Amz

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Kanye West Ends Sacramento Concert Early, Rants About Beyonce and Jay Z


Kanye West Ends Sacramento Concert Early, Rants About Beyonce and Jay Z


Kanye West pulled the plug on his Sacramento concert after performing just a few songs on Saturday, November 19, but not before lashing out against Beyoncé and Jay Z.

The notoriously outspoken rapper, 39, took to the stage about 90 minutes late and proceeded to perform four songs before launching into a rant about the superstar couple.

Kanye West performs onstage during the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City.
Kanye West performs onstage during the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City.


“Beyoncé, I was hurt,” the “Fade” hitmaker said, according to videos posted online. “I went down seven years on behalf of you … I am putting my career, my life, my public standing at risk when I talk to y’all like this. This is a moment in the matrix, bro. … Beyoncé, I was hurt because I hear that you said you wouldn’t perform unless you won Video of the Year over me and over ‘Hotline Bling.’ In my opinion … now don’t go dissing Beyoncé, she’s great. Taylor Swift is great. We are all great people. We are all equal. But sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.”

The "seven years" the rapper mentioned were in reference to the years following his outburst at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, during which he infamously interrupted Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech to insist that Beyoncé deserved the win.

West also addressed Beyoncé’s husband, Jay Z, who he called out during a show last month following his wife Kim Kardashian’s Paris robbery.

“Jay Z — call me, bruh,” he said. “You still ain’t called me. Jay Z, I know you got killers. Please don’t send them at my head.”

In clips of West’s epic diatribe, the crowd can be heard booing and cheering as he takes another jab — this time at former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.


“This Saint Pablo tour is the most relevant [thing] happening,” he said. “If your old ass keeps following old models, you’ll be Hillary Clinton.” Other targets of his anger included radio stations: “Radio, f--k you! Oh yeah, I’m on my Trump s--t tonight. Radio — f--k you!”

West ended the show with a mic drop onstage after about half an hour.

At another show earlier in the week, West caused a stir when he told his fans that he didn’t cast a ballot during this presidential election, but that if he did, he would have voted for the former Apprentice host.

“I told y’all I didn’t vote, right?” he told the crowd in San Jose, California. “What I didn’t tell you … if I were to have voted I would have voted on Trump.”




source: www.usmagzine.com

Friday, November 18, 2016

Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner Calling Off Divorce


Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner Calling Off Divorce With Baby On The Way


Love is in the air for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner…again! The exes are back on track in their marriage, and even expecting their fourth child together, according to a new report. What changed?!

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Brad Pitt Is Seeking Joint Custody


Brad Pitt Is Seeking Joint Custody of Kids as Angelina Jolie Divorce Continues


Does this mean we may have a custody battle in the horizon?

NBC News confirms that Brad Pitt is seeking joint physical custody of his six kids with ex Angelina Jolie—Maddox Jolie-Pitt, 15, Pax Jolie-Pitt, 12, Zahara Jolie-Pitt, 11, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, 10, and twins Knox Jolie-Pitt and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, 8.

At the time of the divorce announcement, Jolie asked for sole custody of the kids she shares with Pitt, only allowing the actor visitation rights. However, that was always said to be part of a temporary custody agreement.


Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Kim Kardashian Breaks Her Social Media Silence


Kim Kardashian Breaks Her Social Media Silence For First Time Since Paris Robbery – See What She Said

Kim Kardashian Breaks Her Social Media Silence
Kim Kardashian

She’s back! Kim Kardashian has broken her social media silence for the first time since her terrifying robbery on October 3.
The reality TV star shared three posts on Facebook, including a photo of herself and a link to old family Halloween videos, on Monday, October 31.

“Downtime,” Kardashian captioned the snap, which showed her relaxing while reading her smartphone. She added the hashtag “#LumeeCollab,” a reference to her cellphone case, which lights up for selfies. The photo appeared to be old, and showed Kim with her Blackberry, which she famously mourned when it died on her earlier this year.


Thursday, October 6, 2016

Hillary Clinton Feels "Really Bad" About Kim Kardashian's Robbery


Hillary Clinton Feels "Really Bad" About Kim Kardashian's Robbery



Hillary Clinton is in Kim Kardashian's corner.

Speaking to Extra's AJ Calloway Wednesday, the presidential hopeful shared her concern over Kim's recent robbery in Paris. "I felt really bad for her. Oh, I did. She's back now, right?" she asked. After being informed that the E! reality star was indeed safe and in New York City with Kanye West, Hillary praised the rapper for rushing to Kim's aid in her time of need. "And her husband...he was in the middle of the concert and he ran offstage," she said. "Bless his heart."

