Celebrity
Actor Danny Masterson Convicted Of 2 Counts Of Rape
LA – After a jury found Danny Masterson guilty on two of three counts of rape in his second trial, in which the Church of Scientology played a significant part, “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs on Wednesday. He faces a prison sentence of 30 years to life.
Masterson’s wife, actor and model Bijou Phillips, who had sat stony-faced throughout both trials, gasped when the conviction was pronounced and sobbed as he was brought into custody.
After debating for seven days over two weeks, the jury of five men and seven women decided. On the third count, which claimed Masterson had sexually assaulted a previous girlfriend, they could not reach a decision. The verdict had received an 8-4 vote in favor.
Masterson, 47, will remain behind bars until his sentence is rendered. There is no established date for sentencing.
“I am experiencing a complex array of emotions — relief, exhaustion, strength, and sadness — knowing that my abuser, Danny Masterson, will face accountability for his criminal behaviour,” said one of the women, who Masterson knew as a fellow churchgoer and was found guilty of rape at his home in 2003.
In the statement, a second woman, a former girlfriend whose count caused the jury to reach a deadlock, said: “While I’m encouraged that Danny Masterson will face some criminal punishment, I am devastated that he has dodged criminal accountability for his heinous conduct against me.”
Masterson’s representatives declined to comment, although it is almost clear they will appeal.
Prosecutors retried Masterson in December after a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial. They said that between 2001 and 2003, he drugged and brutally raped three women at his Hollywood Hills home. All three women were church members then, and they claimed he utilized his status there to evade punishment for many years.
The three women bravely came forward and revealed their stories, and for that, we are grateful, said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón in a statement following the verdict on Wednesday.
Masterson’s attorneys cited no witnesses, and he declined to testify. The defense asserted that the acts were consensual and worked to undermine the women’s accounts by calling attention to changes and contradictions that they claimed indicated coordination between the parties.
Masterson, 47, will remain behind bars until his sentence is rendered. There is no established date for sentencing.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Philip Cohen reminded the jury of their instructions and said, “You should consider not believing anything the witness says if you find that a witness in this case intentionally lied about something.
The Church of Scientology had a major impact in the first trial, but it may have been even more influential in the second trial. Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo permitted expert testimony on church policy from a former member of the leadership of Scientology who has since become a well-known adversary.
In a statement following the verdict, the Church said that the “inclusion of religion in this trial was an unprecedented violation of the First Amendment and impacted the due process rights of every American. The Church was not a party to this action, and according to centuries-old Supreme Court tradition, religion had no place in this legal process.
The accusers said on the witness stand that they were intimidated by certain Scientologists in the courtroom due to the high tension between current and former Scientologists.
Leah Remini, an actor and former church member who has emerged as its most prominent critic, occasionally attended the trial and held one of the accusers close to her during closing statements.
According to Remini, the two guilty convictions in the retrial are “a relief,” she wrote on Twitter. Heroes are the ladies who escaped Danny Masterson’s harassment. They have endured violent attacks and harassment from Danny’s well-funded legal team and Scientology for years, she wrote in her post. However, they persisted in their quest for justice.
Two of the accusers have filed a civil action regarding the alleged harassment.
Masterson, 47, will remain behind bars until his sentence is rendered. There is no established date for sentencing.
Scientology states, “There is not a scintilla of evidence supporting the scandalous allegations that the Church harassed the accusers.”
L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1953 with many Hollywood-based adherents. The judge set restrictions on how much the prosecution may discuss the Church and mostly allowed it to be used as an excuse for why the women delayed so long to contact the police.
The women stated that when they reported Masterson to church officials, they were informed that they had not been sexually assaulted, were required to participate in ethics training, and counseled against reporting a member of such high standing to criminal enforcement.
Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller’s closing statement to the jury stated, “They were raped, they were punished for it, and they were retaliated against.” They were taught by science that there is no justice for them.
“Testimony and descriptions of Scientology beliefs” during the trial, according to the Church, were “uniformly false.”
“The Church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone — Scientologists or not — to law enforcement,” the statement read.
Olmedo will hold a hearing the following week to establish how a lawyer for the Church of Scientology obtained information that the prosecution had sent to the defense. Links that the attorney unintentionally included in an email to Mueller served as the basis for the evidence.
People who claim they have been sexually abused are not routinely named by The Associated Press.
