other woman

ROME — The Vatican took the unusual step on Monday of announcing that it had named judges to decide the fate of a famous ex-Jesuit artist, whose mosaics decorate basilicas around the world and who was accused by more than two dozen women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse.

The case of the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik badly tarnished the legacy of Pope Francis, given suggestions that the Jesuit pope, the Jesuit religious order and the Jesuit-headed Vatican sex abuse office protected one of their own over decades by dismissing allegations of misconduct against him.

The Vatican office that manages clergy sex abuse cases, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the five judges named to hear the Rupnik case in a canonical court include women and priests who don’t hold jobs in the Vatican bureaucracy.

It said that such a composition was “done in order to better guarantee, as in any judicial process, the autonomy and independence of the aforementioned court.”

The statement suggested an implicit recognition that prior to now, the Vatican’s handling of the Rupnik file had been anything but autonomous or independent.

Famous artist accused

Rupnik’s mosaics grace some of the Catholic Church’s most-visited shrines and sanctuaries around the world, including at the shrine in Lourdes, France, in the Vatican, a new basilica in Aparecida, Brazil, and the chapel of Pope Leo XIV’s own Augustinian religious order in Rome.

The Rupnik scandal first exploded publicly in late 2022 when Italian blogs started reporting the claims of nuns and other women who said they had been sexually, spiritually and psychologically abused by him, including during the production of his artwork.

Rupnik’s Jesuit religious order soon admitted that he had been excommunicated briefly in 2020 for having committed one of the Catholic Church’s most serious crimes — using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity. But he continued working and preaching.

The case continued to create problems for the Jesuits and Francis, though, since more women came forward saying they too had been victimized by Rupnik, with some of their claims dating back to the 1990s.

The Jesuits eventually kicked him out of the order after he refused to respond to allegations by about 20 women, most of whom were members of a Jesuit-inspired religious community that he co-founded in his native Slovenia, which has since been suppressed.

The Vatican initially refused to prosecute, arguing the women’s claims were too old. The stall exposed both the Vatican’s legal shortcomings, where sex crimes against women are rarely prosecuted, and the suggestion that a famous artist like Rupnik had received favorable treatment.

Trial about to start

While Francis denied interfering in a 2023 interview with the Associated Press, he eventually caved to public pressure and waived the statute of limitations so that the Vatican could open a proper canonical trial.

Two years later, the Vatican statement on Monday indicated that the trial was about to start. The judges, appointed on Oct. 9, will use the church’s in-house canon law to determine Rupnik’s fate, though it’s still not even clear what alleged canonical crimes he is accused of committing. The Vatican statement didn’t say. He hasn’t been charged criminally.

To date, Rupnik hasn’t responded publicly to the allegations and refused to respond to his Jesuit superiors during their investigation. His supporters at his Centro Aletti art studio have denounced what they have called a media “lynching.”

Some of Rupnik’s victims have gone public to demand justice, including in a documentary “Nuns vs. The Vatican” that premiered last month at the Toronto International Film Festival. They welcomed word on Monday that the trial would finally start, attorney Laura Sgro said.

“My five clients requested 18 months ago to be recognized as injured parties in the proceedings, so we hope that their position will be established as soon as possible,” Sgro said in a statement. “They have been waiting for justice for too many years, and justice will be good not only for them but also for the church itself.”

The Catholic Church’s internal legal system doesn’t recognize victims of abuse as parties to a canonical trial but merely third-party witnesses. Victims have no right to participate in any proceedings or have access to any documentation.

At most, they are entitled to learn the judges’ verdict. Unlike a regular court, where jail time is possible, canonical penalties can include sanctions such as restrictions from celebrating Mass or even presenting oneself as a priest, if the judges determine a canonical crime has occurred.

Legal hurdles to justice

But it’s not even clear whether the Vatican considers the women to be abuse “victims” in a legal sense. While the Holy See over the last 25 years has refined the canonical rules to prosecute priests who sexually abuse minors, it has rarely prosecuted sex-related abuse cases involving women, contending that any sexual activity between adults is consensual.

The Rupnik case, though, also involves allegations of spiritual and psychological abuse in relations where there was an imbalance of power. It’s one of many such #MeToo cases in the church where women have said they fell prey to revered spiritual gurus who used their power and authority to manipulate them for sexual and other ends.

The Vatican, though, has generally refused to prosecute such cases or address this type of abuse in any canonical revisions, though Francis authorized a study group to look into allegations of “false mysticism” before he died.

