Not holding back! Ariana Madix revealed a heated conversation with Raquel Leviss during part one of the Vanderpump Rules reunion.
05.05.2023 - 23:35 / variety.com
Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Paramount has filed a motion to throw out a lawsuit over the 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” arguing that a nude scene with underage actors does not amount to “childhood sexual assault.” Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were 16 and 17 when they starred in the movie, which was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The film’s famous bedroom scene includes a lingering shot of Whiting’s buttocks and a brief glimpse of Hussey’s breasts. The actors, now in their 70s, filed a $500 million suit in December, alleging that Zeffirelli pressured them into performing in the nude. They accused Paramount, the distributor, of profiting from their sexual exploitation.
Paramount’s lawyers filed a motion on Monday, arguing that the suit is doomed to fail for a host of reasons. Among other things, the suit argues that the actors cannot file suit under a California law that suspends the statute of limitations for child sexual assault, because the scene does not qualify as assault.
The motion also notes that Hussey and Whiting have fondly recalled their participation in the film in the intervening decades, including in a 2018 Variety interview and a 2016 Q&A with the British Film Institute. The motion argues that Hussey and Whiting cannot sue in California, as they lived in the U.K. at the time and the filming took place in Italy. They also note that Paramount was only the distributor of the film, not the production company. Paramount was thus not Zeffirelli’s employer, and was not responsible for supervising his conduct on set, the motion argues. The motion invokes the California anti-SLAPP statute, which protects First Amendment speech on matters of public debate. Paramount argues that the film
Not holding back! Ariana Madix revealed a heated conversation with Raquel Leviss during part one of the Vanderpump Rules reunion.
Police Scotland officers claimed they were "punished" for raising concerns over "racism, sexism and homophobia" from their colleagues, a review has found. The report into the culture of the force found instances of "poor behaviour being known and seen in plain sight with no action being taken" and that people were being "punished for raising issues or concerns".
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SAG-AFTRA has struck a deal with celebrity video platform Cameo to cover the brand deals that members make through Cameo for Business (C4B) under a guild contract. The new pact, “C4B x SAG-AFTRA Agreement,” will allow SAG-AFTRA members to count C4B earnings toward health and pension benefits, just as those earnings become a growing concern for out of work actors while the Writers Guild of America’s strike against Hollywood studios and their organization, Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), rages on. SAG-AFTRA has been a big supporter of WGA on the picket line over the first three weeks of the strike, with SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher being very vocal ahead of the the actors guild entering its own contract negotiations with the AMPTP on June 7.
Free promo! Laneige’s popular Lip Sleeping Mask made an unexpected cameo in the Vanderpump Rules season 10 finale, which aired on Wednesday, May 17.
Helen Flanagan surprised fans as she took to social media with two snaps which she claimed were before and after a wild night out. The former Coronation Street star could be seen pouting and giving a peace sign to the camera in the first image posted to her Instagram grid.
Britney Spears is setting the record straight!
British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran on Tuesday defeated a second copyright lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan over similarities between his hit “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”
Bernard Grace lived a solitary life.
A woman is facing thousands in vet bills after her dog was left with a fractured skull following a collision with a motorbike. Cristina Fernandez was walking her dog Lola on Saturday, May 6, in the Craigmillar Castle Park area of Edinburgh with her eight-year-old daughter when a biker driving through the park hit the dog.
Bayern Munich CEO Oliver Kahn has admitted that the German club went to their "financial limits" to try and sign Erling Haaland ahead of him joining Manchester City last year.
Two months later, around the same time Cosmo was cracking his first smiles, Johansson and Disney settled the suit. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Johansson’s payout reportedly eclipsed $40 million. In the history of Hollywood, the stars who have successfully sued studios are few and mostly men, from Burt Lancaster to Kevin Costner to Sylvester Stallone, with Olivia de Havilland and Elizabeth Taylor being rare exceptions.
We're heading towards the final of the I'm A Celebrity ...Get Me Out Of Here! all-stars spin-off, in a bid to be crowned the first I’m A Celebrity Legend, on Friday. And fans were declaring their winner following emotional scenes.
Paramount+ with Showtime. The major media company has announced three executives in key positions of its streaming division: Domenic DiMeglio, Michael Engleman and Puja Vohra.The company said Monday it will be combining its marketing and data teams. This new division will now be titled the Paramount Streaming Data and Marketing Group and will be led by Domenic DiMeglio.
Lewis Hamilton has some skills on the basketball court too!
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model! The 52-year-old made her debut in this year’s body-baring summer edition and she admitted on a recent episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that she started “freaking out” when she got the “holy grail” of modeling jobs. The late-night talk show host, 55, presented a photo of Lakshmi from her photoshoot where she sported a yellow bikini.Kimmel then asked her if it was “meaningful” to be in the sports magazine’s annual swimsuit printing.“Yeah, it’s definitely meaningful,” the “Easy Exotic” writer said.
Former NFL and NSWL stars JJ and Kealia Watt hope to use Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's Wrexham experience as inspiration at Burnley after investing in the club.
Reality television stars from Bravo, ABC, CBS, TLC and more are set to compete on Amazon Freevee’s upcoming series The GOAT.
Owning up to it? Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss confessed to Ariana Madix about their sleepover on Vanderpump Rules — but they left out some crucial details on screen.
Emily Longeretta If anyone can successfully close out a packed desert show on Stagecoach Festival’s opening day, it’s Luke Bryan, who’s been playing at the festival for more than a dozen years and previously headlined in 2014, 2016 and 2019. On Friday night, he opened with a song that might as well have been written for the occasion, “I Don’t Want This Night to End,” and played a set that consisted of nearly all his hits, and a few surprise covers. In addition to his many party anthems — “Drink a Beer,” “Roller Coaster,” “Crash My Party” and “Play it Again” came all in a row — he also sprinkled in covers of Tim McGraw’s “Where the Green Grass Grows” and Brooks and Dunn’s “Neon Moon.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” prompting the film’s writer-producer Seth Rogen to joke that it was “quite appropriate” to see a Hollywood exec doing that. But after delivering the pizza to the audience, Aronson gave a brief speech in which he thanked movie theaters for helping make movies like last year’s record-breaking “Top Gun: Maverick” possible.