Bill Cosby accuser Janice Dickinson was spotted for the first time since the 83-year-old's sexual assault conviction was overturned.
Dickinson, who was accompanied by her husband Robert Gerner, was recently seen outside of her Los Angeles home. The 66-year-old wore a black blazer paired with a white top and sunglasses. She had a somber expression.
The former model previously revealed she found out about the news of Cosby’s prison release when she got out of bed Wednesday.
"My friend, Stephen Lenehan, gave me a telephone call and he told me, he said, 'I have some bad news.' And I was bracing for a hurricane or something, and he was like, 'Cosby is out of prison.'...First of all, [I felt] so angry. So angry. Second, I felt like I was kicked in the stomach, in my abdomen, by some psychic blow," Dickinson recalled to Entertainment Tonight.
Janice Dickinson is seen for the first time since news broke that convicted sexual predator Bill Cosby had been released early from prison. The former model was dressed in black and had the support of her husband Robert Gerner as a limousine waited outside her Los Angeles home. (Clint Brewer Photography/A.I.M./BACKGRID)
Dickinson maintained that she had been raped by Cosby.
"I was raped by Bill Cosby," she told the outlet. "And I know that it changed my life forever. That’s why my heart goes out to all the women who started #MeToo after I first came out on your show. I just think people are ignorant."
Dickinson first publicly accused Cosby of rape in 2014 in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. The model claimed the comedian raped her at a hotel in Lake Tahoe. The two had traveled there together after Cosby allegedly told Dickinson he could help her with her career. Cosby’s lawyer at the time denied the allegations in a statement to the outlet.
"Janice Dickinson's story accusing Bill Cosby of rape is a lie," he said. "There is a glaring contradiction between what she is claiming now for the first time and what she wrote in her own book and what she told the media back in 2002."
Janice Dickinson first publicly accused Bill Cosby of rape in 2014. (Photo by Lilly Lawrence/Getty Images for ART 4 PEACE )
Cosby was released from prison after a Pennsylvania court overturned his sexual assault conviction on Wednesday. The court claimed it had found the prosecutor on the case had violated an agreement made with a different prosecutor that should have prevented Cosby from being charged.
A cardboard cutout of pop icon Britney Spears at a #FreeBritney protest held outside her conservatorship hearing on June 23 in Los Angeles. Rich Fury/Getty Images
Rich Fury/Getty Images
The wealth management firm that had planned to act as co-conservator of Britney Spears's financial dealings has asked to leave the arrangement. In its request filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, the company, Bessemer Trust, cited the singer's anguished comments in court just over a week ago.
The company, which is a professional wealth management firm, said that until Spears spoke in court on June 23, it had believed that Spears was in the conservatorship voluntarily, and that she had consented to Bessemer Trust's entrance as co-conservator alongside Spears' father, Jamie Spears.
In its filing, Bessemer stated: "As a result of the conservatee's testimony at the June 23 hearing, however, Petitioner [Bessemer Trust] has become aware that the conservatee objects to the continuance of her conservatorship and desires to terminate the conservatorship. Petitioner has heard the conservatee and respects her wishes."
The company also said its role had not yet taken effect. It wrote that it is "not currently authorized to act, has taken no actions as conservator, has made no decisions as conservator, has received no assets of the estate [and] has taken no fees."
Just yesterday, the Los Angeles Superior Court judge presiding over the case, Brenda Penny, denied the singer's request to have her father removed from the financial aspects of her conservatorship.
As of now, Spears' court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, has not filed a petition to terminate the conservatorship. The next court date is scheduled for July 14.
Chris Pratt fights man-eating aliens in Amazon’s new science fiction film “The Tomorrow War,” but the actor isn’t wondering about alleged UFO sightings.
“No, I don’t believe in aliens,” Pratt told Variety‘s Marc Malkin at the movie’s June 30 premiere at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.
In “The Tomorrow War,” Pratt’s Dan Forester is drafted into a future war to save mankind from losing a global war against a deadly alien species. Traveling to the year 2051, Dan teams up with a scientist (Yvonne Strahovski) and his estranged father (J.K. Simmons) to ensure a long life for his young daughter and to rewrite the planet’s fate. The movie was supposed to hit theaters, but rerouted to Amazon Prime Video when the pandemic hit.
“There are a lot of films you would want to see in the theater,” Pratt said. “But I think this story is so good that if the script was just read to you, you’d be moved.”
When asked what life might look like in 30 years, Pratt didn’t quite envision a dystopian landscape ransacked by extraterrestrials.
“I’ll probably be on the set of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 71,’ Pratt laughed. “I think I’m probably going to be surrounded by grandchildren, hopefully…I’m going to be fat and happy and not wearing makeup.”
The action star confirmed that “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” starts filming later this year, but was tight-lipped on what fans can expect from the ragtag, intergalactic crew’s next adventure.