Leo has expressed concern in general that accused priests receive due process. But he had firsthand experience dealing with an abusive group in Peru that targeted adults as well as minors, including through spiritual abuse and abuse of conscience.

In a letter earlier this year to a Peruvian journalist who exposed the group’s crimes, Leo called for a culture of prevention in the church “that does not tolerate any form of abuse — whether of power or authority, conscience or spiritual, or sexual.”

Winfield writes for the Associated Press.

Days after Alex Cooper accused her former college soccer coach of sexual harassment, Boston University has responded.

The host of the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, who made the allegations in a two-part Hulu documentary that premiered Tuesday after screening Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival, played Division I soccer at the university for three years, during which time Cooper claims coach Nancy Feldman made inappropriate comments about her body and sex life, engaged in controlling behavior and touched her thigh.

“Nancy Feldman was someone I trusted. Someone I believed in. Someone who was supposed to help me grow. Someone who was supposed to protect me,” Cooper wrote Thursday on Instagram. “But instead she made my life a living hell and abused her power over me.”

In the same post, Cooper said she reported the abuse to athletic director Drew Marrochello, who she said ignored her complaints. The university addressed the allegations in a statement obtained Thursday by People and other news outlets.

“Boston University has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment. We have a robust system of resources, support and staff dedicated to student wellbeing and a thorough reporting process through our Equal Opportunity Office,” the statement reads. “We encourage members of our community to report any concerns, and we remain committed to fostering a safe and secure campus environment for all.”

While Cooper’s documentary began as a way to show behind-the-scenes footage of her 2023 Unwell Tour, a visit to Boston University — specifically the soccer field — brought her emotions back to the surface, she said in Tuesday’s brief episode of “Call Her Daddy” titled “My College Soccer Trauma.”

“The minute I stepped on that field, I felt so small,” Cooper said. “I felt like I was 18 years old again, completely powerless, with no voice.”

Cooper said “everything changed” when she discovered that other women had alleged similar experiences with Feldman. She decided that she needed to speak out after talking to one of the women.

“If a woman in my position, who has power and a platform, is still fearful, is still scared of speaking out about my own lived experience of sexual harassment, how the hell will any other woman feel safe and confident to come forward?” Cooper asked in the episode.

Since “Call Her Alex” premiered, TikTok user @sizzlinghotsarah shared her own experience with Feldman, alleging that the soccer coach harassed her for her sexuality. Cooper responded to the post, “I’m sick I’m so sorry she did this to you. Reaching out to u privately.”

Feldman retired in 2022, but Cooper claims the harassment continues under her successor.

“Call Her Alex” also traces her journey to becoming one of the top podcasters in the world. Featured in the documentary are Cooper’s former co-host Sofia Franklyn, husband Matt Kaplan, lifelong friend Lauren McMullen, who is an executive producer on the podcast, and Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports — the previous home of “Call Her Daddy.”

Cooper has become known for her revelatory interviews with everyone from Hailey Bieber and Paris Hilton to Monica Lewinsky and Jane Goodall. Last year, Cooper sat down with then-Vice President and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris — chronicled in the documentary.

Cooper created her own podcast network, Unwell, in 2023 and has hired emerging talent including Madeline Argy, Owen Thiele and Alix Earle, who abruptly left in February. In August 2024, Cooper signed a $125-million deal with SiriusXM.

NEW YORK — R&B singer Cassie was forced under cross-examination Thursday to read aloud explicit messages with her former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs, some of which expressed enthusiasm for sex with other men at Combs’ behest that she previously testified she “hated doing.”

Lawyers for Combs are seeking to show the jury that Cassie was a willing participant in his sexual lifestyle and say that, while he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

Prosecutors say he exploited his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in these drug-fueled encounters with sex workers, called “freak-offs,” which sometimes lasted days. He’s also accused of using his entourage and employees to facilitate illegal activities, including prostitution-related transportation and coercion, which is a key element of the federal charges.

Messages between Combs and Cassie — both romantic and lurid — were the focus of the fourth day of testimony in a Manhattan courtroom. Defense attorney Anna Estevao read what Combs wrote, while Cassie recited her own messages.

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, read messages to Combs containing graphic details about what she wanted to do during the freak-offs. At one point, she asked for a short break from the readings, which Judge Arun Subramanian granted.

