BOSTON (Reuters) - The man that former “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey is accused by prosecutors of sexually assaulting in Massachusetts three years ago has dropped a civil lawsuit he filed against the Oscar-winning actor only last week.
FILE PHOTO: Actor Kevin Spacey, with his lawyer Alan Jackson at his side, is arraigned on a sexual assault charge at Nantucket District Court in Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S., January 7, 2019. Nicole Harnishfeger/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Mitchell Garabedian, the alleged victim’s lawyer, on Friday said his client filed papers on Wednesday to voluntarily dismiss a lawsuit in Nantucket County Superior Court that accused Spacey of “explicit sexual behavior and lewd and lascivious conduct.”
Garabedian declined to comment further on the dismissal, citing the pending criminal case prosecutors filed last year against Spacey. The civil lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning his client cannot refile the case later.
Spacey, who won an Academy Award in 2000 for his role in “American Beauty,” has pleaded not guilty to one count of felony indecent assault and battery at a bar on the Massachusetts beach island of Nantucket. Spacey denies the allegation.
Reuters is not identifying the accuser because he is an alleged victim of sexual assault. Spacey’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Spacey first became embroiled in controversy in October 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp accused him of trying to seduce him in 1986 when Rapp was 14. The controversy led to Spacey being dropped from the Netflix television series “House of Cards” and erased from the film “All the Money in the World.”
Spacey, 59, apologized for inappropriate conduct with Rapp.
Spacey is one of dozens of men in the entertainment industry, business and politics who have been accused of sexual misconduct following the emergence in 2017 of the #MeToo movement.
Prosecutors charged Spacey in the Nantucket case in December.
The accuser told police Spacey had bought him several rounds of beer and whiskey at the Club Car Restaurant on Nantucket in July 2016 when he was 18 years old and said at one point, “Let’s get drunk,” according to charging documents.
As they stood next to a piano, Spacey groped him, he told investigators.
Spacey’s lawyers have accused the man of deleting text messages that would support his defense. The judge overseeing his criminal case recently ordered Spacey’s accuser to provide his cellphone to the defense.
But Garabedian on June 19 told the court the accuser cannot find the phone. The judge has ordered the accuser, his parents and Garabedian to attend a hearing on Monday if it cannot be found.
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Howard Goller
Joe Keery, Gaten Matarazzo, Maya Hawke, Priah FergusonScreenshot: Netflix
“Chapter Five: The Flayed” opens with a thrill ride, there’s no denying it. As Starcourt’s “secret room” plunges (as Steve poetically puts it) “halfway to hell,” our heroes’ screams rise over the screeching of metal on metal as their elevator car drops. (Dustin’s scream alone is bloodcurdling; hats off to Gaten Matarazzo and his inimitable pipes.) Joyce and Hopper’s adventure is quieter but just as suspenseful, as they arrive at the old Hess farm in search of a massive government conspiracy—and not even their own government this time!
Advertisement
But however ghastly or intense the show gets, thrills have never been the heart of Stranger Things. The characters, with all their messy, complicated relationships, are the show’s heart. “The Flayed” intersperses its action with character beats, but it rarely integrates character and action as previous seasons have routinely done.
For better or worse, Stranger Things has embraced the traditional, even hackneyed, logic of the three-part film franchise. The original, the most beloved chapter, is a scrappy, lean work that balances style and substance, and relies on its core characters and the viewer’s fascination more than any special effect or showcase scene. The secondexpands the universe, bringing in new, often broader characters and wider settings, creating more complex systems of interpersonal drama and bigger action. The third blows up the whole dang thing in an extravaganza of violence and over-the-top characters. (Sure, sure, my example of film franchise is a tetralogy, but as my colleague Clayton Purdom puts it, “films think in triplicate.”)
Advertisement
There’s one big in-universe problem with these folks acting like action heroes: They’re terrible at this! Joyce and Hopper go out to search the suspicious properties on Kline’s list, not bothering to tell anyone where they’ve gone or why. Steve, Dustin, and Robin are trapped in the “secret room,” now deep underground, and they brought a child, also without leaving a clue of their whereabouts.
