Thousands of people cheered when they saw a news anchor going off on bullying during a live broadcast after receiving a harsh letter about her weight. One of Jennifer Livingston’s biggest supporters? Her actor brother Ron Livingston, of Swingers, Sex and the City and Office Space quotes fame! Who knew! News Anchor Responds to Bullying “I got an email from him,” Jennifer said on The Talk Wednesday. “I think it said something like, ‘Whoa! Saw you all over the place,’ and, ‘Way to go sis!'” Ron isn’t the only one in Hollywood lending support. Jennifer Love Hewitt tweeted that “the anchor who fought back against comments made about her, is my new hero! Way to go! She’s a beautiful woman!” “What a powerful message against bullying,” Ellen DeGeneres added. “@news8jennifer, I would love to meet you in person.” Make it happen, people! Jennifer tweeted that she “would love” to do community related work to combat bullying, and appearing on Ellen can only help.
What’s done in the dark will always come to light. We knew from jump that there was plenty of shady dealings goings on around the MURDER of Pace football star Danroy Henry who was shot to death by a Mt. Pleasant police officer two years ago, but now the lid is being blown off the whole situation. Ronald Beckley, another officer on the scene recently participated in a series of depositions as part of the civil case against the city of Mt. Pleasant. During those depositions he confirmed that Aaron Hess, the officer who fired the shots was, in his opinion, the aggressor… So much so that he actually fired his own weapon and shot him! This is completely different from earlier “official Police” versions of events. The original story was that DJ Henry was leaving a parking lot and struck a Officer Aaron Hess in the knee causing him to fly on the hood of the car and he opened fire to save himself. Part of the original story was also that Officer Ronald Beckley fired into the car to save Aaron Hess. It was later announced that Aaron Hess had to have surgery on his knee due to blunt force caused by DJ’s vehicle. We spent much of the past two days reading the lengthy depositions that have been posted on the website of Michael Sussman, Esq, the lawyer representing the Henry family. You can find them HERE , but we will summarize what we found and include some screencaps: In a series of depositions conducted last week, the second officer involved in the shooting, Officer Ronald Beckley, openly admits to causing the knee injury to Aaron Hess by shooting Aaron Hess. Officer Ronald Beckley shot Aaron Hess, realizing Aaron Hess was the aggressor and that he was about to cause unnecessary harm to DJ Henry! It was revealed by Officer Ronald Beckley during his deposition that he shot at Aaron Hess out of concern for DJ because he didn’t initially recognize Officer Hess as a police officer and felt that he was the aggressor in the situation by pulling his weapon and firing into the car DJ was driving. Beckley then confirmed that he hadn’t seen the official accounts that were supposed to be based on his statements until just weeks prior to his deposition. Very troublesome since the Westchester DA presented these falsified documents to a Grand Jury and Officer Aaron Hess and Ronald Beckley admit that they were never even questioned by the DA herself. Based on Beckley’s deposition, Police Lieutenant Brian Fanelli also falsified documents of Ronald Beckley’s original statement to make it appear that he shot into the car because he was in fear of his life. Fanelli also appears to have lied to Beckley by saying his shots didn’t hit Hess and that he didn’t know how he made it out of the situation alive. Even more shady, in his deposition Beckley revealed the Police Chief REFUSED to speak to him about what he witnessed at all, and recommended he find a lawyer to represent him. The public has been fed a pack of lies for the past two years as part of a police cover up to keep Officer Hess for being punished for his aggressive actions. We’re talking about an all American, college honor student who was an athlete and was truly murdered the night of his homecoming game. It’s crazy how many people would go out of the way to protect a crooked cop. Sadly, Beckley, a 30-year veteran of the force retired immediately after the incident and those in power have done everything they could to prevent him from revealing the truth. But it is good to know there are good cops out there who are capable of doing their job, even if it did take two years for him to break down and tell the truth. The sickest part of all of this is that the city of Mount Pleasant awarded Hess Officer of the Year knowing this was all a lie. Talk about an intentional slap in the face to DJ’s family! We hope they will find some measure of justice finally now that the truth is finally coming out.
