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Published by Radar Online Mega Beloved comic Bob Saget ominously predicted his death months before he died during a videotaped podcast in which he declared with a straight face: “I’m going to be found dead in bed,” Radar has exclusively learned. The Full House star made the stunning forecast during an October 25 episode of Bob Saget’s Here For You after his foodie wife, Kelly Rizzo, explained her favorite movies included the head-bashing gangster classics The Godfather, Scarface, Casino, and GoodFellas. ‘There Is NO WAY This Could Have Occurred With One Fall’: Famed Pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht Calls For Second Autopsy On Comedian Bob Saget Mega “So, I don’t have long to live if these are your favorites,” Saget deadpans. “I’m going to be found dead in bed.” Rizzo slyly replies: “You better watch out.” The chilling straight-faced statement incredibly mirrors the Fuller House actor’s January 9th death where he was found dead in his bed inside his Ritz-Carlton hotel room in Orlando, Florida, after a freak head injury that is raising eyebrows with the country’s foremost forensic experts. Mega As Radar previously reported, renowned pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht is calling for Saget’s body to be exhumed and a full investigation after an autopsy report was released showing he had massive skull fractures. Several health experts who reviewed the autopsy report released by the Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Stephany are crying foul — with one telling the New York Times the injury appears consistent with the actor being hit with a baseball bat or falling from a height of up to 30 feet. “All of these injuries fractures and areas of hemorrhage could not have been sustained by one fall,” he said. “I am just very surprised that the medical examiner attributed it to one fall. There is no way this could have occurred with one fall,” Stephany claimed. He added, “The first autopsy is not a bad autopsy – I’m not being critical – but what I am being critical of is attributing everything to one fall. I would like to see that medical examiner and the consultant he dealt with explain how you get all those injuries from one fall. No way!” Mega Dr. Stephany concluded Saget died after falling backward and striking his head. The comedian then somehow crawled into his bed where his body was found. He concluded there was no suspected foul play. “It is most probable that the decedent suffered an unwitnessed fall backwards and struck the posterior aspect of his head,” explained the medical examiner, who discovered various abrasions to Saget’s scalp and fractures to the base of his skull. When Radar reached out to Dr. Stephany for comment, his assistant said he “respectfully declines to do any interviews at this time.” View the full article

Published by AFP Victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School are seen in a photo taken in September 2013 New York (AFP) – Families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting have reached a $73 million settlement with US gunmaker Remington, in a landmark deal for a country traumatized by campus massacres. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the settlement marks the first time a gun maker has been held liable for a mass shooting in the United States. Twenty-six children and teachers were shot dead in 2012 at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut by Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old with known developmental disabilities. The killings — the second-deadliest school massacre in US history — stunned Americans, with many thinking they would mark a watershed moment that would lead lawmakers to tighten gun control. A “settlement agreement has been executed between the parties,” a notice from lawyers for the families said Tuesday. Calling the move “historic,” US President Joe Biden said it begins “the necessary work of holding gun manufacturers accountable.” Manufacturers and dealers must either change their business models or “bear the financial cost of their complicity,” he said in a statement. Lanza’s mother, a gun enthusiast, had bought him an AR-15-style Bushmaster XM15-E2S semi-automatic rifle more than two years before the shooting. Lanza murdered his mother before attacking the school, and killed himself afterward. The lawsuit alleged that Remington and the other two defendants are culpable because they knowingly marketed a military grade weapon that is “grossly unsuited” for civilian use yet had become the gun most used in mass shootings. An AR-15 was also used to kill 58 people at a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, and 17 at a school in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Remington, the oldest gunmaker in the United States and which has since filed for bankruptcy, had denied the allegations. The plaintiffs alleged that the gun was marketed immorally and unscrupulously and sold on its war-fighting capabilities to civilians. Marketing, they charged, popularized the AR-15 in combat and mass shooting-type situations through the type of violent video games that Lanza was known to play. They specifically cited Remington’s marketing of high-capacity magazines, which have only combat utility, for use with the gun. The gun “was used not by a highly trained soldier but by a deeply troubled kid, not on a battlefield abroad but in an elementary school at home, and not to preserve freedom, but to eviscerate them,” Joshua Koskoff, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, told a press conference Tuesday. Christopher Boehning, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, told AFP the settlement “sends a strong warning signal to other gun manufacturers regarding their role in these unthinkable tragedies.” AFP has sought comment from Remington. Popular in mass shootings The United States leads the world in mass shootings by civilians, with many schools undergoing live shooter drills as a matter of routine. But the grief and trauma of Lanza’s rampage was underscored by the youth of his victims. He killed 20 six- and seven-year-olds along with six staff members. Nearly four years later, the shooting was still so visceral that it moved then-president Barack Obama to tears during a speech on gun control. Hopes that revulsion ignited by the massacre would finally prompt Congress to follow through on wildly popular demands for greater restrictions on weapons, however, fell flat. Instead, the powerful gun lobby has repeatedly stamped out any efforts to further change the famed Second Amendment to the country’s constitution, which allows for the right to bear arms. But the settlement deal between the Sandy Hook families and Remington could help pave the way for further accountability in such massacres. The US Congress passed a law in 2005 that explicitly immunized gunmakers when their products are used in crimes. But the Connecticut Supreme Court said that Remington could still be sued on the grounds that its marketing violated Connecticut’s unfair trade practice laws. “The gun manufacturers knew that they were advertising a dangerous product and they exploited these dangers,” Matthew Soto, brother of first grade teacher Vicki Soto, who was among the victims, said at Tuesday’s press conference. Nicole Hockley, the mother of victim Dylan, six, told the press conference that her family had moved from Britain “because of our belief in the American dream.” But that “turned into the American nightmare, where for too many the right to bear arms is a higher priority than the right to life.” View the full article