In August 2009, Combs asked when she wanted the next encounter to be, and she replied “I’m always ready to freak off.” Two days later, Cassie sent an explicit message and he replied in eager anticipation. She responded: “Me Too, I just want it to be uncontrollable.” Combs’ lawyers have insisted that all the sex at the freak-offs was consensual.

Later that year, however, she also sent Combs messages that she was frustrated with the state of their relationship and needed something more from him than sex.

While reading their more affectionate conversations, Cassie testified that Combs was charismatic, a larger-than-life personality.

“I had fallen in love with him and cared about him very much,” Cassie said. Estevao spoke gently during the cross-examination, which had such a friendly tone at times that the lawyer and witness seemed like two friends chatting.

Cassie, however, did complain once that jurors weren’t hearing the full context of the messages the defense was highlighting, saying, “There’s a lot we skipped over.”

A packed courtroom watches Cassie’s testimony

As the messages were read, Combs appeared relaxed at the defense table, sitting back with his hands folded and his legs crossed. The courtroom was packed with family and friends of Combs, journalists, and a row of spectator seats occupied by Cassie’s supporters including her husband.

The 38-year-old Cassie — who is in the third trimester of pregnancy with her third child — has been composed on the witness stand. She cried several times during the previous two days of questions by the prosecution, but for the most part has remained matter-of-fact as she spoke about the most sensitive subjects.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.

During a break, Combs stood at the defense table, huddling with his lawyers, holding a pack of Post-It notes in one hand and a pen in the other. At one point, he turned to the gallery and acknowledged a few reporters who were studying his demeanor. “How you doing?” he asked.

Combs’ daughters were not in the courtroom Thursday as the explicit messages were read and shown to the jury.

Jurors leaned forward in their seats to follow along as the messages were displayed on monitors in front of them in the jury box. One woman shook her head as a particularly explicit message was shown. A man stared intently at the screen, pressing his thumb to his chin. Other jurors appeared curious and quizzical, some looking at Cassie or jotting notes.

Cassie rejects ‘swingers’ label

Cassie’s testimony on cross-examination was in contrast to Wednesday, when she described the violence and shame that accompanied her “hundreds” of encounters with male sex workers during her relationship with Combs, which lasted from 2007 to 2018.

While prosecutors have focused on Combs’ desire to see Cassie having sex with other men, she testified that she sometimes watched Combs have sex with other women. She said Combs described it as part of a “swingers lifestyle.”

Estevao asked Cassie directly whether she thought freak-offs were related to that lifestyle.

“In a sexual way,” Cassie responded, before adding: “They’re very different.”

Cassie said Tuesday that Combs was obsessed with a form of voyeurism where “he was controlling the whole situation.” The freak-offs took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms, unlike Combs’ very public parties that attracted A-list celebrities.

She testified she sometimes took IV fluids to recover from the encounters, and eventually developed an opioid addiction because it made her “feel numb” afterward.

When questioned by Estevao, Cassie agreed that Combs once communicated to drug dealers in Los Angeles to stop delivering drugs to her, and he suggested she get treatment. Cassie said Combs wanted her to do drugs with him only, not friends.

Cassie’s lawsuit sparked case against Combs

Cassie testified Wednesday that Combs raped her when she broke up with him in 2018, and had locked in a life of abuse by threatening to release videos of her during the freak-offs.

She sued Combs in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. Within hours, the suit was settled for $20 million — a figure Cassie disclosed for the first time Wednesday — but dozens of similar legal claims followed from other women. It also touched off a law enforcement investigation into Combs that has culminated in this trial.

Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.

Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. The AP’s Julie Walker in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

When “The Room Next Door” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in early September, the rapturous audience gave director Pedro Almodóvar and his two stars, Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, a standing ovation that observers said was the longest at this year’s event. The response presaged the film’s Golden Lion victory at the festival.

“It was such an outpouring of not just love but gratitude to Pedro,” recalls Swinton of the ovation, noting that the Spanish filmmaker was about to turn 75 with more than 20 feature films under his belt. “He’s a punk rocker. He’s everlasting.”

“He’s an artist,” says Moore, “a great auteur. And it’s an opportunity for people to express that to him. And it kept coming and coming and coming and coming. It was really wonderful to be able to witness that.”

Based on Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel, “What Are You Going Through,” the film is an emotional two-hander starring Swinton as Martha, a successful war correspondent who discovers she is terminally ill. Taking matters into her own hands, she acquires a euthanasia pill and a short-term rental on a country house where she intends to end her life. But she doesn’t want to do it alone and asks a friendly acquaintance, Ingrid (Moore), an author and journalist, to accompany her to the house.