New York City officials weren’t exactly helpful when Ken Burns and his daughter were making a documentary about the racially charged 1989 Central Park jogger case, but now they’re hoping the finished film, The Central Park Five , will be useful to them. The film, which got a special screening in New York on Tuesday night, explores the lives of the five men who were convicted and later cleared in the case which became a symbol of racial tension in a metropolis besieged by crime. (The terms “wolf pack” and “wilding” were added to the media’s lexicon of fear-inducing terms as a result of the case.) The documentary, which was shown at the Cannes, Telluride and Toronto film festivals, scrutinizes the initial convictions of the Central Park Five, noting, for instance that the five men did not appear to be in the area of the park where the rape occurred, that their DNA was not found on the victim and that their confessions did not jibe with one another’s. Despite the movie’s perspective, the New York Times reported that lawyers for the city of New York have subpoenaed notes and outtakes from the documentary, which Burns directed with his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon, in order to determine whether the material can help them fight a $50 million federal civil rights lawsuit that five men filed nine years ago as a result of their experience. In 2009, on the 20th anniversary of the incident, their lawyer Jonathan Moore called that experience “the most racist prosecution that occurred in the City of New York.” Ken Burns told the Times that the Sept. 12 subpoena came after the city had spent years declining the filmmakers’ requests for interviews to explain the actions taken by law-enforcement officials involved in the case. “There is a great deal of disappointment that it came to this, given the fact that we had given so many of the factions in this complicated story many, many opportunities, on a regular basis, to comment,” Burns said. The city insists that cops and prosecutors acted appropriate given the information that they had available to them then.. “We believe that based on the information that the police and prosecutors had at the time, they had probable cause to proceed, and the confessions were sound,” a city spokeswoman told the Times. [ New York Times] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
What a dummy. Of all the places to show up with a spliff in your pocket , this has got to be the worst case scenario. A New Orleans lawyer would have saved himself a lot of trouble if only he checked his pockets before heading to court on Monday. Assistant city attorney Jason Cantrell was issued a summons after he dropped a joint while talking to a police officer in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. Cantrell, 43, was cited for simple drug possession and released under a city policy for low-level marijuana cases, according to police. According to the New Orleans Police Department spokesperson Garry Flot, Cantrell was talking to one of the officers waiting to testify in court when the rolled up joint tumbled out of his pocket and landed on the floor. People who witnessed the comical scene said that two officers glanced at the joint, and then exchanged a bemused look before making arguably the world’s easiest drug bust. The pair were spotted chuckling as their colleagues led Cantrell out of the courtroom at around 4.15pm to issue him a summons. Ryan Berni, a spokesman for Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s office, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that at the time of the incident, Cantrell was not working on behalf of the city. He was suspended without pay pending an investigation. Cantrell resigned on Monday and, whatever his next career move is, we hope he learned his lesson and keeps his joints at home from now on! Source Images via facebook
If there are “0 F**ks Given” then why not just take yo’ a$$ on stage regardless of who you open for?? Lyfe Jennings Laughs At K.Michelle For Not Wanting To Open For Him In Tampa Via NecoleBitchie This weekend, while most of the VH1! ‘Love & Hip Hop’ Atlanta cast were down in the ATL for the BET Hip Hop Awards, K. Michelle was focused on getting her paper. She was originally scheduled to perform at the Straz center in Tampa along with Lyfe Jennings and Musiq Soulchild on Sunday night, however things went downhill when she decided she didn’t like her placement in the show. According to one concertgoer: I am angry at Kimberly Michelle Pate (K Michelle). She was scheduled to perform in my hometown Tampa, Florida along with Musiq Soulchild and Lyfe Jennings. In the promoters (Vybenation) contract she was to perform before Lyfe, but in her mind she felt as though she’s a “BIGGER” artist than him. So she threw a Diana Ross diva tantrum. Not only did she NOT perform and let her fans down, she blocked literally half of Tampa on twitter. K also said that she only perform for sold out shows. She went on to say that the promoters didn’t do they’re job, which isn’t true. She got paid $5000. Now my city is yelling #WHOISKMICHELLE. After learning of K.Michelle’s lil’ diva stunt, Lyfe hopped on Twitter to toss two cents. K.Michelle took to her Twitter page to try to justify her diva bullisht actions, which she promptly deleted… I’ve never missed a show a day in my life. I would never stand my fans up period. I was told no by the promoters, he didn’t like my request. Just because you’re on TV runnin’ around yappin’ about how Memphitz beat you, does NOT mean that you are bigger artist babycakes. What are your hits? Hell, what is one song that 100 people would know if they heard it right now?? Here’s an idea, find a seat, and have it.
