Celebrity
Hugh Grant Says He Got ‘Enormous Sum’ To Settle Suit Alleging Illegal Snooping By The Sun Tabloid
LONDON — Hugh Grant received “an enormous sum of money” to settle a lawsuit accusing The Sun tabloid of illegally tapping his phone, bugging his car, and getting into his home to snoop on him, the actor revealed Wednesday after the settlement was announced in court.
Grant, along with Prince Harry, sued News Group Newspapers and said he settled reluctantly because he could have faced a large legal fee even if he won at trial. If he had been awarded a cent less than the settlement offer, he would have been required to pay legal fees to both parties.
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Hugh Grant Says He Got ‘Enormous Sum’ To Settle Suit Alleging Illegal Snooping By The Sun Tabloid
“As is common with entirely innocent people, they are offering me an enormous sum of money to keep this matter out of court,” Grant claimed on the social media platform X. “Even if every allegation is proven in court, I would still be liable for approximately 10 million pounds ($12.4 million) in costs.” I’m afraid I’m shy at that fence.”
The settlement sum was not disclosed. NGN said it accepted no wrongdoing and that the settlement was in both parties’ best interests to avoid a costly trial.
Grant and other claimants allege that between 1994 and 2016, NGN, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, violated their privacy by hiring private investigators to intercept voicemails, tap phones, bug cars and use deception to access confidential information.
Grant claimed in a witness statement that he could never figure out who broke into his fourth-floor flat in 2011. The door had been pulled from its hinges, and the interior appeared to be a battle scene, but nothing was gone. Two days later, The Sun published a story on the inside and “signs of a domestic row.”
He claimed he was shocked to learn that someone working for The Sun had broken into his house and put a monitoring device on his car.
AP – VOR News Image
Hugh Grant Says He Got ‘Enormous Sum’ To Settle Suit Alleging Illegal Snooping By The Sun Tabloid
Grant, who had already settled a case against Murdoch’s News of the World for hacking his phone, said he would not go lightly.
“Murdoch’s settlement money stinks and I refuse to let this be hush money,” he told reporters. I have spent the best part of 12 years fighting for a free press that does not distort the truth, abuse ordinary members of the public or hold elected (members of Parliament) to ransom in pursuit of newspaper barons’ personal profit and political power.”
Grant stated that he would donate the money to organizations such as Hacked Off, founded after phone hacking disclosures in 2011 brought down News of the World and prompted a government investigation into illegal press practices. Grant serves on the board of a group dedicated to promoting a free and accountable press.
While the now-defunct News of the World has apologized for hacking the phones of celebrities, politicians, and relatives of deceased soldiers and a murdered schoolgirl, The Sun has resolved claims without admitting guilt.
After Grant’s consent to settle his claims, the Duke of Sussex and 41 others are slated to go to trial in the High Court in January.
The settlement occurred after Justice Timothy Fancourt rejected NGN’s bid to dismiss Grant’s claim in May.
AP – VOR News Image
Hugh Grant Says He Got ‘Enormous Sum’ To Settle Suit Alleging Illegal Snooping By The Sun Tabloid
“If true … these allegations would establish very serious, deliberate wrongdoing at NGN, conducted on an institutional basis on a huge scale,” Fancourt wrote. “They would also make a concerted effort to conceal the wrongdoing by concealing and destroying relevant documentary evidence, issuing repeated public denials, lying to regulators and authorities, and threatening those who dared to make allegations or notify intended claims against The Sun.”
SOURCE – (AP)
NEW YORK — Justin Timberlake is set to submit a new plea on Friday in his drunken driving case in New York’s Hamptons, according to prosecutors. The details of the plea were not published, but a person familiar with the situation said Timberlake agreed to plead guilty to a less serious offense than the original accusation of driving while intoxicated.
The individual talked with The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Edward Burke, Timberlake’s attorney, declined to comment.
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Justin Timberlake Reaches Plea Deal To Resolve Drunken Driving Case
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office said Wednesday that the pop singer will appear in person in Sag Harbour Village Court on Friday to enter a plea.
Timberlake was detained on June 18 in the village of Sag Harbour, on Long Island’s eastern coast, when police claimed he ran a stop sign in the village center, drifted out of his lane, and exited his BMW smelling of alcohol. The 43-year-old Tennessee native has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor drunk driving allegation.
Last month, a judge suspended Timberlake’s license to drive in New York.
Burke, Timberlake’s lawyer, has argued that he was not inebriated and that the prosecution should be dismissed.
Timberlake was stopped after leaving a Sag Harbour hotel at 12:30 a.m., according to authorities.
“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odour of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardised field sobriety tests,” police told the court.
Justin informed the officer he had one martini and was on his way home with some buddies, according to police. He was arrested and spent the night at the police station.
The boy band singer-turned-solo star and actor’s agency and other representatives did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Wednesday.
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Justin Timberlake Reaches Plea Deal To Resolve Drunken Driving Case
Justin, a ten-time Grammy winner, began performing as a young Disney Mouseketeer, rose to prominence as a member of the boy band NSYNC, and launched his solo recording career in the early 2000s.
Sag Harbour is a former whaling community featured in Herman Melville’s famous novel “Moby-Dick” which is located in the Hamptons, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City.
SOURCE | AP
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul, has been indicted on fresh sex offense charges ahead of his trials in New York, Manhattan prosecutors announced at a hearing Thursday.
The indictment will remain sealed until Weinstein’s arraignment on September 18.
Harvey, 72, was unable to attend Thursday’s hearing because he was recovering from emergency heart surgery on Monday in a Manhattan hospital.