"It's horrible," Hillary added. "I'm just glad nobody was hurt."


Monday, September 26, 2016

Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo share first adorable pic of newborn


Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo share first adorable pic of newborn

Your weekend was simply not as cute as Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo's.

The couple welcomed their first little bundle of joy on Thursday, daughter Dusty Rose, and over the weekend gave the world a chance to see her in all her tiny, adorable glory. Prinsloo posted the first pic on her Instagram of Dusty lying on top of Levine and fast asleep.

A photo posted by Behati Prinsloo Levine (@behatiprinsloo) on

“Words can’t describe ... Dusty Rose Levine 9/21/16,” Prinsloo captioned the photo, along with a heart emoji.

If Dusty Rose's first few months are anything like Prinsloo's pregnancy, we can expect to see lots more photos of the newborn as she grows. Prinsloo and Levine had quite a bit of fun documenting her growing bump over the past nine months.







source: usatoday 

Monday, September 5, 2016

Mel Gibson hailed with standing ovation


Mel Gibson hailed with standing ovation in Venice for 'Hacksaw Ridge'

Director Mel Gibson attends the premiere of 'Hacksaw Ridge' during the 73rd Venice Film Festival on September 4, 2016 in Venice, Italy. (Photo: Andreas Rentz, Getty Images)

The Hollywood resurrection of Mel Gibson has begun.

Gibson, 60, unveiled his directorial effort Hacksaw Ridge at the Venice International Film Festival on Saturday night. The world premiere of the anti-war film starring Andrew Garfield went down big. Really big.

Trade website Deadline.com described a 10-minute audience standing ovation after the lights went up. Outside, fans greeted Gibson with their faces painted blue, Braveheart style.

Director Mel Gibson attends the premiere of 'Hacksaw Ridge' during the 73rd Venice Film Festival. (Photo: Andreas Rentz, Getty Images)
Director Mel Gibson attends the premiere of 'Hacksaw Ridge' during the 73rd Venice Film Festival. (Photo: Andreas Rentz, Getty Images)
Gibson, the major Hollywood star and director of 2004's faith-driven blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, called his relationship with Hollywood "survival" at a Venice press conference before the world premiere, according to Reuters.

The Oscar-winning director (best picture and best director for Braveheart) first saw major tabloid scandal in 2006, when he was arrested in a drunken-driving incident on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., and responded with an anti-Semitic tirade to the arresting officers. That led to headlines around the world and the beginning of a Hollywood exile for Gibson.

Hacksaw Ridge, played out-of-competition at Venice, tells the true story of Desmond Doss (Spider-Man's Andrew Garfield), an army medic who refused to bear arms but later received the Medal of Honor for saving dozens of his comrades.



Director Mel Gibson signs autographs as he arrives for the premiere of 'Hacksaw Ridge' at the 73rd Venice Film Festival on September 4. (Photo: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE, AFP/Getty Images)
Director Mel Gibson signs autographs as he arrives for the premiere of 'Hacksaw Ridge' at the 73rd Venice Film Festival on September 4. (Photo: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE, AFP/Getty Images)
At the press conference, Garfield said Gibson was "like a good dad on set or a good mom, with that kind of wonderful nurturing instinct where you feel like you can do no wrong even when you're already doing a lot of wrong."

In a praise-filled review for Hacksaw Ridge, industry website Variety said "it will likely prove to be the first film in a decade that can mark (Gibson's) re-entry into the heart of the industry.

"Yet to say that Hacksaw Ridge finally leaves the Gibson scandals behind isn’t quite right; it has been made in their shadow. On some not-so-hard-to-read level, the film is conceived and presented as an act of atonement," the review continued.

The film opens Nov. 4 in the United States.

Mel Gibson (L) and Andrew Garfield pose during a photocall for 'Hacksaw Ridge' at the 73rd annual Venice International Film Festival. (Photo: ETTORE FERRARI, EPA)
Mel Gibson (L) and Andrew Garfield pose during a photocall for 'Hacksaw Ridge' at the 73rd annual Venice International Film Festival. (Photo: ETTORE FERRARI, EPA)






source: www.usatoday.com

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Lindsay Lohan accused


Lindsay Lohan accused fiance of cheating in wild Instagram rant

Lindsay Lohan and Egor Tarabasov
Lindsay Lohan and Egor Tarabasov Photo: Splash News

Lindsay Lohan accused her fiance of cheating on her with a “Russian hooker” and hinted at being pregnant in a bizarre attention-seeking social-media rant.

The 30-year-old “Mean Girls” star lashed out at her 23-year-old millionaire Russian beau, Egor Tarabasov, on Instagram on Saturday night, fuming, “Thanks for not coming home tonight.”