Published by Reuters UK By Andrew MacAskill and Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) – Prince Andrew’s decision to settle a claim that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl decades ago may bring an end to his legal difficulties but the damage done to his reputation means he is unlikely to ever play a role in public life again. The settlement by the 61-year-old Duke of York includes an undisclosed payment to Virginia Giuffre, a woman who had accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. The settlement, revealed on Tuesday in a Manhattan court filing, said he had never intended to malign her character. That marke… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Law enforcement investigating the rape allegation against Cristiano Ronaldo had enough to arrest and charge the soccer star but were stopped from putting him behind bars after the D.A. decided not to prosecute. According to a bombshell report released by The Sun, Las Vegas cops even signed off on an arrest warrant. Their plans to take the soccer legend into custody were foiled when Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson declined to prosecute the case without giving a reason. Vegas is where Kathryn Mayorga claims Ronaldo raped her in a hotel room. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Sexual Assault Accuser Claims She Suffers PTSD From Alleged Incident In $56 Million Legal Battle With Soccer Star Mega Her lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, revealed the shocking news in court. “What happened is when that [arrest warrant] was submitted to the district attorney’s office, Mr. Wolfson declined to prosecute,” she stated. “He doesn’t say why he decided to decline and anything — any argument is just speculation. It was within the statute of limitations. “The police believed that they had a case to prosecute for one count of sexual assault and the DA decided not to.” Stovall made the statement in September; however, the transcript has just come to light. DA Wolfson reviewed the police investigation against Ronaldo. In July 2019, he said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and declined to press charges against the Manchester player. Mega Photos from 2009 show Ronaldo and Mayorga dancing and drinking together inside Rain Nightclub. According to Mayorga, they went back to his private suite where he allegedly raped her despite her protests. The athlete has fiercely denied her allegations. He claims they had consensual sex. In 2018, Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit against Ronaldo in an effort to void a nondisclosure agreement she signed over the alleged assault. Ronaldo — who is one of the world’s highest-paid athletes — paid his alleged victim more than $350,000 in exchange for her silence. He did not claim any guilt. Mega Mayorga wants an additional $75,835,200 in damages. The civil case is still ongoing. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jonathan Allen ST PAUL, Minn. (Reuters) -Tou Thao, one of three former Minneapolis police officers on trial for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, told a jury on Tuesday he did not realize the Black man was being asphyxiated while a white officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes. Testifying in his own defense, Thao, 36, said he assumed Floyd’s heart was still beating because he never saw the other officers attempt to revive him as they were trained to do. Thao, 36, is on trial in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul alongside J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane. All three are accused of violating Floyd’s right to receive medical care as he lay dying, unable to properly breathe face down beneath the knee of their former colleague, Derek Chauvin. Cellphone video of the arrest on a Minneapolis road on May 25, 2020, led to protests against racism and police brutality in cities around the world. Chauvin was convicted last year at a separate state trial for the murder of Floyd, 46. Federal prosecutors, who rested their case on Monday after about three weeks of witness testimony, have said the other officers at the scene had a duty to intervene to prevent Floyd’s death. Thao took the stand to convince jurors that he handled a chaotic scene in accordance with his training and with concern for the well-being of Floyd and the officers arresting him. His testimony marks the first extensive public comment by any of the officers involved in the arrest. He can be seen on videos a few steps away from Floyd, keeping back horrified onlookers, while Chauvin kneels on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. The arrest occured outside a grocery store where Floyd was accused of using a fake $20 bill. Under questioning by his defense lawyer Robert Paule, Thao said he believed that Chauvin and the other two officers on top of Floyd were checking his pulse. He said he was falsely reassured because none of them performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. “Logically, if they’re not doing CPR, I assume he’s still breathing and fine,” Thao testified, agreeing with his lawyer that police officers are trained to start CPR as soon as possible if they cannot find a pulse. Floyd received no medical aid until after his limp body was lifted into an ambulance and driven a few blocks away, several minutes after he fell unresponsive. Thao testified that he had confirmed with other officers that an ambulance had been called, and saw his role as a “human traffic cone,” making sure oncoming traffic steered clear of the scene. Jurors watched video taken by Thao’s body-worn camera that shows Thao arriving to find Kueng and Lane struggling to get a handcuffed Floyd to stay in the back of a police car. Floyd screams repeatedly that he is claustrophobic and cannot breathe. “Not to besmirch, but I’ve never seen this much of a struggle,” Thao testified, saying he had been an officer for eight years by that time. “It was obvious that he was under the influence of some kind of drugs.” He said Floyd was incoherent and impossible to calm, and he feared Floyd might be having a dangerous reaction to drugs. An autopsy later found fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and methamphetamine in Floyd’s blood. Thao said it was normal during training sessions to see an officer on top of a person being arrested while prone on the ground, using a knee near the neck to pin down the arrestee. Jurors were shown photographs of Thao and his classmates using such restraints. “Were you ever instructed that using knees was improper technique?” Paule asked his client. “No,” Thao replied. A ‘STRICT’ UPBRINGING Thao told the jury his parents fled to the United States from Laos before he was born, refugees belonging to the Hmong ethnic group. He was the third of seven siblings, he said, and his parents could afford to feed them only one meal a day. He said he was first inspired to become a police officer when, as a child, he helped Minneapolis police officers arrest his abusive father, who had threatened Thao and his mother with a gun. “I think they were the two most peaceful days of my childhood,” Thao testified, on the verge of tears as he described the immediate aftermath of the arrest. According to court filings based on police records, Thao was cited at least seven times while being trained in the field over several months in 2012 for shirking his duties, sometimes pretending not to see violations of the law in order to minimize his workload. Chauvin, who is white, was also charged by federal officers of violating Floyd’s civil rights, and changed his plea to guilty in December. The two other co-defendants, Lane and Kueng, have also said they will testify. Thao, Lane and Kueng also face a separate state trial in June on charges they aided and abetted Floyd’s murder. (Reporting by Jonathan AllenEditing by Alistair Bell and David Gregorio) View the full article

Published by AFP The New York Times has censored some words from the accepted list of words in its hit-game Wordle Washington (AFP) – Some four-letter words are taboo, but the New York Times has added a few five-lettered ones to the list — by removing them from the hit game Wordle. The game, which consists of guessing one five-letter word a day in just six tries, was bought by the paper last month after it skyrocketed in popularity around the world. Users began to complain earlier this week, when the game said two different words were the correct answer. One of Wordle’s much-loved features is supposed to be that everyone tries to determine the same word. After the Times bought the simple but captivating game from its creator Josh Wardle, internet sleuths noticed it had begun removing words from the list of possible solutions. While the Times moved the game onto its website earlier in February, some users still have access to the older version, and the older list. The website Boingboing.net reported that words such as “pussy,” “whore,” “slave” and “wench” had been removed, while more obscure terms “pupal” and “agora” had also been axed. “We are updating the word list over time to remove obscure words to keep the puzzle accessible to more people, as well as insensitive or offensive words,” said Times spokesman Jordan Cohen in a statement to AFP. Wordle now has millions of users around the world, and versions have sprung up in many different languages. The Times said it bought the game for an “undisclosed price in the low seven figures,” as it seeks to win new subscribers through non-news offerings. