Earlier this month, one of those media meme's popped up that worth a few seconds of your slack-jawed reaction: The New York Post published an editorial, about how racial profiling by the police was on the wane, on the same day one of its own writers filed a lawsuit against the city for racial profiling. Now, that freelance crime reporter, Leonardo Blair, is out of a job. CONTINUED »
Despite TV Guide's sale to Macrovision, Debra Birnbaum being named EIC, and the brand's reversal of mostly negative press, the magazine's outlook isn't all rosy, thanks to its attachment to Henry Yuen, the former CEO of Gemstar-TV Guide who is officially a fugitive from justice. CONTINUED »
PELLICANO GUILTY "The Hollywood private investigator, Anthony Pellicano was found guilty Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles of using wiretaps and other illegal tactics to gather information for rich and famous clients involved in divorces or legal disputes. Mr. Pellicano, 64, was convicted of 76 of the 77 charges he faced." [NYT]
"A local TV reporter accused of hitting his girlfriend in a hotel room has been placed on a leave of absence, the station announced Tuesday.
"Officers responded to a call on Friday at about 7:50 p.m. and found a 42-year-old woman whose mouth and upper lip area were injured, police said. The woman and her boyfriend, Rodney "Rod" Luck, 58, are both from La Jolla, police said.
"'Rod has been put on a leave of absence, and the leave of absence does not have a timeline and is because of his arrest on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence and battery,' KUSI News Director Steve Cohen said after the announcement was made on-air Tuesday morning.
"'We thought it best to not have him on the air while he deals with these allegations against him, and once the case is settled, then we'll decide what we'd like to do from there,' Cohen said.
"The woman told officers that the KUSI reporter hit her in the mouth with his fist, police said. She was treated at the scene and released after giving a statement." [NBC SD]
"A bouncer at an East Village bar called Sing Sing Karaoke took a bullet to the chest early Saturday after breaking up a series of melees, police and witnesses said.
"As someone belted out Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" on stage, Carlos Salome staggered into the bar around 3 a.m. screaming that he'd been shot.
"'He was yelling, 'My arm, my arm!" said playwright Marissa Kamin, who was inside Sing Sing at the time of the shooting." [NYDN]
Because he was clearly not invited to Jenna Bush's wedding tomorrow in Texas, New York City refugee Fabian Basabe found himself in Los Angeles, at the nightspot Crown Room, being arrested for peeing in an alley behind the club. [P6] His attorney blames Basabe's "bladder problem" and the fact that the "entry way [to the club] was very congested." And not because he had drank too much before arriving and found trouble being let into the venue.
BIG DAY! After a mere five year delay, R. Kelly will finally face charges today that he is a creepy older gentleman who likes to pee on little girls, video tape it, and then sell millions of records to adoring fans. [AP]
Jack Jordan, the creepy fella who made Uma Thurman almost cry on the witness stand, has been found guilty of stalking and harassing the star after just a day's jury deliberations. On Friday, he told the court, "I think it was a clumsy and poor way of expressing my emotions for her. I had a longing for her. In retrospect, suicide [which he once threatened via email to Thurman's father] is a serious thing." He faces up to a year behind bars, where only a Netflix subscription can put him close to his true love.
Finally facing charges on Friday that he videotaped himself having sex with an underage girl, R. Kelly will be protected from the scathing media, which foolishly thinks it has a right to report on a public figure. Chicago area papers and the Associated Press filed emergency motions to unseal court records, but the Illinois Supreme Court has shot down their requests, which means that while you can find Kelly's sex tape (i.e. child porn) on the web, you won't be able to find out how he plans to defend himself in the public court system.
R Kelly, the reprehensible genius behind the Trapped in the Closet series and a plethora of songs about having sex with things, is facing mounting evidence in his child pornography trial, which will begin jury selection later this week.
The singer is facing a host of charges stemming from a video said to portray him having sex with and urinating on a 13-year-old girl. Though the alleged victim of Kelly’s abuse — now 23 — has for years denied a sexual relationship with Kelly, a new female witness for the prosecution will reportedly admit to having a threesome with Kelly and the underage girl.