“Fame changes people. I guess I was the same at 23 . . . Sh - - ty time — it changes at 26/27,” she posted along with a photo of his face scribbled out.

Her meltdown over the relationship drama deepened later, when Lohan posted a video of him partying at a club with famed socialite Dasha Pashevkina — who is a fashion designer — calling him a cheater and her a ‘hooker.’

“Wow thanks #fiance with Russian hooker . . . First time in my life, bare with [me], he cheated on me with hooker,” she griped on the social-media app.

Lohan later posted the woman’s home address and e-mail on social media with a rant that included a Donald Trump hashtag, although she eventually deleted it.

Not long after, Lohan inexplicably suggested she was knocked up, tweeting, “Lindsay Lohan labour pains trailer — I am pregnant!!” along with an image from her 2009 movie “Labor Pains.”

The video of Tarabasov partying has since been deleted along with the Instagram rant.

Tarabasov and Pashevkina, who we’re told is ‘absolutely not’ a hooker, have yet to respond publicly to her outburst.

The troubled actress, who has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, was reportedly engaged to Tarabasov in April after six months of dating. A spokesman for Lohan — who has recently claimed to have left her wild past behind and has been living in London — didn’t respond to calls and e-mails on Sunday.



source: www.pagesix.com

Sunday, July 17, 2016

HILLARY CLINTON HELPED ‘JUSTIFY’ A WAR ON BLACK PEOPLE


ICE CUBE: HILLARY CLINTON HELPED ‘JUSTIFY’ A WAR ON BLACK PEOPLE

Film star, Ice cube
ICE CUBE

Ice Cube believes that Hillary Clinton set the stage for America’s war on black people with her “superpredators” comments in 1996, which helped “justify” the police brutality that ignited the Black Lives Matter movement.

“To call your own citizens ‘superpredators’ is pretty harsh and a pretty big indictment,” Ice Cube said. “It’s really not solving the problem, it’s just making it worse. Now the authorities feel like their justified in how they treat these so-called ‘superpredators.’”

Ice Cube was referring to Clinton’s 1996 comments where she said America needs to bring “no conscience, no empathy, superpredator gangs of kids to their heels.” She was rallying support for President Bill Clinton’s violent crime legislation, laws that many believe caused more harm than good.

“The L.A.P.D. did a war on gangs,” Cube said. “But if I’m a black kid that’s not in a gang but I look like a gang member to this white officer, than it’s a war on me. That’s the problem with a term like superpredators.”

“And for some reason, the Democrats feel they’re exempt from these [Black Lives Matter] protests like ‘we’re Democrats, why are you talking to us like this, go talk to the Republicans,’” Ice Cube added. “No, no. Everybody’s a little guilty of turning their back or passing bad legislation and everyone should be called out on it.”

Ice Cube believes that Hillary’s comments from the 90s are still relevant to today.

If Hillary Clinton “becomes the president of the United States, we need to know what she’s thinking, how does she think, how she’s going to handle, how she’s going to fix this. She helped create it, in a way,” Ice Cube.

On Donald Trump, Ice Cube says he doesn’t think the Republican presidential candidate is “going to do anything to help poor people or people that’s struggling” because Trump is a “rich white guy. How can he relate?”

On Bernie Sanders, Ice Cube says “To me, it’s like he’s been in there [Congress] 30 years and you know, what have you done? You been up in there. What are you gonna do different from outside Congress? All of ’em to me have work to do to get my vote.”

Watch the interview:



source: www.eurweb.com

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Kristen Stewart and Jimmy Fallon play


Kristen Stewart and Jimmy Fallon play Jell-O Shot Twister

Kristen Stewart and Jimmy Fallon play Jell-O Shot Twister
Kristen Stewart and Jimmy Fallon

The Tonight Show

Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show rarely feels connected to its predecessors; although the basic format has remained the same, the newest iteration has featured a lot more wacky games. But during his interview with Kristen Stewart on Monday night, Fallon unearthed a photo of Carson and Eva Gabor playing Twister on the show decades earlier. To commemorate the anniversary of the game, Fallon and Stewart played their own version of Twister, one that more heavily featured Jell-O shots.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Reese Witherspoon and daughter Ava look like twins


Reese Witherspoon and daughter Ava look like twins in Instagram pic

Reese Witherspoon


It’s like looking in a mirror!

Reese Witherspoon enjoyed some quality time with her daughter Ava Elizabeth, 16, and an image of the pair on Instagram has us seeing double.

Mother daughter time,” Witherspoon, 40, captioned the snap.

In the photo the two blue-eyed blondes lean in as they smile for the selfie.

