Legal news
Barbra Streisand Calls Supreme Court “American Taliban” Following Roe v. Wade Overruling
Barbra Streisand has joined a chorus of voices speaking out against the US Supreme Court’s overruling of Roe v. Wade, calling the court “the American Taliban” in a tweet. “The Court uses religious dogma to overturn the constitutional right to abortion,” Streisand said on June 24th. “This Court is the American Taliban.” The tweet came after Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” effectively returning the decision whether to allow the procedure back to the states. As such, eight states have already prohibited abortion altogether, while several others are expected to either ban or restrict it in the near future. Advertisement Related Video In another tweet, Streisand shared an ar...
Billie Eilish Slams Internet for Depp v. Heard Obsession: “Who Fucking Gives a Fuck?”
Billie Eilish is nothing if not outspoken regarding current events, and her new song “TV” kills two birds with one stone by expressing disgust about both the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial and the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. In a new interview discussing the track, the artist questioned the Internet’s strange prioritization of one case over the other, asking, “Women are losing rights for their bodies, so why are we talking about celebrities’ divorce trials?” Eilish debuted “TV” at a Manchester show earlier this month, shortly after the court’s plans to overturn Roe were leaked. In the song, she sings the line, “The internet’s gone wild watching movie stars on trial/ While they’re overturning Roe v. Wade.” The young pop star explained the origins of the track in an int...
Bill Cosby Found Guilty of Sexually Assaulting 16-Year-Old Girl
A civil court jury has found Bill Cosby guilty of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 1975, the New York Times reports. The incident occurred when the plaintiff, Judy Huth, accepted the comedian’s invitation to join him at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Huth, to whom a California jury awarded $500,000 in damages Tuesday, first came forward with her accusations against Cosby in 2014. She’s just one of dozens of women who have come forth alleging the Cosby Show star of sexual misconduct, including a woman named Andrea Constand, whose 2017 trial versus Cosby ended in a mistrial after he was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. For many of those victims, the ruling in Huth’s case is a massive step towards justice: “I feel vindicated,” Huth told a repor...
Crash, Million Dollar Baby Screenwriter Paul Haggis Arrested for Sexual Assault
Paul Haggis was arrested in Italy for sexual assaulting an anonymous woman who pressed charges against the Oscar-winning Canadian screenwriter. Variety reports that Haggis — known for his work on films like 2004’s Crash and Million Dollar Baby — was charged with forcing a non-Italian woman to undergo sexual intercourse over the course of two days in Ostuni, Italy. Per an Italian police report, Haggis took the alleged victim to the Papola Casale airport in nearby Brindisi, where she was left early Friday morning despite her “precarious physical and psychological conditions.” The report adds that airport staff and border police assisted the woman by giving her first aid and accompanying her to the offices of the Italian squadra mobile police unit. She was then taken to a hospital in Bri...
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett Arrested for DUI After Bonnaroo
Tennessee secretary of state Tre Hargett was arrested for driving under the influence late Friday night while leaving Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, Associated Press reports. “On Friday night after leaving the Bonnaroo Music Festival, I was stopped by the Tullahoma Police Department and subsequently arrested for DUI,” Hargett said in a statement Saturday. “Driving Under the Influence is a serious matter, and I regret the circumstances that led to my arrest. I respect law enforcement and will trust the legal process as we move forward.” Per jail records, Hargett was booked into the Coffee County Jail shortly after midnight Saturday and released a few hours later. He’s scheduled to appear in court on July 14th. Advertisement Related Video Hargett, a Republica...
Colbert Production Crew Arrested At US Capitol After Taping Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Skit
Members of a production crew working for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert were arrested on Thursday night at a US Capitol office building after taping a sketch involving Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Nine individuals — including Triumph creator Robert Smigel — were charged with unlawful entry. According to CBS (via The Hollywood Reporter), the production crew was on-site at the Capitol on June 15th and 16th recording authorized and pre-arranged interviews with members of Congress. “After leaving the members’ offices on their last interview of the day, the production team stayed to film stand-ups and other final comedy elements in the halls when they were detained by Capitol Police,” CBS said in a statement. In their own statement, the US Capitol Police said that at the time of the arrest...
