Mission: Impossible 7 studio sues insurers over COVID payouts
Mission: Impossible 7’s studio is suing its insurance company over an alleged failure to pay out COVID insurance money.
Paramount lodged the case against Federal Insurance Company at a court in California.
The production of the latest Mission: Impossible instalment – starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt – has been plagued by complications from COVID.
Filming has taken place in Birmingham’s Grand Central New Street station
Filming started in Venice, Italy, in February 2020, but was shut down less than a month later due to a “covered” person getting ill.
Production was again delayed by the global onset of the pandemic.
Filming was later moved to the UK, but was halted and restarted numerous times.
The most recent shutdown – the seventh – came in June after a member of the cast or crew tested positive for COVID.
According to the lawsuit – filed in a federal court – Federal Insurance Company has refused to pay out for the disruption.
Documents lodged in the court accuse the insurers of breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Mission impossible sets have included train carriages
Paramount’s team say the studio was covered for losses exceeding $100m (£73m), but Federal Insurance Company argued, the suit says, that some of the losses claimed were only covered to a value of $1m (£730,000).
Paramount is claiming the insurer only paid a “small portion” of the losses, “denying coverage for the majority of them”, and therefore “breached the parties’ contract”.
The 22-page court filing said: “Federal’s conduct is contemptible and has been done with a conscious disregard of Paramount’s rights, constituting oppression, fraud, and/or malice.”
Paramount is seeking unspecified damages as part of the suit.
Other film and television productions have sued their insurers for failing to pay out due to pandemic problems.
Ben Affleck’s film Hypnotic and Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show have also launched lawsuits.
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The firm they are taking action against is owned by Federal Insurance Company’s parent, Chubb National Insurance Company.
Mission: Impossible 7 is due for a May 2022 release.
Taylor Swift has revealed the release date for her new album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
The pop megastar announced her 12th studio album earlier this week but didn’t give many details.
Now, in social media posts and an appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s sports podcast, Swift revealed just what fans can expect from the new album.
Taylor Swift and boyfriend Travis Kelce on the New Heights podcast. Pic: New Heights
The Life of Showgirl, written during the European leg of her record-breaking Eras tour, will be released on 3 October.
It consists of 12 songs, including the title track that features pop star Sabrina Carpenter.
The full track list is:
1. The Fate Of Ophelia
2. Elizabeth Taylor
3. Opalite
4. Father Figure
5. Eldest Daughter
6. Ruin The Friendship
7. Actually Romantic
8. Wi$h Li$t
9. Wood
10. Cancelled!
11. Honey
12. The Life Of A Showgirl (featuring Sabrina Carpenter)
Long-time collaborators Max Martin and Shellback, two Swedish producers who worked with Swift on some of her biggest hits, joined the pop star for this album.
Within four hours of posting the full podcast episode on YouTube, it had already gathered 4.7m views.
The cover of Taylor Swift’s newly announced album. Pic: Republic Records
The back cover of Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album The Life Of A Showgirl. Pic: Republic Records
‘The hardest-working star in pop’
The album follows last year’s The Tortured Poets Department, which was released during the Eras tour.
That tour, with shows on five continents and in 51 cities, raked in more than $2.2bn (£1.62bn) and was the highest-grossing tour of all time.
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“This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant,” Swift said during her podcast appearance.
Sky News culture and entertainment reporter Gemma Peplow said after her globe-trotting tour and a swathe of re-releases over recent years, the new album cemented Swift’s reputation “as the hardest-working star in pop”.
Disgraced US film producer Harvey Weinstein is to be tried for a third time in a sexual assault case.
A jury in New York could not reach a verdict in June against the 73-year-old who was accused of raping actress Jessica Mann, and a mistrial was declared.
Judge Curtis Farber has said he wants the new trial to happen before the end of this year.
The same jury found Weinstein guilty in June of sexually assaulting former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and not guilty of assaulting Polish former runway model Kaja Sokola the same year.
Weinstein will be sentenced for the guilty verdict in Ms Haley’s case on 30 September.
He denied all of the charges. Throughout the retrial, his lawyers insisted the sexual encounters with his three accusers were “transactional” and “consensual,” and labelled the women as opportunists.
Weinstein was originally convicted of rape and criminal sexual act by the same court in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison for the crimes.
Last year, however, New York’s highest court overturned the conviction, prompting Weinstein’s retrial this summer.
Weinstein was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood – the co-founder of film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, who produced films such as the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and The Crying Game.
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In 2017, a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him propelled the #MeToo movement.
Some of those accusations later led to criminal charges and his convictions in New York and California.
Before the retrial, Weinstein was also serving a 16-year prison sentence after being found guilty of rape in California in December 2022. He has also denied this charge.
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