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Two men who allege Michael Jackson sexually abused them when they were boys should not have had their cases dismissed, judges at a US court have said.

Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who claim Jackson abused them for years, will now be allowed to pursue lawsuits against companies owned by the late singer.

It’s the second time the lawsuits – which were brought by Robson in 2013 and Safechuck in 2014 – have been brought back after dismissal.

Both men detailed their claims of abuse in the 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland.

James Safechuck is pictured aged 10 with Jackson
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James Safechuck is pictured aged 10 with Jackson

Robson, now a 40-year-old choreographer, met Jackson when he was five years old. He went on to appear in three Jackson music videos.

His lawsuit alleged that Jackson molested him over a seven-year period.

Safechuck, now 45, said in his suit that he was nine when he met Jackson while filming a Pepsi commercial. He said Jackson called him often and lavished him with gifts before moving on to sexually abusing him.

A three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal has now found that their lawsuits should not have been dismissed by a lower court.

Michael Jackson died in June 2009

Legal row over duty to protect children

A judge who dismissed the suits in 2021 found that the corporations – MJJ Productions Inc and MJJ Ventures Inc – who were both named as defendants in the case, could not be expected to function like the Boy Scouts or a church where a child in their care could expect their protection.

But the latest decision means that Robson and Safechuck can now validly claim the corporations had a responsibility to protect them.

Jackson, who died in 2009, was the sole owner and only shareholder in both companies.

In their report, the higher court judges wrote: “A corporation that facilitates the sexual abuse of children by one of its employees is not excused from an affirmative duty to protect those children merely because it is solely owned by the perpetrator of the abuse.”

They added: “It would be perverse to find no duty based on the corporate defendant having only one shareholder. And so, we reverse the judgments entered for the corporations.”

‘We remain fully confident Michael is innocent’

Jonathan Steinsapir, attorney for the Jackson estate, said they were “disappointed” by the decision.

Mr Steinsapir told The Associated Press: “Two distinguished trial judges repeatedly dismissed these cases on numerous occasions over the last decade because the law required it.

“We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which are contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration, and which were only first made years after Michael’s death by men motivated solely by money.”

Vince Finaldi, an attorney for Robson and Safechuck, said in an email that they were “pleased but not surprised” that the court overturned the previous judge’s “incorrect rulings in these cases, which were against California law and would have set a dangerous precedent that endangered children throughout state and country. We eagerly look forward to a trial on the merits”.

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Mr Steinsapir had argued for the defence in July that it does not make sense that employees would be legally required to stop the behaviour of their boss, saying: “It would require low-level employees to confront their supervisor and call them paedophiles.”

He also said the parents of the boys had not expected company staff to monitor Jackson’s actions.

Holly Boyer, another attorney for Robson and Safechuck, countered that the boys “were left alone in this lion’s den by the defendant’s employees. An affirmative duty to protect and to warn is correct”.

In a concurring opinion issued with Friday’s decision, one of the panellists, Associate Justice John Shepard Wiley Jr, wrote that “to treat Jackson’s wholly-owned instruments as different from Jackson himself is to be mesmerised by abstractions. This is not an alter ego case. This is a same ego case”.

The judges did not rule on the truth of the allegations themselves. That will be the subject of a forthcoming jury trial in Los Angeles.

Jackson always denied any allegations he was involved in abusing underage boys.

His Neverland Ranch, in California, was sold in December 2020 for $22m (£16m).

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Friends star David Schwimmer urges Elon Musk to remove Kanye West from X after ‘hate-filled, ignorant’ comments

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Friends star David Schwimmer urges Elon Musk to remove Kanye West from X after 'hate-filled, ignorant' comments

Friends star David Schwimmer has called on X owner Elon Musk to remove Kanye West from the platform.

It comes after the US rapper, also known as Ye, appeared to write a barrage of posts on his social media account, making offensive comments, including about Jewish people.

Many of the musician’s X posts on Friday centred on the Jewish community, the most severe of which said “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi”.

Another post said: “I’m never apologising for my Jewish comments.”

