What's news: The prosecution rests in the Harvey Weinstein trial, but did they make their case? ViacomCBS plots a new streaming service, Warner Music Group files to go public, Kesha suffers setback in Dr. Luke legal fight, meet South Korea's entertainment mogul Miky Lee, a sitcom based on Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa is in the works. Plus: Another brutally honest Oscars ballot, and how Fred Karger crashed the Oscars, twice. --Alex Weprin

 The Harvey Weinstein Trial

►The prosecution made its case against Harvey Weinstein. Did the jury believe it? Over 12 days of witness testimony, district attorneys attempted to paint an unmistakable portrait of a serial sexual assaulter and manipulator, Jeremy Barr reports. Here’s how it played in the courtroom.

--"All of us love to read tea leaves, but I couldn't draw a conclusion from this," attorney Gloria Allred told THR when asked whether she thinks the witness testimony convinced the jurors.

--Mark Geragos, who argued in a preview for THR that the case "will be won or lost in jury selection," says the demographics of the Weinstein jury are favorable to the defense. "What's going to make or break you is whether you have someone who is a general or a lieutenant who is going to drive the deliberations," he says, something that happens "100 times out of 100 times." The story.

+Meanwhile: The defense is expected to present at least two days of witnesses, following 12 days of witness testimony from the People of the State of New York, Barr reports. Director Warren Leight is expected to be one of those witnesses and will testify about his experience directing the 1993 film The Night We Never Met, which starred Annabella Sciorra. Leight is the showrunner for Law & Order: SVU. More.

+The first witness for the defense was a producer friend of Weinstein's: "I felt badly that he was completely abandoned." Paul Feldsher, an ICM agent-turned-producer, was the first witness called by Weinstein’s defense team. The prosecution questioned his “constant communication” with Weinstein and loyalty to him. More.

+This morning The New York Times reports on newly-uncovered notes from 1998, taken by a lawyer as a settlement was being negotiated. "As they gathered to sign the documents, Mr. Weinstein expressed remorse to the two women, according to notes taken by their lawyer and recently shared with The Times. 'I truly apologize for the pain I’ve caused you,' he began, and then said: 'Things confusing for me too. You may not believe that. Sometimes don’t know when it’s consensual. Trying to learn. Maybe I don’t recognize my power in these situations.'”

In other legal news...



 Kesha has suffered a huge setback in her legal war with Dr. Luke. A judge rules that the singer published a false statement when she texted Lady Gaga that her producer had also raped Katy Perry. Many other statements will be going to trial. More.

+Judge Judy profits fight settles. A 2016 dispute that included a complaint about Judy Sheindlin's $47 million salary has been resolved by a mediator, Ashley Cullins reports. Meanwhile, the sequel to this suit is currently set for trial next year. That fight alleges that the co-creators of Judge Judy are owed millions from a sale of the library to CBS in 2017. The story.

+NY appeals court overturns Donald Trump's arbitration win on hush deal. An arbitrator exceeded authority by previously ruling that a former Trump Campaign staffer had violated an NDA by disparaging the president in court documents. More.

►Box office: Greta Gerwig's Little Women has strolled past the $100 million mark at the domestic box office in another win for the Oscar-nominated film. The milestone comes on the eve of Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, for which the Sony movie is nominated in six top categories, including best picture, as well as for best actress (Saoirse Ronan) and best supporting actress (Florence Pugh). More.

Elsewhere in film...

--Pinewood, the iconic U.K. studio behind numerous major studio titles, is set to close its sound department.

--A little over three years after Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hit theaters, filmmaker Gareth Edwards is back. The filmmaker has set up his next feature with New Regency, which will finance and produce the as-yet untitled sci-fi movie

--Meryl Streep has jumped aboard Rachel Feldman's Lilly Ledbetter fair pay movie, Lilly. Streep has brought her backing to Feldman and fellow producers to bring the long-gestating feature based on the life of the equal pay icon to production. 

--Bong Joon Ho shares his early sketches for Parasite's twists and turns.

 Another Streaming Service Is In The Works...

