British actor-director Noel Clarke said Friday he would be seeking professional help to "change for the better," after 20 women came forward accusing him of sexual harassment, intimidation and bullying.
Clarke, who starred in "Doctor Who" and created the film trilogy "Kidulthood," "Adulthood" and "Brotherhood," said he "vehemently" denies any sexual misconduct or criminal wrongdoing.
"Recent reports, however, have made it clear to me that some of my actions have affected people in ways I did not intend or realize," he said in a statement. "To those individuals, I am deeply sorry. I will be seeking professional help to educate myself and change for the better."
Clarke, 45, issued the statement a day after The Guardian newspaper said it had spoken to 20 women who accused him of misconduct including sexual harassment, unwanted touching, sexually inappropriate behavior on set and bullying. The newspaper named several of the women.
Britain’s motion picture academy on Thursday April 29, 2021, suspended actor-director Noel Clarke after a newspaper reported that multiple women had accused him of sexual harassment or bullying. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
After the allegations were published, Britain’s motion picture academy suspended Clarke’s membership and his award for outstanding British contribution to cinema, given to him earlier this month, "immediately and until further notice."
Broadcaster Sky said it was halting work with Clarke, and television channel ITV pulled the final episode of the crime series "Viewpoint," which stars Clarke and was due for broadcast on Friday. The broadcaster said it had "a zero tolerance policy to bullying, harassment and victimization."
The Grammy Awards will no longer use anonymous review committees to determine its nominees, the Recording Academy announced Friday. The decision comes after the awards show faced harsh criticism and calls for increased transparency from Canadian pop star The Weeknd, who was snubbed for last year's awards despite a record-breaking run at the top of the charts.
The Academy also said it has changed the number of categories in which Academy members can vote and added two new awards, to "reflect its ongoing commitment to evolve with the musical landscape and to ensure that the GRAMMY Awards® rules and guidelines are transparent and equitable."
Previously, a review committee of at least 20 people picked the top eight nominees out of the artists who had been voted into the top 20 in four of the biggest categories: Best album, song and record of the year, and best new artist, according to The Associated Press. The majority of nominees for other awards were also chosen by review committees of varying sizes.
Now, all nominees will now be based solely on thousands of votes from the academy's voting members, the Academy said.
"It's been a year of unprecedented, transformational change for the Recording Academy, and I'm immensely proud to be able to continue our journey of growth with these latest updates to our Awards process," Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy's interim president and CEO, said in a statement.
"We are honored to work alongside the music community year-round to further refine and protect the integrity of the Awards process," he added.
The announcement follows criticism from The Weeknd, whose songs dominated the charts in 2020. Despite having a hit single spend 40 weeks on the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 Chart and an album top the chart in its first week, he received zero nominations for the 63rd annual Grammy Awards.
"The Grammys remain corrupt," he tweeted in November. "You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency."
The Weeknd, whose given name is Abel Tesfaye, later said in a statement to the New York Times that he would boycott the awards and no longer allow his label to submit his music to them. He has not commented publicly since the new process was announced Friday night.
At some point during my time with Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, after I read yet another minutes-long dialogue sequence to try and learn more information about the game’s murder mystery, I realized I felt like I was slowly working my way through a long novel — one that went just a little bit over my head.
In The Final Cut, an enhanced version of the 2019 cult hit role-playing game that made its console debut on PlayStation in March, you play as a cop with amnesia investigating a murder case about a hanged man. You’ll explore a fictional place called Revachol and talk to a huge cast of characters to piece together clues about the hanged man’s killer.
Almost every conversation or interaction has an extensive dialogue tree, allowing you to respond to or direct a conversation in ways that can influence other moments in the game down the line. One time, I convinced somebody to give me the jacket off their back, which I could then wear. With another person, I refused money so that my character wouldn’t feel indebted to him.
Occasionally, these interactions can drag on, feeling a bit like a book chapter that just won’t end. But the game’s writing is sharp and often quite funny, which usually made all of the reading worth it.
Disco Elysium takes place in what I imagine as a parallel universe to ours. Characters frequently reference countries, races, and historical figures that don’t exist in our world but who are core to the societal and ideological makeup. While Disco Elysium’s incredible depth of historical detail made Revachol feel like a real place, at times I struggled to keep facts and information straight.
