Just for Laughs is a comedy festival that is held every July in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1983, it is the largest international comedy festival in the world. In addition to the festivals themselves, Just for Laughs also developed, produced, and distributed other forms of comedy entertainment, such as television programming.
Mario Francesco Batali is an American chef, writer, and former restaurateur. Batali co-owned restaurants in New York City; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Newport Beach, California; Boston; Singapore; Westport, Connecticut; and New Haven, Connecticut, including Babbo in New York City, which received a Michelin star for several years. Batali has appeared on the Food Network, on shows such as Molto Mario and Iron Chef America, on which he was one of the featured "Iron Chefs". In 2017, the restaurant review site Eater revealed multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against Batali and, in March 2019, he sold all his restaurant holdings.
Stephen Alan Wynn is an American real estate developer and art collector. He was known for his involvement in the luxury casino and hotel industry, prior to being forced to step down. Early in his career he oversaw the construction and operation of several notable Las Vegas and Atlantic City hotels, including the Golden Nugget, the Golden Nugget Atlantic City, The Mirage, Treasure Island, the Bellagio, and Beau Rivage in Mississippi, and he played a pivotal role in the resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip in the 1990s. In 2000, Wynn sold his company, Mirage Resorts, to MGM Grand Inc., resulting in the formation of MGM Mirage. Wynn later took his company Wynn Resorts public in an initial public offering and was Wynn Resorts' CEO and Chairman of the Board until February 6, 2018, when he announced his resignation. He is a prominent donor to the Republican Party and was the finance chair of the Republican National Committee from January 2017 to January 2018, when he resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations.
The Westheimer Street Festival was a community street fair held bi-annually in Houston, Texas, United States from approximately 1971 to 2004. The festival underwent name and management changes afterwards. By 2009 the street festival was absorbed into what is currently now known as the Free Press Summer Fest.
Israel Horovitz was an American playwright, director, actor and co-founder of the Gloucester Stage Company in 1979. He served as artistic director until 2006 and later served on the board, ex officio and as artistic director emeritus until his resignation in November 2017 after The New York Times reported allegations of sexual misconduct.
Hillsong Church, commonly known as Hillsong, is a charismatic Christian megachurch and a Christian association of churches based in Australia. The original church was established in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, as Hills Christian Life Centre by Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbie Houston, in 1983. Hillsong was a member of the Australian Christian Churches – the Australian branch of the US-based Assemblies of God – until 2018, when it separated to form a new denomination. The church is known for its contemporary worship music, with groups such as Hillsong Worship, Hillsong United and Hillsong Young & Free with many musical credits and hits and a series of scandals and criticisms.
James Lawrence Levine was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 12, 2018, over sexual misconduct allegations, which he denied.
Montrose is a neighborhood located in west-central Houston, Texas, United States. Montrose is a 7.5-square-mile (19 km2) area roughly bounded by Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Taft to Fairview to Bagby to Highway 59 to Main to the east. The area is also referred to as Neartown or Neartown / Montrose.
Marcelo Mourão Gomes is a Brazilian ballet dancer who performed for two decades with the American Ballet Theatre.
The Stanford Financial Group was a privately held international group of financial services companies controlled by Allen Stanford, until it was seized by American authorities in early 2009. Headquartered at 5050 Westheimer in Uptown Houston, Texas, it had 50 offices in several countries, mainly in the Americas, included the Stanford International Bank, and was said to have managed US$8.5 billion of assets for more than 30,000 clients in 136 countries on six continents. On February 17, 2009, U.S. Federal agents placed the company into receivership due to charges of fraud. Ten days later, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission amended its complaint to accuse Stanford of turning the company into a "massive Ponzi scheme".
Jason Mitchell is an American actor. Mitchell started his career acting in minor roles in films such as the action-thriller Contraband (2012), and the neo-noir Broken City (2013). He is best known for portraying rapper Eazy-E in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton. The film is considered his career breakthrough, for which he received numerous award nominations including the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture. Mitchell has also appeared in the Key and Peele comedy film Keanu (2016), the Netflix film Barry (2016), James Franco's The Disaster Artist (2017), and the blockbuster Kong: Skull Island (2017). He has also appeared in critically acclaimed film such as Kathryn Bigelow's crime drama Detroit (2017), Dee Rees' historical drama Mudbound (2017) and Janicza Bravo's black comedy Zola (2021).
Donald Trump, the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, has a history of insulting and belittling women when speaking to the media and on social media. He has made lewd comments, disparaged women's physical appearances, and referred to them using derogatory epithets. Since the 1970s, at least 26 women have publicly accused Trump of rape, kissing, and groping without consent; looking under women's skirts; and walking in on naked teenage pageant contestants. Trump has denied all of the allegations.
Day for Night was an art and music festival in Houston, Texas that "explores the deep connections between light, technology, sound and space". Producer Omar Afra co-conceived the idea of a festival experience that would reintroduce visual art back into the musical experience on a large scale when Kiffer Keegan pitched the idea of including new media installations during preparations for Free Press Summer Festival 2014.
Lower Westheimer is an area in Houston, Texas, United States. It is centered on Westheimer Road, and is considered to be East of Shepherd, and West of Midtown. Several historic neighborhoods are partially or completely located within the area including Montrose and Hyde Park. Lower Wertheimer is known for its hipster culture, nightlife, arts, and food scene.
#MeToo is a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke. The hashtag #MeToo was used starting in 2017 as a way to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem. "Me Too" empowers those who have been sexually assaulted through empathy, solidarity and strength in numbers, by visibly demonstrating how many have experienced sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.
The Weinstein effect is a phenomenon which was described as "the culture of silence that protects powerful men being rapidly eroded".
The 2017–18 United States political sexual scandals saw a heightened period of allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault, and resulted in the subsequent firings and resignations of American politicians. Some of the allegations are linked to the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases starting in October 2017 amid the wider MeToo movement.
The #MeToo movementin Pakistan is modeled after the international #MeToo movement and began in late 2018 in Pakistani society. It has been used as a springboard to stimulate a more inclusive, organic movement, adapted to local settings, and has aimed to reach all sectors, including the lowest rungs of society.
The National Women's Soccer League has undergone many allegations and reports of sexual harassment, misconduct, manipulation, pressure to lose an unhealthy amount of weight, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse, racist and sexist remarks, and the list goes on. These allegations of crossing professional boundaries with players led to formal investigations on the NWSL and many of its teams and coaches. Former US attorney general Sally Yates wrote in her report regarding the investigation how "Abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women's soccer, beginning in youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs boundaries between coaches and players," The investigations ultimately concluded that multiple forms of emotional abuse and sexual misconduct were systematic in the sport and were not a one-time occurrence; they impacted many teams, coaches, and players. This led to public protests by players and as a result, multiple coaches have been reprimanded for their behavior. Five out of 10 head coaches in the 2021 season were fired or stepped down due to misconduct allegations. Some of the more significant allegations include Coaches Riley, Dames, Burke, and Holly, who all faced harsh punishments resulting in being completely banned from coaching as well as having involvement in activities pertaining to the NWSL.
