Oksana Grigorieva (remember her?!) feels she was hosed by her own lawyers in her infamous feud with Mel Gibson, ending up in a terrible custody agreement. She’s now suing them. In court papers, Oksana accuses Ron Litz and Daniel Horowitz of negligently advising her to sign off on a bad deal back in 2011. Why was the deal so bad? Allegdly, it forbids her from pursuing any future legal action against Mel regarding their child without jeopardizing the settlement she made with the actor. Gibson agreed to pay Oksana Grigorieva $750,000, plus provide a house for her and support their daughter Lucia until Lucia turns 18. Not a bad deal, right? Not according to Oksana, who says she was also advised by lawyers to sign a legal document that divested her of all ownership rights to her house. Oksana is demanding unspecified damages. In response, Horowitz tells TMZ , “Why can’t she just live her life normally and have a good life, raise the kid, live in the house, make music, be happy?” “Why does she always have to be in a struggle?” “Especially with people who care about her?” Good question.
Blake Griffin who?!? The new slam dunk champion of the world is Jamaal Franklin of San Diego State. With his team down six late in the second half against Fresno State last night, Franklin led a three-on-three fast break, only to shock all viewers, teammates and opponents when he threw the ball off the glass from near the three-point line and completed an alley-oop to HIMSELF. It was a move you may not see in basketball ever again. Seriously. Watch now: Jamaal Franklin Dunk
2013 is off to a REALLY rough start for Justin Bieber. Dealing with a weed smoking scandal , and having reportedly been dumped by Selena Gomez , Bieber now faces a lawsuit from a former bodyguard named Moshe Benabou. According to TMZ insiders, Benabou claims Bieber screamed at him and slugged him multiple times in the chest at some point during his employment (March 2011 – October 2012) after the two disagreed on how to handle a member of Bieber’s entourage. Benabou is after unspecified damages for assault and battery, along with at last $420,000 in unpaid overtime. Those inside Justin’s camp, however, tell TMZ that Benebou is a “disgruntled employee looking for money.” They label the notion of the diminutive Bieber punching this ex-Israeli army member as “absurd” and say he was let go because he told a number of lies, including fabricating a tale that he once worked for Justin Timberlake. Still, this kind of headache is simply not what Justin Bieber needs at the moment. If only he had a way to relax and let go of all his worries…
Guess we won’t be seeing some of you ladies in those little flats anymore huh? Designer Tory Burch Sued For Racial And Sexual Discrimination According to TMZ reports : A black, bisexual woman has sued her former employer — the company run by high-end fashion designer Tory Burch — claiming her manager and co-workers put a big fat target on her head because of her race and bisexuality. Jessica Jones filed the lawsuit, claiming she worked at the billionaire designer’s flagship store in Bev Hills from July 2011 to July 2012 — and during that time, Jones claims she was called everything from a “disgusting” homosexual to a “n***er.” In the docs, Jones says her manager and co-workers treated her like dirt, telling customers and clients not to work with Jones because she was gay. Jones says her manager referred to Jones’ girlfriend as “that thing that comes to visit her at work.” On her lunch breaks, Jones says her manager would regularly ask if Jones was getting fried chicken. Jones claims she was eventually forced to resign because of the treatment she received. Jones is suing Burch’s company — as well as her manager and others — for unspecified damages. Burch was not accused of wrongdoing herself in the the lawsuit and she is not named as a defendant. This isn’t a good look Tory, you need to do a better job screening some of these folks that you hire to represent your brand. Image via PurseBlog
Quentin Tarantino says slavery continues in the United States. The outspoken filmmaker — whose spaghetti southern Django Unchained unflinchingly depicts the brutality of slavery — stoked the debate on race Tuesday night when he appeared on the Canadian television talk show George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight to suggest that the United States’ “war on drugs” and its “mass incarcerations” of black men is “just slavery through and through.” Tarantino didn’t cite these figures, but he could have: According to the New York Times, half of the 2.3 million Americans in prison or jail are black, an astonishing figure when compared to 2011 U.S. Census information that indicates blacks comprise only 13.1 percent of the country’s population. In other words, he’s got a point, and this is a conversation our country should stop avoiding. Tarantino was promoting Django Unchained , which opens Christmas Day, on Stroumboulopoulos’ CBC show when he made the controversial comments, and it will be interesting to see whether they get any traction in the U.S.