Although the actress didn’t specify where they’re vacationing, she has shared multiple photos on her Instagram over the last few days that reveal she’s on a tropical island getaway.

This isn’t the first time the mother-daughter duo could be taken for twins. In September, Witherspoon celebrated Ava’s 16th birthday on Instagram, and the photo the Wild star chose to share of the teenager proves the striking resemblance.

In May of last year, Witherspoon shared another photo with Ava before the two took the red carpet for the Hot Pursuit premiere, and the like comparison was there again.

A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on


source: www.ew.com

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Nick Young’s ex claims she’s 22 weeks pregnant


Nick Young’s ex claims she’s 22 weeks pregnant, says she doesn’t feel guilty about his split with Iggy Azalea



Nick Young started cheating on Iggy Azalea all the way back in September, the Lakers guard’s pregnant ex-girlfriend told Us Weekly.

Young’s ex, Keonna Green, says she’s 22 weeks pregnant with a girl, but the two “reconnected” as far back as last year.

“It was last year, around September. We would take our son to Magic Mountain together. But sometimes Nick would say, ‘Oh, there’s too much traffic,’ and he’d just play with Nicholas in his room. We got caught up in the moment and it just happened,” Green said.

“I would be like, ‘Nick, you cannot be sloppy. You need to be honest.’ He would say, ‘I don’t want to hear it.’ I don’t know what was going on in his household, but me and Nick have lots of history. It wasn’t a secret on my end. I didn’t feel guilty because I was in love with a man, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only woman.”

Despite their affair going public, Green, who owns L.A.'s TNK Hair Studios, says she doesn’t feel guilty about being in the middle of the breakup.

“I’m not the reason they separated,” she told Us Weekly.

The basketball player and the “Black Widow” rapper broke off their engagement in June when Azalea said she couldn’t trust the two-timer.

“Unfortunately although I love Nick and have tried to rebuild my trust in him – It's become apparent in the last few weeks I am unable to,” Azalea wrote on Instagram. “I genuinely wish Nick the best. It's never easy to part ways with the person you planned you're (sic) entire future with, but futures can be rewritten and as of today mine is a blank page.”

The split came months after a Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell leaked a video online in March of Young gloating about hooking up with other women.
Young confirmed the breakup on Twitter with a simple word: “Single.”

Green, who started dating Young in high school when she was a cheerleader and he was a basketball star, said she found out about his relationship with Azalea on TMZ in 2013.

The high school sweethearts’ first son, Nick Jr., was spending time with Azalea and Green wanted to lay some ground rules for her baby daddy’s new beauty.

“When I was dropping my son off, we met in the living room. I didn't want my son around somebody I'm uncomfortable with. I said, ‘Please, out of respect, don't post photos of my son.’ I didn't want people thinking I'm not in his life,” Green told Us Weekly.

“She was like, I completely get it.’ Reality set in that me and Nick were over. She was in the house I used to stay in. I cried on my way home. But Nick Jr. had fun with them. He would always say, ‘My daddy and my Iggy took me to Target and got me this.’”

Green said she found out she was pregnant when she complained of extreme back pain to her doctor.

“It was 200 percent Nick’s child,” she said.

For now, Young and Green are staying apart, but his baby mama isn’t ruling out a reunion.

“Right now, he needs to focus on basketball and getting his life in order. Basketball is what puts food on two people’s plates that he’s taking care of,” she told the magazine.

“But I will definitely give it a chance if he comes back and says, 'I’m really going to make this work this time.' Why not? But if there was ever any inkling of disrespect … I’m going to be raising a daughter. I would want to let her know that she deserves the world.”




source: www.nydailynews.com

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Abbas Kiarostami, Dies at 76


Abbas Kiarostami, Palme d'Or-Winning Filmmaker, Dies at 76

Abbas Kiarostami, Dies at 76

The Iranian director's 1997 film 'Taste of Cherry' won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, whose 1997 film Taste of Cherry won the prestigious Palme d'Or and who kept working despite government resistance, died Monday. He was 76.

Iran's official news agency IRNA said Kiarostami died in Paris, where he had gone for cancer treatment last week after undergoing surgery in Iran earlier this year.

He wrote and directed dozens of films over a career spanning more than 40 years. Taste of Cherry, which told the story of an Iranian man looking for someone to bury him after he killed himself, won the top award at the Cannes Film Festival. Kiarostami also wrote and directed Certified Copy, a 2010 film starring Juliette Binoche.

Just last week, Kiariostami was among the 283 new members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The filmmaker said at a 2014 appearance in Syracuse, N.Y., that Taste of Cherry was his only movie he had not watched since he made it. He said it took him back to a period in his life he preferred not to think about. The pic was banned in Iran for supposedly encouraging suicide.