Six years later, the Anthonly Pellicano trial is finally wrapping up. Closing arguments were heard! Thank god, because this was seriously starting to get in the way of discussing more pressing topics, like Katie Couric's ratings and whether Miley Cyrus covered her chest with drapes or a dress. [HuffPo]
A Seattle woman was stabbed Wednesday night for talking too loudly during America’s Next Top Model. Yes, you read that correctly.
The victim, 42, was reportedly talking too much throughout the episode, and one of the other viewers became so angry — because what Tyra Banks has to say is deep, people — that she stabbed the woman in the chest. Police arrived to find the victim lying on a couch with blood everywhere and clumps of hair missing.
Unless there is some sort of extreme weather or the subways are messed up, most days are good to live in New York City. Today is definitely not one of them. A judge, citing a “lack of witness credibility”* just acquitted three NYPD detectives of any wrongdoing in the death of 23-year-old Sean Bell, who died after plainclothes cops sprayed his car with 50 bullets as he left a Queens strip club with his friends. He was getting married to the mother of his child later that day.
If there's no video posted on YouTube, did it really happen? Okay, miserable question, especially if you're Chicago's WLS-Ch. 7 anchor Cheryl Burton, who was one of six people randomly attacked there by one man seemingly on a violence rampage. Running through the streets, he punched one woman and threw her to the ground, then went after a 75-year-old woman and two septuagenarian men, as well as the news anchor. The suspect, described as someone with "mental issues," is in police custody, and will likely not be able to watch tonight's news.
CNN International's Richard Quest, seen here in a tight-fitting tee, will help take some of the attention away from ABC News and its fumbled debate, thanks to his arrest early this morning in Central Park.
Found inside the lush green acres at around 3:40am today, he volunteered to police, while being escorted off the property, that he was carrying meth.
Add to the fact that Quest is an openly gay fella (even said to have been denied a job at Al-Jazeera English because he's gay, and Jewish), and you're looking at rumormonger that pretty much goes like this:
EVERY GAY IS A DRUG-FUELED SEX HOUND PROWLING FOR SEX IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.
Anderson Cooper? Watch yourself.
When Foxy Brown walks of out prison, she wants a receiving line of fans to cheer her release. Having served eight months of her 12-month sentence for assaulting two manicurists, she's finally make her big exit today, and "wants fans waving banners and wearing Foxy Brown T-shirts to be waiting for her in the parking lot of the notorious correctional facility." No, it's not to boost her ego, silly — it's to boost her career. VH1 will have a reality TV crew there to capture it all for her upcoming show, which will chronicle her march back to the life of a free woman … a free woman her publics stopped caring about until she pulled a Naomi. Too bad Riker's Island ain't having it.
After a New York subway serial groper was arrested for the 53rd time, perhaps it's time to swap out that "See Something, Say Something" campaign with posters like these from a just-debuted ad campaign in Boston.
Oh, and maybe loosen those supposed terror-thwarting policies about videotaping in MTA spaces? Being able to film perv-y assailants might be, you know, a good thing.
(Click for larger version)
On the first season of ABC's excellent Brothers & Sisters – which we've already managed to plug today – Rob Lowe's character, presidential hopeful Sen. Robert McAllister, escapes an extortion claim when fiance Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart) enlists the help of gay brother and attorney Kevin, who digs up dirt (illegitimate child!) on the blackmailer (who threatened to expose the senator for not being the war hero he allowed others to think he is), forcing the evil-doing hopeful to abandon his tell-all threats and retreat.
Why our drawn-out plot synopsis? Because now the bones-jump-able Lowe is facing a real life extortion claim!
He and wife Sheryl are being targeted by a former employee, who wants $1.5 million in exchange for keeping quiet about sexual harassment charges — which, naturally, are entirely false, according to the actor. CONTINUED »
T.I., who was caught last October trying to buy illegal machine guns with silencers and has been confined to his home on a $3 million bond since, is expected to plead guilty this afternoon in Atlanta. Last year, he talked a lot about looking forward to being exonerated. It looks like his lawyers convinced him that was never going to happen. To get an idea of what he was facing, click the photo to see what was found in T.I.’s house and car.