►ViacomCBS plots a new streaming service. After closing an $11.7 billion merger in December, ViacomCBS is expected to unveil a new streaming service in late February that draws from strengths of its recombined companies. ViacomCBS, led by CEO Bob Bakish, is planning an expansion of CBS All Access, the streamer that launched in 2014, that would encompass brands like Comedy Central, Paramount Network, BET, MTV and CBS News, among other offerings. The story.

►Warner Music Group plans to go public. Warner Music Group's recorded music division generated $3.84 billion of revenue in fiscal year 2019, representing 86 percent of total revenues, according to the filing. The division is home to such artists as Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Cardi B, and includes storied labels like Atlantic, Elektra, Warner Music Nashville and the recently rebranded Warner Records. The details.

+A sobering statistic from Warner Music's S-1 filing: "We are currently dependent on a small number of leading digital music services. In fiscal year 2019, revenue earned under our license agreements with our top two digital music accounts, Apple and Spotify, accounted for approximately 27% of our total revenues." You can find the full filing here, if you are so inclined.

In other business news...

--Lionsgate grows Starz subscribers to 26.2 million. The studio, led by CEO Jon Feltheimer, beat an analyst forecast for revenues, but fell short on a per-share estimate with its latest financial results. More.

--Activision Blizzard outperforms tempered expectations for holiday season. Strong revenue from Call of Duty and King's mobile titles helped bolster the company's revenue over the quarter. More.

--Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games and 2K Games, saw another increase in revenue over its most recent fiscal quarter, up to $930.1 million from Q2's $857.8 million. The bump was driven by a strong holiday season for Rockstar titles Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 (launched in 2013 and 2018 respectively), which, combined, have now sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. More.



^From Parasite to BTS: Meet the most important mogul in South Korean entertainment. Miky  Lee built the country’s first movie multiplex, invested in DreamWorks and has since grown a diverse, $4.1 billion entertainment empire that helped launch a generation of filmmakers including Bong  Joon  Ho, Rebecca Sun writes. Now  she’s coming for Hollywood.

Quote: "I used to carry DVDs and go to Warners, Universal, Fox, anybody I had a chance with, and pitch Korean film, Korean film, Korean film. No one thought Korean films were good enough to do anything with," Lee says of the years before a crucial turning point: Park Chan-wook's Oldboy taking the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004. "From then on, I didn't have to go into this long justification anymore." The story.

►Comedy based on Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest snags ABC pilot order. The single-camera project, titled Work Wife, is also based on the real-life partnership of creators Casey Johnson and David Windsor. Windsor and Johnson's take on Work Wife is the second for ABC and ABC Studios. A previous version of the project, written by Michael Ian Black, was developed in the 2018-19 cycle. The story.

+Also: Masked Singer judge Ken Jeong is branching out to his own music game-show franchise at Fox. The former Community and Dr. Ken star will host and executive produce I Can See Your Voice, a music-based guessing game in which contestants will have to distinguish good singers from bad ones — without ever hearing a note. I Can See Your Voice is based on a South Korean format (as is The Masked Singer). The U.S. version, set to premiere later in 2020, comes from Fox Alternative Entertainment, the network's in-house unscripted studio. More.

Elsewhere in TV...

--Reviews: Daniel Fienberg reviews season eight of Showtime's Homeland... Inkoo Kang reviews CBS All Access' Interrogation... Daniel Fienberg reviews the NBC sitcom Indebted...Robyn Bahr reviews season four of HBO's High Maintenance...

--Fran Drescher on The Nanny musical, her new sitcom and heading back to broadcast.

--The ninth edition of the ATX Television Festival is taking shape, with Scrubs and Cougar Town reunions the latest headliners.

--Gayle King took to social media to express her disappointment in CBS after the network shared a portion of her interview with Kobe Bryant's friend and former WNBA star, Lisa Leslie, in which it appeared that King unnecessarily questioned Leslie about the late basketball player's rape trial.

--Ratings: The premiere of Fox's Lego Masters built up a solid audience on Wednesday. The competition series delivered the second best series-debut rating of the season in adults 18-49 — and the only one to beat it had an NFL lead-in.

 The Oscars...

►Another brutally honest Oscars ballot. A male member of the Academy's producers branch, granted anonymity to speak freely, shares which films earned his precious vote (and why).