"But in truth," he said, "it is a suggestion to live."

Martin Scorsese remembered the filmmaker in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter: "I was deeply shocked and saddened when I heard the news of Abbas Kiarostami’s death. He was one of those rare artists with a special knowledge of the world, put into words by the great Jean Renoir: 'Reality is always magic.' For me, that statement sums up Kiarostami’s extraordinary body of work. Some refer to his pictures as 'minimal' or 'minimalist,' but it’s actually the opposite: Every scene in Taste of Cherry or Where Is the Friend’s House? is overflowing with beauty and surprise, patiently and exquisitely captured.

Scorsese continued: "I got to know Abbas over the last 10 or 15 years. He was a very special human being: quiet, elegant, modest, articulate, and quite observant — I don’t think he missed anything. Our paths crossed too seldom, and I was always glad when they did. He was a true gentleman, and, truly, one of our great artists."

Among Kiarostami's other films was Close-Up (1990), which told the true story of aman who impersonated a filmmaker and tricked a family into believing that he would put them in a movie.
His 1987 film Where is the Friend's Home? is a story of honor, focusing on a boy who tries to return schoolwork to a friend.

The 2000 film The Wind Will Carry Us follows journalists from a city who go to a village to write about the death of an old woman, but they have time to learn about and appreciate rural life as the woman lives longer than expected.

Ten (2002) features a female taxi driver in Tehran and her conversations with passengers. While it attracted some strong reviews, critic Roger Ebert wrote, "I am unable to grasp the greatness of Abbas Kiarostami." He said the filmmaker's critical reputation was unmatched, but his films "are meant not so much to be watched as to be written about; his reviews make his points better than he does."

In Certified Copy, Binoche plays a French woman who goes on what appears to be a first date with a British writer. Tensions quickly erupt between the two, and eventually viewers start to suspect that these two may actually know each other — and perhaps had once been married.

For that film and others, Kiarostami had to work outside Iran because of the difficulties in making movies there.

"For a long time, the Iranian government has put a spoke in the wheel of independent filmmakers," he said at a 2010 news conference.

Kiarostami is survived by two sons, Ahmad and Bahman, who work in multimedia and documentary film.




source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Nancy Grace to Depart HLN After 12 Years


Nancy Grace to Depart HLN After 12 Years

One of cable's most recognizable and controversial figures tells THR she will embark upon a new chapter involving "a very large digital component."
Nancy Grace, who parlayed her stint as a successful prosecutor into a two-decade career as one of cable's most recognizable and controversial figures, will depart HLN, her TV home for the past 12 years, when her current contract expires in October.

Grace, 56, broke the news ‪Thursday morning to her staff of 18 — some of whom have been working with her since the late 1990s, when she got her start co-hosting on Court TV with the late Johnnie Cochran — at the network's CNN Center headquarters in Atlanta, where Grace shoots the majority of her shows. New York-based staffers learned of her departure simultaneously via video conference call.

A network spokesperson tells The Hollywood Reporter that a new series — one that will "utilize the expertise of the current team" — will replace Nancy Grace in the ‪8 p.m. slot following the airing of the final episode ‪on Oct. 13. The decision was a difficult one, according to Grace, who in an emotional interview with THR admits to being "really mixed" about taking a step she's been "thinking a lot about" for the past three years.

Grace first informed CNN executive vp Ken Jautz, the same man who lured her to the fledgling network, then called CNN Headline News, back in 2005, of her decision in early June. "At the end of my meeting with Ken, I gave him a big hug and he hugged me back. It was like full circle," Grace says, adding that Jautz is making every effort to "try to relocate everybody" on her staff. "That was a big concern."

"Nancy has worked tirelessly on behalf of the missing and exploited for more than a decade on HLN," says Jautz. "She gave a voice to the voiceless, and we are extremely grateful for her contributions to the network. During her remarkable career at HLN, she led the coverage of two of this century’s most talked about and infamous trials, Casey Anthony and Jodi Arias. We will always be champions of Nancy's mission and are excited to see what’s next for her."

While her ratings are nowhere near the staggering highs of years past — her afternoon broadcast following the reading of famed filicide suspect Anthony's not-guilty verdict on July 5, 2011, drew 4.57 million viewers — the lightning-rod legal crusader remains the most-watched and talked-about personality on HLN, averaging 291,000 viewers in May. But that's only enough to rank her show 42nd out of all cable news programs, two spots behind Fox News' Red Eye, which airs weekdays ‪at 3 a.m.