They make wild leaps of logic, like Nancy announcing, “That proves it!”—it being every single thing she’s speculated about—after learning that two odd events took place “around 9:00” last night. (She’s right; as Mike said earlier, “This can’t be a coincidence!,” because most fiction allows little room for coincidence.) They announce their presence everywhere they go, like Steve splashing urine on two separate levels of their confined space, or Hopper barreling his Blazer right up the driveways of the secret buildings they’re secretly scouting.
Advertisement
Screenshot: Netflix
But, entertainingly, they’re also great at this. Hopper jauntily commandeers a bystander’s airboatconvertible as casually as he might hail a cab. Winona Ryder continues her unexpected detour into quiet comic genius as Joyce shifts her body language from flustered mom to seen-it-all cop after hearing Hopper introduce her as “Detective Byers.” Will’s plan to let Doris Driscoll lead them back to “the source” is solid; though they’re too late to put it in action, and their arrival at the hospital does lead them to Tom and Bruce, and to the slithering entity that their bodies unite to form.
Advertisement
They’re great at this and they’re terrible at this, and that’s where all the entertainment in “The Flayed” arises, and—despite the noise and violence of prolonged fights—much of its tension. Even Erica, the unlikely key to entering Starcourt’s secret elevator, has her head on a swivel and her spy patter down pat: “First door, northwest,” she tells the others with the assurance of a Mission Impossible agent. “The comms room.”
Gaten Matarazzo, Priah Ferguson, Maya Hawke: “You won a fight!” Screenshot: Netflix
Advertisement
Joe Keery showcases what works best in these action scenes, hustling his team to what passes for safety with a characteristic combination of audacity and anxiety. In the middle of the clear, coherent, but otherwise uninspired fight between legend-in-his-own-mind Steve Harrington and a hapless Russian soldier (in what does appear to be the comms room! Good work, Erica!), Steve grabs an instrument from its cradle, flips it in the air as casually as he flips his Scoops Ahoy ice cream scoop, and bashes his opponent with it. It’s a needless flourish, but it’s also a moment of pure Steve Harrington in an otherwise generic fight scene.
We have to talk about Bruce. What is the point of Bruce? What, one might ask, use is Bruce? He has no personality beyond “loud, crude, and insulting,” and now that he’s in the command of the Mind Flayer, he need never have a personality again. So why does he exist? Why bother to have Jake Busey play this braying, empty husk?
Advertisement
Jake BuseyPhoto: Netflix
On any other show, I would expect future development of this character to justify the casting, but any other show didn’t let Cara Buono melt into the background for two seasons before she had a chance to shine, and any other show didn’t introduce Billy Hargrove as a mysterious new resident with a seething temper and an even more sinister, slippery charm, only to reveal his entire dark secret of that season was… an abusive father.
Advertisement
Stranger Things can be lovingly attentive to its core characters, but those on the sidelines sometimes feel like props or puppets, their behavior exactly as ominous or innocuous as the script demands. With her unflappable confidence and unstoppable wisecracks, Priah Ferguson plays Erica as a classic action-movie sidekick. It’s not her fault the character is written as a cliché, never given fear, or anything but admirable self-interest and smart backtalk.
Erica’s costume goes farther even than her dialogue to camouflage the sight of a little girl in grave danger; with two flashlights taped to her helmet, with her pads and backpack adding odd angles to her silhouette, Erica is reduced almost to a robotic sidekick/instigator in the style of Short Circuit’s Johnny 5. But for me, that facial silhouette will always conjure up images of Roberto, ha HA!
Advertisement
Priah FergusonScreenshot: Netflix
Stranger Things has always had its share of under-served or overblown characters. But “The Flayed” also lets its central characters lapse into lazy gender stereotypes. (It’s not the first time, or the second, or the third, and some on-set dynamics demanded scrutiny as well. Many of those potential problems, on-screen and off, have been resolved, but not all of them.) In earlier seasons, those slanted, even sexist portrayals are incidental and presumably unintentional; in “The Flayed,” writer Paul Dichter (Stranger Things staff writer, and credited with the eerily effective “Will The Wise”) hangs a lampshade on the show’s simplistic gender dynamics.