My name is Lexi and I’m lucky enough to write my second Bieber Expierence! I’m 18 and I live in South Florida. My best friend Jamie and I found out that Justin was gonna be on the Today Show in New York, we’ve always wanted to go. We talked to our parents, and they said if you guys could pay for it yourself, then you can go. Jamie and I already had jobs so we started to save; luckily for us we both have family in New York so we both had places to stay. After working 40 hour weeks and saving, we saved enough to buy our plane tickets and spending money while we were up there! We booked our flights and had a 3 week vacation in NY, the only thing we knew Justin for sure was gonna be at was the Today Show (but it was his album release week so we knew he was going to do other events in NY) . Finally the morning of the Today Show and sleeping outdoors camping out, there were so many VIP people in front of us, that we couldn’t even get to see Justin! We later saw Justin tweet about a book signing. We hoped in a cab, went to pre-order ‘Believe’ and got our wristbands for the signing. The next day Justin had gone to Canada for the MMVA’s. Later we found out that if you bought his perfume set, you got tickets to a private concert at the Apollo Theater! We got to Macy’s to get the perfume sets and tickets and got 3rd row seats! We went back home and got ready! Then on to the concert, it was amazing! As I’m sure you all know about the power going out and all that, it was still probably my favorite concert I went to of Justin’s! To top it off after the concert, I was right on the stage, and Justin came by and grabbed my phone and took a picture of us! The next day was the CD signing which, sadly wasn’t that great. We waited in line for hours, and didn’t get to say a word to Justin. Right as I went to say something this lady grabbed me by my arm pulled me and said I needed to leave, so I was like whatever and left. The next day was 106 & Park, and we had gotten tickets! When we got there, they came out and told us the show was full and we couldn’t get in. I fought and made a big scene with security but nothing, so we went to the back and waited. A little while later, Justin’s car came out. He rolled down his window and talked to us, he was so nice! We knew Justin was going to David Letterman so we went by his hotel. Justin got out and started taking pictures, when it was my turn he put his arm around me and I went to hand another girl my phone. Justin was like, “Wait take it on that girl’s camera, it will come out better for you!” After that we went home, me and Jamie were beyond exhausted! Friday he was filming Fuse at a secret location, and you had to win to get in. But one of the girls I met in NY had won and told me where it was. We decided to go and try to get in. We ended up getting in! The “Justin Bieber: All around the World Special” was on TV at the time, and out of no where my phone blew up! Everyone was telling me we were in it! Once we got home we watched at and we were in the special like 10 times! It definitely topped off our perfect week! It was honestly the best week of my life, it was worth all the money I spent, sleep in the street, waking up super early, getting lost every time I took the train, and almost getting kidnaped and killed! I wouldn’t change anything about the trip and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! -@LexiRobless @JamieVelasquezz Read more here: My name is Lexi and I’m lucky enough to write my second Bieber…
My name is Kate. I’m from Australia and I’ve been a Belieber since mid-2009 and I’ve supported Justin every second since then. He has inspired me to do so much good with my life. With two other girls, I run Bieber parades/charity events around the city of Melbourne, we’ve raised so much money for Pencils Of Promise and been so successful. We’ve also personally donated Believe albums to sick children in hospital and made so many people smile. I don’t do it to get Justin’s attention, I do it because he’s taught me to always give back, I want to be a fan he’d be proud of. Although I’m from Melbourne, I flew to Sydney and got to see Justin perform on the morning show ‘Sunrise’. After 3 days of trying to meet him, I knew I was running out of time as he was flying to New Zealand later that day, July 18th. I wasn’t sure of the time he was leaving so I went to the airport and I was willing to wait however long I needed to. I spent the day trying to find out as much information as possible about his flight details. I went to McDonalds inside the airport and one of the lady’s working there told me about this back entrance where celebrities go through. I ran there straight away, there was only about 4 girls there but there were police there too so I knew something had to be going on. After hours and