Quote: "Joker was excellent, but it's not a best picture. 1917 was great but gimmicky, and rang a little hollow for me in the same way that Dunkirk rang a little hollow for me. Once it got down to Jojo Rabbit and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it was hard for me. I wish I could have voted for them both. Once I realized it was okay to laugh at Jojo, it was great — so funny and so applicable to where we are today. But Once Upon a Time in Hollywood gave me real escape at a time when I wanted nothing more." The ballot.

+Marriage Story and 1917: Dissecting the long and short of a modern Oscar campaign. Rebecca Keegan has a THR analysis of the strategic decisions behind the push for Universal’s World War I epic and Netflix’s divorce tale — from doubling down on a film festival marathon to engaging gamers in a late-entry sprint. The story.

+Predicting this year's Oscar winners, using just math. Ben Zauzmer looks at the statistics behind each category, and tries to figure out which nominees are in pole position to win. The story.

+"How I snuck onto the Oscars stage (twice!)" Fred Karger, the "world's greatest party crasher," spills the secrets about what he did to be part of Hollywood's biggest event, shaking hands with Charlie Chaplin and singing next to Liza Minnelli: "It was a night I'll never forget." The story.

►Date set for Kobe Bryant, victims' memorial. The memorial will take place Feb. 24 at Staples Center, according to multiple news outlets. No additional details were immediately known. More.

►Taylor Swift signs global agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group. Universal Music Group now serves as the pop superstar's exclusive worldwide recorded music partner, and UMG's Republic Records is her U.S. label partner. Swift had ben with Sony/ATV for her entire career. More.

►Hollywood Reporter scores National Magazine Award nomination for "general excellence." THR will compete with Atlanta, Audubon, National Parks and The Trace in the category at the March 12 Ellie Awards, which are considered among the most prestigious in digital and print journalism. More.



^Knives Out director Rian Johnson tweaks his "traditional" style in THR tux clinic. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker steps out of his comfort zone — floral jacket! cummerbund! — for the big night, with help from THR style contributing editor Andrew Weitz. Check it out.

►Critic's notebook: Kirk Douglas, a titan of big-screen intensity. The vital, versatile actor epitomized a distinctly masculine, Old Hollywood grit, energy and elegance both onscreen and off, writes Todd McCarthy. The notebook.

Revolving door: Jennie Snyder Urman is deepening her relationship with CBS Television Studios. The Jane the Virgin creator has extended her overall deal there with a new five-year pact that secures her services through 2025... Fox 21 Television Studios has signed a first-look deal with The Gotham Group, producer of the Maze Runner movie trilogy...

Casting roundup: Demi Lovato, coming off performances at the Grammy Awards and the Super Bowl (where she sang the national anthem), will host a talk show tentatively titled Pillow Talk With Demi Lovato for Quibi... The plot continues to thicken on FX's Y: The Last Man adaptation. Barry Keoghan, who was poised to star as Yorick Brown — the last living man on Earth — is exiting the beleaguered title, and FX will recast the central role in the drama series...



^Joel Stein: A eulogy for the "beautiful time" when L.A. worshipped the Prius. The TV comedy writer muses on the "moment when liberal Los Angeles' desire to virtue-signal overpowered our desire to success-signal," which ended when Elon Musk sold the first Tesla. The guest column.

+Secrets and stick shifts: Why Chateau Marmont valets Are "unsung heroes" of Hollywood.  For more than three decades, the same four car valets have been trusted with the beloved wheels (and juiciest stories) of the hotel’s A-list guests: "I think he might have seen us make out for the first time." Gary Baum has the story.

►TV's Top 5 podcast: During this week's podcast, hosts Daniel Fienberg and Lesley Goldberg are joined by Brooklyn Nine-Nine showrunner Dan Goor and discuss Showtime's surprising drama cancellation, among other topics. Listen.

What else we're reading...

--"The financiers who struck it rich on Joker" [Financial Times]

--"WarnerMedia nears deal with Friends cast for reunion special" [WSJ]

--"IBM, Marriott, and Mickey Mouse take on tech's favorite law" [NY Times]

--"How to step Netflix autoplay" [The Verge]

--"Why Spotify and a casino bought The Ringer and Barstool" [Recode]

Todays birthdays: Ashton Kutcher, 42, James Spader, 60, Eddie Izzard, 58, Tina Majorino, 35, Garth Brooks, 58.