Advertisement
It’s more than Mike and Lucas moaning about girls being “a totally different species” of creatures who “act on emotion and not logic.” It’s more than this episode’s action grinding to a halt while Max and El giggle into a mirror together, or Lucas informing his friends wearily that “girls just like hanging out in bathrooms.” It’s Mike assuming that two girls laughing means “they’re conspiring against me!” It’s Hopper insisting that Joyce’s fears are a way of avoiding what really matters, which is him. It’s Jonathan, hearing Nancy’s urgent, near-panicked voice on the phone at dawn and being surprised that she wants to talk about anything but their breakup.
It’s the female characters accepting that they are seen either as incorrigible fabulists or as infallible. Like Robin before her, Max gleefully asks the boys, “You do still realize we can hear everything you’re saying, right?” Nancy apologizes to Jonathan and accepts his apology, then gloats, “I just look forward to you never doubting me again.” Listening to Joyce’s story, Hopper scoffs that she should “stick to sales” (a particularly sharp jibe considering the going out of business vibe Melvald’s gives off these day); when he sees evidence mount, he beams, telling her with a twinkle to come work for him at Hawkins P.D.
Advertisement
Most emblematic of all, it’s Mike, who has twice now tried to make up with El without quite apologizing. Gathering supplies at the pool, he tried to charm her into a smile and explain “the context” of his lies; in the hospital waiting room, he offers to share his candy, asking, “Does your species like M&Ms?” He doesn’t make amends; he doesn’t promise to behave better. In this episode, Mike Wheeler and the writers and showrunners of Stranger Things have this in common: They’re trying to entertain and charm their way past their mistakes instead of addressing them.
Putting a lampshade on the thing you’re doing wrong isn’t the same as doing it right. And maybe that’s the core problem with this season, the reason it hasn’t quite hit its stride.Going big and broad with its cast, its world, its characters, and especially its new embrace ofthe loud, slick style of ’80s action flicks, Stranger Things is doing something that doesn’t quite work, and winking at us about its failings. Stranger Things has successfully navigated the perils of being moony, blunt, and unabashedly earnest. What it’s not great at is winking.
Advertisement
Stray observations
“You did it! You won a fight!” Hey, if you’re going to win one fight, make it the one against the lone armed guard whose station you’ve infiltrated.
“I’ll take those odds,” Robin says, and if I were trapped in an underground bunker full of nervous scientists and heavily armed guards, one out of a hundred odds of escape would sound pretty good to me, too.
'Teen Mom' star Amber Portwood has been arrested for domestic battery ... TMZ has learned.
The 29-year-old and boyfriend Andrew Glennon just announced on the show they're pregnant. She also hinted they might soon get married.
She was arrested in Indianapolis Friday just before 6:00 AM. Cops are not saying who the alleged victim is ... per protocol.
Portwood was still in custody at the time of this post.
She has 2 kids -- 1-year-old James, whose father is Andrew, and 10-year-old Leah, whose father is her ex-boyfriend Gary Shirley.
Portwood went to prison for 17 months back in 2012 for violation her probation in a drug possession case. She actually had a choice of prison vs. rehab ... she chose prison.
Criticism over the pair's decision to keep baby Archie out of the spotlight has been mounting for months. And recent revelations -- that British taxpayers footed a £2.4 million (about $3 million) bill for home renovation, and plans to keep his christening private -- have done little to silence critics.
It's worth noting that royal baptisms have traditionally been private affairs. However in recent years cameras have been allowed to capture the arrivals of the family and their guests. That was certainly the case for all three Cambridge children -- George, Charlotte and Louis -- although they are higher in the line of succession.
This Saturday, Harry and Meghan have arranged a completely private ceremony for Archie led by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a chapel inside Windsor Castle. The palace won't officially confirm who's attending, though a royal source told CNN that fewer than 25 family and friends are invited. And while the media is excluded, pictures taken by their personal photographer, Chris Allerton, will be released after the service.
"Meghan can't demand privacy for baby Archie while asking the public to fund her family's lifestyle," complained the Daily Telegraph. The Sunday Times quoted royal biographer Penny Junor as saying: "They can't have it both ways. Either they are totally private, pay for their own house and disappear out of view, or play the game the way it is played."