Musk has lashed out at a supreme court judge over an expected shutdown of X. File pic: Reuters
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X owner Elon Musk. File pic: Reuters

On Saturday, Schwimmer, who is Jewish, urged Mr Musk to remove West from X because of his “hate-filled, ignorant bile”.

The US actor said on his Instagram account: “This is so 2022.

“We can’t stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate filled, ignorant bile… but we CAN stop giving him a megaphone, Mr. Musk.

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“Kanye West has 32.7 million followers on your platform, X. That’s twice as many people than the number of Jews in existence.

“His sick hate speech results in REAL LIFE violence against Jews.

“I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that he identifies as a Nazi (which implies he wants to exterminate ALL marginalized communities including his own) or the fact that there is not sufficient OUTRAGE to remove and ban him from all social media at this point.”

“Silence is complicity,” he added.

A while later, West was posting more offensive comments about Jewish people.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has also called for Mr Musk to remove West from X.

Grammys controversy

A week ago, the rapper and his wife Bianca Censori caused a stir at the Grammy Awards, when she wore a seemingly transparent dress on the red carpet as he stood next to her.

Read more from Sky News:
Oasis fans say Ticketmaster cancelled orders over ‘bot’ claims
Is Bridget Jones a heroine of our time or an absolute disgrace?

West has had his X account suspended at least twice in the past.

It was suspended in December 2022 after he made antisemitic comments and praised Hitler.

Mr Musk said at the time the account would be suspended after he posted an image that appeared to show a swastika inside a Star of David.

Mr Musk said the suspension was “for incitement to violence”. The account was unsuspended by July 2023.

In October 2022, West’s account was restricted over antisemitic comments but he returned to the platform the following month. In that case, he also made antisemitic remarks that led to Adidas cutting ties with the rapper.

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Oasis fans say Ticketmaster cancelled orders over ‘bot’ claims

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Oasis fans say Ticketmaster cancelled orders over 'bot' claims

Oasis fans have claimed Ticketmaster has cancelled their tickets for the band’s reunion tour, accusing them of being bots.

After Liam and Noel Gallagher announced a limited run of stadium shows last summer, thousands of fans logged on to Ticketmaster in hopes of seeing the band play live for the first time since 2009.

However, the event company is currently under investigation over their use of dynamic pricing – which saw prices for a standard ticket double from £148 to £355.

Several fans have now said that they received emails from Ticketmaster which claimed the use of bots was identified in their ticket purchases and cancelled them as a result.

Leighah Conroy, 24, had bought four tickets to see Oasis perform at Heaton Park in Manchester on 28 August last year – but was told on Friday that Ticketmaster “identified that bots were used to make this purchase”.

A person in a queue to access the Ticketmaster website on their phone, with the StubHub website in the background, detailing information about Oasis concert tickets for sale, in London. Oasis fans across the UK and Ireland who missed out on pre-sale tickets will be attempting to secure their place at the band's reunion concerts during Saturday's general sale. Issue date: Saturday August 31, 2024.
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TicketMaster came under criticism for the use of dynamic pricing for the reunion tour. Pic: PA

She told the PA news agency: “To say that we’re bots is totally out of order for Ticketmaster because we tried all day to get the tickets.

“Our heads have been pretty battered these past 24 hours. I felt sick in the stomach. It’s a band you’ll never experience or see again and it’s been on my bucket list for years.

“It just feels like my dreams have been completely crushed.”

Ms Conroy, from Cumbria, paid around £150 per ticket, and also spent £800 on a hotel and a further £40 for travel to the show.

Marta Bonnet, 48, from Spain, also said she received the same email on Friday. She said she spent more than £3,000 on tickets, flights and accommodation for herself, her husband and her children to see Oasis at Wembley Stadium on 3 August.

“At first we thought this email was fake or a spam email, but no it was true,” she added.

“We usually use Ticketmaster to buy our tickets… But now, how can I trust this page which is supposed to be the official page?

“I really can’t believe what has happened.”

A spokesperson for Ticketmaster said: “Anyone who has been contacted and believes a refund was made in error has been sent a form to fill in for the tour’s promoters to review.”