Britney Spears Granted Restraining Order Against Ex-Husband Who Crashed Her Wedding
Britney Spears has been granted a restraining order against her ex-husband, Jason Alexander, after he broke into her home Thursday during her wedding to her longtime partner Sam Asghari. “I thank the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office for their good work,” Spears’ attorney Mathew Rosengart said in a press statement (via Billboard). “This was an outrageous and disgraceful security breach and I hope law enforcement does everything possible to ensure Mr. Alexander is fully and vigorously prosecuted and convicted for his criminal actions.” Rosengart also noted that an Emergency Protective Order, which expire after five to seven calendar days, had been put in place. EPOs function like restraining orders, but can be put into effect much more quickly, making them useful for urgent cases. Advertiseme...
David Koechner Arrested for DUI for Second Time in Six Months
David Koechner was arrested for the second time in six months for allegedly drinking and driving. TMZ reports that Koechner was pulled over by police in Southern Ohio shortly before 2:00 a.m. local time on June 4th after he was seen swerving his vehicle. He was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle under the influence. The 59-year-old actor/comedian, known for his roles in Anchorman and The Office, is currently touring the country on a standup tour. Despite the arrest, Koechner appeared as scheduled at an Office trivia event in Ironton, Ohio later that day. On New Year’s Eve 2021, Koechner was arrested on suspicion of DUI and a hit and run after he was seen driving erratically in Ventura County, California, and allegedly hit a street sign. Advertisement Consequence has r...
Johnny Depp’s Lawyers: “Social Media Played No Role” in Swaying Jury
Ben Chew and Camille Vasquez, two of the lawyers who represented Johnny Depp in his recent highly-publicized trial, say “social media played no role whatsoever” in the jury’s decision to find Amber Heard guilty of defamation against her ex-husband. The attorneys appeared on both Good Morning America and The Today Show Wednesday morning to discuss the trial, which ended last week with both Depp and Heard receiving compensatory damages — though Depp’s sum was over $8 million more than Heard’s. “Social media played no role whatsoever [in the jury’s verdict],” Chew told GMA’s George Stephanopoulos. “This was a decision made by the jury on the evidence presented by both sides, and as Camille said [earlier in the interview], it was overwhelmingly in Mr. Depp’s favor.” Depp and Heard’s ...
Alan Cumming’s Missing Chimpanzee Co-Star Tonka Has Been Found and Rescued
Finally, some good news: Tonka — the chimpanzee who appeared alongside Alan Cumming in the 1997 biopic Buddy — has been rescued after going missing for over a year. PETA announced this week that the 38-year-old primate was found, after the organization won a years-long battle with his former owner Tonia Haddix. The Hollywood icon is now able to roam, play, and eat copious amounts of fruit in his new home at the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida. “I feel so emotional about this great news,” Cumming wrote in a statement. “When I met Tonka while filming the movie Buddy, I made a true friend, and I was honored that he thought of me as a fellow chimp. I’m dancing a jig that PETA has rescued Tonka from the woman who locked him away alone in a basement and lied about it. The thought of To...
Court Stenographer for Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Trial Saw “Jurors Dozing Off”
While the trial for Johnny Depp’s $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard seemed to completely consume the American pop culture conversation during its six-week proceedings, the case was not compelling enough to hold the attention of the actual jurors deliberating it. In an interview with Law & Crime Network, which livestreamed the entire trial, the court-appointed stenographer Judy Bellinger revealed what the multi-camera set-up evidently did not capture: “There were a few jurors dozing off… It was tough,” she said. “There was a lot of video deposition and they’d just sit there and all of a sudden I’d see their heads drop.” Bellinger began by her sharing her perspective on the jury selection process before acknowledging potential, arguably more deserving, a...
Skylar Grey Had to Sell Her Entire Catalog to Finance Her Divorce
Skylar Grey is the songwriter behind such hit singles as as Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie” and Diddy’s “Coming Home.” Recently, she was forced to sell the rights to his entire musical catalog in order to finance her divorce from ex-husband, Elliott Taylor. “Since 2017 I was going through a divorce and lawsuit, that was just wrecking me emotionally and financially,” Grey told Variety, explaining that her radio silence in recent years was due to the legal dispute. “This past year, 2021, we finally resolved it, settled, I had to sell my catalog in order to afford the settlement, which was very sad in a way, because those songs like ‘Love the Way You Lie’ and Coming Home,’ those are my babies. But at the same time, nobody can tell me I didn’t write those songs just ’cause I don’t ...