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince Andrew has settled a U.S. lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager, potentially sparing him further embarrassment in a lurid case that helped precipitate his fall from grace. The settlement, which includes an undisclosed payment, was revealed on Tuesday in a filing in Manhattan federal court, where Giuffre had sued the Duke of York last August. The prince did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement. Giuffre’s case had focused on Andrew’s friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and sex offender who she said also sexually abused her. The filing said Andrew regrets his past association with Epstein. In the joint filing, lawyers for Giuffre, 38, and Andrew, 61, said their settlement in principle calls for the prince to make a “substantial donation” to Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights. “Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks,” the filing said. Andrew has denied accusations that he forced Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, to have sex at age 17 more than two decades ago at the London home of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan and Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A trial in the case had been expected to begin late this year. Andrew would have had to give testimony under oath. “It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years,” the filing said. “Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims.” ‘QUESTION MARK’ The statement represented a marked departure from a 2019 BBC interview in which Andrew, who is Queen Elizabeth’s second son, failed to show sympathy toward Epstein’s victims and refused to apologize for his friendship with the financier. The royal family in January removed Andrew’s military titles and royal patronages and said he will no longer be known as “His Royal Highness.” Andrew was defending against Giuffre’s lawsuit as a private citizen. For now, his legal exposure in the United States to similar claims appears to be over. Penny Junor, a British royal biographer, called the settlement a “prudent” means to limit further damage to the royal family, but that Andrew’s reputation will likely be permanently scarred. “I fear there is no chance he will come back to public duties,” Junor said. “A question mark will always hang over him.” Buckingham Palace declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the prince declined to comment beyond the court filing. A lawyer for Andrew did not immediately respond to a request for comment. David Boies, a lawyer for Giuffre, said: “This event speaks for itself.” Andrew faces no criminal charges, and none will result from Giuffre’s lawsuit because it was a civil case. The office of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan has been investigating Epstein’s sex trafficking and considered Andrew at least a potential witness, or “person of interest https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/prince-andrew-a-person-interest-epstein-probe-source-2021-08-16.” Andrew had previously declined the office’s interview requests, former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in June 2020, the month before Maxwell’s arrest. A spokesman for Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment. GIUFFRE ‘FEARED DEATH’ In court papers in the lawsuit, Giuffre said she “feared death or physical injury to herself or another and other repercussions for disobeying Epstein, Maxwell and Prince Andrew due to their powerful connections, wealth and authority.” She also said that in Manhattan, Maxwell forced her to sit on Andrew’s lap as he touched her, and Andrew forced her to engage in sex acts against her will. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan refused to dismiss Giuffre’s lawsuit last month, without ruling on its merits. He also said it was premature to decide whether Giuffre’s 2009 civil settlement with Epstein also shielded Andrew. Epstein had paid Giuffre $500,000 to end her Florida lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse, without admitting liability. Andrew’s lawyers had contended that Giuffre’s lawsuit was “baseless” https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/prince-andrew-seeks-dismissal-accuser-giuffres-lawsuit-2021-10-29 and that she was seeking “another payday,” after also receiving “millions of dollars” in a 2017 settlement of her civil defamation lawsuit against Maxwell. Epstein killed himself at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. She is seeking a new trial https://www.reuters.com/world/us/some-ghislaine-maxwell-jurors-initially-doubted-accusers-juror-says-2022-01-05. Giuffre sued Andrew less than a week before the expiration of a New York state law providing a two-year window to sue over child abuse dating back decades. (Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Joan Soley in New York and Andrew MacAskill in London; Editing by Will Dunham and Noeleen Walder) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jody Godoy and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. jury on Tuesday ruled against Sarah Palin in her defamation lawsuit against the New York Times over a 2017 editorial that incorrectly linked her to a mass shooting, after the presiding judge said he would dismiss the case regardless of the verdict. Jurors in Manhattan federal court needed about two days to unanimously find that the Times was not liable to Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate. Palin was expected to appeal. Her case is considered a major test of longstanding libel protections for American media, including a landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision, New York Times v Sullivan. That decision established an “actual malice” standard for public figures like Palin to prove defamation, meaning that media knowingly published false information or had a reckless disregard for the truth. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said Palin had not met that “very high” standard, even as he faulted the Times for “very unfortunate editorializing” in the editorial. He said letting the jurors reach a verdict could avoid complications should Palin appeal. Rakoff told the jury about his planned dismissal only after they had finished deliberations. “We reached the same bottom line, but on different grounds,” he told jurors. “You decided the facts. I decided the law.” The trial lasted nine days. Palin viewed the case in biblical terms, testifying on Feb. 10 that she considered herself the underdog to the Times’ Goliath. She sued the Times and its former editorial page editor James Bennet over a June 14, 2017, editorial that incorrectly linked her to a January 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that killed six people and wounded Democratic U.S. congresswoman Gabby Giffords. It was written after a gunman opened fire at a congressional baseball practice in Virginia, wounding several people including Republican U.S. congressman Steve Scalise. The editorial referred to a map circulated by Palin’s political action committee before the Arizona shooting that put the districts of Giffords and 19 other Democrats under cross hairs. Bennet added to a colleague’s draft that “the link to political incitement was clear,” though there was no evidence the map motivated the gunman. The Times corrected the editorial the next morning after readers and one of its columnists complained. Bennet testified that he did not intend to harm Palin and felt terrible about the mistake. Two conservative Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, have called for the Sullivan decision to be reconsidered. There is no guarantee the high court will eventually take Palin’s case. Palin, a well-known U.S. conservative political figure, was the late Senator John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election and served as Alaska’s governor from 2006 to 2009. (Reporting by Jody Godoy and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Howard Goller) View the full article