Read more:
Oasis announce more dates on world tour
Happy Mondays stars give thoughts on dynamic pricing

The Competition and Markets Authority said in September that it had launched an investigation into Ticketmaster’s Oasis gigs sale – calling for evidence from fans.

In November last year, Ticketmaster and See Tickets warned that thousands of tickets that were listed on unauthorised sites would start to be cancelled.

Oasis will begin their reunion tour on 4 July in Cardiff before playing another 16 dates in the UK and Ireland.

The tour then moves to Canada, the US, Mexico, and Australia.

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Bridget Jones: A heroine of our time or an absolute disgrace?

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Bridget Jones: A heroine of our time or an absolute disgrace?

A perennial singleton among the smug marrieds, with a passion for Chardonnay, big knickers and emotional f***wits.

Who is Bridget Jones and why is she beloved by so many?

Created by Helen Fielding as an anonymous way to write about being a single girl in London, Bridget first came to life in a weekly column in the Independent.

Fielding didn’t think it would last six weeks. She was very wrong, and Bridget Jones is still alive and kicking nearly three decades later with four novels, four movies and a legion of fans worldwide.

First off, we have to pay homage to Jane Austen. Without Pride And Prejudice, Bridget Jones wouldn’t exist.

The entire plot line of Bridget Jones’s Diary is built around the love triangle of Elizabeth Bennett, the dashing but aloof Mr Darcy and the absolute cad Mr Wickham – but retold in1990s London with Bridget, Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver.

As a drinking, smoking, swearing and non-corset-wearing Elizabeth Bennett, Bridget was a big hit. Set loose in the capital in the hedonistic ’90s, there was plenty of fun to be had, and plenty to poke fun at.

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Created pre-social media, we can only imagine a world in which Bridget was documenting her weight and alcohol units on TikTok instead of in her diary…

Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones's Diary. Pic: Moviestore/Shutterstock
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Pic: Moviestore/Shutterstock

The first movie

There was a media meltdown when American actress Renee Zellweger was cast as Bridget Jones, and the fact she put on 25lbs for the role was front-page news for months. It’s fair to say the obsession with Zellweger’s weight has pretty much continued to this day.

With life imitating art, while Bridget religiously notes her weight every day in her diary, the world became obsessed with Zellweger’s own size – very much proving the point that her character’s obsessive relationship with the scales reflected society’s obsession with female appearance.

Of course, we don’t know how tall Bridget is, so despite knowing her daily calorie intake and weight to the pound, we have no idea how big or small she actually is, just her own perception of her size.

Meanwhile, qualms over how convincing Zellweger would be at pulling off a British accent were quickly quashed when she nailed it, with the help of the same voice coach who worked with Gwyneth Paltrow on Shakespeare In Love. It’s faultless.

Pic: Rex Features
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Pic: Rex Features

Brat Bridget and feminist Marmite

Bridget was Brat long before Brat was a thing. Smoking like a chimney, with a questionable dress sense and sporting hair that – unlike pretty much 99% of films – looks messy and real, Bridget was relatable and became an instant icon to many women – particularly those over 35 – who felt largely ignored by society.

However, the character was feminist Marmite – while some loved Bridget, others hated her and everything she stood for.

Some felt her obsession with her appearance and finding a man flew in the face of what it meant to be an independent woman – and everything the first waves of the feminist movement had fought for.

Others thought that for a generation that had been told they could have it all, Bridget’s battles to try to achieve all that society told her she should, were a valiant attempt to triumph in an impossible situation.

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'BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY' - 2001 Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant,

29 May 2003
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Pic: Rex Features

Principled, honest and unwaveringly kind – while Bridget may not have been perfect, in an era of heroin chic, lad mags and outrageously unrealistic beauty standards, there were plenty less wholesome role models for young women to aspire to.

Pre-MeToo world

The first books and films came to life in a pre-MeToo world and boy do you know it – there’s lots of bum-pinching, and inappropriate comments in the office and beyond. Mr Tits Pervert was not an anomaly.

Helen Fielding has since said she was shocked when rewatching to note the amount of inappropriate behaviour Bridget has to put up with.