— especially since the national debate is now focused on gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shootings. A spokesman for George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight provided Movieline with a video clip of Tarantino’s segment and a transcript of his comments. Check them out below and let me know whether you agree with Tarantino’s remarks in the comments section. George Stroumboulopoulos: So you know this film is gonna deal with the conversation about race in America today, people will talk about it. What do you feel about where it’s at? Quentin Tarantino: Uh… It’s… You know, there is… On a day-to-day, day-in, day-out basis for most people in America, it’s okay. Things have gotten a lot better. People are a little too sensitive to talk about stuff, and that’s a drag, but you know that’s, that’s how it is. But on a bigger level, it’s very depressing. This whole thing of the, this “war on drugs,” and the mass incarcerations that have happened pretty much for the last 40 years has just decimated the black male population. It’s slavery, it is just, it’s just slavery through and through, and it’s just the same fear of the black male that existed back in the 1800s. And uh, you know there’s a reason – I mean, especially having even directed a movie about slavery, and you know the scenes that we have in the slave town, the slave auction town, where they’re moving back and forth. Well that looks like standing in the top tier of a prison system and watching the things go down. And between the private prisons and the public prisons, the way prisoners are traded back and forth. And literally all the reasons that they have for keeping this going are all the same reasons they had for keeping slavery going after the whole world had pretty much decided that it was immoral. GS: Right. Business first. QT: Because it’s like, because it’s an industry. And one, what are we gonna do with all these people that are let loose, you know, these black people let loose, and two, what are we gonna do about all of the people that make money off of this industry? READ MORE on Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino Defends Violence in ‘Django Unchained’ Samuel L. Jackson Says He Burned Off Jamie Foxx’s Nipples In Cut ‘Django Unchained’ Scene [ George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight , New York Times , U.S. Census Bureau ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
A front-runner in the Oscar race, Zero Dark Thirty received some harsh words from an unlikely source – Senator John McCain. The Arizona legislator who was a P.O.W. and endured torture during Vietnam watched the film by Kathryn Bigelow Monday night and said it left him sick and called it, “wrong.” McCain said that the controversial technique, known as water boarding, which simulates drowning, did not yield useful information from al Qaeda’s number three leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been in U.S. custody since 2003. The film suggests that the technique resulted in useful information that lead the CIA to al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden’s courier, Abu Ahmed. “The filmmakers fell for it hook, line and sinker,” the Republican senator is quoted as saying by A.P. Last year, McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years in captivity by his North Vietnamese captors, asked then-CIA director Leon Panetta whether the hunt for Bin Laden came from information provided from Mohammed. The lead to the courier, however, came from a detainee held in a separate country. “Not only did the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed not provide us with key leads on bin Laden’s courier, Abu Ahmed, it actually produced false and misleading information,” McCain said in a speech in the U.S. Senate. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee concurred that water boarding did not lead to the tip that eventually saw U.S. special forces raid a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. McCain said that water boarding is dangerous because it damages the U.S.’s reputation and character and might be used against Americans. “I do not believe they are necessary to our success in our war against terrorists, as the advocates of these techniques claim they are,” he said. [ Source: A.P. ]
Team iPhone or Team Galaxy???? Via USA Today: A federal judge late Monday dealt Apple a major blow in its landmark battle with Samsung, denying the company’s request to ban U.S. sales of smartphones from the South Korean electronics giant. U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh rejected Apple’s request, stating that the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker has not been able to show that Samsung’s actions support an injunction. “Apple’s evidence does not establish that any of Apple’s three design patents covers a particular feature that actually drives consumer demand,” Judge Koh wrote in the order. A San Jose jury in August found Samsung violated six of Apple’s patents and awarded a whopping $1 billion in damages. Jurors had sided with Apple in deciding that Samsung had violated key designs covering iPads and iPhones. Three of the patents at issue were ones familiar to most consumers. The patents cover familiar touch functions that allow Apple device users to easily scroll pages, zoom out on images or tap to enlarge text, all with fingers. On the heels of the jury ruling, Apple had sought the ban of 26 Samsung devices from U.S. stores. Judge Koh did not issue an order on the amount of damages by late Monday. Apple had sought them increased by as much as $500 million and Samsung had sought them greatly reduced. Separately, Judge Koh issued an order denying Samsung’s motion for a new trial. In its request for a new trial, Samsung had argued that jury foreman Velvin Hogan had been involved in a lawsuit years ago with Seagate. Sorry, Apple!