“The Room Next Door” is Almodóvar’s first feature in English, a language he’s not yet comfortable with. “He could make a film in Farsi or German or anything because he’s kind of not really that attentive to the language,” points out Swinton. “There are other things he’s more attentive to — the emotion, really important.”

During his childhood, Almodóvar sometimes sat and listened under the kitchen table while his mother and other women gossiped and shared secrets, Moore says. “He’s drawn to that point of view and that intrigue and that kind of drama,” she says. “He’s a man who recognizes female stories as being important.”

The director worked quickly, Swinton says, getting two takes at most, with the actors sometimes begging for three. But the relentless pace helped forge a bond between them.

“You have to go toward each other with your hands up,” recalls Moore. “It was like we were this ball that went into work every day, this ball of energy and exchange, constantly. And that’s what the movie is, a kind of partnership.”

With death hovering over Swinton’s character, the tone sometimes got a little heavy on set, but not overwhelmingly so. Talk of mortality mixed with questions about what’s for lunch. “When one is in the presence of someone who is coming to the end of their life, you can’t sit around being sad all the time,” advises Swinton. “There will be a moment when someone says, ‘You want something to eat? What was that hilarious film we saw?’ And we watch it. That is living. Living goes on even in dying.”

Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton in Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door.”

(TIFF)

Exhausting as it was to make the movie, catharsis was its reward. “I’ve been in the Ingrid position,” Swinton says of Moore’s character. “I’ve been in the blessed position of supporting people at the end of their lives. It felt like there was this open possibility to take one’s own experience and put it in the film.”

Moore agrees, considering hardship an unavoidable part of living. “The sooner you acknowledge that, the more present you’re going to be. Knowing that things are tough and painful, you have to learn to coexist with it.”

The pair counsel a similar approach to anyone disappointed by the U.S. presidential election results. “The chips are down, but that’s not necessarily a powerless place,” Swinton says. “It’s actually a very powerful state, because then people can think straight. It’s a beautiful day, we’re alive, and let’s live it and not be frightened.”

Moore agrees, adding, “You experience difficulty and pain and hardship, and you see how unequal things are in the world and you wonder what you can do and how you can do it. You can’t give up.”

But is Swinton really ready to give up acting, as press reports have suggested? Even Almodóvar sent her a panicked email about it. The actor concedes she might not have been very clear when talking about future roles. “I either said, ‘If “The Room Next Door” is my last film, I would be content because I’m so proud of it.’ Or I said, which is also true, that I always intended every film to be my last film. I intended my first film to be my last film,” she says. “It’s sort of the way I work. I’m quite lazy, in fact very lazy, to be honest, and I like feeling like my work is done.”

“I’ve been in the blessed position of supporting people at the end of their lives,” Tilda Swinton says. “It felt like there was this open possibility to take one’s own experience and put it in the film,” she says of “The Room Next Door” costarring Julianne Moore.

(Shayan Asgharnia/For The Times)

Both women are Oscar winners — Moore won the lead actress statuette for “Still Alice,” while Swinton scored the supporting trophy for “Michael Clayton” — but Sony Pictures Classics is submitting both for the lead actress award for this film.

“It’s just a point of accuracy,” says Swinton of the unusual decision. “This is a film in which there are two leading women, and they wrote down the truth. I would like to see Pedro up there.”

Almodóvar’s “All About My Mother” won the foreign-language film Oscar, and he scored a statuette for his “Talk to Her” screenplay, but he has yet to win a directing trophy (he was nominated for “Talk to Her”) or have one of his films nominated for best picture.

“Unfortunately, in America everything’s a competition,” Moore says. “We’re just happy to have a film that people want to see.”

Paula Abdul‘s legal battle against television producer Nigel Lythgoe has come to an end, nearly a year after after she sued him for alleged sexual assault.

Court documents reviewed by The Times confirm that the “Straight Up” pop star and the “So You Think You Can Dance” executive producer settled the suit Monday. Abdul filed notice of unconditional settlement Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, indicating that a request for dismissal would be filed within 45 days. The terms of the TV stars’ settlement was not revealed.

In a statement shared with The Times, Abdul said, “I am grateful that this chapter has successfully come to a close and is now something I can now put behind me.”

“This has been a long and hard-fought personal battle,” she added. “I hope my experience can serve to inspire other women, facing similar struggles, to overcome their own challenges with dignity and respect, so that they too can turn the page and begin a new chapter of their lives.”

