Boss Betty Brief: Harvey Weinstein says NYC too biased to host trial, gloves come off in Jones Day discrimination case & more

Here’s the BB breakdown of the biggest female-focused news by industry. Have news to share? Email us at tips@bossbetty.com.

ADVERTISING & MEDIA: The co-head of the Toronto International Film Festival, Joana Vicente, said that more women need to be brought into the day-to-day management of the film industry to increase the opportunities for female filmmakers. “There’s a lot of work to be done on the pipeline side,” Vicente said, adding that gatekeepers need to get on board with getting more women-led movies made. Thirty-six percent of the films in this year’s TIFF lineup were directed, co-directed or created by women, up 1 percentage point over last year. Just two of the 21 films in the upcoming Venice Film Festival were directed by women [THR]. Harvey Weinstein is trying to get his trial moved out of New York City, arguing that all the media attention — including 11,000 Page Six mentions — will prohibit him from getting a fair trial [NYT]. Meanwhile, Gina Gershon is working on a new Woody Allen film and doesn’t have a problem with it. “I’ve done extensive research and I can say with very clear conscience that I’m so happy to be working with him. This man is not a sexual predator,” she posted on social media [THR].

ENERGY: Duke’s Lynn Good, who is on the board of the Foundation for the Carolinas, is among the corporate CEOs being pressured by an immigration advocacy group to halt funding from the organization to anti-immigration groups. A statement from the president of the Foundation for the Carolinas said the board was required to put the money towards the causes donors specify [Politico].

LAW: Wow, it didn’t take long for the gloves to come off in the parental leave bias case two married ex-associates filed against Jones Day. The firm put out a statement on social media saying the suit, which alleges that Jones Day’s parental leave policy is biased against men, is meritless and its allegations were “sensationalized.” Jones Day also requested more time to respond in court, to which the plaintiffs — Mark Savignac and Julia Sheketoff — said “nuh-uh.” The couple is also now claiming that the firm — which is facing a separate class action gender bias lawsuit — besmirched their reputation by posting the statement on social media. We’re going to need some popcorn for this one [American Lawyer].

MANUFACTURING & RETAIL: Cosmetics heiress Jane Lauder joined the ranks of the world’s 500 richest people thanks to a surge in Estée Lauder stock prices that netted her an additional $447 million just on Monday. Lauder serves on the company’s board and is the global brand president of Clinique. She also serves on the board of Julia Hart’s Eventbrite [Bloomberg].

TECH & ENGINEERING: Facebook’s VP of product design, Julie Zhuo, became a manager at the not-so-ripe age of 25. In this interview, she discusses the many joys and many missteps on her path to leading hundreds of people at the social network [HBR]. Girls Who Code’s Reshma Saujani wrote a piece encouraging men to get off their arses in the workplace and communities and participate in the fight for gender equality. She writes that men — particularly cisgender white men — enjoy the natural advantage of having been taught bravery at a very young age and that they should use that in the service of women [Fortune].

If there’s no relevant news of note to share in a given sector, we skip it for the day. Did we miss something? Let us know at tips@bossbetty.com.