While she won't share what factors specifically contributed to her decision, or where she plans on going, Grace says whatever she does next — and she has no plans for a hiatus — will involve "a very large digital component." Still, she is not ready to walk away from the medium that made her famous just yet.

"I will always be wedded to a traditional platform — which is TV, God help me," she says. "My plan is to merge those two in an effective way, in my voice, the 'anti-crime' voice. Our show has never really been about me. It has been about the stories that we tell and the people we talk about and the mysteries we try to solve and the children we try to bring home. There’s an entire section of our population that I want to reach."

Shortly before her departure from HLN, her third novel (and fourth book) — Murder in the Courthouse — will hit stores on Oct. 11. The first in a series of Hallmark Channel movies based on the characters from her novels is scheduled to air later that month, with Kellie Martin starring as Grace's fictional alter ego, Hailey Dean.

Grace, who went to law school and became a prosecutor in Atlanta after the murder of her fiancé when she was 19, has become a leading TV voice for "victim's rights." Her nightly show regularly highlights abused and murdered women, missing children, negligent mothers and what she perceives to be miscarriages of justice. Her detractors paint her as channeling the country's rage for personal gain, frequently to the detriment of the judicial process. But fans love her dedication to seeking retribution for victims of violent crime and are gripped by the often disturbing details of the cases she highlights.

Grace is quick to dismiss the suggestion that she's hoping to reach younger eyeballs in a new outlet. "Don't tell my mother that," she says. "She's all about Facebook and tweeting and texting, so don't go there. But there’s a very large segment that I want to reach. I was very, very proud when our followers hit the 2 million mark." (Grace's Facebook page has over 2 million likes. Megyn Kelly's, by comparison, has just over 1 million.) And Grace plans to take full advantage of everything the internet currently has to offer — from live video to podcasts — to reach as many of them as possible.

Wherever she lands, however, will need to be comfortable with her trademark style of editorializing and the controversy it invites. Grace's critics, and there are many, say she is more intent on inciting mobs than providing a voice to violent crime victims. "Since her show began in 2005," the late New York Times media columnist David Carr wrote, "the presumption of innocence has found a willful enemy in the former prosecutor turned broadcast judge-and-jury."

But there's little question that her tactics can work. Take, for instance, her penchant of slapping cases with tabloid-worthy monikers like "Tot Mom" Anthony and "Vodka Mom" Toni Medrano. Medrano, a 29-year-old Minnesota mother who Grace lambasted for having allegedly crushed her newborn to death in a drunken stupor, committed suicide in 2012 by dousing herself in gasoline and lighting herself on fire. Medrano's family blamed Grace and filed a lawsuit against CNN, resulting in an out-of-court settlement.

Grace, who comes up with the nicknames herself, first starting employing them in law school to help keep track of the many cases she was studying. She says the habit has "really helped" the homicide and violent-crime suspects she focuses on stick in the public consciousness.

She is similarly proud of the banners, or chyrons, that appear across the lower-third of the screen throughout her show. "I spend hours a day until we go to air on them, and sometimes we'll change them mid-program," Grace says of the headlines, which aim to "tell a provocative story in just a few words, so when a viewer's on mute, they stop and say, 'What is that?' and hold." The practice is now commonplace amid the dizzying clutter of 24-hour TV news, particularly at CNN.

But Grace's most profound effect on the media landscape could be the one she touts most often: trailblazing a stand for victims. In the dozen years since her HLN debut, her impact can be seen on the coverage of everything from Bill Cosby's accusers to victims of campus rape; framing stories from the victims' point-of-view has evolved into a common narrative in news coverage. It would be hard to envision Ashleigh Banfield devoting an entire broadcast of CNN's Legal View to reading the Stanford rape victim's letter to her accuser, as she did earlier this month, without Grace's arresting efforts.

"I want to play within the rules," says Grace. "There’s nothing to protect the victims and the people who are really hurt. That’s what I’m about."



sourec: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Friday, June 24, 2016

Taylor Swift Introduces Tom Hiddleston to Her Parents


Taylor Swift Introduces Tom Hiddleston to Her Parents

Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston

He has met the parents!

Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston have been in Nashville all week, but Thursday marked an important occasion. T. Swift went to lunch with her parents at a restaurant named Epice while Tom hung out at her house, but afterwards, Taylor and her parents returned to their home where the "Out of the Woods" singer introduced Tom to her mom and dad. It looks like they're getting serious!

Not only did Tom and Taylor take that big step in their relationship, she also introduced him to more of her friends, as they went on a double date with friends in Nashville. The "Style" songstress is officially bringing Tom into all parts of her life, including her inner circle. The foursome was spotted at Adele's restaurant, where Swift wore another all-black ensemble, but this time it featured a low-cut neckline.