Abdul filed her four-count complaint on Dec. 29, 2023, alleging that Lythgoe sexually assaulted her twice during her time on “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” Abdul was a judge on “Idol” from 2002 to 2009 and also judged on “SYTYCD” in 2015 and 2016.

In addition to the sexual assault claims, Abdul alleged that she was subject to bullying and harassment and suffered gender pay discrimination during her tenure on the hit competition shows. The lawsuit detailed two alleged accounts of sexual assault by Lythgoe, one in the early aughts in a hotel elevator and another in 2015 at the “SYTYCD” co-creator’s home. Abdul filed her complaint under the Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, which allows limited windows for filing certain civil sexual abuse claims beyond the usual statute of limitations.

In January, Lythgoe denied Abdul’s allegations. In a statement at the time, he said he was “shocked and saddened” by her claims. “I want to be clear: not only are they false, they are deeply offensive to me and to everything I stand for,” he added. Later that month, Lythgoe faced additional sexual assault accusations as two unidentified women sued the producer in a separate lawsuit.

Amid the allegations, Fox announced that Lythgoe would not return to “So You Think You Can Dance” for Season 18. In late January, Fox revealed that “Dance Moms” alum JoJo Siwa would replace Lythgoe.

By the end of March, Lythgoe, 75, had been accused by five women — including Abdul — of sexual assault. In a March response to Abdul’s lawsuit, Lythgoe’s attorney doubled down on their client’s initial denial.

“Abdul’s accusations against Lythgoe are false, despicable, intolerable, and life-changing,” attorney Marina Z. Beck wrote. “These allegations are the worst form of character assassination on Lythgoe.”

In a statement to The Times on Friday, Lythgoe said, “[W]e live in a troubling time where a person is now automatically assumed to be guilty until proven innocent, a process that can take years.” He also expressed relief with the settlement.

“That is why, like Paula, I am glad to be able to put this behind me,” he added. “I know the truth and that gives me great comfort.”

Sydney Sweeney, since her breakout role in HBO’s “Euphoria,” has worked to prove she has much more to offer than just her looks.

The “White Lotus” actor in recent years has diversified her portfolio to showcase her acting chops and flexed her muscles as a producer with films “Immaculate” and “Anyone but You.” Despite her efforts, the 27-year-old star says, she feels Hollywood’s outward support for female creatives — especially from other women with well-established careers — has just been lip service.

“This entire industry, all people say is, ‘Women empowering other women.’ None of it’s happening,” she told Vanity Fair in an interview published Wednesday. “All of it is fake and a front for all the other s— that they say behind everyone’s back.”

Sweeney, founder of Fifty-Fifty Films, called out Tinseltown’s alleged faux feminism months after “Father of the Bride” producer Carol Baum dismissed her star power.

Speaking in April at a New York screening of her 1988 film “Dead Ringers,” Baum said “[Sweeney’s] not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?” Sweeney’s team swiftly hit back, lamenting “that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman.”

“If that’s what [Baum’s] learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful,” a spokesperson for Sweeney told The Times in April. “To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”

Baum reportedly felt regret over her remarks, but the sting has clearly remained for Sweeney.

“It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down, especially when women who are successful in other avenues of their industry see younger talent working really hard,” Sweeney said in Vanity Fair’s 2025 Hollywood issue.

This sense of competition and the tendency to discredit and shut out other women might be a feature in Hollywood and not a bug, Sweeney said. Though it might be a “generational problem,” she said, women grew up believing that only one woman can succeed, whether that woman is getting the man or climbing the ladder. “There’s only one one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything,” she added.

Sweeney, who did not reference Baum by name, told the magazine she’s just trying her best to continue making a name for herself. Still, she asked, “Why am I getting attacked?”

Years before the Baum insult, the two-time Emmy nominee had been candid about her journey to Hollywood, telling The Times in 2022 that it had been far from easy. For a while, she said, she had just been “fighting, fighting, fighting [for jobs].” When she began acting in her teen years, the stress of growing up also came with industry pressure.

“When you’re 16 and you don’t really like yourself, and you’re trying to figure out what the hell is gong on in your body and your makeup and your hormones, and people are telling you that you’re not good enough — that weight is so heavy,” Sweeney said at the time.

While Sweeney might feel unsupported by other women in Hollywood, she told The Times she can rely on her parents “who, no matter what, believed in me.”

Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.