Published by New York Daily News Novak Djokovic would rather stop chasing tennis history than get the COVID-19 vaccine. “I understand that not being vaccinated today, I’m unable to travel to most of the tournaments at the moment. That is the price that I’m willing to pay,” the Serbian tennis star told BBC News in an interview posted Tuesday morning. He then replied “yes” when asked if he’d be willing to pay the price of missing the next two Grand Slam tournaments, the French Open (scheduled for May 22-June 5) and Wimbledon (scheduled for June 27-July 10). The unvaccinated Djokovic was deported from Australia last month after … Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters UK NEW YORK (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince Andrew has reached a settlement with Virginia Giuffre, a court filing showed on Tuesday, after she accused him in a lawsuit of sexually abusing her more than two decades ago when she was 17. Giuffre sued the Duke of York last August, alleging he battered her while the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking her. In a joint court filing, lawyers for Giuffre and Andrew said the settlement includes an undisclosed sum and that Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights. “Pr… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Catholic groups on Tuesday accused Italy’s Church of an “institutional failure” to confront clergy sexual abuse, and demanded an independent national inquiry mirroring ones conducted in France and Germany. A collective of nine groups – seven headed by women – issued the demand during the launch of a campaign called “Beyond the Great Silence” and a hashtag, #ItalyChurchToo, inspired by the international #MeToo movement against sexual harassment. In an online news conference, Paola Lazzarini, head of Women in the Church, called for the opening of the archives of “all dioceses, convents and monasteries”, damages for victims and the uncovering of the truth, “however painful”. Globally, revelations of sexual abuse by clergy have so far cost the Church hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. The Italian campaign aims to increase public pressure on the Church and the government for a national inquiry going back decades, and rejects assertions from some Italian Catholic leaders that the Church has the resources to do the work itself. “Only independent investigations (elsewhere) have overcome the Church’s resistance to recognise its own institutional failure,” said anti-abuse advocate Ludovica Eugenio. Any Italian investigation “absolutely has to be impartial,” added Francesco Zanardi, head of Rete l’Abuso (The Abuse Network). Pope Francis has expressed shame at the Church’s inability to deal with sexual abuse cases and said it must make itself a “safe home for everyone”. The Vatican had no comment on Tuesday. Italian bishops are due to decide in May on what type of abuse inquiry, if any, the country will hold. Antonio Messina, 28, one of victims who participated in the news conference, says he was repeatedly abused when he was a minor by an adult seminarian who went on to become a priest. Without providing details, he said local church authorities in his home town had tried to buy his silence. “The Church is not able to handle this (investigation),” he said. The German study, released in 2018, showed 1,670 clergymen abused 3,677 minors from 1946 to 2014. The French investigation, released last year and covering seven decades, said more than 200,000 children were abused in Catholic institutions. Zanardi said the figures would be higher in predominately Catholic Italy because the country has traditionally had many more priests. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; editing by John Stonestreet) View the full article

[This post contains video, click to play] Published by BANG Showbiz English Harry Hamlin thinks playing a gay character ‘ended his career.’ The 70-year-old actor – who is married to ‘Real Housewives’ star Lisa Rinna -played the role of gay writer Bart McGuire in the 1982 film ‘Making Love’ and was advised by “a lot of people” to avoid the role because of his own sexuality. He said: “I was told by a lot of people, you can’t do that movie. I think it had been offered to pretty much everybody in town and everyone had turned it down because they thought it might be damaging to their careers. “Even though I was told by my friends not to do it, my agent said I should.” The ‘Clash of the Titans’ star – who has daughters Delilah, 23 and Amelia, 20, with Lisa as well as son Dimitri, 41, from his previous marriage to Ursula Andress – went on to explain that work dried up when studios became concerned about potential audience “confusion” after he had played a gay character as a straight man. He told PEOPLE: “The [negative reception] ended my career. For years, I’d think ‘Was that the reason why I stopped getting calls?’ And finally realised that was the last time I ever did a movie for a studio. I’ve done independent films but never a studio film. I had been doing nothing but studio films and basically going out on all the castings for all the movies. That stopped completely. As far as the film business sort of shutting the door, I think it just had to do with the fact of the studio system being a closed system and once they saw there could be some confusion about my sexuality, then they just said they didn’t want to take the chance.” “If they were contemplating having me be a love interest to a young female star, the thought was, ‘How is the audience going to react?’ Even though I was straight, I think the perception at the time was that anybody who could play gay must be gay.” View the full article

Published by AFP As Oscars voters have increasingly drifted away from more mainstream fare, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has toyed with various reforms to boost the ceremony’s popularity Los Angeles (AFP) – Next month’s Oscars will include a new “fan favorite” prize for the year’s most popular film as voted for by Twitter users, organizers said Monday seeking to lure viewers back to a ceremony that has seen audiences plummet. The announcement — which will be made during the 94th Academy Awards telecast on March 27 — comes after several crowd-pleasing blockbusters including “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “No Time To Die” failed to earn Oscar nominations in major categories, including best picture. Their omission raised fears that many movie fans will skip the show. But any film released in 2021 can be voted for in the new category using the Twitter hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite or via the Academy’s website, raising the chances of a blockbuster being honored on the night. Television ratings for the Oscars have dramatically declined in recent years. Last year’s edition, which honored mainly smaller, arthouse movies such as best picture winner “Nomadland,” was watched by just over 10 million viewers — a 56 percent decline from 2020, which was already a record low. As Oscars voters have increasingly drifted away from more mainstream fare, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has toyed with various reforms to boost the ceremony’s popularity. In 2018, organizers proposed a “popular film” Oscar to honor blockbuster movies such as Star War films or Marvel superhero films that rake in millions at the box office. But it swiftly shelved those plans after critics ridiculed the move, and the new “fan favorite” award will not be a formal Oscar category. Meryl Johnson, the Academy’s vice president of digital marketing, said the move would “help build an engaged and excited digital audience leading up to this year’s ceremony” and allow fans to “engage with the show in real-time, find a community and be a part of the experience in ways they’ve never been able to before.” Twitter’s Sarah Rosen said the collaboration was “an exciting way to further engage movie fans and celebrate their love and passion for the films released this year.” Hosts revealed? Movie fans can vote up to 20 times per day until March 3, and three randomly selected winners will be invited to present an Oscar at next year’s ceremony. A separate poll will ask voters to chose their favorite “movie cheer moment.” The five most popular choices — billed as scenes where “audiences couldn’t help but erupt into cheers in theaters” — will be shown during the Oscars. Meanwhile, reports emerged Monday in the Hollywood trade press about the possible identities of this year’s Oscars hosts. Variety and Deadline both reported that actors Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes will share hosting duties. The Academy did not comment on the reports. Broadcaster ABC last month confirmed the Oscars will have a host for the first time since 2018, when Jimmy Kimmel last took the stage for Tinseltown’s most important prize-giving event. The following year’s hostless format drew praise and was even emulated by other awards shows such as the Emmys, but subsequent Oscar ceremonies have been criticized for lacking focus and humor. Next month’s Oscars