Harvey Weinstein Indicted On Additional Sex Crimes Charges Ahead Of New York Retrial
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office revealed at a recent court hearing that prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury of up to three new complaints against Weinstein dating back to the mid-2000s.
Harvey’s 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges was overturned by an appeals court earlier this year, prompting prosecutors to seek retrial. It is unclear if the new charges will be included in the retrial, as prosecutors seek, or if the court will treat them separately.
The latest charges come after British prosecutors declared last week that they would no longer pursue indecent assault charges against Weinstein, who was the most visible villain of the #MeToo movement in 2017 when women began to speak up about his behavior.
Harvey Weinstein Indicted On Additional Sex Crimes Charges Ahead Of New York Retrial
The 72-year-old Miramax co-founder has long claimed that all sexual activity was consensual.
He is scheduled to appear in Manhattan court for a hearing on the case on September 12. His retrial is tentatively scheduled for November.
SOURCE | AP
James Earl Jones, an imposing figure on stage and screen, passed away on Monday at the age of 93. He became famous around the world as Darth Vader, a cosmic evil, after overcoming a childhood stammer and developing a stentorian voice.
According to Jones’s representative Barry McPherson, James Earl Jones passed away at home with his family by his side.
Despite his commanding stage presence, Jones’s voice carried him far in his career; he would have been famous even if no one ever saw his face. Depending on the scene, the deep bass might either inspire reverence (as it did for the wise father Mufasa in “The Lion King” and other Shakespearean parts) or terror (as it did for the rasping Vader in the “Star Wars” movies).
In response to a question from a Reuters interviewer about whether he disliked being so strongly associated with Darth Vader, Jones burst out laughing. The job only called for his voice for a few lines, while another actor wore the mask and performed the onscreen action.
“I love being part of that whole myth, of that whole cult,” he remarked, also expressing his pleasure to satisfy fans who wanted him to repeat his “I am your father” line to Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker.
James Earl Jones Oscar
On Monday, alongside a sad heart emoji, Hamill commented on X, “#RIP dad,” under a news article about Jones’s passing.
Jones claimed he earned barely $9,000 for the original film’s Darth Vader role and treated it as nothing more than a special effects gig. In fact, he never even asked to be named in the credits of the first “Star Wars” films.
On Broadway, he won Tonys for “The Great White Hope” in 1969 and “Fences” in 1987, and in 1991, he won Emmys for “Gabriel’s Fire” and “Heat Wave” on television. His collection of accolades is extensive. Grammys for best spoken word album and “Great American Documents” were both bestowed upon him in 1977.
Although he never took home an actual Oscar, he did receive an honorary nomination for his performance in 2011’s “The Great White Hope” and was considered for best actor in the film adaptation.
One of his earliest film roles James Earl Jones was as Lieutenant Luther Zogg in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”
Among his subsequent critically lauded film performances were those of South African Reverend Stephen Kumalo in 1995’s “Cry, the Beloved Country” and novelist Terence Mann in 1989’s “Field of Dreams.” He has been in numerous films, including “Field of Dreams,” “The Sandlot,” “Matewan,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Conan the Barbarian,” “Coming to America,” and so on.
In addition to his appearances in scores of ads, Jones provided the authoritative voice-over for CNN’s newscast introductions for a number of years.
Irish, African, and Cherokee ancestry
A member of a mixed-race family sprung from Irish, African, and Cherokee ancestry, James Earl Jones came into this world on January 17, 1931, in the little Mississippi town of Arkabutla.
Not long after that, Robert Earl Jones Sr., who had been a prizefighter and was now an actor, abandoned the family. It wasn’t until James relocated to New York in the 1950s that he was able to reconcile with his father, as his maternal grandparents had forbidden him to see him while he was growing up. In due time, they shared the stage in other productions.
When Jones’s grandparents uprooted the family from Mississippi and settled on a farm in Michigan when he was around five years old, he began to stutter and eventually stopped speaking altogether.
His high school English teacher used a trick to get him to speak up after he remained mute for ten years. Jones claimed to have written a poem, which the teacher then had him repeat to the class as evidence that he was the real author.
Jones got over his stammer and developed an interest in acting, but he later admitted that he still had to be careful with his words.
Moving to New York after completing his drama degree at Michigan, he began to receive more and more praise for his stage performances.
He played the role of Black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope,” his breakout Broadway performance. Reviewers gushed over Jones’s portrayal of the racist boxer in the critically acclaimed play.
His starring performances as Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Othello in Shakespeare’s plays kept audiences captivated for decades. Paul Robeson, a singer, actor, and activist, was one of his memorable 1977 Broadway roles, and he played Alex Haley, an author, in the TV miniseries “Roots: The Next Generation.”
According to a 1987 review of “Fences” in the Washington Post, he could “move in seconds from boyish ingenuousness to near-biblical rage and somehow suggesting all the gradations in between.”
One of Jones’s co-stars in “Othello,” Julienne Marie Hendricks, was his first wife. Flynn Earl Jones was born to Earl and his second wife, the late actress Cecilia Hart. Cecilia passed away in 2016.
Jones won major roles in politically charged films and plays, paving the way for other Black actors to follow in his footsteps.
Jones rose to prominence during the height of the civil rights movement in the ’60s and ’70s, but he avoided taking a stand on racial issues.
Jones told the Toronto Star in 2013 that he thought many people thought he was weak for not being a stronger advocate for the cause while he was famous. According to the actor, though, he would rather have his work speak for itself.
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