In this case, the testimony was explicit and intense.
According to the two women whose evidence resulted in Masterson’s conviction, he served them drinks in 2003, causing them to get drunk or pass out before he viciously raped them.
The third witness, Masterson’s then-girlfriend of five years, said she awoke to discover him raping her and had to yank his hair to stop him. Her testimony caused the jury to reach a deadlock.
Olmedo only let the ladies describe their state in the first trial but enabled the accusers and the prosecution to directly state that Masterson drugged the women in the second trial.
There were no drug-related charges against Masterson, and there was no toxicology data to support the claim.
The allegations were made when Masterson was at the height of his fame, appearing as Steven Hyde on Fox’s “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006, the program that launched the careers of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace.
On the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” Masterson reconnected with Kutcher, but the project was canceled when an LAPD investigation became public in December 2017.
SOURCE – (AP)
Celebrity
Photographer Alleges He Was Forced To Watch Megan Thee Stallion Have Sex And Was Unfairly Fired
Los Angeles – In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, a photographer who Megan Thee Stallion employed alleges that he was compelled to witness her engaging in sexual activity, was unjustly terminated shortly after that, and experienced mistreatment as her employee.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(774x177:776x179)/megan-thee-stallion-091223-a2c50549192843bf90777dbfd433ae61.jpg "Photographer Alleges He Was Forced To Watch Megan Thee Stallion Have Sex And Was Unfairly Fired")
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Photographer Alleges He Was Forced To Watch Megan Thee Stallion Have Sex And Was Unfairly Fired
Emilio Garcia, in his lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that on a night out in 2022 in Ibiza, Spain, he was present in an SUV with the hip-hop singer when she engaged in sexual activity with another lady near him. He was incapacitated from exiting the moving vehicle, and even if he could do so, he would have found himself stranded in an unfamiliar land. According to the lawsuit, Garcia experienced feelings of embarrassment, mortification, and offense during the entire incident.
Alex Spiro, Megan’s attorney, stated that she intends to contest the complaint through legal proceedings.
“This is a monetary employment claim, without any filed allegations of sexual harassment, but with scandalous accusations aimed at embarrassing her,” Spiro stated.
According to the lawsuit, Megan admonished Garcia the following day, instructing him not to disclose what he witnessed while also criticizing and body-shaming him. The complaint alleges that Garcia, who was experiencing excessive workload, low pay, and a hostile work environment due to Megan’s possessive and abusive behavior, was wrongly categorized as an independent contractor while being treated as an exclusive employee.
According to the lawsuit, Garcia discussed those concerns with Megan during their conversation and was terminated the next day after working for her for four years. Subsequently, he lodged a job discrimination lawsuit with the California Civil Rights Department.
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Photographer Alleges He Was Forced To Watch Megan Thee Stallion Have Sex And Was Unfairly Fired
The lawsuit, initially disclosed by NBC News, names Megan, legally known as Megan Pete, her enterprises Megan Thee Stallion Entertainment and Hot Girl Touring and her record label, Roc Nation, as the defendants. No defense answer has been submitted yet. A representative of Roc Nation should have responded more promptly to an email requesting comment.
Garcia is pursuing monetary compensation, which will be assessed during the trial. He claims to have had significant emotional and bodily harm as a result of his treatment at work, his termination, and seeing the incident in the SUV.
Megan, a 29-year-old woman, was previously embroiled in a significant legal controversy. She endured a deluge of online harassment after being shot by rapper Tory Lanez. A jury determined that Lanez had fired at her feet while they were on a street in the Hollywood Hills in 2020. She provided testimony throughout the trial, which led to the conviction of Lanez on three felony charges. Subsequently, a court imposed a 10-year prison sentence on him.
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Photographer Alleges He Was Forced To Watch Megan Thee Stallion Have Sex And Was Unfairly Fired
Megan was already a prominent emerging artist at the time of the shooting and has achieved immense success as one of the most prominent figures in hip-hop. In 2021, she won a Grammy for the best new artist category. Additionally, she attained the top position on the music charts with her tracks “Savage,” featuring Beyoncé, and as a featured artist on Cardi B’s “WAP.”
SOURCE – (AP)
NEW YORK — MacDowell, one of the country’s finest artist residence programs, has honored Yoko Ono with a lifetime achievement award. The trailblazing artist, filmmaker, and musician will receive the Edward MacDowell Medal this year, following in the footsteps of Stephen Sondheim and Toni Morrison, among others.