You won’t just be talking to other people, though: any one of 24 different parts of your personality, like your sense of logic, composure, or authority, can butt into conversations to discuss and debate what’s going on, sometimes even with each other. It’s kind of like Pixar’s Inside Out, if it was a murder mystery.
But like the historical details packed into the game, these traits can also have their own inscrutability. During my playthrough, one attribute sometimes relayed short stories about other police officers. Another, as far as I could tell, was something like a sixth sense about Revachol itself. As each one of your personalities jumps in, you’ll have more text to read. Usually, they add useful context, but other times, I wish they wouldn’t have said anything at all so that I could get to the next part of the game sooner.
You can also level up each of them as “skills” to give you advantages during the game. I put a lot of points into my empathy skill, for example, which meant that Empathy (the character) would often chime in with advice about how to respond empathetically in a situation.
Putting points into skills also helps with “checks,” where the game rolls a virtual dice to determine if you succeed at an important action. (Saying the right thing in a conversation can help with the potential success of a check, too.) You can retry most failed checks by leveling up a specific skill.
Some checks can only be attempted once, though, and I liked those the best — I always held my breath while I waited to see if I had succeeded or failed. They also felt like they had the most impact on the story itself, particularly near the end, where a dice roll can mean the difference between someone living or dying.
Overall, the game’s systems make for a fun twist on typical role-playing mechanics. Instead of leveling up external skills like magic power or speed, it really feels like you’re building your character’s personality.
Developer Studio ZA/UM added some new features to the original game, which was first released in October 2019, for The Final Cut. Every line is now fully voiced, and the acting is consistently excellent. There are some new quests that let you explore your character’s political ideologies. And The Final Cut marks the game’s first appearance on consoles, hitting PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. (It’s coming to Xbox consoles and Nintendo Switch later this year.) The game was a bit buggy for me on PS5, especially at launch, but Studio ZA/UM has released several patches that have fixed the majority of issues I ran into.
Bugs weren’t the only thing that detracted from my experience, though. The game punts you to a short loading screen every time you transition to a new area, which got annoying over the course of the 24 hours I spent with it. Getting to the quests menu takes three button presses. And the text is very small, even on the largest setting.
But if you’re willing to immerse yourself into the world of Revachol and put up with some small annoyances along the way, Disco Elysium tells a satisfying story that I really enjoyed. Like a huge, epic novel, the game can at times be enigmatic, opaque, and a little too long. But as is often the case for those kinds of stories, it’s well worth slogging through the boring stuff to see the game all the way to its fantastic end. I’m glad I read this one all the way through.
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is available now on PS4, PS5, PC, Mac, and Stadia. It’s set to release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, and Nintendo Switch later this year.
Josh Duggar, who appeared alongside his parents and 18 siblings on the reality show "19 Kids and Counting," faces charges of downloading and possessing child pornography, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday.
The news comes just days after Duggar, 33, and his wife Anna Duggar, announced they are expecting their seventh child.
According to court documents, in May 2019, Duggar allegedly used the internet to download child pornography, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12. He is charged with receiving and possessing child pornography.
He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 on each count, if convicted.
Duggar's case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a Justice Department initiative that combats the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
In 2015, In Touch magazine published a 2006 police report that claimed Duggar sexually molested five girls as far back as 2002. The incidents were not reported to police until 2006 and authorities could not pursue charges because the statute of limitations had passed.
Duggar, the oldest of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's 19 children, resigned from his position at the Family Research Council in Washington, a nongovernmental organization that says its mission is to "advance faith, family and freedom in public policy and the culture from a Christian worldview."
"I hurt others, including my family and close friends. I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation," he said.
His wife, Anna, also released a statement, revealing that her husband admitted his past wrongdoings to her two years before they got engaged. At the time, the couple only had two children.
The family's reality show was cancelled by TLC in July 2015. In a statement, the company said: "The recent attention around the Duggars has sparked a critical and important conversation about child protection. Over these past weeks, TLC has consulted regularly with leading victims' rights and advocacy organizations in the U.S., including RAINN and Darkness to Light, to discuss how to use this moment to address the issue and make a positive impact. Unfortunately, child sexual abuse is not an isolated issue; it affects many children and families around the world."