hours of waiting, I got a call saying that Kenny had been spotted inside the airport. All the police randomly ran inside and I was worried that Justin had gone in through the front entrance. A lady walked out of the airport and told us that Justin was being driven to Gate 27 which is impossible to get to. All of us girls got up and ran around the airport, trying to find anyway we would be able to see him even if it was just through a fence. After running so much that I thought I was going to throw up we eventually made our way back to our original spot. We waited for about 20 minutes then a black car drove past and a few girls spotted Selena in it. I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t know what to do, I was freaking out. We all jumped up and ran over, then decided it would be best if we stayed back. We tried to stay as calm as possible and all took 3 steps back. Justin and Selena stayed in the car for a while but Moshe got out. We waved politely and started singing one of Selena’s songs to make her smile and eventually Justin and Selena got out. Justin walked over to us and I didn’t even know what to do. The amount of times I have imagined meeting him and planned all the things I would say, but I forgot it all. I was literally speechless. I got a photo with him, then thanked him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He smirked and smiled at me then pulled me in for a hug. I was holding a Bieber magazine and he was like “Do you want me to sign that for you?” and he signed it. I still can’t believe it. It was so perfect. He is so perfect. He made sure everyone had a photo before he left, it shows how much he really does care about us. He didn’t have to walk over to us and take photos with us but he chose too. He made my biggest dream come true and I could never thank him enough. Justin Drew Bieber is my life, to all the people who said I’d never meet him, just look at us now. -@BieberMelbourne See original here: My name is Kate. I’m from Australia and I’ve been a…
Also in Thursday’s round-up of news briefs, Disney Publishing is planning a book for Tim Burton fans who can’t get enough of Frankenweenie . Also this afternoon, a couple of new films that will be heading their way to theaters. World Premiere of Hitchcock to Open AFI Fest The film starring Oscar winners Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren as well as Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel and Vera Miles will have its World Premiere November 1st as the Opening Night Gala at AFI Fest 2012. Directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello, the film is a love story about one of the most influential filmmakers of the last century, Alfred Hitchcock, and his wife and partner, Alma Reville, which takes place during the making of the distinguished director’s seminal 1960 movie, Psycho . The Fox Searchlight feature will open in theaters this November. The 2012 AFI Fest takes place in Los Angeles November 1 – 8. Lincoln by Steven Spielberg was previously announced as the event’s Closing Night gala. J.K. Rowling Says Similarities Exist Between The Casual Vacancy and Harry Potter The author said there are common themes between her new adult-oriented novel and her blockbuster Harry Potter series including religion and death, though unlike in the boy wizard novels, she said there are deaths in her new book that readers “won’t care much about,” THR reports . Disney Publishing Frankenweenie: An Electrifying Book Based on Walt Disney’s stop-motion animated film by Tim Burton, the interactive book uses video, music and original sketches to offer a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the movie that will be released October 5th. Available on the iBookstore, this book is Disney Publishing’s first to be created with Apple’s iBooks author. Additional information can be found on the Disney Publishing website . Amphibious: Creature of the Deep is Heading to N. American Theaters The tongue-in-cheek creature feature by Brian Yuzna was picked up by Freestyle Digital Media. The pic tells the tale of a marine biologist, Skylar Shane, who hires an expat charter boat captain, Jack Bowman, to help her find prehistoric life form samples in the north Sumatran Sea. After she takes in an orphaned boy, strange occurrences happen on board the ship, including the death of some local smugglers by an unknown entity. Jen Cohen’s Museum Hours Heads to U.S. Theaters The Cinema Guild has picked up rights to Museum Hours , which debuted at the Locarno Film Festival and had its North American premiere in Toronto. The film centers on a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Art Museum becomes a mysterious crossroads which sparks explorations of their lives, the city, and the ways artworks reflect and shape the world.
