Tag: celebrities

Georgia’s Democrat Governor-Elect Keisha Lance Bottoms Names Tyler Perry for Transition Team as He Faces Sexual Assault Lawsuit

The transition team for Georgia’s Democrat governor-elect, Keisha Lance Bottoms, includes media mogul Tyler Perry who in recent years was accused of sexual assault and harassment.

Georgia elected Bottoms on Tuesday as its first Democrat governor in over 20 years, Breitbart News reported.

During a press conference on Friday, the former Atlanta mayor said she had tapped Perry to join her transition team, according to the Hill.

Per the Hill:

The “Madea” creator began his entertainment career in Atlanta, and his production company, Tyler Perry Studios, is based in the city. Bottoms previously worked as an executive producer on one of Perry’s shows, Netflix’s “Miss Governor” — a political comedy that ran for one season and ended in 2025, according to film database IMDB.

Bottoms’s transition team included a lineup of prominent Georgia figures — including Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, former Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer, nonprofit leader Michelle Nunn and Delta Air Lines executive Richard Cox, among others.

Perry, who campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris (D) in 2024 before she lost the White House to President Donald Trump, was seen stuffing fake bills into the panties of a stripper during an Usher concert, Breitbart News reported in October 2024.

The following year, the outlet said, “Tyler Perry is reportedly being sued by The Oval actor Derek Dixon, who is accusing the Hollywood mogul of alleged sexual assault and years of harassment.”

In a statement regarding the allegations, Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, said, “This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam… But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

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Defense Attorney For Former Crips Leader Found Guilty in Murder of Rapper Tupac Shakur Found Dead in His Vegas Home

Michael Sanft, the 55-year-old defense attorney who represented former Crips leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who was found guilty in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, was found dead in his Las Vegas home on Friday.

Details surrounding Michael Sanft’s death are unclear.

A Las Vegas jury in August found former Crips gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.

25-year-old Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, in September 1996.

Rap record executive Suge Knight was driving a BMW while Tupac was riding as a passenger when passengers in a white Cadillac pulled up and opened fire on the rapper.

Prosecutors did not allege that Duane Davis pulled the trigger, but under Nevada law, anyone who helps aid, abet, or orchestrate a murder can be criminally charged.

Duane Davis is the only person to be charged in the murder of Tupac Shakur.

Michael Sanft reportedly died Thursday night just days after he filed a notice of appeal of the conviction.

Fox 5 Vegas reported:

Michael Sanft, the defense attorney who represented Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the Tupac Shakur murder trial, has died.

Sources tell FOX5 that Sanft was reported dead on Thursday night in Las Vegas. On Friday, the Clark County Coroner’s Office confirmed the 55 year old’s passing.

A cause and manner of death remains pending. Details surrounding his death are limited, with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department referring all inquiries to the coroner’s office.

Sanft was the lead trial attorney at SOS Injury Lawyers, where he tried over 150 cases to jury verdict and argued before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. According to his website, he moved to San Diego at the age of 12 and later attended BYU-Hawaii.

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100 years later, the mystery of Houdini’s death endures

Harry Houdini, the greatest escape artist who ever lived, has been the subject of hundreds of books and movies. A pop icon, even today. He died 100 years ago this week, on Halloween – a coincidence that did nothing to diminish his mystique. But we’ll get to that.

Erik Weisz was born in Hungary, in 1874. When he was four, the family moved to Wisconsin. As a teenager, he performed magic tricks in sideshows and beer halls. “He was a skinny kid, and he built himself up,” said New Yorker staff writer David Denby. “He became this beautiful, incredible body, and he was a handsome man.”

But according to Denby, he wanted a catchier name. He turned to his idol, Houdin, the great French magician of the 19th century: “So, he took the name Houdin and added an i and pronounced it as Houdini. But the name always sounded funny. It’s vaguely Italian, but it’s not. What is it?”

Houdini historian Roger Dreyer owns one of the world’s largest collections of Houdini artifacts, such as the Metamorphosis Trunk. He says Houdini’s magic tricks didn’t exactly bring the house down. “If he was to perform it today, he wouldn’t even make it past the second round on ‘America’s Got Talent,'” Dreyer said. “It wasn’t until his Metamorphosis Trunk that Houdini really became bookable; theaters wanted to see his act. People today, over 100 years after Houdini’s death, still perform this exact same trick.”

