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
Rock Band Cage The Elephant Emerge From Loss And Hospitalization With New Album ‘Neon Pill’
NEW YORK — To say Cage the Elephant’s latest album had a rocky start would be an understatement. The band coped with loved ones’ deaths, the pandemic, and its lead singer’s arrest and illness.
“It’s no secret that I had a medical crisis,” Matt Shultz tells The Associated Press from Nashville on the eve of the Friday release of the 12-track album “Neon Pill.” “I am fully recovered. It does leave a scar, but it is one that can be ignored.”
The Kentucky-born singer-songwriter was charged with criminal possession of firearms in January 2023 after police discovered his guns inside his Bowery Hotel room in Lower Manhattan.
Shultz claims that in the aftermath, he discovered that for the past three years or more, he had been experiencing a negative reaction to a set of prescribed medications (Shultz did not specify which), resulting in episodes of psychosis.
AP – VOR News Image
Rock Band Cage The Elephant Emerge From Loss And Hospitalization With New Album ‘Neon Pill’
“It’s shocking how night and day the difference is from being on whatever medication is causing psychosis and being off of it,” he continues. “Once I got off the drug, I returned to my normal self. And that was strange because it felt like someone else had taken over your life.”
That so-called other person had contributed to the five-year recording of “Neon Pill,” and it was up to Shultz — who was hospitalized for two months and underwent around six months of outpatient therapy — to unravel the music.
“I went back to the lyrics, obviously to finish the album, and it was like reading the words of a totally different person and trying to decode what they meant,” he recalls. “A lot of it was going back and trying to find the sentiment of what I was trying to communicate.”
Shultz escaped jail time after pleading guilty to three firearms offenses.
“I’m so blessed it wasn’t worse than it was,” adds the man. “And grateful that I received the medical attention I required. I’m extremely fortunate to be surrounded by my family and my wife. God got me through it. I’d be dead numerous times over.
“Neon Pill” reunites the band with producer John Hill, who worked on their previous 2019 Grammy-winning album, “Social Cues.” It presents a kaleidoscope of rock, from the strutting glam of “Ball and Chain” to the piano ballad of “Out Loud” and the breezy alt-rock of “Float Into the Sky.” One song, “Rainbow,” is infectiously poppy, as if Cage covered a Dead or Alive tune.
“It was like a culmination of all the Cage records combined,” claims Shultz. “John Hill had a greater impact on this album, without a doubt.” Not that he didn’t impact ‘Social Cues,’ but with this one, he pushed us harder to go within ourselves and compose the greatest material we could.
AP – VOR News Image
Rock Band Cage The Elephant Emerge From Loss And Hospitalization With New Album ‘Neon Pill’
The album explores Shultz’s experiences, including the lyrics “Double-crossed by a neon pill/Like a loaded gun, my love, I lost control of the wheel.” The song is the band’s 11th number-one hit on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay list.
“We definitely felt like that was the title track once everything came to be,” adds Shultz, who is joined by his guitarist brother Brad, bassist Daniel Tichenor, drummer Jared Champion, guitarist Nick Bockrath, and pianist Matthan Minster.
Two songs are about Matt and Brad’s father, Brad Shultz Sr., one of which is “Out Loud.” It is about the day the older Shultz and his father had a violent dispute, and their father fled to Florida, hitching the entire way. After a year, the younger man felt sorrow and created an apology song, which he hitchhiked back to Kentucky to play for his father.
Matt Shultz says the narrative inspired him, “so I wrote a song about the song he wrote.” The lyrics to that song are: “Man, I really messed up now/ Clipped those wings and I came back home/Tried my best just to carry on.”
The album’s final tune, “Over Your Shoulder,” laments his father’s death in 2020. The Shultz brothers inherited milk crates containing hundreds of their father’s tunes on ancient cassette recordings. A new original Cage song appeared, similar to their father’s style, with the lyrics: “Don’t look back over your shoulder/I’m not saying don’t ask/When it feels like it gets colder/Every season will pass.”
AP – VOR News Image
Rock Band Cage The Elephant Emerge From Loss And Hospitalization With New Album ‘Neon Pill’
“We’d be in the studio, trying to replicate and emulate. But with this record, I believe we were simply relaxed into ourselves and striving to create something we loved.”
SOURCE – (AP)
Celebrity
Lainey Wilson Wins Big At The 2024 Academy Of Country Music Awards, Including The Top Honor
It was Lainey Wilson’s night in a variety of ways. At the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards, she won Female Artist of the Year as well as Entertainer of the Year.
Wilson began her address with, “I’ve been in Nashville for 13 years doing this.” “Everybody in this category has loved on me and believed on me,” she said. “And I love y’all for that.”
Miranda Lambert, awarded Entertainer of the Year in 2022, is one of only a few women to have won the top prize. Carrie Underwood and Thomas Rhett tied for the title in 2020, marking the first tie in history and the first time a woman had won the category since Taylor Swift in 2012.
AP – VOR News Image
Lainey Wilson Wins Big At The 2024 Academy Of Country Music Awards, Including The Top Honor
Wilson also opened the 59th annual ACM Awards with a cover of Little Texas’ “God Blessed Texas,” seamlessly transitioning into her new hit, “Hang Tight Honey.” Clay Walker and Randy Travis then presented Jordan Davis the song of the year for his popular country radio smash “Next Thing You Know.”
In his victory speech, he remarked, “First and foremost, I want to thank the fans for their love of this song.” “I love songwriting because of songs that won song of the year, so to be holding this right now is crazy.”
