Jay-Z calls for rape accuser’s identity to be revealed or case dismissed

Published

1 month ago

December 10, 2024

admin

Jay-Z has asked for the identity of a woman who has accused him of raping her when she was 13 to be revealed, or for the case to be dismissed.

The accuser, who is identified only as “Jane Doe” (a US legal terms to say that she is anonymous), says the assault happened after the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000, allegedly alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Jay-Z – whose real name is Shawn Carter – and Combs both deny the allegations.

In a court filing, seen by Sky’s US news partner NBC News, Jay-Z’s lawyer Alex Spiro argued the accuser’s decision to file a lawsuit under the name “Jane Doe” was “inconsistent with a genuine effort to determine the truth or falsity of these allegations as opposed to an effort to procure a quick, extortionate settlement”.

Mr Spiro said Jay-Z was “respectfully seeking either dismissal of the allegations or disclosure of the plaintiff’s identity”.

He went on: “It is not consistent with justice, fairness or the rules governing federal proceedings for the plaintiff and her counsel to smear [the] defendant’s good name in ways that are calculated to feed media coverage and thus inflict maximum public relations damage while the core fact of [the] plaintiff’s identity… remains wholly hidden from view.”

Texas-based lawyer Tony Buzbee, who says he is representing 120 accusers in cases against Combs, responded to Mr Spiro’s motion in an interview on Monday with NBC News.

Mr Buzbee said: “Anyone that suggests that a demand letter, especially the one that I sent, is extortion or blackmail, is foolish.

“These kinds of demand letters are sent on a daily basis across the United States, and attempting to attack me to take the focus off of the alleged perpetrator won’t work and it won’t intimidate us.”

The federal lawsuit against Jay-Z and Combs was re-filed in the Southern District of New York on Sunday. It had originally only named Combs.

According to NBC News, the lawsuit claims the girl was dropped off at the VMAs at Radio City Music Hall by a friend – she did not have a ticket and approached various limousine drivers to try to gain access to the show or after party.

One driver allegedly told Doe he worked for Combs and she “fit what Diddy was looking for”. The driver later picked her up, the lawsuit says, and after 20 minutes she was dropped off at a white house. The girl was then made to sign a document she believed to be a non-disclosure agreement.

She was allegedly offered a drink that made her feel “woozy, lightheaded and felt [like] she needed to lie down”.

Shortly afterwards, the suit says, both Combs and Jay-Z entered the room, with Combs telling her: “You are ready to party!”

That’s when, she alleges, Jay-Z removed her clothes, held her down and raped her while Combs and an unnamed female celebrity watched. She says Combs also raped her as Jay-Z and the woman looked on.

After the alleged assault, she “grabbed her clothes” and ran to the nearest petrol station where she called her father.

She is seeking unspecified damages.

Jay-Z responded to the allegations in a lengthy statement sent to NBC News.

He wrote: “These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!! Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree?

“These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.”

He went on: “My only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people. I mourn yet another loss of innocence.

“Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable,” he added.

Jay-Z has been married to Beyonce since 2008 after the couple met around 2000. They have three children together.

Meanwhile, Combs has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York with racketeering, sex trafficking and other offences. He is in custody in Brooklyn and scheduled to go on trial on 5 May.

Lawyers for Combs have denied allegations of rape, sexual assault and misconduct, saying in a previous statement: “Mr Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defences, and the integrity of the judicial process.

“In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone – adult or minor, man or woman.”

Entertainment

Tommy Fury says his drinking problem led to Molly-Mae Hague split

Published

4 hours ago

January 15, 2025

admin

Tommy Fury says his drinking problem led to Molly-Mae Hague split

Tommy Fury has opened up about having an alcohol problem – citing his drinking as the reason for his split from Molly-Mae Hague.

Hague, 25, shocked fans in August when she announced the end of her relationship with her then-fiancé, with whom she shares daughter Bambi, who turns two later this month.

Both stars had, until now, refused to publicly reveal the cause of the split. Fury, also 25, has now said the break-up came after he began “drinking quite a lot” while unable to train after hand surgery.

“I’d go out and just drink and drink and drink,” he told Men’s Health. “It went on that way for a long time.

“Most nights I would to drink to get black-out drunk. I think that’s what really took its toll on me.”

Shooting down claims he was unfaithful to Hague, Fury added: “Cheating was never a thing. You can ask Molly this yourself. It was the drink, and the drink is not a good thing. You need to get a grip of it.

“We broke up because I had a problem with alcohol and I couldn’t be the partner that I wanted to be anymore. It kills me to say it, but I couldn’t. I loved a pint of beer, loved to drink.”

