Celebrity
Woman Files Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Cosby, NBC Universal
A woman who claims Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1986 filed a lawsuit against the comedian-actor, NBC Universal, and other companies in New York on Friday, joining five other women who filed a similar suit earlier this month.
Stacey Pinkerton claims Cosby drugged her at a restaurant in Illinois and took her back to a hotel room in Chicago when she was a 21-year-old flight attendant and model that year. According to the lawsuit, Cosby “engaged in forced sexual intercourse” with her while she was intoxicated.
The suit comes more than a year after Cosby was released from prison after his sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania was overturned in 2018. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who claimed Cosby sexually abused her as a teenager at the Playboy Mansion in 1975.
Pinkerton claims Cosby assaulted her after she met him in New York, and he promised to help her career. She claims she appeared in an episode of “The Cosby Show” on NBC but did not make the final cut.
Pinkerton claimed that months after the alleged assault, Cosby invited her to his show at a Chicago theater, where she claims he forcefully kissed and touched her.
NBC knew Cosby a threat
According to Pinkerton’s lawsuit, “Cosby engaged in the same or similar pattern of conduct with his victims, including expressing interest in advancing their careers, giving them roles on The Cosby Show, using The Cosby Show and its filming locations as a means to access, isolate, sexually harass, and sexually assault women, using drugs to incapacitate his victims, and forcibly engaging in sexual acts with them without their consent.”
According to the lawsuit, NBC, Kaufman Astoria Studios, and Carsey-Werner Television should have known Cosby was a threat to women but did not protect Pinkerton from him.
According to Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt, Cosby “continues to vehemently deny all allegations waged against him and looks forward to defending himself in court.”
“As we have always stated, and now America can see, this isn’t about justice for alleged sexual assault victims; it’s ALL ABOUT MONEY,” Wyatt said in an email to The Associated Press. “We believe that the courts and the court of public opinion will uphold the rule of law and exonerate Mr. Cosby of these alleged charges.”
Statute of limitations to sue
NBC Universal, Kaufman Astoria Studios, and Carsey-Werner Television representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night. “The Cosby Show” was produced by all three companies, according to Pinkerton’s lawsuit.
Pinkerton and the five other women filed their lawsuits under New York’s one-year window for adults to file sexual abuse complaints for allegations that had passed the statute of limitations to sue.
Cosby was sentenced to nearly three years in prison before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction, ruling that he gave incriminating testimony about the encounter in a deposition only after believing he was immune from prosecution. The trial judge or an intermediate appeals court found no evidence of such immunity.
Following Cosby’s conviction in Pennsylvania, seven other accusers received a settlement from Cosby’s insurers for a defamation lawsuit they filed in Massachusetts. According to their lawsuit, Cosby and his agents disparaged them while denying their abuse allegations.
Celebrity
Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.
On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.
“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.
However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.
Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.
Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”
He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.
Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.
Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.
According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.
“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.
The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.
SOURCE | CNN
Celebrity
Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79
Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.
Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”
Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.
Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.
She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.
In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.
Teri Garr, a comedian
Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”
She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”
Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.
“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.
The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”
Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.
A gift for spontaneous humor
Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.
She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.
Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.
During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.
Source: AP
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Celebrity
Jon Stewart Will Remain ‘Daily Show’ Host On Mondays Through 2025
NEW YORK — Jon Stewart isn’t done mocking the news; he’s signed on to continue anchoring “The Daily Show” on Mondays until the end of next year.
Paramount confirmed on Monday that Stewart would continue to host the Comedy Central series once a week, as he has done for much of 2024 in the run-up to the presidential election.
Jon Stewart Will Remain ‘Daily Show’ Host On Mondays Through 2025
From 1999 until 2015, the Emmy-winning host of “The Daily Show” delivered cutting, satirical comments on politics and current events, as well as interviews with journalists. In his second attempt, he has retained his scathing view of American politics and the presidential race, which was upended in July when President Joe Biden declared he would not seek reelection and nominated Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
“His ability to cut through the noise and deliver clear-eyed insights is exactly what we need, which is why we are thrilled to have him leading The Daily Show for another year,” Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy stated.
Jon Stewart Will Remain ‘Daily Show’ Host On Mondays Through 2025
Stewart, who returned in February and was intended to host until the November election, joked in a statement that he wanted to host every other Monday but that he would “suck it up” and do it weekly.
Stewart will also continue to serve as an executive producer on the show, with a rotating cast of hosts for the rest of the week. “The Daily Show” airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. Eastern on Comedy Central and streams the following day on Paramount+.
SOURCE | AP
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