After being locked in a trunk, Houdini switched places with his new wife, Bess, instantly. But once he added handcuff escapes to his show, Houdini became a sensation. Denby said, “He would be put in a cell, virtually naked, shackled. He’d come out 20 minutes later holding the handcuffs. The specialists were called out of their corners to produce the most complicated locks for him. He’d lick it every time. There’s no record of his failure.”

Denby says there was symbolism in his escapes: “He would defeat those police forces all over the world. And so, there was definitely a kind of anti-authoritarian message that people liked.”

In time, the act was more than escaping shackles. It became about escaping death. “He always reinvented himself,” Dreyer said. “Initially, he got out of a trunk. Then Houdini got out of a straitjacket. Then Houdini would get out of a straitjacket hanging from a crane. Then Houdini would go inside a live jumbo water tank upside down.”

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Hillary Clinton Slams Matthew McConaughey Over “Really Unfortunate” Calls to Support Independent Candidates

Failed Presidential Candidate and former First Lady Hillary Clinton appeared on a liberal podcast yesterday, where she slammed actor Matthew McConaughey over recent comments he made, innocently reminding people that they have the right to vote for whoever they want this election cycle.

McConaughey posted a social media video this week, reminding people that they don’t need to vote just Republican or Democrat this November, arguing that “Independents belong in the fight,” while noting, “I’m not telling you who to vote for.”

“They’ve been telling us for years that an independent vote is a wasted vote. Well, a great question for our times is: has that unwasted vote been working out for you?” he said.

“I’m telling you to look at your ballot, study up, see if they represent you, what you believe in, check if they can be that voice of reason in the middle for you, and if they can, treat them like a potential winner because they can be.”

Kara Swisher played the clip and asked Hillary Clinton for her thoughts on her “High Stakes” podcast yesterday.

It was basically a thought crime for Clinton, who suggested that it was irresponsible for McConaughey to use his platform in such a way, “two weeks before a midterm.”

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Vance fraud task force uncovers $42M in food stamp thefts — including lewd rapper who literally set cash on fire

A Trump administration fraud task force has uncovered nearly $42 million in food stamp funds meant for needy families that were instead stolen to support criminal activities as well as the lavish lifestyle of a rapper with multiple arrests — including for repeatedly exposing himself to pee off his apartment balcony.

Vice President JD Vance and members of the Departments of Justice and Agriculture held a press conference in Cincinnati Wednesday highlighting the cases involving more than 40 defendants operating schemes that bilked the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and related programs.

“Two-hundred twenty thousand Americans could’ve eaten for the entire month of October if it were not for this $42 million in fraud,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “We’ve indicted men and women in 13 different districts just in the past seven weeks, and that effort will continue for as long as it takes.”

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Newly unsealed files renew questions about potential accomplice in O.J. Simpson case

More than three decades after the 1994 killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, newly unsealed federal court records have brought renewed attention to a possible lead involving Joseph “Joey” Ippolito, a convicted drug trafficker and federal informant with connections to O.J. Simpson and his longtime confidant Al Cowlings.

A report by The New York Times, based on recently unsealed court documents and interviews, details Ippolito’s cooperation with federal authorities following his recapture after escaping from a Florida federal prison in 1994. Ippolito had relocated to Southern California, where he managed an Italian restaurant in Santa Monica, and was reportedly acquainted with both Simpson and Cowlings.

A December 1996 letter from a federal prosecutor seeking leniency for Ippolito described him as a valuable source who possessed information relevant to the Simpson case, including details concerning Simpson’s purported disposal of the murder weapon, which investigators never recovered.

The records have renewed questions about whether another person may have assisted Simpson in the aftermath of the killings, although they do not independently establish that Ippolito participated in the crimes.

Ippolito’s brother, Sam, separately told The New York Times that Joey returned home on the night of the killings with what appeared to be blood on his hands and a bag containing a heavy object. Sam alleged that his brother asked him to dispose of the bag. However, Sam later attempted to retract his account after the newspaper declined his request for compensation, raising questions about the reliability of his statements.

Former lead prosecutor Marcia Clark said she had not been informed of Ippolito during the original criminal proceedings and questioned whether he had provided credible or relevant evidence. Surfacing reports suggest that federal authorities shared information concerning Ippolito with Los Angeles prosecutors as Simpson’s criminal trial was nearing its conclusion.

Simpson was acquitted of the murders in 1995 but was subsequently found liable for the wrongful deaths of Brown and Goldman in a 1997 civil trial. He died in 2024.