will return to the ceremony’s traditional Dolby Theatre venue in Hollywood, after the pandemic-affected 2021 Academy Awards were held at a Los Angeles train station. They are being held later than usual, reportedly to avoid clashing with February’s Winter Olympics and Sunday’s Super Bowl in Los Angeles. View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega A renowned forensic expert is calling for Bob Saget’s body to be exhumed after he and several pathologists raised questions about his “accidental” death and an autopsy showing massive skull fractures, Radar has learned. The 65-year-old Full House and Fuller House star, who was COVID-19 positive, died from a freak head injury inside his Orlando, Florida, Ritz-Carlton hotel room on January 9. But now health experts who reviewed an autopsy report released by the Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Stephany are crying foul – with one telling another media outlet the injury appears consistent with the actor being hit with a baseball bat or falling from a height of up to 30 feet. Renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht tells Radar that if Saget’s family agrees, he thinks a second autopsy should be conducted along with a full-on investigation into the actor’s movements and activities hours before he died. “All of these injuries fractures and areas of hemorrhage could not have been sustained by one fall,” he said. “I am just very surprised that the medical examiner attributed it to one fall. There is no way this could have occurred with one fall.” mega He added, “The first autopsy is not a bad autopsy – I’m not being critical – but what I am being critical of is attributing everything to one fall. I would like to see that medical examiner and the consultant he dealt with explain how you get all those injuries from one fall. No way!” “The fracture of the skull does require significant force – things that we would see in a significant fall or of a violent nature– a motor vehicle accident where the head Is moved backward and forward.” Dr. Stephany concluded Saget died after falling backward striking his head then somehow crawling into his bed where his body was found. He concluded there was no suspected foul play. “It is most probable that the decedent suffered an unwitnessed fall backwards and struck the posterior aspect of his head,” explained the medical examiner, who discovered various abrasions to Saget’s scalp and fractures to the base of his skull. Dr. Gavin Britz, the head of neurosurgery at Houston Methodist Hospital, told the New York Times, the injury is “significant trauma” and the fractures were in thick parts of the skull. mega “This is something I find with someone with a baseball bat to the head, or who has fallen from 20 or 30 feet,” he said. Joining the chorus is neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, who said on an episode of New Day: “I think what it reveals more than anything else is this was not a simple bump on the head.” “The fracture in the front of his eye sockets and contusions these are things that cannot be attributed to injuries away from the point of impact.” mega The beloved comic was in the area performing a stand-up tour the night before and investigators found no drugs or alcohol in his system. Dr. Wecht told Radar investigators should retrace Saget’s steps before he checked into the hotel, talk to witnesses who may have seen his face at check-in, examine hotel card key usage to see if anyone entered his room or even if he was seen with someone else. “I could not rule out something more sinister here and call it a mere accident without knowing all of the details.” mega View the full article

Published by AFP In 2010 former president Barack Obama initiated two comprehensive sex-education programs: Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program (TPP) Washington (AFP) – An Obama-era sex education program that was criticized by conservatives succeeded in reducing teen birth rates in parts of the US that implemented it, a large study said Monday. Teen births are higher in the United States than in any other G7 country, and the topic of whether to teach adolescents about the use of contraceptives has remained heated among academics, politicians and the public. A 1996 law allocated federal funding to abstinence-only education, but in 2010 then-president Barack Obama initiated two more comprehensive sex-education programs: Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program (TPP). These programs provided more information about sex, contraception, and reproductive health compared to abstinence-only education, which research has shown has no effect on teen birth rates. “We looked at ‘Where did this funding go? And what happens to teen birth rates in the places that it went?'” Nicholas Mark, a researcher at New York University (NYU) and lead author of the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) told AFP. Mark and his co-author, NYU professor Lawrence Wu focused on TPP, because this program’s funding was allocated at the county rather than state level. This made it possible to draw comparisons between counties of similar income and poverty levels. The researchers had access to public data on which counties received TPP funding, and a restricted birth certificate database that gave them birth rates in counties, as well as allowing them to capture the age of mothers at the time of birth and where they lived. They examined teenage birth rates in 55 US counties from 1996-2009, the years before they received TPP funding, and during the years they received this funding, 2010-2016. They also compared the birth rates in those 55 counties to more than 2,800 counties without the funding in the years before and after TPP was implemented. This method allowed them to make the truest comparison possible, by disentangling the specific impact of the sex education program from an overall trend of declining teen birth rates in recent years. Birth rates among 14 to 19 year olds in counties that received TPP funding dropped by approximately three percent in the years studied — both compared to the period before they received funding, and compared to unfunded counties. The paper is the first national effort to study the question, and its methods demonstrated cause-and-effect, rather than simply correlation, according to the authors. Support for comprehensive sex education versus abstinence-only teaching remains a fault line in the country’s ongoing culture wars. The administration of former president Donald Trump attempted to reallocate funding back towards abstinence programs, but faced opposition in court by the reproductive health group Planned Parenthood. Many teen pregnancies and subsequent births are unwanted by the mothers, and therefore can be affected by access to abortion. The conservative-majority Supreme Court may soon be poised to overturn the ruling that made abortion a constitutional right in the United States 50 years ago, paving the way for state-level bans. View the full article

Published by Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – A judge said on Monday he will dismiss a defamation lawsuit by Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate, against The New York Times. Palin sued over a June 2017 editorial that incorrectly linked her to a January 2011 mass shooting where six people died and Democratic U.S. congresswoman Gabby Giffords was seriously wounded. Here is a look at 10 key moments from the trial, which began on Feb. 3. *During his opening statement, Palin’s lawyer Shane Vogt told jurors that his client was fighting an “uphill battle” to show the editorial reflected the Times’ knowledge it was false and its “history of bias” toward her and other Republicans. *Times lawyer David Axelrod countered in his opening statement that the editorial sought to hold both Democrats and Republicans responsible for inflammatory rhetoric, and said the newspaper acted “as quickly as possible” to correct its mistake. *Palin testified on the fifth and sixth days of the trial. She told the jury she felt “powerless” after the editorial was published, likening herself to the biblical underdog David. “I wanted to raise my head and try to get the word out that there were untruths printed once again,” Palin said. “I knew I was up against Goliath, and I felt collectively the people were David, that I was David.” *Palin also described her suffering following the editorial. “It’s hard to lay your head on a pillow and have a restful night when you know that lies are told about you, a specific lie that was not going to be fixed,” she