Month: December 2021

Jussie Smollett was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct on Thursday, stemming from a January 2019 incident in which the actor alleged he had been attacked because of his race and sexual orientation. A Chicago jury reached guilty verdicts on five of six charges against Smollett. The decision came after nearly 10 hours of deliberation spread across two days from a panel of six men and six women. The charges, class four felonies, could result in up to three years of prison time. Given Smollett’s lack of a criminal history, it is unclear if he will be sentenced to any time in prison.

During the trial, Smollett testified that he had been attacked by two masked men while walking home around 2 a.m. The actor said the men beat him, shouted racist and homophobic comments, poured a chemical substance on him, looped a rope around his neck and then fled. Two brothers, Ola and Abel Osundairo, were arrested in February 2019 for allegedly being connected to the attack. The Osundairos told police that Smollett wrote them a check for $3,500 to carry out the purported attack. Smollett contested that the $3,500 check was given to the brothers for meal and workout plans. His attorneys alleged that the brothers made up the story about the attack being staged and said they would not testify against Smollett if they were paid $1 million each.

Jussie Smollett’s attorney, Nenye Uche, said he “respectfully disagrees” with the jury’s verdict, adding that he feels “100% confident” that Smollett’s case will be won on appeal.”  Uche said:  “He [Smollett] is 100% confident that this will be reversed on appeal. At the end of the day, we believe justice will prevail. We don’t believe it was done today but we’re very confident that he will be cleared and he will be found to be innocent.”

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A federal jury in Arkansas on Thursday convicted former reality TV star Josh Duggar of downloading and possessing child pornography. The jury in Fayetteville found the 33-year-old Duggar guilty on one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography. He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count when he’s sentenced at a later date.

Duggar and his family starred on TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” until the network canceled the show in 2015, following revelations that he had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. Authorities began investigating the abuse in 2006 after receiving a tip from a family friend but concluded that the statute of limitations on any possible charges had expired. At that time, Duggar’s parents said he had confessed and apologized; and Josh Duggar himself later apologized for a pornography addiction and for cheating on his wife.

Federal authorities said they began investigating Duggar on the child pornography charges after a Little Rock police detective found child porn files were being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. A federal agent testified in May that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned. Duggar’s attorney argued that someone else downloaded or uploaded the images onto Duggar’s computer.

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Warner Bros. released the latest trailer for the The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth film in the Matrix franchise and the first since Matrix Revolutions in 2003.  The movie features Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Jada Pinkett Smith revisiting their roles. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, Christina Ricci, and more were also added to the cast, which will be directed by Lana Wachowski (the first three were directed by her and her sister Lilly.)

The big reveal in the latest trailer is that Neo will be teaming up with Trinity (which may seem confusing to viewers, since they both died in the last Matrix movie.)   Matrix Resurrections will hit theaters and HBO Max on December 22, 2021. Check out the latest trailer – here.

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Tom Holland has confirmed he’ll be playing Fred Astaire, the legendary actor, dancer, and singer, who starred along with Ginger Rogers in a series of classic musicals.

“Oh, I am playing Fred Astaire,” he told reporters. “The script came in a week ago; I haven’t read it yet. They haven’t given it to me. I know Amy Pascal has the script. She FaceTimed me earlier when I was in the bath and we had a lovely FaceTime. But I will be playing Fred Astaire.”  Pascal, former Sony Pictures executive and producer of the Spider-Man franchise, previously said that she wanted to cast Holland as Astaire.

Holland started his career in 2008 on the London stage, starring in Billy Elliott the Musical, based on the 2000 film of the same name, about a boy who just wants to dance.  Holland’s latest film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, premieres in theaters on December 17.

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HBO Max released the first teaser trailer for “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts,” which reunites the cast to mark two decades since the release of the franchise’s first movie, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

In the teaser, a woman who might be Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) holds up a copy of the wizarding newspaper The Daily Prophet with the headline, “Hogwarts Welcomes Back Alumni.” As the trailer continues, several stars from the series receive their invitations to the reunion special. Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) receives an invitation addressed to him at “The Coffee Shop, Chelsea,” while Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) receives a letter emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest. Mark Williams (Mr. Weasley) is spotted on board the Hogwarts Express, and a woman who looks like Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) strides down Platform 9 ¾.

The reunion special premieres Jan. 1, 2022 and will feature interviews with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Watson, as well as several other cast members including Ralph Fiennes, Gary Oldman and Jason Isaacs.

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Nick Cannon announced Tuesday on “The Nick Cannon Show” that his youngest son, 5-month-old Zen, has died of brain cancer. Cannon and Alyssa Scott welcomed Zen back in June, making him Cannon’s seventh child.

The 41-year-old shared how he and his family discovered Zen was battling Hydrocephalus, a form of brain cancer. Said Cannon: “I always noticed he had a cough and so I wanted to check it out. He had this interesting breathing and by the time he was two months I noticed he had this nice sized head too — a Cannon head. We didn’t think anything of it. But I wanted to take him to the doctor for his sinus and breathing. We thought it would be routine.”  However, the family discovered that Zen had fluid building in his head and it was a malignant tumor; he underwent brain surgery and a shunt to drain the fluid.

Sadly, Cannon said that Zen took a turn for the worse at Thanksgiving, sharing: “This weekend I made an effort to spend the most quality time with Zen. We woke up on Sunday and went to the ocean with him and Alyssa and then I had to fly back to New York for the show. I got a call on my way to the airport to head back to Zen”.  He told viewers he was at work so soon after Zen’s death because this is all he knows, calling the episode a “special show dedicated to my beautiful son, Zen.”  Cannon will now be taking some time off; he was was scheduled to have two show tapings on Monday, however those were canceled on Sunday and a pre-taped episode was aired on Monday instead.

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