Malcolm LaVergne, executor of Simpson’s estate, later cautioned against “drawing definitive conclusions from renewed allegations” concerning events that the principal individuals involved can no longer address.

The Los Angeles Police Department has also confirmed that the double-homicide case remains open and ongoing. The department stated that detectives will pursue viable investigative leads if any new evidence emerges.

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Rosie O’Donnell Claims Elon Musk Could Use Satellites to Rig Midterm Elections in Bizarre TikTok Rant

Deranged comedienne Rosie O’Donnell has suggested that Elon Musk could use his Starlink satellites to manipulate the upcoming midterm elections.

In a video posted to TikTok, O’Donnell expressed hope that a sufficiently large turnout would prevent Republicans from interfering with the election results.

“When this is over — hopefully on November 4th when people show up en masse and they cannot rig the election or use Elon Musk’s satellites to alter the election because the turnout will be so large — hopefully then we will be able to see a tremendous decline in the MAGA cult,” she declared.

O’Donnell offered no evidence for her unusual claims.

Similar allegations spread among anti-Trump activists following the 2024 presidential election, with some suggesting that Musk’s Starlink satellite network had been used to manipulate voting machines.

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Florida Judge Denies Rapper Rick Ross Special Treatment After Attorney Plays the Fame Card: “I Have No Idea Who You Are”

If you attempt to play the “fame card” in Judge Mindy Glazer’s courtroom, you will not have any luck.

Rapper Rick Ross found out the hard way.

William Roberts II, whose stage name is Rick Ross, turned himself in to Florida authorities on Thursday morning and was charged with two counts of battery.

Later on Thursday, the rapper appeared in the Miami-Dade Bond Court before Judge Mindy Glazer, where his attorney requested that his client be expedited from Miami-Dade County Jail because he’s a celebrity.

Judge Glazer, without missing a breath, quickly responded, “Hi, Mr. Roberts. I have no idea who you are, except as somebody here in the court who’s going to be treated fairly just like everybody else here,”

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Talarico to Fundraise with Wall Street Financiers, Jeweler Who Called America a ‘Sh*thole’

Texas Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico is scheduled to attend a high-dollar fundraiser in New York City on Monday alongside former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), with Wall Street financiers, Hollywood figures, and a jewelry designer and filmmaker who has publicly criticized the United States and its flag among those involved in the event.

The September 28 fundraiser, hosted by actor Robert De Niro and other prominent Democrat donors, is scheduled to take place at an undisclosed location in downtown Manhattan, with top tickets costing $27,000. Actress Gina Gershon is also expected to attend.

The event comes as Talarico promotes his campaign as a “people powered” movement to “take back Texas,” despite receiving a majority of his campaign contributions from outside the state.

According to figures reported by the Texas Tribune in July, more than 55 percent of Talarico’s contributions came from out-of-state donors, while approximately 44 percent came from Texas. By comparison, Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton received 82 percent of his contributions from Texas and 18 percent from outside the state.

The New York fundraiser’s host committee includes Charles Alaimo, a Democrat megadonor and managing director at Group One Trading; Cedomir Crnkovic, a former managing director at investment firm D. E. Shaw & Co. and current board member of Inclusive Abundance; and Charles Myers, founder and chairman of Signum Global Advisors and a former adviser to Hillary Clinton.

Other participants include Jane Rosenthal, cofounder of the Tribeca Film Festival, who has lived in a $40 million condominium on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and Bill Derrough, a corporate banker at Jefferies.

Also listed on the host committee is Alexis Bittar, a jewelry designer and filmmaker who has publicly supported several progressive Democrat candidates and criticized the United States and its flag.

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 Actresses Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder Handcuffed While Protesting Netanyahu’s UN Speech

Actresses Hannah Einbinder and Susan Sarandon were taken into custody Thursday outside the United Nations in New York during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the General Assembly.

Jewish Voice for Peace organized the protest, which took place a few blocks from the UN headquarters on Thursday.

Protesters wore matching shirts that read “Fund people not bombs” and carried banners including “Stop Arming Israel” and “End the Genocide.”

Chants captured on video included “Netanyahu, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide,” “Let Gaza live,” and “Stop arming Israel.”

An NYPD spokesperson said Community Affairs officers warned the crowd to leave.

“They continued to block the intersection. Multiple individuals who didn’t comply were taken into custody,” the spokesperson said, without giving a final headcount.

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