Taylor Swift Introduces Tom Hiddleston to Her Parents


The double date also comes one night after the couple, dubbed Hiddleswift, went to an "intimate" dinner together. Taylor, 26, and Tom, 35, "seemed very comfortable with each other," an onlooker told E! News of their night out. This week in Nashville has been a nonstop one for the new couple, as they were also spotted at Selena Gomez's concert with Taylor's longtime BFF Abigail and her boyfriend. The concert seemed to be Tom's first dip into Taylor's friend circle, but it's obvious now that he has been fully immersed.

Although it appears like Taylor and Tom went from zero to 60 in only a matter of moments, a source previously told us that Taylor was "hesitant to get involved so quickly" after her breakup with Calvin Harris. "There was an immediate attraction," another source said of Hiddleswift. Taylor "is not on rebound mode," noted the source, "even though Tom questioned it a little when they first started talking."

Another source said Taylor and Tom are "already very attached," and based on these meet-and-greets, they really are!

But it shouldn't come as a surprise that Tom is all in already. In Vulture's profile of the British actor, Tom reveals that he's a 100 percent guy, 100 percent of the time. "My great strength, and my great weakness, is that I can't do anything by halves. So when I do something I do it to the exclusion of everything else. Which is great for the work and less great for my life, if you know what I mean," he shares.

"I'm all in, and I can say that with absolute confidence knowing that every director will back that up. But I say it's a weakness because I can't switch it off."

Our sources tell us that Taylor and Tom have since left Nashville and are now lying low in the English countryside after flying to England last night.


source: www.eonline.com

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Anton Yelchin’s Death Highlights a Known Issue With Jeeps


Anton Yelchin’s Death Highlights a Known Issue With Jeeps

The interior of a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Problems with the car involve an electronic gearshift, whose operation is similar to that of a video-game joystick. Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The interior of a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Problems with the car involve an electronic gearshift, whose operation is similar to that of a video-game joystick. Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The death of the actor Anton Yelchin, killed when his Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled backward down a driveway and crushed him against a mailbox pillar last weekend, has cast a public spotlight on a problem with some models of Jeeps and other Fiat Chrysler vehicles.

But for the company, there is nothing new about the issue — which federal regulators first flagged last August.

The question is why, nearly a year later, Fiat Chrysler has still not come up with a fix for the problem, which has now been linked to hundreds of accidents, dozens of injuries and now — potentially — a well-publicized death.

The company, which issued a recall notice on more than one million affected vehicles in April, will say only it is still working on a solution, there was no decision about a recall until this year and there has been no delay. It has written to federal regulators that the remedy will include a software change and “an additional mechanism to mitigate the effect of operator error.”

That solution is expected no later than July or August, a Fiat Chrysler spokesman, Eric Mayne, said on Tuesday in an email.

And yet, as far back as March, Fiat Chrysler was telling federal investigators that it already had “potential solutions.”

The problem involves an electronic gearshift, whose operation is similar to that of a video-game joystick. It has confused many drivers, who thought they had left their cars in park, only to find they were in neutral, and started rolling away after the drivers stepped out.
Rollaway accidents are particularly dangerous, and the investigation and recall are taking too long, Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group, said on Tuesday.

“There was no sense of urgency on Chrysler’s part or N.H.T.S.A.’s part given the potential for death or injury,” he said in an interview, referring to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Last August officials at the highway safety administration told Fiat Chrysler that it was investigating complaints from 14 owners of some of Fiat Chrysler’s most popular models. The owners said their vehicles had rolled away — in some cases causing accidents and injuries — when they left the vehicles, thinking they were safely in the parking gear.

“As I stepped out, the vehicle started moving backwards and the driver door struck me, knocking me to the ground on my back,” a Jeep Grand Cherokee owner from Morganton, N.C., wrote to safety officials last summer. “The left front tire rolled over my pelvic area, causing serious injury.”

Details of Fiat Chrysler’s subsequent discussions with the safety agency still are not publicly available. In November, the automaker responded to 10 pages of detailed questions from the federal regulator, but that response has not been posted on the agency’s website. An agency spokesman, Jose Ucles, said on Tuesday that regulators were still going through the filing to remove “personally identifiable information” before publishing it.

But as the safety agency edits and Fiat Chrysler seeks a fix for the rollover problem, incidents and accidents have continued. By February, the agency had counted 314 complaints, 121 crashes and 30 injuries, including a fractured pelvis and ruptured bladder.

By mid-April, when the company issued a recall, the automaker had 700 reports “potentially related to the issue,” including 212 crashes and 41 injuries.

