the Jennifer Lopez movie Maid in Manhattan. The Hollywood Reporter has more details:

The hourlong dramedy, which is getting a put pilot commitment, is not a remake of the hit feature. . .The lead in the TV version will still be a young Latina from the Bronx working at a Manhattan hotel who tries to make it in the world. But the series will focus mostly on her relationships with co-workers.

Writer Chad Hodge apparently connected with the idea for the show, saying, "I imagine being a writer in Hollywood is often very similar to being a maid in Manhattan." Somehow. . . I doubt that.

Jennifer Lopez has been "very involved, providing 'a fountain of ideas,' Hodge said. 'She will be very integral in the pilot and series.'" The network figures this series will be a good one to pair up with Ugly Betty because, as the article puts it, Betty "also centers on a hardworking young Latina in New York with big dreams."

I'm all for the hardworking young Latina-driven TV shows, but Maid in Manhattan? Seriously? Huh.

Source

5 Things You Need to Know About the Dominique Strauss-Kahn Scandal

Tara Block — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:31:00 PDT

If you're hearing about how the IMF chief was taken off a plane in NYC for sexual assault and unclear about the significance, I've narrowed the scandal down to five bullet points.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is the 62-year-old head of the International Monetary Fund and was expected to announce his run as Socialist presidential candidate against current French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Many believed he could have become the president of France next year.
On Saturday, Strauss-Kahn was escorted by police off an Air France plane at JFK Airport in NYC after a maid at the Manhattan hotel he was staying at reported he sexually assaulted her. She said that after knocking on the door with no answer, she went into his room, where he came at her naked, locked the door, and forced her to perform oral sex on him in the bathroom.
Then on Sunday, a local official of the Socialist party told reporters that her daughter, Tristane Banon, was sexually attacked by Strauss-Kahn in 2002. Banon, the goddaughter of his second wife, was encouraged by her mom not to press charges. She said that she "didn't want to be known to the end of my days as the girl who had a problem with the politician."
Since there's no extradition treaty with France, officials were worried he'd pull a Roman Polanski and leave the country to avoid sentencing, so he was denied bail today and will remain in jail until at least the end of the week.
In 2008 he had an affair with a Hungarian economist and publicly apologized to his wife, Anne Sinclair, although it's publicly known that he's had several extramarital affairs.

DSK Admits Hotel Incident Was a Mistake, Calls Maid a Liar

Annie Scudder — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:00:11 PDT

In Dominique Strauss-Kahn's first interview on French TV since escaping sexual assault charges in New York City, the French politician accused hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo of lying repeatedly. As the news report above explains, DSK conceded that his behavior was inappropriate, but he then attacked the maid's credibility, maintaining that he did not use force. The former IMF chief went on TV to make amends with the French public, hoping to revive his political career. While he ruled out a presidential run, it's clear DSK wants to return to public life.

Women protested outside of the TV station, outraged that DSK is being welcomed back by the establishment while he is still being sued in the US and France. French journalist Tristane Banon, a friend of DSK's daughter, has accused him of trying to rape her when she showed up to interview him and said she had to kick him off of her. In the interview, DSK addressed those accusations, calling them "imaginary and defamatory" and said he simply tried to kiss her. According to him, everything is just one big misunderstanding, whether he's trying to "seduce" an impoverished hotel worker in Manhattan or a professional journalist in France.

Sexual Assault Charges Dropped Against DSK

Annie Scudder — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:10:21 PDT

In a move many saw coming, the Manhattan district attorney officially asked to drop charges of sexual assault against powerful French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The reasoning? They do not think a jury will believe the hotel maid's story of assault beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecutors explained: "The nature and number of the complainant's falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt, whatever the truth may be about the encounter between the complainant and the defendant." In another case of he-said-she-said, the prosecutors felt he, DSK, would win.

After her reputation and anonymity came under attack with claims of prostitution and blackmail, the maid accusing DSK came forward last month for a number of interviews. The graphic account the 32-year-old Guinean immigrant named Nafissatou Diallo described was backed up by hospital records, but other apparent inconsistencies doomed the case.

In powerfully worded letters to the prosecution, lawyers for the maid recently accused them of treating her like the defendant and DSK like the victim, spending more time and resources investigating the maid. While the public may never know the truth for certain, this does look like another example of a legal system and media that put a potential sexual assault victim's life on trial, instead of the alleged attacker.