“You know what, I’m giving you the scoop. Fuck it. I’m telling you everything,” Pratt joked, much to Marvel’s sigh of relief. His best summation of what’s to come was “James Gunn is back.”
Reflecting on working with Gunn and “Thor: Love and Thunder” director Taika Waititi, Pratt described the directors as “rock stars in their own way” who have their own styles of working. He continued to gush over Waititi, calling him a “madman” and “genius.”
“He is the kind of guy who can deliver an amazing movie…That’s the destination,” Pratt said. “The journey to getting there [is] just as fun as watching the movie. He’s vibrant, he’s always making the crew laugh, he’s doing bits. You can’t believe he’s the director.”
Besides the stars of “The Tomorrow War,” the other main attraction on the carpet was a replica of part of the aliens. Watch Strahovski’s reaction to the gimmick below.
Princes William and Harry unveil a new statue of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday.
Dominic Lipinski/Pool/ AFP for Getty Images
Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a 1997 car crash in Paris at just 36. To mark what would have been her 60th birthday, her sons unveiled a statue of her at her former home, London's Kensington Palace, during a private ceremony on Thursday.
"Today, on what would have been our mother's 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength and character -- qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better," William and Harry said in a joint statement. The statue depicts a towering Diana, flanked by children who represent her global charity work.
Thanks to all the headlines and buzz about the royal family of late, this wasn't just an ordinary statue dedication. Here's why.
Diana's statue
Who made the sculpture?
Diana's two sons commissioned the statue in 2017, the year that marked the 20th anniversary of Diana's death. There have been other statues of the late princess -- some are creepy -- but with her sons' approval, this one stands above the rest. And with Diana one of the most photographed people on the planet, the sculptor had a tough task.
That high-pressure job fell to British sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, whose image of Queen Elizabeth II has appeared on all UK and Commonwealth coins since 1998. No images of the work leaked, so Thursday's reveal was the first time most people have seen the Diana statue.
At least one British historian, Tessa Dunlop, has criticized the choice of a male sculptor for the job, saying the failure to choose a female sculptor was a "missed opportunity." She also noted that there's "certainly no doubting Rank-Broadley's talent."
People place flags on the gates of Kensington Palace on June 30. Diana, Princess of Wales, would have turned 60 on July 1.
Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images
Statue details
The statue is built larger than life, as you can see when William and Harry stand in front of it. There are three children depicted, though one is hidden behind another, making it look as if there are only two. And they are not based on three specific children, but are meant to be universal.
"The figure of Diana, Princess of Wales, is surrounded by three children who represent the universality and generational impact of the princess' work," according to a statement from Kensington Palace.
Diana isn't wearing one of her iconic ballgowns, but a simple, classic, belted dress.
"The portrait and style of dress was based on the final period of her life as she gained confidence in her role as an ambassador for humanitarian causes and aims to convey her character and compassion," the statement reads.
Diana's name, and the date of the unveiling, are engraved on a stone below the statue. Another stone features words from the poem The Measure of a Man, which was listed in the program for a 2007 memorial service for Diana. (The author of the poem is unknown, and words were altered from "man" and "he" to "woman" and "she" for Diana.)
The quote reads, "These are the units to measure the worth/Of this woman as a woman regardless of birth/Not what was her station?/But had she a heart?/How did she play her God-given part?"
Amid the forget-me-nots
The statue stands in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace, reportedly a special place to Diana. To mark the 20th anniversary of her death in 2017, the garden was replanted in white flowers, taking inspiration from Diana's wardrobe. In preparation for the sculpture, more than 4,000 individual flowers, including Diana's favorite, forget-me-nots, have been planted.
"Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy," the brothers said Thursday.
Now that the statue has been unveiled, the public will be able to see it, as Kensington Palace and its gardens are open to visitors. The gardens are free to visit, though there is a charge for tours of the public areas of the palace itself.
Kensington Palace is the main residence of Prince William and his family. Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, also lived there for a time, and numerous other royals have called it home. Diana and Prince Charles lived there after their wedding, raised their children there, and Diana lived there even after her divorce.
William and Harry's relationship
Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, is second in line to the British throne after his father, Prince Charles. William was born to Charles and Diana in 1982, and his brother, Harry, followed in 1984. Harry was third in line to the throne at his birth, but William's three children have pushed him down to sixth in line.
Diana, pictured here in March 1990, would have been 60 this year.
Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images
The two brothers once seemed to be extremely close to both each other and to their mother. William was 15 when Diana died, and Harry was 12. They seemed, publicly at least, to be the best of friends for years. But tabloids have questioned whether Harry's 2018 marriage to Markle and the couple's subsequent move to California have driven a wedge between the brothers. As heir to the throne, William has to walk a carefully circumscribed path that's laid out for him, while, as the "spare," Harry is more free to decide his own future.