Fury, who was seen spending New Year’s Eve with his ex, added he has “got himself out of that [drinking] now”.

Hague’s break-up announcement came just weeks after she had referred to Fury as the “love of my life” to mark their engagement anniversary on Instagram.

She later told Vogue UK: “No one will ever really know what went down apart from Tommy and I.

“I do think that he will talk about things eventually. I do think that when he’s ready, like, maybe more will be said. But I think that’s for him to do on his terms.”

More entertainment news:
BAFTA nominations revealed
Hollywood events delayed due to fires

Meanwhile, Fury labelled allegations he had cheated as “horrendous” and thanked “everybody who has stood by me through this”.

The pair met on Love Island in 2019 and welcomed their daughter in January 2023. Fury proposed seven months later in Ibiza.

Entertainment

BAFTA nominations 2025: Conclave, Emilia Perez and The Brutalist lead the race as shortlists revealed

Published

5 hours ago

January 15, 2025

admin

BAFTA nominations 2025: Conclave, Emilia Perez and The Brutalist lead the race as shortlists revealed

This year’s BAFTA nominations have been revealed, with papal thriller Conclave leading the race.

Starring Ralph Fiennes as a clergyman responsible for the selection of the next Pope, the film is up for 12 awards – including best film, best director, best actor, and best supporting actress for Isabella Rossellini.

Spanish-language musical Emilia Perez, which tells the story of a Mexican cartel boss who undergoes gender affirmation surgery, is another best film nominee and has 11 BAFTA nods in total – with star Karla Sofía Gascón up for best actress and co-stars Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez both in the running in the supporting actress category.

The Brutalist, an epic drama starring Adrien Brody as a Hungarian architect attempting to build a life in the US after the Second World War, has nine nominations – including best film and best actor, and supporting nods for co-stars Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones.

Elsewhere there are seven nominations each for Wicked, Anora, and Dune: Part Two, six for A Complete Unknown and Kneecap, and five for Nosferatu and The Substance.

In the performance categories, Gascon is up against Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths), Mikey Madison (Anora), Saoirse Ronan (The Outrun) and Demi Moore, whose performance in body horror The Substance won her a Golden Globe earlier this month.

Fiennes and Brody’s best actor competitors are Timothee Chalamet, for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, along with Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Hugh Grant (Heretic) and Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice).

Kieran Culkin, another recent Golden Globe winner, makes the best supporting actor shortlist once again for his performance in A Real Pain, alongside Pearce and Yura Borisov (Anora), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing), Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown) and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice).

Ariana Grande, who stars as Glinda opposite Erivo’s Elphaba in Wicked, and Jamie Lee Curtis, for her performance in The Last Showgirl, make up the best supporting actress shortlist.

For 14 of the 24 acting nominees – including Culkin, Grande, Gascon, Gomez and Moore – it is their first BAFTA film nomination.

Erivo and Chalamet are both previous recipients of the rising star award, which is voted for by the public.

In the best director category, Conclave’s Edward Berger is in the running alongside Brady Corbet, for The Brutalist, Denis Villeneuve, for Dune: Part Two, Jacques Audiard for Emilia Perez, Coralie Fargeat for The Substance, and Sean Baker for Anora.

Baker also has nominations for best original screenplay, casting and editing, making him the most nominated individual this year.

The BAFTAs also includes a category for outstanding British film, with Conclave also shortlisted here alongside films including Steve McQueen’s Blitz, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, and Irish-language film Kneecap – which stars the rap trio of the same name in a semi-autobiographical account of their rise to fame.

In total, there are 42 films up for awards, spanning a range of genres.

“The film industry has delivered in spades once again,” said BAFTA chief executive Jane Millichip.

“The skills on display from creative and technical practitioners across the board are phenomenal,” added BAFTA chair Sara Putt.

Could this be the most competitive BAFTAs for years?

Katie Spencer

Arts and entertainment correspondent

What do you get if you bring several priests, a Mexican cartel leader and an architect together under one roof?

Not the world’s most niche fancy dress party, but 2025’s BAFTA film awards shortlist.

Jazz hands and jump scares are the order of the day. Horror is unusually well represented this year, with The Substance, Heretic and Nosferatu all receiving nods, while musicals are also dominating thanks to Emilia Perez, Wicked and, arguably, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.

Speaking of music, it’s very good news for Irish language rappers Kneecap, whose self-titled semi-true biopic is up for best British film and five other awards. It’s somewhat ironic given that while they rap about wanting Irish independence, the film qualifies as being British as they’re from Northern Ireland.