“There has never been anyone like her; there has never been work like hers,” MacDowell board chairman Nell Painter said in a statement Sunday.
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Yoko Ono To Receive Edward MacDowell Medal For Lifetime Achievement
“Over seven decades, she has pleased eyes, aroused mind, encouraged feminism, and supported refugees with imaginative works. Enduringly new and contemporary, her unusually powerful output resonates to our current times, which are in desperate need of her leitmotif: peace.”
In a statement, Ono’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, described the award as “an incredible honor.”
“The history and list of prior awardees are extremely impressive. It makes me very glad to see her work valued and celebrated in this manner,” he remarked.
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Yoko Ono To Receive Edward MacDowell Medal For Lifetime Achievement
Ono, 91, has made few public appearances in recent years and is unlikely to attend the July honors event at the MacDowell campus in Peterborough, New Hampshire. David Newgarden, Ono’s music manager, will receive the award on her behalf.
Ono first rose to prominence as a member of the avant-garde Fluxus movement of the 1960s, before becoming internationally famous after meeting John Lennon, with whom she married from 1969 until his death in 1980. Their many collaborations included the songs “Give Peace a Chance,” “Imagine,” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” which served as the foundation for “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” this year’s Oscar-winning animated short film.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/CVQO3OIJ4VE33EOGRKNDNWSTHI.jpg "Yoko Ono To Receive Edward MacDowell Medal For Lifetime Achievement")
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Yoko Ono To Receive Edward MacDowell Medal For Lifetime Achievement
Over the last 40 years, Ono has had a busy career as a visual and recording artist, with albums like “Season of Glass,” “Starpeace,” and “Take Me to the Land of Hell.” She was recently featured in a career retrospective at London’s Tate Modern.
SOURCE – (AP)
Los Angeles — Dick Van Dyke, 98, is contending for a historic Daytime Emmy.
The actor was nominated Friday as a guest star in a daytime drama series for his role as amnesiac Timothy Robicheaux on Peacock’s “Days of Our Lives.”
Van Dyke is the oldest daytime Emmy nominee. When producer Norman Lear won his final Primetime Emmy nomination in 2022, he was 100 years old. He died the following year.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(717x317:719x319)/dick-van-dyke-visits-disney-with-wife-100323-tout-2f347b7846b6467a80a29e95256f4314.jpg "Dick Van Dyke Earns Historic Daytime Emmy Nomination At Age 98")
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Dick Van Dyke Earns Historic Daytime Emmy Nomination At Age 98
Van Dyke is up against Guy Pearce, an Australian actor from Amazon Prime Video’s “Neighbours.”
Van Dyke earned four Primetime Emmys, including three in the 1960s, for his legendary comedy series “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
Selena Gomez, an actor and singer, is nominated in the culinary series category for her Food Network special “Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays.” The Food Network’s “Valerie’s Home Cooking,” hosted by actor Valerie Bertinelli and which concluded last year, is also nominated in that category.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(1019x509:1021x511)/dick-van-dyke-arlene-silver-main-61646e17c1cf44dd8261d2f15e1aa44c.jpg "Dick Van Dyke Earns Historic Daytime Emmy Nomination At Age 98")
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Dick Van Dyke Earns Historic Daytime Emmy Nomination At Age 98
CBS will cancel “The Talk” after its 15th season later this year. Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Natalie Morales, Jerry O’Connell, and Sheryl Underwood were nominated for daytime talk show hosting.
The main actress nominations are Tamara Braun of “Days of Our Lives,” Finola Hughes and Cynthia Watros of “General Hospital,” Katherine Kelly Lang and Annika Noelle of “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and Michelle Stafford of “The Young and the Restless.”
The lead actor nominees include Eric Braeden of “The Young and the Restless,” Scott Clifton, Thorsten Kaye, and John McCook of “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and Eric Martsolf of “Days of Our Lives.”
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Dick Van Dyke Earns Historic Daytime Emmy Nomination At Age 98
The Daytime Emmys will be broadcast live on CBS on June 7 in Los Angeles. The show is back to its regular schedule after being postponed until December due to strikes by Hollywood performers and writers. The hosts and Lifetime Achievement award recipients will be announced later.
SOURCE – AP
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