Even politicians have weighed into the row. Labour Member of Parliament Luke Pollard told CNN the royal couple's recent behavior raises questions.
"When you're still taking millions of pounds worth of public money -- money that could be spent in schools and hospitals -- to upgrade and refurbish what is, you know, luxury palaces, you've got to ask yourself: what are the public getting in return?"
Pollard said he saw no problem with critics questioning how public money was being spent, and expressed concern that Harry and Meghan were "trying to have their cake and eat it."
He explained: "They're trying to get the public money for their lifestyle but not do the public duties that go along with it and that's a question that is rightly being asked and debated here.
"I don't think the overall family will be overthrown here. I think this is a chance to look at: Is the behavior of the royal family the right way forward? And at a time when there's not a lot of money for our public services, is every penny they're spending being spent well?" Pollard said.
This type of critique infuriates the #SussexSquad -- a vociferous army of online supporters, particularly of Meghan. On stories like the christening, those devoted to the duchess enlist the help of an unlikely defender: a US law professor.
Goldburn P. Maynard Jr at the University of Louisville describes himself as an "ally" of the squad who steps in online to "amplify" the voices of #SussexSquad and call out cases of what he calls "misogynoir."
"I don't see any kind of contradiction between there being taxpayer funding or public funding and the royals asking for some privacy," he told CNN. "Here, in the United States, we very much have a lot of public servants but we very well know their children are off limits and are able to have a private life and we are OK with that."
For Maynard, it's interesting how the christening plays into a wider narrative about the duchess.
"The default when it comes to Meghan -- because she is a foreigner and she's not royal, from this society, etc. -- is that when she does something, she is doing something that's wrong. Women of color are actually really used to that narrative," he explained. "What a lot of us are seeing is that she is being held to a higher standard despite the fact that, in many ways, she's hit the ground running."
He continued: "She put out the book and she's made all of this money for charity and she's brought all of this attention. And yet there are all of these critiques on these niggling things that shouldn't matter very much."
Maynard views criticism of Meghan through the prism of criticism of women of color generally.
"So, women of color are uncouth, women of color are undeserving, women of color are angry, etc. And so, what all this coverage has done is to reinforce all those kinds of narratives and biases when it comes to who is today the most prominent woman in the world. So, it is reinforcing those narratives on a worldwide scale, so that's why I think it's really harmful."
But Pollard argues that publicly funded royal should be put under appropriate scrutiny: "It's so important that actually in defending Meghan and Harry's decisions, we need to be clear that when they get it wrong we can offer a criticism which is fair and justified without any loading of hate that some other folks are trying to use."
For many royal fans, Archie's christening is simply a chance to see how he's grown. With just the one photocall shortly after his birth and a couple of carefully snapped Instagram posts, the world still has yet to see his little face properly.
For his parents, it's simple too. They've clearly made the decision to bring him up as a private citizen, which also explains why they aren't using a title for him and why they feel they have a right to refuse media access to an event that is primarily about him.
Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas jetted off to Italy after Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas spectacular France wedding. The 26-year-old singer shared a picture from his visit to Via Dell Amore (The Way of Love in English), a pedestrian street with a picturesque view. Priyanka looked nice in a printed wrap-dress while Nick Jonas opted for summery separates complementing his actress wife. Priyanka Chopra added a heart-eyed emoticon in the comments section of Nick Jonas' post, which read: "Via Dell Amore... or Love Way in other words." The Jonases spent a super busy weekend at the Jophie wedding and this vacation give Priyanka and Nick ample time together before they get busy with their respective hectic work schedules.
Here's the picture of Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra showing their fans the 'Way of Love':
Before the Italy getaway, Priyanka and Nick attended Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas' wedding, which was spread over three days. Priyanka and Nick attended their Parisian cruise party and also the rehearsal dinner, where they were joined by the rest of the family.
Priyanka Chopra recently completed filming The Sky Is Pink in India and she will soon get busy with her project in collaboration with Mindy Kaling. Priyanka and Mindy are making a film on an extravagant wedding.
Meanwhile, Nick Jonas, who revived music band The Jonas Brothers with his siblings Joe and Kevin, is all set to embark on the 'Happiness Begins' tour with them. Nick Jonas has also signed up for the sequel of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and for Chaos Walking.
