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Five charged over Matthew Perry’s death

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Five people have been charged in the drug-related death of Matthew Perry last year, police say, including two doctors and the actor’s personal assistant.

Police said on Thursday that their investigation, launched in May, uncovered a “broad underground criminal network” of drug suppliers who distributed large quantities of ketamine.

Perry, 54, died at his Los Angeles home in October. A post-mortem examination found a high concentration of ketamine in his blood and determined the “acute effects” of the controlled substance had killed him.

“These defendants took advantage of Mr Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves,” US Attorney Martin Estrada said on Thursday. “They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr Perry, but they did it anyway.

Three of the defendants – including Perry’s assistant – have already pleaded guilty to drug charges, while two others – a doctor and a woman known as “The Ketamine Queen” – were arrested on Thursday, according to the justice department.

Ketamine – a powerful anaesthetic – is used as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain. People close to Perry, who starred as one of the lead characters on the NBC television show Friends, told a coroner’s investigation after his death that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy.

But his last session had taken place more than a week before his death. The medical examiner said the ketamine in Perry’s system could not have been from the infusion therapy because of the drug’s short half-life.

The levels of ketamine in his body were as high as the amount given during general anaesthesia, according to the medical examiner.

An indictment filed in federal court detailed the elaborate drug purchasing scheme that prosecutors say ultimately led to Perry’s death.

Prosecutors said Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, worked with two doctors to provide the actor with over $50,000 (£38,000) of ketamine in the weeks before his death.

Officials argued those involved in the scheme tried to profit from Perry’s well-known substance abuse issues. One of the doctors, Salvador Plasencia, is alleged to have written in a text message: “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”

Mr Plasencia, 42, provided Perry ketamine “outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose”, according to the indictment.

He also allegedly taught Iwamasa how to inject Perry with ketamine without proper safety procedures and surveillance, the police indictment says.

In the four days before his death, Iwamasa gave Perry at least 27 shots of ketamine, prosecutors alleged.

He did so even after a large dose of ketamine earlier that month caused Perry to “freeze up”, leading Mr Plasencia to advise against a similar-sized dose in the future, prosecutors said. The doctor still left several vials of the drug with the actor and his assistant after the incident, according to the indictment.

Others charged in the case include Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “Ketamine Queen” who supplied the drug to Plasencia through the help of two other co-defendants, Erik Fleming and doctor Mark Chavez

Chavez, Fleming and Iwamasa have all pleaded guilty.

Ms Sangha and Mr Plasencia both made their initial appearances in Los Angeles court on Thursday afternoon and pleaded not guilty, the US Department of Justice said.

Both suspects had tentative trial dates set for October. Mr Plasencia was given a bond of $100,000 and Ms Sangha was ordered to be held without bond.

Prosecutors say the defendants attempted to cover up their alleged crimes after Perry’s death.

Ms Sangha allegedly texted another suspect, telling him to “delete all our messages”. Mr Plasencia also falsified medical records, according to the indictment.

Drowning was also listed as a contributing factor in Perry’s death, which was ruled an accident. Other contributing factors were coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder.

At the height of his fame, Perry was battling with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, and attended rehabilitation on multiple occasions. He detailed his struggle with substance use in his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

In 2016, he told BBC Radio 2 that he could not remember three years of filming during Friends, because of drink and drugs.

After attempts at treatment, he wrote in his memoir that he had been mostly sober since 2001 – “save for about 60 or 70 mishaps”.

(BBC News)

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Fab four stars revealed for major Beatles films

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Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan have been confirmed as part of the all-star line-up who will play members of the Beatles in four major new films about the band.

Normal People and Gladiator II actor Mescal will portray Sir Paul McCartney, while Saltburn star Keoghan will step into Ringo Starr’s shoes.

The acting supergroup will also feature Harris Dickinson, who was most recently seen opposite Nicole Kidman in Babygirl, as John Lennon.

And Joseph Quinn will go from Marvel’s Fantastic Four to the Fab Four, playing George Harrison in the big-screen quadrilogy, which will be directed by Sir Sam Mendes.

The Oscar-winning director was joined by the four actors for the announcement at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Monday.

Each film will focus on a different member of the legendary group.

“Each one is told from the particular perspective of just one of the guys,” Sir Sam told the event. “They intersect in different ways – sometimes overlapping, sometimes not.

“They’re four very different human beings. Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply. But together, all four films will tell the story of the greatest band in history.”

The films will be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.

The director explained: “I just felt the story of the band was too huge to fit into a single movie, and that turning it into a TV mini-series just somehow didn’t feel right.”

(BBC News)

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Dua Lipa wins copyright case over Levitating

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Dua Lipa has won the dismissal of a lawsuit that accused her of copying her hit single Levitating from two other songs.

The star was sued in 2022 by songwriters L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who accused her of plagiarising their 1979 disco track Wiggle and Giggle All Night and 1980’s Don Diablo.

On Thursday, US Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that the songs only had generic similarities, including non-copyrightable musical elements that had also previously been used by Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the Bee Gees in their song Stayin’ Alive.

It is the second time that Lipa has won a plagiarism case over Levitating, which was a global hit in 2020.

She was previously sued by Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System, who claimed Lipa ripped off the chorus for her song from their 2015 track Live Your Life.

Their case was dropped in 2023 after a judge ruled there was no evidence that Lipa and her co-writers had “access” to the earlier song – a key requirement in any copyright lawsuit.

However, she is still facing a third legal challenge over the song, from musician Bosko Kante – a featured artist on Levitating, who sang vocals through a talk box.

He sued in 2023, saying his contribution had been used on remixes of the song without permission.

Kante is seeking damages of at least $2m (£1.5m) plus interest, as well as profits from the remixes, which he estimated as being at least $20m (£15m).

Brown and Linzer’s case alleged that Lipa stole the opening melody of Levitating, where she sings: “If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy and I can take you for a ride.”

They called the melody and phrasing a “duplicate” of their own songs.

But Judge Failla wrote that the elements were too common to be protected by law.

“The court finds that a musical style, defined by plaintiffs as ‘pop with a disco feel,’ and a musical function, defined by plaintiffs to include ‘entertainment and dancing,’ cannot possibly be protectable,” the judge wrote.

“To hold otherwise would be to completely foreclose the further development of music in that genre or for that purpose.”

By coincidence, the ruling came on the fifth anniversary of Levitating’s release, initially as an album track on Lipa’s award-winning album Future Nostalgia.

In a statement to music industry publication Billboard, lawyers for Brown and Linzer said they “respectfully disagreed” with the decision and would file an appeal.

The BBC has contacted Dua Lipa for a response.

(BBC News)

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‘Wild Cookbook’ makes YouTube history with 10mn. subscribers

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Popular YouTube channel – ‘Wild Cookbook’ has become the first Sri Lankan channel to surpass 10 million subscribers.

Accordingly, it has also become the first YouTube channel to bag YouTube”s prestigious Diamond Play button.

Launching the channel in 2020, Sri Lankan chef and content creator – Charith N. Silva has captivated his audiences through his unique cooking videos, amassing over 4 billion views across 600+ videos since.

Announcing his milestone on social media, Mr. Silva has expressed his love and gratitude and has been flooded by felicitations from his massive fanbase.

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