In the leading actress category, it’s all to play for as none of the nominees has ever won a BAFTA. Fans of ’90s nostalgia will be hoping the Demi-ssaince continues after Demi Moore’s Golden Globe win last month for her performance in body horror The Substance.

Hugh Grant, up for lead actor, last won that BAFTA back in 1995 for his breakthrough performance in Four Weddings And A Funeral. This time around, he’s in the running for a very different role, as a creepy killer in Heretic. He’s nominated alongside another ’90s winner – Ralph Fiennes, who last picked up a BAFTA for supporting actor in 1994.

The nominations this year really showcase a diverse range of genres – and with no clear frontrunners in some categories, could this be the most competitive BAFTAs we’ve seen in a while?

The nominees for this year’s rising star award, which is the only BAFTA prize voted for by the public, have already been announced, with Marisa Abela, Jharrel Jerome, David Jonsson, Mikey Madison and Nabhaan Rizwan in the running.

And Harry Potter star Warwick Davis has also been revealed as the recipient of this year’s BAFTA fellowship, the organisation’s highest honour, for his “trailblazing work” as an actor and for his charity supporting people with dwarfism.

The BAFTA nominations come at a difficult time for the industry, with the organisers of several US awards ceremonies, including the Oscars, pushing their own announcements back and holding more low-key events due to the wildfires in Los Angeles.

However, the Oscars ceremony is still currently scheduled to go ahead as planned on Sunday 2 March.

The BAFTA ceremony will be held at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London on Sunday 16 February.

Entertainment

BAFTA nominations 2025: The full list of films and stars up for awards

Published

5 hours ago

January 15, 2025

admin

BAFTA nominations 2025: The full list of films and stars up for awards

There are 42 films up for awards at this year’s BAFTA ceremony, from blockbusters to indie breakthroughs.

Organisers have now revealed the shortlists, with papal thriller Conclave leading the nominations, followed closely by Spanish-language musical Emilia Perez, and post-war epic The Brutalist.

The star-studded BAFTA ceremony will take place in London on Sunday 16 February.

Here’s the full list of the stars and films up for each prize.

BEST FILM
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Emilia Perez

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Bird
Blitz
Conclave
Gladiator II
Hard Truths
Kneecap
Lee
Love Lies Bleeding
The Outrun
Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Hoard – Luna Carmoon (director/ writer)
Kneecap – Rich Peppiatt (director, writer)
Monkey Man – Dev Patel (director)
Santosh – Sandhya Suri (director, writer), James Bowsher (producer), Balthazar de Ganay (producer)
Sister Midnight – Karan Kandhari (director, writer)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
All We Imagine As Light
Emilia Perez
I’m Still Here
Kneecap
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig

DOCUMENTARY
Black Box Diaries
Daughters
No Other Land
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Will & Harper

ANIMATED FILM
Flow
Inside Out 2
Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

CHILDREN’S & FAMILY FILM
Flow
Kensuke’s Kingdom
Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

DIRECTOR
Anora – Sean Baker
The Brutalist – Brady Corbet
Conclave – Edward Berger
Dune: Part Two – Denis Villeneuve
Emilia Perez – Jacques Audiard
The Substance – Coralie Fargeat

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Anora – Sean Baker
The Brutalist – Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
Kneecap – Rich Peppiatt, Naoise O Caireallain, Liam Og O Hannaidh, JJ O Dochartaigh
A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg
The Substance – Coralie Fargeat

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
A Complete Unknown – James Mangold and Jay Cocks
Conclave – Peter Straughan
Emilia Perez – Jacques Audiard
Nickel Boys – RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing – Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin, John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield

LEADING ACTRESS
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Karla Sofia Gascon – Emilia Perez
Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths
Mikey Madison – Anora
Demi Moore – The Substance
Saoirse Ronan – The Outrun

LEADING ACTOR
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Timothee Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Hugh Grant – Heretic
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Selena Gomez – Emilia Perez
Ariana Grande – Wicked
Felicity Jones – The Brutalist
Jamie Lee Curtis – The Last Showgirl
Isabella Rossellini – Conclave
Zoe Saldana – Emilia Perez

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Yura Borisov – Anora
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing
Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice

CASTING
Anora – Sean Baker, Samantha Quan
The Apprentice – Stephanie Gorin, Carmen Cuba
A Complete Unknown – Yesi Ramirez
Conclave – Nina Gold, Martin Ware
Kneecap – Carla Stronge

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Brutalist – Lol Crawley
Conclave – Stephanie Fontaine
Dune: Part Two – Greig Fraser
Emilia Perez – Paul Guilhaume
Nosferatu – Jarin Blaschke

EDITING
Anora
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Perez
Kneecap