Friends star Matthew Perry’s death was accidental from ‘acute effects of ketamine’, Los Angeles officials say
Friends star Matthew Perry’s death was an accident from the “acute effects of ketamine”, a post-mortem has found.
Perry, who was best known for playing wise-cracking Chandler Bing in Friends, was found unresponsive in the swimming pool at this home on 28 October and pronounced dead at the age of 54 by paramedics at the scene.
Other contributing factors to his death included drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which can be used to treat opioid use disorder, the post-mortem said.
Ketamine is a sedative that can be used to treat depression.
A report from the Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner stated that Perry was “receiving ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety” with the most recent dose reportedly taken one and a half weeks before his death.
The report continued: “The ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is three-to-four hours, or less.”
Perry with Friends co-stars Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston
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Perry appeared in the hit US show, which is set in New York between 1994 and 2004.
Tributes poured in for Perry in the days after his death, including from his co-stars.
Friends actors Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow, were also among the 20 mourners at Perry’s funeral in the Hollywood Hills in November.
Perry was open about his battle with substance abuse and addiction, and set up a sober living facility for men with similar issues.
A foundation has now been set up to help others struggling with the disease in his memory.
Perry in 2017
Aniston, who played Rachel Green in the sitcom, was among those urging support of the foundation which was set up to “honour his legacy”.
Perry’s cause of death comes days after Aniston revealed she had been messaging him on the morning of his death, describing him as “happy and healthy”.
“I want people to know he was really healthy, and getting healthy. He was on a pursuit. He worked so hard. He really was dealt a tough one,” she told Variety.
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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
R Kelly’s challenge against a 20-year sentence for child sex convictions has been quashed by an appeals court.
The singer was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Chicago court ruled on Friday.
He was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly, 57, argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
The appeals court rejected this, labelling it an attempt by Kelly to elude the charges entirely after “employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet”.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, only identified as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
The three-judge panel from the appeals court noted jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”.
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In a written statement, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said they plan to seek a US Supreme Court review of the decision and “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly”.
“We are disappointed in the ruling, but our fight is far from over,” she said.
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