said. “That causes some stress that anyone would feel.” *The former New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet testified on the fourth and fifth days of the trial. He said he did not mean to cause Palin harm, and that the Times moved quickly to correct the editorial. “We don’t promise to be perfect, we promise to try our damnedest to be perfect, and when we’re not, we try to fix it,” he said. *Ross Douthat, a conservative New York Times columnist, testified that he had emailed Bennet less than an hour after the editorial was published that it appeared without basis to link Palin to the Giffords shooting. “If there was a correction that needed to be made, the sooner the better,” he said. *Linda Cohn, a now-retired Times editor, testified that Bennet was initially surprised after the editorial was published that some readers were upset with its wording. “There was a general sense of ‘oh no,'” she said. *Kenneth Turkel, another lawyer for Palin, in his closing argument accused the Times and Bennet of turning a “blind eye” to the facts, and essentially accusing Palin of inciting the murder of six people. “All they had to do is care the slightest bit,” he said. “All they had to do is dislike her a little less, and we’re not sitting here today.” *Turkel also noted that Palin had withstood many attacks in the nine years since she had entered the national spotlight, something that Palin acknowledged in her own testimony came with the territory. “She’s got thick skin,” Turkel said. “This one crossed the line.” -Axelrod said in his closing argument that no one criticized Palin over the editorial, undermining her claim that the editorial hurt her reputation. He labeled the error an “honest mistake” several times. “The evidence does not support branding him (Bennet) with a scarlet ‘D’ for defamation for the rest of his life,” Axelrod said. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega The anti-vaccine blowhards at Fox News are allegedly using their soapbox to encourage American style ‘Freedom Convey’ like the economically crippling blockade that nearly bought Canada to its knees, media experts charge. In fact, Radar has learned New York State troopers are currently being deployed to the Canadian border near Niagara Falls and Montreal areas to head off any attempt by American truckers to logjam the crossings. “Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have been cheering it on and those are the two most watch personalities on planet earth,” a source told Radar. “They like anything that makes [President] Biden look stupid even if it’s destructive to America. It’s scorched earth policy.” “What’s crazy is that the Canadian truckers were like a fringe of a fringe, and they are getting all this international attention and now apparently they’ve inspired other people in the United States to do the same thing!” mega “The troopers want to make sure that our side of the border doesn’t get clogged up.” The two-week long Freedom Convoy demonstration in Ottawa by up to 8,000 protesters eventually led to the blockade of the economically vital Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor. The traffic trick disrupted and estimated $360 million in vital business supplies – DAILY! The auto industry swallowed nearly $1 billion in losses because they couldn’t receive parts, according to data from a research firm obtained by Yahoo Finance. Leading the charge for the Canadian protestors was Fox News, according to the Toronto Star who complained about the cheerleading “media personalities” south of the border pouring gasoline on the fire and encouraging the mayhem. mega “The website of Fox News’ Sean Hannity blasted out a story this week with the headline “TRUCK YEAH: Canada Forms Freedom Convoy of 10K Trucks to Protest Vax Mandates, ‘Overreach is Over,’” the Jan. 28 article states. As the Canadian’s police moved in to bust up the protest big-mouth Carlson slammed the move claiming the truckers are being treated like a “terror group.” “This is a peaceful, political protest. No one has shown any evidence to the contrary. It’s not a drug trafficking or human trafficking operation. It’s not Al Qaeda,” Carlson said on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight. “These are Canadian citizens who drive trucks for a living, but they’re being treated like a terror group.” mega As the Canadian clamped down on the protesters – American truckers and those who walk lockstep with Fox’s right-wing views were plotting a similar Freedom Convey. Hundreds of protestors and dozens of vehicles gathered at the Peace Bridge near Buffalo, New York to support the Canadian Freedom Convoy by honking their horns and holding American flags on one banner stating: “my body, my choice” and “do not comply.” There is also a grassroots plot for a coast-to-coast Freedom Convoy from California to Washington D.C. to voice their opposition to vaccine and mask mandates. mega Jane Hall, an American University communications professor and former Fox contributor, says Fox News “is naturally going to pick this up” because it caters to their anti-vax demographic. View the full article

Published by AFP Zachary Horwitz promised healthy returns on investments, but was running a giant ponzi scheme and using the cash to fund a lavish lifestyle Los Angeles (AFP) – An American actor who swindled $650 million in a huge Hollywood ponzi scheme, using it to finance a lavish lifestyle of yachts, jets and fast cars, was jailed Monday for 20 years. Zachary Horwitz created fake contracts that he told investors were with HBO and Netflix to trick them into handing over vast sums of money, which he splurged on private flights, top-of-the-range autos and a luxury Los Angeles mansion, complete with a wine cellar. “Horwitz portrayed himself as a Hollywood success story,” prosecutors said, according to the Department of Justice. “He branded himself as an industry player, who… leveraged his relationships with online streaming platforms like HBO and Netflix to sell them foreign film distribution rights at a steady premium. “But, as his victims came to learn, (Horwitz) was not a successful businessman or Hollywood insider. He just played one.” Horwitz, who acted in small-time horror films under the name Zach Avery, told investors he was buying foreign distribution rights for US movies, and then selling them to streaming platforms. The 35-year-old gave each victim a note promising a handsome profit six or 12 months later. Over seven years he kept the scheme going by using new investors’ money to repay the old ones. By the time it all fell apart, more than $230 million had vanished. He admitted security fraud in October, and acknowledged that he had never bought any film rights, or secured any distribution contracts. It would be “difficult to conceive a white-collar crime more egregious,” prosecutors said in a memo to the judge, noting he started his life of crime by swindling university friends, according to the Los Angeles Times. “He began by betraying the trust of his own friends, people who lowered their guard because they could not possibly imagine that someone they had known for years would unflinchingly swindle them and their families out of their life savings,” they wrote. Horwitz was jailed for 20 years, and ordered by Judge Mark Scarsito to repay $230 million to his victims. View the full article