The problem involved the gear shifter on 2014-15 Jeep Grand Cherokees and some 2012-14 Dodge Chargers and Chrysler 300s.

The April recall applied to about 812,000 vehicles in the United States, 52,000 in Canada, almost 17,000 in Mexico and nearly 249,000 in other countries that Fiat Chrysler declined to identify Tuesday.

At the time of the recall, no deaths had been reported. And while the cause of Mr. Yelchin’s accident is still being investigated, federal safety regulators said in a statement Monday that his death was “the first fatality we’re aware of that may be related to this safety defect and vehicle recall.”

Fiat Chrysler introduced the gear-shifter design, which it calls the Monostable, in 2011. The company said the benefits included eliminating “high efforts in shifting” as well as improved “smoothness of garage and parking lot shifts.” The shifter and transmission were provided by ZF, a German parts supplier.

That shifter is unusual because it does not move to a different position with each gear. Instead, like a joystick, the lever returns to a center position. So, the driver must look at the shifter display to make sure the proper gear is selected. In its investigation, the national safety agency said the shifter is “not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback.”

The shifter was used only on the recalled models. The company discontinued it for 2016 models, citing the desire for “improved customer satisfaction.”

The recall of the shifter is unusual because it apparently does not involve a mechanical or electronic failure. Instead it is an ergonomic issue — involving a new design whose operation is not intuitive to some owners.

Typically, automakers test such new designs on consumers, said Matthew Reed, a professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in ergonomics.

“In general terms, one would want to conduct a substantial number of trials with what I would call naïve users, people who are among the population of people who could be customers but who are not engineers, not people familiar with the development process,” he said in an interview.

But something did not work in the case of Fiat Chrysler’s shifter, he said.

“We can look at that as a failure of process, a failure to anticipate how consumers would react,” he said. “I don’t know what their process was internally, but clearly it did not catch this particular risk.”

The month before the August notification, the N.H.T.S.A. had publicly chastised the company, which acknowledged delaying recalls in almost two dozen cases going back to 2013 and affecting millions of vehicles.

“This represents a significant failure to meet a manufacturer’s safety responsibilities,” Mark Rosekind, the head of the safety agency, said at the time.

The automaker promised to speed up its recalls and agreed to pay penalties that could amount to $105 million.

“That consent order is totally aimed at making Chrysler do a better job on recalls in the future,” Mr. Ditlow, of the Center for Auto Safety, said. “If this is an example of a better job, it is a failure.”

But Mr. Mayne, the Fiat Chrysler spokesman, said the automaker was following the government mandate and was doing a better job. For example, he said, last month it recalled one million more vehicles with deadly Takata airbags ahead of a schedule set by federal regulators.


source: www.nytimes.com

One of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's Biggest Fights


One of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's Biggest Fights Happened After She Accused Him of Cheating

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard divorce
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard

Insight on what may have caused a huge blowout between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has surfaced.

The couple's highly publicized divorce has brought to light a number of issues the couple were dealing with behind closed doors, including alleged abuse in their marriage. But now, E! News learns that one of their biggest altercations occurred after Heard had a feeling that Depp had been with someone else.

A source close to the situation tells E! News that Heard had suspicions the actor was unfaithful, and confronted him about it, which "was the cause of one of their biggest fights."

"Johnny had a night out and Amber had a feeling he had been with someone. She questioned him about it and he blew up at her, got in her face yelling, chased her upstairs. Amber was scared." The insider added that Depp "didn't admit to anything," but apologized to Heard for his reaction and "she ultimately forgave him."

Just last month, E! News confirmed that Amber and Johnny were calling it quits after being married for a little over a year. Since papers were filed, Amber has revealed several allegations against her estranged husband including specific instances of domestic violence, which were explained in the actress' restraining order deposition documents (no claims of cheating were noted in the court documents).

Depp's ex Vanessa Paradis has come to Johnny's defense, shooting down any idea that the celeb is abusive. Additionally, a source close to Paradis tells E! News, "Everybody in the French community in France that know Vanessa and Johnny have only ever said good things about him. Vanessa and Johnny didn't split because he was allegedly abusive to her, they are still best friends and still get along really well."

The insider continued, "They just stopped caring about each other romantically and it didn't work out. Vanessa never showed any indication that she was a victim of abuse—while she was with Johnny or after they split. Vanessa loves him still and her French friends do too, they know Amber is unpredictable and always felt she was just in it for the fame."

While Johnny has yet to directly comment on any of the allegations, his team released a statement shortly after divorce papers were filed.

"Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life," his rep told E! News. "Hopefully the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly."


source: eonline