Diddy Takes His Twin Daughters For A Spa Day Daddy Diddy is at it again and still on his father-of-the-year steez. Most recently, Diddy took his two twin princesses D’Lila and Jessie for a pampered and prim spa day in the city. This man loves his kids……and we love it! Hit the flip to check out a few more recent pics of all of the adorable little Combs girls sittin pretty, along with a few of the rest of the Combs clan. Images via Twitter
Hitman Joe ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) is confronted with his future self — in the form of a time-traveling Bruce Willis — in Rian Johnson’s Looper , the writer-director’s third feature and one of the freshest original science fiction tales in years. Before debuting the September 28 release at Fantastic Fest over the weekend, Johnson spoke with Movieline about the pre- Brick short script that gestated into Looper , the film’s dark streak and the 1970 soul ballad that serves as “the heart of the movie.” Take me back to the beginning – the idea for Looper began as a short story in your notebook around the time of Brick , right? Before I made Brick . It was a script for a short film, and it was a few years before we made Brick , during a time when we were spending all of our time looking for money to make Brick – Steve [Yedlin], my cinematographer, and I. We realized we were just driving ourselves crazy and to alleviate the pressure we decided to start making some shorts, and we made a few but this was one that I wrote but we never ended up shooting. What was the original seed of the idea that started it? It’s funny, at some point after the release I’m going to put the three-page script up on the internet but it started with the same voice over that the feature starts with. It explains the guy and his job, and when his older self shows up, it was a foot chase between the two of them across the city, then it ended when they caught up with each other. It has a similar ending to the feature which is why I don’t want to put it out too soon. I had been reading a ton of Philip K. Dick and was in a period when I had just discovered his books, so I think my brain was full of sci-fi ideas. Were you feeling super existential? I must have been going through one of those existential phases we all go through, continuously. The honest answer is it was ten years ago and I don’t exactly remember. Ten years ago I was 28. The quarter-life years or so. It’s true, my God. Now I’m going through an existential crisis, thanks a bunch! I’m sorry! One thing I like about the concept is that it’s so much about identity, our past selves, our future selves, how we see ourselves and the potential to change the future. And our relationship with this kind of character, our future self, our notion of what we’re going to turn into and our ideas of how our lives are going to go. That’s usually personified in your relationship with a mentor or parent, someone who’s indicative of a path you could take in life and whether you want to or not, that’s kind of the interesting question. I found the film to be quite romantic. Nice! And that was not something I was really expecting. That song you use, Chuck and Mac’s “Powerful Love,” is so beautiful and perfect. Isn’t it incredible? It’s such a beautiful song. I literally picked up blind, I think on vinyl on the Twinights [album]. Listening to that song just sticks, then the lyrics somehow attach themselves to the meaning of the whole thing and it ends up jamming in your head and it becomes a really obvious choice, you know? Actually, in pre-production I sent an mp3 of that song to Bruce [Willis] right when he signed on and told him this song is the heart of the movie, and he got really excited about it. I was listening to that song over and over while we were shooting it. That and a lot of Sam Cooke. A soul connection. I’m really happy that you felt that from the movie. There is a real deep heart of romance in the movie, and not just boy-girl romance but romance with a capital R. Love. Yeah – love in the sense that love can somehow fix things. I hope that that’s baked into it. As dark and as bleak as the movie can get at times, the reason I feel comfortable having it go there is I hope that it gets to a really hopeful and redemptive place at the end. Do you see Looper as dark and bleak? I think it goes to some pretty dark, bleak places and shows these characters, even the ones who are supposed to be good guys, doing some terrible things. I think it shows the dark side of everybody and gets to some spots where you wonder if it’s all going to be okay, but I hope it shows you that people can change and people can make decisions for the right reasons. I was really surprised to be crying as the credits rolled. Yes! I was trying to make you cry. That makes me really happy. My little sister cried! That’s what we were going for, that kind of rush of emotion at the end. Your