Published by Reuters (Note offensive language in paragraphs 10, 15.) By Rich McKay and Brad Brooks BRUNSWICK, Ga. (Reuters) – A federal prosecutor in Georgia said on Monday that three white men on trial for hate crimes in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, had a long history of using racial epithets and undoubtedly killed him because of his race. Arbery did nothing to deserve his fate, Barbara Bernstein, deputy chief of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, told the U.S. District Court in the coastal town of Brunswick in her opening statement. Gregory McMichael, 66, his son Travis McMichael, 36, and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, were convicted last year of shooting dead Arbery after chasing him in pickup trucks through their mostly white neighborhood because they wrongly suspected he may have been guilty of a crime. Unlike last year’s state trial, the federal hate-crimes trial will focus more squarely on the motive for the killing and whether the defendants targeted Arbery because he was Black, as the prosecution alleges. Arbery’s killing was one of several murders of Black men and women, often at the hands of police, that helped spark recent racial justice protests around the world. The federal trial of Arbery’s killers is one of the first in which those who carried out a high-profile killing are facing a jury in a hate-crime trial. “Most of this trial will be about why the defendants did what they did,” Bernstein said. Bernstein said if Arbery, an avid runner, had been white, he would have been able to go for an afternoon jog unmolested and “been home in time for Sunday supper.” “Instead, he went out for a jog, and ended up running for his life. Instead, he ended up bleeding to death, alone and scared, in the middle of the street,” she told the court. As Bernstein talked to the jury, Arbery’s parents sat in the front of the public gallery looking somber and shaking a little. His father, Marcus Arbery, sighed as Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, put her arm on Marcus Arbery’s shoulders. Bernstein cited several messages posted on Facebook and elsewhere in which all three men used racial epithets. She especially highlighted the words of Travis McMichael – who shot Arbery – who she said had made violent and racist statements on social media, including calling Black people “monkeys” and “subhuman savages.” He had also told a friend that he was glad to have left the Coast Guard because he no longer had to work with or be around Black people, she added. She said the jury would hear from a witness how Gregory McMichael “went on a racist rant about Black people.” Bernstein said Bryan used a racial epithet in an online post after learning four days before Arbery’s death that his daughter was dating a Black man. USING THE N-WORD Defense attorneys for the three men said in their opening statements that they found their clients’ use of racial epithets deeply offensive, but emphasized it was no reason to convict them. They said the men were not motivated by Arbery’s race. “I can’t stand before you and say my client has never used the ‘N-word’,” said Amy Copeland, the attorney for Travis McMichael. “He did. He left a digital footprint over several years.” But Copeland said Travis McMichael had chiefly been concerned with cases of theft that had left his neighborhood on high alert when he decided to chase down Arbery. Trial experts told Reuters that the challenge for the prosecutors will be to back up the evidence of racist utterances with evidence that on the day of the shooting the three men were motivated by racial animus. The court is scheduled to hear from Special Agent Richard Dial of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who has previously testified that Bryan told his office that Travis McMichael uttered a racial slur as Arbery lay dying. Bryan’s attorney, Pete Theodocion, tried to distance his client from the McMichaels, saying that when he joined the McMichaels in chasing Arbery he assumed “he (Arbery) did something wrong, but not because of his race.” Travis McMichael said at a hearing last month that he was willing to plead guilty to attacking Arbery because of his “race and color” after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. But he changed his mind after Judge Lisa Wood rejected the agreement, saying she could not accept it because it bound her to sentencing McMichael to 30 years in federal prison before he was handed back to the state of Georgia to serve out the rest of his life sentence for murder. She said she needed more information to know whether a 30-year sentence was just, and cited emotional testimony from Arbery’s family. (Reporting by Rich McKay in Brunswick, Georgia, and Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Ross Colvin, Alistair Bell and Matthew Lewis) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Karen Freifeld NEW YORK (Reuters) – The accounting firm that handled Donald Trump’s company’s financial statements dropped it as a client and said it could no longer stand behind a decade of statements, a court filing showed on Monday. Mazars USA, in a Feb. 9 letter made public on Monday, told the Trump Organization, the former president’s New York-based real estate business, that its financial statements for 2011 through 2020 should no longer be relied on. The disclosure was made as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into the Trump Organization, which could result in financial penalties. That probe partially overlaps a criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney, which James joined in May, into the company’s practices. Mazars said it had based its conclusion on a January filing by the New York attorney general, its own investigation and information from internal and external sources. “While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate,” Mazars said in the letter addressed to the chief legal officer at the Trump Organization, Alan Garten. In the letter, filed in New York state court, Mazars said that it had “performed its work in accordance with professional standards.” The accounting firm also said it would no longer work for the Trump Organization. New York state’s attorney general has accused the Trump Organization of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its assets to obtain financial benefits. A Trump Organization spokesperson said in a statement the company is “disappointed that Mazars has chosen to part ways.” But the spokesperson added the letter confirms that “Mazars’ work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles” and that the statements of financial condition “do not contain any material discrepancies.” The New York attorney general filed the Mazars letter in support of its efforts to compel the production of outstanding documents from Trump and his company as well as testimony by him and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. And Ivanka Trump. In a memorandum also filed on Monday, the attorney general noted media reports that Trump had destroyed documents covered by the Presidential Records Act and wants him to supply a sworn statement on whether the files produced for her probe are complete and how they may have been destroyed and by whom. Trump has decried the probe as political. In Monday’s filing, James’ office said the accounting firm’s statement and actions further supported the legitimacy of the investigation. James has been investigating whether the Trumps inflated real estate values to obtain bank loans, and reduced values to lower tax bills. In one example, she said Trump’s annual financial statements said an apartment he personally owned in Trump Tower was 30,000 square feet(2,787 square meters), when it was in fact a third that size. Neither Trump nor his children have been accused of criminal wrongdoing. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Scott Malone, Grant McCool and Sandra Maler) View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes are reportedly set to host the 2022 Academy Awards. The prestigious ceremony hasn’t had a host for the past three years since Jimmy Kimmel in 2018, while last year’s event featured plenty of stars at the helm throughout the night rather than one designated host. Now, Variety reports that the trio are in final talks to front the Oscars, with each star responsible for one hour of the three-hour show on March 27. ‘Girls Trip’ producer Will Packer is producing this year’s event, and Hall has worked with him in the past on the likes of ‘Little’ and ‘Think Like A Man’. Meanwhile, Schumer and Sykes both have a connection to ABC – the broadcaster for the ceremony – with the former’s series ‘Life Beth’ heading to Hulu, which is owned by ABC’s parent company Disney. Meanwhile, Sykes appears in ABC series ‘Black-ish’. It’s said the trio will be officially unveiled on Tuesday’s episode (15.02.22) of ‘Good Morning America’. While the trio – and the Academy – are yet to comment on the news, Schumer shared an Instagram slideshow of some of her career highlights on Sunday (13.02.22). She wrote: “Big fun news comin’.” The ceremony has not had a presenter since Kevin Hart stood down from hosting in 2019 after homophobic jokes that he had previously posted on social media resurfaced. He previously admitted he wished he had handled the controversy surrounding his past homophobic tweets differently, and confessed there was a “big gap” between what he thought the problem was and what had actually upset people. He said: “I’m a firm believer in laying in the bed that you made. If there’s something that you did, then you did it. You know, there’s no wiggle room around it. You can address it, and then you can move on. “With the whole Oscars thing, there was a big gap between what I thought the problem was versus what the problem really was. “I got 10 