Each film has a structure running from the end of one year, through Christmas and New Year, and looking ahead to a new start.

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Why is Bridget Jones so popular?

Nostalgic soundtracks are a staple, with lip-synced favourites a mainstay of every film. If you’ve never cried into your wine glass while singing All By Myself, you’ve never lived.

The films also have a largely returning cast – who like Bridget have been in our lives for years. Watching them grow up from movie to movie – as we do too – is part of the joy.

We also get to look forward to a ‘Mr Darcy in the lake moment’ in every film – be it in a river, an aqua aerobic pre-natal class or a pond, with the latest re-enactment courtesy of a half-naked Leo Woodall – who incidentally was born in the year the first novel was published.

The fight scenes in the first two films have also become something of a cultural touchstone, largely thanks to the fact that middle-aged men ineffectually kicking each other while hopping around is rarely portrayed on the silver screen.

Pic: Rex Features
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Pic: Rex Features

The second film

Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason sees Bridget continue her unbelievably lucky streak when it comes to jobs. While she started out as a PR in a publishing house (most notably promoting the highbrow read Kafka’s Motorbike) she then stumbled into TV production, which quickly and inexplicably segued into becoming a TV presenter.

In this movie she lands the dream role of a travel presenter, despite a complete lack of geographical knowledge, and it provides the basis of the plot which revolves around getting stranded in Thailand after accidentally smuggling drugs.

We can’t ignore some issues around this one, not least scenes in a Thai jail in which Bridget sings some Madonna and then hands out bras and chocolate before being freed by Mark Darcy. The movie faced criticism for perpetuating “white saviour” stereotypes, and is not Bridget’s finest moment.

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Unexpected cameos punctuate the first three movies – from Salman Rushdie and Jeremy Paxman, to Paul Nicholls (aka Joe Wicks from EastEnders – a massive heartthrob at the time), to Ed Sheeran.

Pic: Rex Features
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Pic: Rex Features

The third film

Bridget Jones meets Three Men And A Baby in the third movie Bridget Jones’s Baby, with the novel actually following the film rather than vice versa. It was based on articles written by Fielding in 2005.

Spoiler alert – Hugh Grant wasn’t up for this one. Luckily, Patrick Dempsey – the man who played Dr McDreamy in Grey’s Anatomy – stepped in. It good-naturedly cracks through the challenges of having a baby as a geriatric, single-working mum and somehow picking the right guy at the end of it all. Bridget gets her fairytale wedding, her man and of course becomes a mum.

While the first couple of films contained more smoking than would be believed, this one saw the franchise ditch the habit, a reflection both of Bridget’s new responsibilities and the changing fashions of the time.

While Grant sat this one out, there was hope for fans that he would return thanks to a cheeky front-page splash at the end of the film declaring him alive and well a year after he was presumed dead following a plane crash (in the bush).

Renee Zellweger and Leo Woodall in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Pic: Universal Pictures
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Pic: Universal Pictures

The fourth film

It’s not quite a full-on reunion for the fourth film – but almost. Bridget’s life has taken some unexpected turns, and while Daniel Cleaver may have risen from the dead, there is a new and much bigger hole in her life.

You will need to take tissues into this one, unless you have a heart of stone.

While past casts have been notable for their lack of diversity, this one also looks a bit more like the multicultural capital Bridget lives in.

Bridget now has a shelf full of diaries and rye observances include a takedown of the dismissal of “women of a certain age”, a lip-filler-esque fail that pokes fun at attempts to cheat age and the baffling modern phenomenon of buttonless lifts.

Pic: Rex Features
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Pic: Rex Features

The end of an era?

Is this the end for Bridget? For now. The exploration of her life from her early 30s to her mid-50s has seen her find love, forge a career and have a family. But it’s not out of the question we could venture into the next stages of her life at some point.

Helen Fielding is still writing books, just not about Bridget. With a new legion of Gen Z fans now introduced to – and loving – Bridget, never say never.

And while Bridget may have found her happy ever after – all fans of the books will know It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces. So, watch this space.

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