films have been quite different, playing in different genres. When you decided Looper would be your next feature did you have any trepidation about tackling the time travel aspect knowing the geekosphere would scrutinize it? Well, yes – especially because I’m part of the geekosphere and I’m one of those guys. The thing is, I’ve never had time travel inconsistencies in a movie deny me the pleasure of enjoying a movie. For me those are two separate things. And that’s something I can’t understand. I can’t understand someone who says “I didn’t like that movie because that, that, and that…” For me it’s like, wow, that’s a cool movie with a well-told story that was awesome, and this didn’t make sense and that’s fun to dive into and pick apart. But every time travel movie that’s ever been made, if you really dig into it you’re going to hit bedrock where paradoxes kind of hit each other and it doesn’t make sense. The important thing is that the storytelling works and that it has a consistent set of rules that it plays fair by. But I was mostly terrified just because time travel is a tough thing to work into the fabric of a story. It’s a tough thing to put into a story and still have the whole thing tick – it can be like pouring grape jelly into a clockwork watch. It’s a messy ingredient that’s hard to tame. As your films have gotten bigger and your career has gone from indie to increasingly more mainstream audiences, how do you feel your trajectory has evolved? I guess the movies have gotten bigger, one by one – I still haven’t worked with a studio. Sony’s putting this out and have been awesome and I would love to work with a studio someday, but so far we’re doing each of these independently. I guess I’ve crept up in scale with each one, but at the end of the day they’re all motivated by the same thing; they all start with a story that I care about that I want to tell. It is fun to see how broad a canvas we can accomplish; even with the next step I think it would be really fun to do something bigger, working on a broader canvas and reaching a bigger audience. But it can never come from that place. It’s so much work to make a movie, and for me it has to get me off my butt. To get me actually writing you have to strike something inside, you have to hit a power main to get the energy. You have to strike something you care about. Have studios approached you a lot more in recent years with projects? Not so much after Brick – I got anything that was dark and had to do with high school. Not so much after Brothers Bloom . In the lead up to Looper there have been more people calling… but the thing that’s interesting to me is if this group, this little family that we have that we’ve made these movies with, can tell one of our stories on that scale – and that doesn’t just mean doing something, I think you have to be conscious of the size of the canvas that you’re working on, the amount of money you’re spending, and the audience you’re trying to reach and you have to adjust your storytelling. I think that’s part of your job as a storyteller. You mention this “family” of filmmakers and collaborators, from using Joseph Gordon-Levitt again to working with Nathan Johnson on the music. You named Noah Segan’s character after his own nickname. Even Joe’s character is named Joe. I was really lazy with these names! [Laughs] When it comes to working with this group of people again and again, how do you synthesize all this? Did you write these characters with their personalities or capabilities in mind? Their capabilities more than their personalities, their strengths. This is a unique case with Noah and Joe, but usually I don’t have any idea who’s going to play [my characters]. It’s not like when I’m writing these characters I’m picturing my friends. You’re creating a completely new character and hiring somebody to play to that and against it and shatter your expectations of what that character could be in some ways. With Joe for instance, the way that Joe loves transforming himself on film and the way that he loves disappearing into his role I knew was specifically suited to something where he was going to have to sell himself as a younger version of an older actor. And there’s just something about Noah that’s inherently likeable and I knew that’s a trait I wanted to shine through with this weird little pathetic villain character – I wanted there to be something where you could see the little boy in him who’s trying to be a cowboy. That’s the sort of thing you know from your friends that you can hopefully use to your advantage. How much do you think our world will be like the world of Looper by the year 2044? I think that our world will be much nicer. I’m an optimist, actually. I think everything’s going to get better. I think we’re evolving. Looper is in theaters Friday. Read more from Fantastic Fest! Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