years where I made sure not to joke or play in the way that I did back then because it was a problem. I don’t care if you’re gay or not gay. I’m a people person. I’m going to love you regardless.” View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Prince Harry’s tell-all book will “shake the monarchy to its core”, his friends have said. The Duke of Sussex is set to publicly reveal details about his relationship with the royal family in a new memoir due to be published later this year, and friends of Harry have hinted that the world can expect some explosive revelations. They told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “If they think he’s gone soft, they are mistaken. Just wait for the book to come out because that will shake the monarchy to the core.” Harry – who stepped down as a senior member of the royal family and relocated to the US alongside his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in 2020 – will collaborate with JR Moehringer in what has been described as “the definitive account of the experiences, adventures, losses, and life lessons that have helped shape him”. Friends of the 37-year-old royal have suggested that the memoir will touch on Harry and his brother Prince William’s relationship with their stepmother Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall – who is set to become Queen Consort when Prince Charles accedes to the throne. They said: “Although tensions have eased between two of them over the years, it was more for a show of unity than a close relationship. “There were big problems at the start but as Harry and his brother William aged and matured, things got better and they can now co-exist as adults.” Friends of Harry – who shares children Archie, two, and Lilibet, eight months, with Meghan – added: “He has got lots to say. People think he’s keeping a low profile to respect the family but it’s not that. “He’s writing a book. He’s got a multi-million-pound book deal and he’s keeping a lot of his opinions for that. The memoir deal states that it should include personal details of personal and family arrangements. “And it will be a really intimate take on his feelings about his family and what has gone in the breakdown of the relationship.” View the full article

Published by DPA Why say the whole word? The German Bratwurst is simply called “brat” in US restaurants. Daniel Karmann/dpa A man in a Brooklyn restaurant orders a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, perhaps the pinnacle of European winemaking, a full-bodied and complex wine. “Cab Sav, you got it,” says the waitress. These days in the US, the first syllable of the word is enough to convey your meaning, as a glance at a menu will show. There’s Guac for Mexican guacamole. There’s Parm for Italian parmesan. And there’s Brat for Germany’s bratwurst. The desire for brevity can be found beyond the world of food too, with plenty of talk of the “vax,” referring to “vaccines” or “vaccination.” US talkshow host Stephen Colbert used the word in his recasting of Salt n Pepa’s famous hit, with the refrain, “Let’s talk about vax, baby.” That instinct to shorten words is not new, according to Lisa Heldke, a philosopher at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, whose focuse is on the American pragmatist tradition – and food. People use monosyllables in many settings and they are not only reducing foreign words to their first syllable, she says. “Students here call the cafeteria “the caf,” which drives our dining service director crazy.” Linguists have yet to study whether people in the US are more likely to use just the first syllable compared to other nations. But American English is known for its abbreviations – just think of “OK.” Hedke says Americans tend to abbreviate everything, or give it a nickname. Considering why people may tend to just use the first syllable of words, she suggests maybe speakers are trying to be concise. Also, there are social factors, she suggests. “I think it’s about approachability. We think of short words as ‘friendly,’ as approachable, as ‘fun,’ as ‘not snobby.’ I actually attribute it a lot to (some) Americans’ deep desire to resist anything that smacks of intellectualism,” she says. “I think it’s also about familiarity, intimacy. If I have a short nickname, it means I am close enough to that person or thing that I GET to be informal with it,” she adds. After all, people give nicknames to the things that they like. Many factors are at play, Heldke says. “I think we do tend to make the shortened forms to pronounce them in a ‘middle class white American way’.” When it comes to foreign foods such as parmesan or guacamole, maybe speakers want to suggest a relaxed attitude to what they are describing, she says. “Guac maybe isn’t exactly American, but the sounds are more ‘indigenous’ to American English than the sounds in the full word guacamole (which we also tend to pronounce in an American way, of course),” she notes. The urge towards simplicity may go back even further. People in the US were calling each other “bro” more than a century ago. But the trend may go as far back as the first lexicographer of the US. Noah Webster was the author of the 1828 dictionary popularly known as “Webster’s,” an abbreviation of the title “An American Dictionary of the English Language,” coming after his first dictionary in 1806. He sought a simpler spelling than British English and dispensed with superfluous letters, which is why in the US, people write “color” instead of “colour,” for example. He embraced non-literary terms and colloquial expressions. He sought a spirit of linguistic unity and clarity and wanted to distinguish the language so the US could assert its independence from colonializing Britain. His drive for simplicity made sense at a time when people were migrating to the US from all over the world, speaking countless languages and dialects. Historians have also argued that unlike more codified British English, in the US, people were willing to improvise. Americans were using language flexibly, speaking pidgin, borrowing from Dutch, German and other languages and creating neologisms. In 1919, HL Mencken published the first edition of “The American Language.” He sought to sum up the attitude to language, identifying a “large capacity for taking in new words and phrases” as a tendency. He also noted “its impatient disregard for grammatical, syntactical and phonological rule and precedent.” That spirit lives on. Brat, anyone? It might have a complex and beautiful sounding name in Italy, but in America, a bowl of pasta with Parmesan cheese is simply called “Parm.” Oliver Berg/dpa View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Lizzo wants to pose for Playboy. The ‘Good As Hell’ hitmaker is a big fan of the adult publication and urged Cardi B, who was named the brand’s first-ever creative director in residence in December, to get in touch to arrange for her to take part in a photoshoot. Asked if she’d ever pose for Playboy, Lizzo told TMZ: “Oh my God, tell Cardi to call me! “I love Playboy. Yeah, I’ll do it!” The 33-year-old star had earlier shared footage on TikTok of a piercing party she’d held for her team and she revealed she’d had a jewellery inserted in an intimate area of her body. She said: “I have so many piercings right now, I never thought I’d be this girl! “You can’t see my coochie, I can’t show you. I can’t show you! I can’t show TMZ my p****.” Last week, Lizzo shared a nude photo of herself on Instagram as she reflected on having “unconditional” love for herself. She wrote: “If you love me… you love all of me. You don’t get to pick and choose. We should be unconditionally loving of one another, starting with being unconditionally loving to ourselves. Take a moment today and think about the conditions we cling to. Free yourself in love. You deserve it.” The ‘Truth Hurts’ singer previously praised Cardi – who was a stripper before finding musical success – as a game-changer for female artists following their collaboration on ‘Rumors’. She said: “Cardi B is the ultimate. She, to me, has always done it right. “Everything that she said, every way that she’s reacted because you know why? It’s because she was true to herself the whole time. She’s a ground breaker. You can’t deny her ability. She’s a superstar. “She has changed the game forever for a lot of us, a lot of women. I don’t even think she realises she’s doing it because it’s just like, I’m trying to just be successful. I’m trying to get this money. I want to live a happy life. “She just follows her heart. That’s what I love about her.” View the full article