And the battle for good healthcare for all continues… For the second time this year, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie rejected the Obama Administrations health care reform law. According to The Huffington Post , Christie’s blaming his lack of support on numbers…and it looks like Christie’s back to playing politics again since he won folks over after Sandy. : New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) became the latest state chief executive to rebuff President Barack Obama’s health care reform law Thursday by vetoing a bill that would have created an online marketplace for uninsured residents to shop for health insurance. …Christie rejected legislation passed by New Jersey’s Democratic-controlled legislature that would have established a state-run health insurance exchange under Obamacare. The exchanges will be the gateway to health insurance coverage and financial assistance for individuals and small businesses under the 2010 federal law. New Jersey is now the 19th state to decline to create its own exchange, which will leave the federal government in charge of these new marketplaces in those states. Christie said the health law, known as the Affordable Care Act, doesn’t give states enough leeway to design health insurance markets for their residents and that federal authorities haven’t provided enough information about how the exchanges would work. “I will not ask New Jerseyans to commit today to a state-based exchange when the federal government cannot tell us what it will cost, how that cost compares to other options, and how much control they will give the states over this option that comes at the cost of our state’s taxpayers,” Christie said in a news release. “We will comply with the Affordable Care Act, but only in the most efficient and cost effective way for New Jersey taxpayers.” Christie met with Obama at the White House Thursday to discuss federal relief funding in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The federal government has the authority under Obamacare to create health insurance exchanges in states that don’t enact their own, but the law was designed for federal authorities and states to share the responsibility. Lack of cooperation from states and poor coordination between levels of government could make the exchanges less effective at enrolling uninsured people into health coverage programs.States have until Dec. 14 to inform federal authorities of their plans for health insurance exchanges. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia already are moving ahead with their own exchanges, five states intend to jointly operate them with the federal government, and nine haven’t made announcements, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. One of those officially undecided states, Virginia, is unlikely to create a state-run health insurance exchange, William Hazel, the state’s secretary of Health and Human Resources, said at a conference held by the National Conference of State Legislatures Thursday. Don’t try to look all bipartisan when you needed federal aid and then turn around and side with the far right. Playin’ politics with people’s health just isn’t cool. Images via tumblr/facebook
George Zimmerman has filed a lawsuit against NBC over the way the network edited and played a 911 call following the shooting of Trayvon Martin in February. Zimmerman claims NBC made him look like a “hostile racist.” Trayvon Martin 911 Call NBC launched an internal investigation over the Trayvon Martin 911 call after it aired the recording, which featured Zimmerman quotes outside of their original context. The tape played on the air made it sound like Zimmerman immediately told police that Martin, who he says he shot in self-defense, was black, without being prompted. In actuality, the full George Zimmerman 911 call reveals he only said Martin “looks black” when responding to a question from the dispatcher about Trayvon’s race. Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder , accuses NBC of creating a “false and defamatory misimpression using the oldest form of yellow journalism.” He cites the recording above as proof of this allegation. NBC, his lawyer says, ” manipulated Zimmerman’s words , splicing together disparate parts of the recording to create the illusion of statements that he never actually made.” Whether a judge and/or jury agree remains to be seen. Free on bail and using autograph sales to raise cash, the 28-year-old suing for unspecified damages, citing defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch coordinator for his gated community in Sanford, Florida, fatally shot the 17-year-old Martin on February 26. He has claimed the shooting was in self-defense. His supporters have long held that he is a victim of media bias in the case that became a sensational national obsession, and should be exonerated.
The Long Island Power Authority should be ashamed of themselves! According to The New York Post , they’ve sent millions of their customers ‘normal’ electric bills, as if Sandy and the power outages never even happened!?!? The clueless utility charged Sandy-soaked Long Island residents an estimated rate that covered the entire billing cycle, and the statements made no mention of potential refunds to account for the prolonged blackouts. Jonathan Saporta was slapped with a double whammy by the Long Island Power Authority — a $649 bill for the Long Beach home he left in October and a $281 bill for his new Great Neck pad. He also is expecting a $1,700 bill for his storm-ravaged restaurant, Jake’s Wayback Burger, which is in hard-hit Long Beach and remains without power. “I can’t get LIPA to acknowledge my existence on earth to talk to me about anything,” he ranted. “But I guess they had power, so they could print my bills. Nice, right?” Saporta, 33, moved to the Great Neck home on Oct. 1 and got the bill in the mail on Wednesday for a cycle covering 43 days — including the two weeks he spent in the dark following the Oct. 29 storm. Even though he switched his account to the new address on Sept. 26, he still received an e-mail bill for the Long Beach house on Nov. 10 — and somehow it was $390 more than the previous month. “I am not paying any of my bills, that much I promise,” said Saporta. “They can put me into collections, and I’ll fight them tooth-and-nail. “It’s simply criminal.” Michael Hilferty, 29, an attorney from Long Beach, was e-mailed his bill — which was about a dollar more than the previous month — as he chowed down on some turkey. “To get this message on Thanksgiving was crass and classless. It’s just heartless,” he said. His oceanfront building was flooded with 7 feet of water and inundated with 4 feet of sand, covering the LIPA meters. Hilferty left the apartment, which remains dark and boarded up, and has been staying in Connecticut. Yet he was hit for 29 days of electric usage, including delivery and system charges. David Wasserman, 40, of Merrick, tried to report online the difference between his actual and estimated electric usage. “I got some message that said, ‘Service records show your usage would be higher. Please call an operator for further assistance,’ ” he said. “No one ever picked up.” LIPA did not return repeated calls seeking comment. Con Ed, on the other hand, wants to refund its Manhattan customers who lost power $3 and customers from other boroughs who lost power $6, the utility proposed this week in a filing with the Public Service Commission. Those figures represent a portion of customers’ fixed monthly bills, which exclude power usage. This is just ridiculous. SMH Images via tumblr