Although Duggar didn't address the dating site directly, the former reality TV star released a statement, saying: "I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife."
He later changed the statement to read: "I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have been unfaithful to my wife."
Jennifer Lopez was hanging out with Ben Affleck this week, setting the Internet on fire with proclamations they're back together. Not so, and we have an explanation.
True ... they spent time together, but we're told they're strictly friends. Fact is, they've been friends for a long time following their difficult breakup. There's no such thing as "never," especially in Hollywood, so it's always possible something could be rekindled, but there's no evidence of that now.
J Lo seems to have an M.O. in relationships gone south -- keep it friendly. She's also spent time with both ex-fiance Alex Rodriguez and ex-hubby Marc Anthony since her breakup with A-Rod. Maybe part of it is getting comfort from those she knows, but whatever it is she doesn't drop people like hot potatoes when the romantic thing doesn't work out.
Marc Anthony is a special case, since they share 2 kids. Again, it was a tough breakup but ultimately things got repaired so they could have a civil relationship and co-parent.
What's more, J Lo has maintained business relationships with some of her exes ... notably Marc Anthony and A-Rod.
As you know, J Lo and A-Rod called it quits after 4 years of dating and getting engaged in March 2019. They dodged a bullet ... were it not for the pandemic, they probably would have married.
As far as we can tell, J Lo's not jumping into any relationship in the short term.
Suzanne, 74, posted a photo on Instagram Thursday revealing that she and Camelia, 25, both wore similar outfits during a day out.
The Three's Company star sported a long sleeve black top and jean shorts and her granddaughter – who has appeared on The Bold and the Beautiful – wore a white tank top and jean shorts almost identical to Suzanne's outfit.
"Who wears short shorts?" the former ThighMaster infomercial actress captioned the leggy photo. "Twinning with my granddaughter @cameliasomers! 👯"
Last month, Suzanne revealed that she and Hamel, 84, had sex at least three times in one day — and that was before noon.
She got candid about the intimate details of their sex life on the podcast Heather Dubrow's World, saying, "At this stage of life, most people think that's over the hill. What time is it, noon? I had sex with him three times so far today."
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Somers gushed, "God, our relationship has always been amazing."
"But now that our kids are raised and it's just me and Al, and we paid for the tuition, we paid for the weddings and helped them get their start — now it's just us," the actress shared. "Man, are we having fun."
Affleck has been spotted multiple times going to J.Lo’s home during the day, we hear. ... Affleck, 48, has allegedly visited Lopez, 51, three times since she returned to Los Angeles from shooting her new film, “Shotgun Wedding,” in the Dominican Republic.
However Page Six reports the reunion between Lopez and Affleck, who were engaged from 2002 to 2004, is “just friendly.”
An insider said: “They are friends … they’ve never not been.”
“A-Rod will not give up on his and J. Lo’s relationship,” a source tells Us Weekly exclusively. “He is willing to do anything to make it work.”
But according to US Weekly, “J. Lo still doesn’t trust A-Rod all the way. She’s very skeptical, but she heard him out because she still has a lot of love for him.”
The now-ex couple officially announced the end of their relationship on April 15 with a statement provided to the “Today” show:
We have realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so. We will continue to work together and support each other on our shared businesses and projects. We wish the best for each other and one another’s children. Out of respect for them, the only other comment we have to say is thank you to everyone who has sent kind words and support.
It’s the same ritzy restaurant where they went on their first date back in 2017. Lopez also reportedly owns a $28 million mansion in the neighborhood. ... It’s unclear what the friendly Oscar weekend dinner was about. ... Insiders said the pair was amicable during the meeting and “there still seemed to be love and respect there.”
And how’s this for irony? Page Six reports that’s the same hotel Affleck used this week as home base while visiting Lopez.
But the only thing worse than Rodriguez watching Lopez, to whom he proposed in 2019, return to Affleck? Knowing that Affleck always has been ... and always will be ... a die-hard Red Sox fan.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck watch the pregame introductions before Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees at Fenway Park in Boston, Mass.SL
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