It doesn't help that back in March, Harry and Meghan gave an explosive televised interview to Oprah Winfrey. Among other headline-making revelations, Meghan said someone in the royal family was concerned about her unborn son's skin color, and that palace representatives didn't offer help when royal pressures drove her to thoughts of suicide. It surely didn't help that Meghan said Kate made her cry during plans for her wedding -- William is known to be a strong defender of his wife, and there's no way he enjoyed having that made public. William later had to specifically deny that the royal family was racist when questioned at an event.
The two brothers seem to be on separate paths now. Vanity Fair reports that the two have been talking about plans for the statue unveiling, but that their relationship is still "very strained."
On Thursday, the brothers presented a united front.
The university emphasized sexual assault survivors are its "first priority."
"Survivors of sexual assault will always be our first priority," the university said in the statement. "While Dean Rashad has acknowledged in her follow-up tweet that victims must be heard and believed, her initial tweet lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault."
"Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University’s policies," the statement continued. "We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard. Howard will stand with survivors and challenge systems that would deny them justice. We have full confidence that our faculty and school leadership will live up to this sacred commitment."
Rashad first shared support for Cosby, who was originally sentenced to prison for three to ten years after being convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, on her personal Twitter account before acknowledging the alleged victims.
"FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!" Rashad first tweeted.
"I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward," she later added. "My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing."
Cosby was released from prison after a Pennsylvania court overturned his sexual assault conviction on Wednesday. The court claimed it had found the prosecutor on the case had violated an agreement made with a different prosecutor that prevented Cosby from being charged.
Pound for pound, Chris Pratt’s new sci-fi thriller The Tomorrow War probably most resembles other alien-attack movies like Independence Day and War of the Worlds.
But given that Pratt plays a gun-toting soldier traveling through time to stop an apocalypse at the hands of nonhuman combatants, the project — which Pratt also produced — one can’t help to compare it to certain franchise that legendarily starred his father-in-law, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Even the posters are similar, and TheTomorrow War happens to open almost exactly 30 years to the date after a little film called Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Inquiring minds needed to now: Is this Pratt’s Terminator?
“Well, they’re both Skydance,” Pratt told us during a recent virtual press day for the film (watch above), pointing out yet another commonality we hadn’t even considered. (The production company founded by David Ellison in 2006 owns the rights to the Terminator series and produced The Tomorrow War.) “There are similarities, I guess.”
But Pratt is not ready for any parallels to be drawn between himself and the famous father of his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger.
“I pale in comparison as a hero to any of the iconic roles Arnold has played,” he says. “But we were definitely heavily influenced by that type of a film. There is that.”
Pratt’s The Tomorrow War character Dan Forester — a family man, high school teacher and military vet recruited to the future when the next generation is in dire danger of being wiped out by hostile extraterrestrials — even says “I will be back” to his young daughter before leaving. That, however, was not an homage to Arnold's most oft-quoted line, "I'll be back," Pratt insists.
“I do [say it],” Pratt admits. “Though it is literally just a guy talking about how he’s coming back. He’s not saying, ‘I’ll be back … and when I do come back I’m gonna kill you.’ It’s more like, ‘You know how I’m here right now and I’m leaving? Later, I will be back.'”
Chris Pratt swears 'The Tomorrow War' is not his 'Terminator,' says he 'pales in comparison as a hero' to father-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger - Yahoo Entertainment Read More
Cosby Show star Phylicia Rashad, believing that we all have the memory span of a goldfish, is attempting to walk back comments she made about Bill Cosby’s overturned sexual-assault verdict. In a tweet posted on June 30, the actress wrote that “a terrible wrong is being righted; a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” about Cosby’s release from prison, adding, in all caps, “FINALLY!!!!” Rashad, who recently started a tenure as a dean at Howard University, issued a follow-up tweet hours later, where she acknowledged the dozens of women who accused Cosby of sexual assault. “I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth,” she wrote. “Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.” Howard University snowballed with its own statement soon thereafter, saying that while Rashad’s tweet “lacked sensitivity” toward Cosby’s survivors, “personal positions of university leadership do not reflect Howard’s policies.”
Rashad and Cosby have shared a friendship since the 1980s; they’ve played husband and wife on two television shows, The Cosby Show and Cosby. In 2015, Rashad said in an interview with Showbiz 411 that she was skeptical of the vast number of sexual-assault allegations being lodged against Cosby. “Forget these women,” she explained. “What you’re seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it’s orchestrated. I don’t know why or who’s doing it, but it’s the legacy. And it’s a legacy that is so important to the culture.” However, Rashad later claimed the outlet misquoted her words and insisted that “this is about something else. This is about the obliteration of legacy.”