Stranger Things is back just in time to overshadow your Summer festivities. Netflix’s iconic show is bound to have you binge-watching Season 3 like there’s no tomorrow. Perhaps the only person more excited than fans about the show’s return is breakout star, Millie Bobby Brown. “Omg I’m quaking…15 minutes till your weekend has been taken over By Netflix and Stranger Things” the 15-year-old wrote in her Instagram story minutes before the show premiered for its third season. But why is Brown the breakout star of this incredibly popular show?
Millie Bobby Brown | Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/FilmMagic,
Though Brown was making big strides in her acting career prior to booking her role as El on Stranger Things, she exploded into superstardom after she landed the role back in 2016. The actress currently boasts nearly 20 million followers on Instagram and is reported to earn about $250,000 an episode for her performance on the show. She recently finished filming her first two feature films and is currently recording a third. At such a young age, Brown’s career is lucrative and full of opportunities. But what is it about the 15-year old that made her the standout actress on Stranger Things?
Breakout star
Though the 15-year-old actress is incredibly talented at her craft, the same can be said for the rest of her co-stars. Why is it then, that she has easily secured the role of it girl rather than someone else on the series? Much of Brown’s popularity is likely because of her unique character and how different she looked in comparison to her co-stars in season 1. With her head nearly shaved bald, Brown easily stood out within the cast. Fans were also impressed by her ability to easily embody an accent that was not her own at such a young age. With her incredible talent and fun yet quirky personality, Brown easily became a household name.
Though Brown is arguably the most famous actress within the series, she also is always humble enough to admit that the success of the show depends on a team of people working together. Brown always goes out of her way to put the ensemble ahead of her individual performance and that makes her even more likable to fans.
The cast and crew
Just ahead of the season 3 premiere, the English actress shared a sweet message about the cast and crew with her fans. “I can’t believe that we are 20 minutes away from Stranger Things 3 premiering. Before it comes out I wanna say that every single person working on our set is an essential factor for making our show. We all work so hard to bring this to life each year” the Godzilla vs. Kong actress wrote.
Season 3
Brown continued on to share with fans why season three of the show was such an incredible experience for her. “I’ll let you in on a little secret…this was my favorite season to film and my favorite season to watch. This year 011 is growing up. She is evolving into a real teenager. To watch her progression with fashion, relationships, and personal trauma is so beautifully written and directed and I was so lucky to be able to portray el in the way she deserved. Mike and El in this season are ADORBBBBSSSS and just wait for MAX and EL OMG I NEED TO SHUT UP IT’S ONLY 11 MINUTES” the 15-year old declared, her excitement palpable.
Now streaming on Netflix
We can’t wait to see how Brown grows as an artist during the latest installment of Stranger Things. It seems that she, along with her castmates, continue to showcase their talent in new and unique ways each and every year. We’re excited to see what new adventures await this incredibly talented cast.
A$AP Rocky is in even more trouble than we thought, because Swedish authorities have just made it clear ... they have no plans to release him anytime soon.
Swedish prosecutors are asking a judge to allow them to hold A$AP Rocky and members of his crew for 2 weeks, while they investigate the alleged assault Tuesday for which he was arrested. Swedish authorities are normally allowed to keep people for only 3 days, so they are clearly gunning for him.
TMZ.com
And, there's even more ominous news. As you know, authorities jumped into action after a video surfaced of A$AP and his crew pummeling a guy on the street, leaving him battered and bloodied.
But then, another video surfaced, showing the alleged victim harassing A$AP and hitting his bodyguard with a set of headphones. The guy was harassing A$AP and his crew for about a half hour before they had enough.
A$AP actually tried to be a peacemaker ... telling the guy, "We don't wanna fight y'all. We don't wanna go to jail."
It's unclear if authorities saw that second video before they arrested A$AP, but they have seen it now. What's really significant ... Swedish prosecutors tell us they are releasing the bodyguard now due to "insufficient evidence" but they are not releasing A$AP. That suggests the second video doesn't do it for prosecutors, and they still view this as an assault.
This is really serious for A$AP ... if convicted, he faces 6 years in prison.
