Entertainment

Blake Lively accuses co-star Justin Baldoni of smear campaign

Published

4 weeks ago

December 23, 2024

editor

Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment and a campaign to “destroy” her reputation.

According to the legal filing, she accuses Mr Baldoni and his team of attacking her public image following a meeting in which she brought along her actor husband, Ryan Reynolds, to address “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Mr Baldoni and a producer on the movie.

Mr Baldoni’s legal team told the BBC the allegations are “categorically false” and said they hired a crisis manager because Ms Lively had threatened to derail the film unless her demands were met.

In the romantic drama, Ms Lively plays a woman who finds herself in a relationship with a charming but abusive boyfriend, played by Mr Baldoni.

The meeting between Ms Lively and Mr Baldoni, together with others involved in the movie’s production, took place on 4 January this year, and it aimed to address “the hostile work environment” on set, says the legal filing.

Ms Lively’s husband, Deadpool star Mr Reynolds, who did not appear in It Ends With Us, joined her at the showdown, according to the legal complaint, which is one step before a lawsuit.

Mr Baldoni, 40, attended the meeting in his capacity as co-chairman and co-founder of the company that produced the film, Wayfarer Studios. He was also the film’s director.

In the legal complaint, Ms Lively’s lawyers allege that both Mr Baldoni and the Wayfarer chief executive officer, Jamey Heath, engaged in “inappropriate and unwelcome behavior towards Ms Lively and others on the set of It Ends With Us”.

In the filing to the California Civil Rights Department, a list of 30 demands relating to the pair’s alleged misconduct was made at the meeting to ensure they could continue to produce the film.

Among them, Ms Lively, 37, requested that there be no more mention of Mr Baldoni and Mr Heath’s previous “pornography addiction” to Ms Lively or to other crew members, no more descriptions of their own genitalia to Ms Lively, and “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex, or on camera climaxing by BL [Blake Lively] outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project”, says the complaint.

Ms Lively also demanded that Mr Baldoni stop saying he could speak to her dead father.

(BBC News)

Entertainment

Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan stabbed

Published

20 hours ago

January 16, 2025

editor

Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan sustained serious injuries early Wednesday morning after an intruder broke into his 11th-floor apartment in Bandra (West), Mumbai.
The incident, suspected to be an attempted burglary, escalated into violence when Saif Ali Khan confronted the assailant.

He was stabbed six times, with one injury dangerously close to his spine. Khan is currently undergoing treatment at Lilavati Hospital.

Saif Ali Khan’s team has issued a statement in this regard.

“There was an attempted burglary at Mr Saif Ali Khan’s residence. He is currently in hospital undergoing a surgery. We request the media and fans to be patient. It is a police matter We will keep you updated on the situation,” read the statement.

(TOI)

Entertainment

Russell Brand fined after being caught speeding

Published

7 days ago

January 10, 2025

editor

Actor and comedian Russell Brand has pleaded guilty to speeding.

The 49-year-old was caught driving his Mini at 95mph on the M4 near Slough on 16 June 2024.

He also drove the car at 37mph in a 30mph zone in Shiplake, near his Oxfordshire home, on 23 March, High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court heard.

The former Radio 2 presenter was fined £3,457 and handed eight points on his licence.

Brand, who did not attend the short hearing, was handed three penalty points for the 37mph breach, and five for the 95mph speeding on top of the three points already on his licence – bringing his total to 11.

Drivers who get 12 or more penalty points within a three-year period face a ban.

Brand is currently under investigation by police over allegations of sex crimes made against him by multiple women.

An evidence file has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide if he should face charges.

It came after a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches revealed last year that four women had accused him of sexual assaults between 2006 and 2013.

Brand denies the allegations and previously said all his sexual relationships were “absolutely always consensual”.

(BBC News)

Entertainment

Hacker stole unreleased Coldplay and Rexha tracks

Published

2 weeks ago

January 4, 2025

editor

A cyber hacker has pleaded guilty to stealing unreleased music from artists including Coldplay, Canadian singer Shawn Mendes and US singer Bebe Rexha.

Skylar Dalziel made about £42,000 by selling the tracks online, according to City of London Police.

Prosecutor Richard Partridge said she “selfishly used their music to make money for herself by selling it on the dark web”.

The 22-year-old, of Winchester Gardens in Luton, admitted 11 copyright offences at Luton Crown Court and was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months.

Det Con Daryl Fryatt, from the force’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said: “Stealing copyrighted material for your own financial gain is illegal.

“It jeopardises the work of artists and the livelihoods of the people who work with them to create and release their music.”

Dalziel got hold of the music by illegally accessing cloud storage accounts linked to the artists.

The thefts came to light when Sony Music Entertainment discovered a cloud account owned by Upsahl had been compromised and reported it to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in June 2021.

Forty unreleased tracks had been extracted and were being sold online, police said.

The IFPI and the Recording Industry Association of America identified an account on an online forum selling unreleased music from various artists and that account was linked to Dalziel.

Officers said they arrested Dalziel on 9 January 2023 and seized three drives which contained 291,941 music tracks.

They also found a spreadsheet which showed she had sold tracks to customers and her PayPal and bank accounts revealed she had received £42,049 from April 2021 to January 2023.

Some of this money was transferred to bank accounts in the US and City of London Police said it was working with Homeland Security Investigations to identify the people linked to the accounts.

Dalziel pleaded guilty to 11 counts of making for sale an article without licence of the copyright’s owner, one count of transferring criminal property and three counts of acquiring/using/possessing criminal property.

She was also sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work.

Det Con Fryatt said the sentencing “sends a clear message that we have the ability and tools to locate cyber criminals and hold them to account for their actions”.

(BBC News)