Wilson won the year’s music event, as did Jelly Roll for his hit “Save Me.”
“No pun intended, but seriously, this song saved me,” Jelly Roll stated during his address. “I thought I would die and go to jail,” he added, getting upset — but instead, he celebrated winning an ACM award
Reba McEntire hosted the American Country Music Awards, which were held at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas.
In one of the show’s most anticipated performances, Jason Aldean lit up the stage with a touching homage to the late Toby Keith.
He offered the audience a moving, acoustic version of Keith’s famous “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.” They sang along, and Keith’s family watched from the audience.
Keith has won 14 ACM Awards in his career, including the title of Entertainer of the Year twice. He died in February at the age of 62 after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.
Chris Stapleton won both Album and Male Artist of the Year. “There’s so many great guys in that category, and I’m just happy to be included in this company,” he stated in his acceptance speech.
And Dua Lipa joined him as a special guest when it was time to perform his brand-new single, “Think I’m in Love with You.”
AP – VOR News Image
Lainey Wilson Wins Big At The 2024 Academy Of Country Music Awards, Including The Top Honor
It wasn’t the only surprise: Post Malone dropped a brand-new song, “Never Love You Again,” which bled into his massive new single with Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help.” Wallen didn’t perform.
Instead, McEntire later joined Post Malone to perform a brief duet of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Ramblin’ Man” in honor of Dickey Betts, who died last month. He was eighty.
Earlier in the evening, Luke Combs, the night’s most nominated artist with eight, won single of the year for his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” Last year, Chapman’s 1988 ballad won Song of the Year at the Country Music Awards for Combs’ cover, becoming her the first Black songwriter to do so.
Dan Shay and Old Dominion won awards for duo and group of the year, respectively.
Performances came fast and furious: Jelly Roll Morton started with a thumping rendition of his new song “Liar,” followed closely by Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan, who turned her song “Mountain with a View” into his viral hit “Stick Season.”
Tigirlily Gold sang “I Tried A Ring On,” Texas-born Cody Johnson performed “Dirt Cheap,” and Miranda Lambert introduced her new track “Wranglers.”
Kane Brown sang a beautiful cover of “Georgia on My Mind.” Thomas Rhett sang “Beautiful As You,” and Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani performed “Purple Irises” on the ACM stage.
AP – VOR News Image
Lainey Wilson Wins Big At The 2024 Academy Of Country Music Awards, Including The Top Honor
Park McCollum played his smash “Burn It Down,” new male artist of the year Nate Smith and pop-punk superstar Avril Lavigne performed their new song “Bulletproof,” and presenter McEntire finished out the program with her new track “I Can’t.”
The ACM Awards were broadcast live on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch Live.
SOURCE – (AP)
Darlington said police pulled Scheffler out of the car, pushed him up against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs.
“Scheffler was then walked over to the police car, placed in the back, in handcuffs, very stunned about what was happening, looked toward me as he was in those handcuffs and said, ‘Please help me,’” Darlington said. “He very clearly did not know what was happening in the situation. It moved very quickly, very rapidly, very aggressively.”
Scheffler was released by police and returned to the course at 9:12 a.m. Around 9:30 a.m., he arrived at the practice area to the cheers of fans; one yelled “Free Scottie!” and more followed later wearing “Free Scottie” T-shirts.
Scheffler seemed normal, relaxed, sharing a few laughs on the driving range.
“I was never angry. I was just in shock,” Scheffler said. “I was shaking the whole time. I was shaking for like an hour. It was definitely a new feeling for me.”
AP – VOR News Image
Scottie Scheffler Arrested Outside PGA Championship, Then Returns And Climbs Leaderboard
He could see from a TV in the jail that tee times were pushed back 1 hour, 20 minutes because of the traffic situation, and realized when an officer knocked on the door and said, “Let’s go,” that he had a chance to play.
He made birdie on his first hole of the day after sticking his approach shot to 3 feet.
Darlington, the ESPN reporter, said police were initially unsure who Scheffler was. He said an officer asked him to leave, and when he identified himself as being with the media, he was told, “There’s nothing you can do. He’s going to jail.”
Darlington said another police officer later approached with a notepad and asked if he knew the name of the person they put in handcuffs.
Scheffler said he never told police who he was except to say, “I’m sorry, I’m just trying to get to my tee time.”
AP – VOR News Image
Scottie Scheffler Arrested Outside PGA Championship, Then Returns And Climbs Leaderboard
Louisville police have attracted negative national attention in recent years after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020 and a federal investigation into its policing practices.
A Department of Justice report released last year said Louisville officers use excessive force and conduct searches based on invalid warrants. The report said Black motorists in Louisville were more likely to be searched during traffic stops, and officers used neck restraints, police dogs and Tasers against people who posed no imminent threat.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was shot by officers who had come to her apartment with a warrant that federal officials later said was falsified.
PGA of America, which runs the PGA Championship, offered sympathies for Mills’ family and said, “As it relates to the incident involving Scottie Scheffler, we are fully cooperating as local authorities review what took place.”
AP – VOR News Image
Scottie Scheffler Arrested Outside PGA Championship, Then Returns And Climbs Leaderboard
Scheffler has won four of his last five tournaments, including his second Masters title. He has been home in Dallas the last three weeks, waiting for the birth of his first child, a son born May 8.
Scheffler is trying to become only the fifth player since 1960 to win the first two majors of the year.
SOURCE – (AP)
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