By JENNIFER PELTZ<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Prosecutors once again portrayed\u00a0Harvey Weinstein<\/a>\u00a0as a onetime Hollywood power player who used his sway as a tool of sexual assault, repainting a familiar but fraught picture Tuesday at a rape\u00a0retrial<\/a>\u00a0nearly eight years after the\u00a0former movie tycoon\u2019s arrest.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis case will come down to power, to control and to manipulation,\u201d Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White told jurors as\u00a0opening statements<\/a>\u00a0began in the bellwether #MeToo case, with DA Alvin Bragg watching from the audience.<\/p>\n Weinstein lawyer Jacob Kaplan countered that the case actually \u201cis about consent, about choice and about regret,\u201d echoing Weinstein\u2019s longtime defense that his accuser has recast a willing encounter as a crime.<\/p>\n Since Weinstein became a major\u00a0target of the #MeToo movement<\/a>\u00a0against sexual misconduct nearly a decade ago, he has been convicted of some sexual assault charges and acquitted of others in trials on two U.S. coasts. A couple of charges ultimately were\u00a0dismissed<\/a>. But the rape charge involving a 2013 encounter in a Manhattan hotel has lingered, due to an\u00a0overturned conviction<\/a>\u00a0followed by a\u00a0jury deadlock<\/a>.<\/p>\n The allegation is, by now, well known. But the contours of the case have changed.<\/p>\n The prior trials included other accusers and charges. This trial is pared down to the single question of what happened in a hotel room one morning between Weinstein and hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann, though jurors will again also hear a lot about their relationship before and after.<\/p>\n Weinstein also\u00a0switched his legal team<\/a>, and with it the rhetorical style and perhaps some strategic choices in his defense. His new attorneys have made clear that they intend to be more circumspect about broaching, for example, Mann\u2019s compensation from a claims fund for women who said Weinstein sexually mistreated them.<\/p>\n Weinstein has\u00a0pleaded not guilty<\/a>\u00a0and denies ever having nonconsensual sex. He\u00a0said in court<\/a>\u00a0in January that he had been unfaithful to his then-wife and \u201cacted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n The jury \u2014 seven men and five women \u2014 was selected last week. Weinstein\u2019s last New York jury\u00a0was majority-female<\/a>, but his first\u00a0was mostly male<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now a 73-year-old prison inmate, Weinstein was once one of the most influential people in Hollywood. An Academy Award-winning producer and a studio boss, he helped bring such acclaimed films as \u201cPulp Fiction,\u201d \u201cShakespeare in Love\u201d and \u201cGangs of New York\u201d to movie houses and the popular reality series \u201cProject Runway\u201d to TV. He also was a\u00a0prominent Democratic donor<\/a>.<\/p>\n His\u00a0career collapsed<\/a>\u00a0in 2017, when years of Hollywood whispers about his behavior toward women became public accusations\u00a0in news<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0social media<\/a>. Criminal charges followed in New York and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Mann was a 27-year-old hairstylist hoping to break into big-time acting when she met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area party in early 2013.<\/p>\n