Latest news with #Ava
The Courier
5 hours ago
- The Courier
Dundee groomer caught in undercover police sting
A pair of undercover police officers thwarted a Dundee paedophile's attempts to groom children on social media. Joseph Nicholson, 40, sent a string of nauseating messages to two profiles he believed were an underage boy and girl. The creep – who claimed to be a duty manager at a hotel chain – repeatedly asked for pictures of the 'children' over Kik and Snapchat. A police raid on the home Nicholson shared with his husband found he was also storing child abuse videos at the highest level of depravity. Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Nicholson engaged in numerous in-depth sexual conversations between August and October 2023. The profiles – named 'Leon' and 'Ava' – would reply with various child-like responses and questions. Fiscal depute Andrew Brown read aloud the lengthy messages Nicholson exchanged, posing as a man called 'Lewis' with the username Lewboy2022. He said to the male profile: 'I wanna see everything cause I think you are cute AF' (as f***). The court heard how Nicholson repeatedly pestered the child for images posing in underwear and continued to escalate the sexual remarks. Nicholson, who sent images of himself, messaged: 'Doesn't have to be nakes right now, body in boxers just now would be nice. 'Can work up to them being off after that hehe.' When speaking to 'Ava', Nicholson immediately asked for a picture of her face. 'Just because most girls are either catfishing or scam bots,' Nicholson said. 'Not sure your as innocent as you look. 'What stuff do you normally do with guys on here. I am sure not always clean haha.' Nicholson repeatedly pressured the girl into sending a video of herself saying his name to prove she was a real person. Describing the search on Nicholson's home, Mr Brown said: 'The accused and his husband were traced in the property. 'The nature of the enquiry was explained. 'A mobile phone belonging to the accused was seized. 'Jogging bottoms were discovered which matched those in an image. 'An image containing a red carpet in one of the photos matched that of the locus.' Two Category A videos of child sex abuse material were also recovered from the mobile phone. Nicholson received the files through a group chat. He admitted two charges of attempting to communicate indecently with two children between August and October 2023. After pleading guilty on the day he was due to stand trial, Nicholson's sentence was deferred until July for a social work report to be prepared. His bail was continued and he is now a registered sex offender.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
2 Arrested in Connection with Death of 18-Year-Old Kayaker in Texas Jet Ski Hit-and-Run on Memorial Day Weekend
Two people have been arrested after Texas teen Ava Moore, 18, was killed in a jet ski hit-and-run on Sunday, May 25, authorities have confirmed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release that Daikerlyn Alejandra Gonzalez Gonzalez and an unnamed male have been arrested in connection with the incident "Our thoughts are with Ava's family and friends during this difficult time," the Texas Game Wardens said in a previous release while announcing the teenager's tragic deathTwo people have been arrested after a teenage kayaker died in Texas over Memorial Day weekend after being struck by a jet ski whose driver allegedly fled the scene. In a Tuesday, May 27 press release, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that Daikerlyn Alejandra Gonzalez Gonzalez and an unnamed male, both reportedly in the U.S. illegally, had been arrested following the death of Ava Moore, 18, on the evening of May 25 at Lake Grapevine in Tarrant County. Gonzalez, from Venezuela, is suspected of striking and killing Moore, while the man arrested is suspected of helping her "flee the scene of the crime," per the release. After leaving the scene, the pair allegedly subsequently committed "a hit-and-run after striking another vehicle," the press release continued. 'My heart breaks for Ava's family and friends, and my prayers are with them as they face this tragedy,' Attorney General Paxton said, per the release. 'My office will continue to work with local, state, and national law enforcement partners to secure justice for Ava,' he added. The Texas Game Wardens also announced Gonzalez's arrest, sharing a photo of the suspect on Facebook on Tuesday. "We are thankful for the help of fellow law enforcement officers from the Texas Attorney General's Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Dallas Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations," they wrote. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. In a May 26 news release shared on Facebook, the Texas Game Wardens said Moore had died in the jet ski hit-and-run. A female passenger remained to speak with first responders following the incident, per the release, while "the operator fled with an adult male." "Our thoughts are with Ava's family and friends during this difficult time. Texas Game Wardens remain committed to keeping our public waters safe," they said in the release. Moore had 'just returned from Colorado Springs after finishing her 1st year at the Air Force Preparatory School,' according to a GoFundMe page. She had previously been an 'outstanding student and athlete' at Timber Creek High School. The basketball player helped the Lady Falcons to a 71-51 mark across four years, including a 24-10 record in 2022 during her sophomore year and a 17-14 mark during her senior season, Sports Illustrated reported. "As The Moore family is grieving the sudden loss of their beautiful daughter/sister, we would like to ask for the communities help in easing the burden of funeral costs for this family. All money will go directly to the family. Thank you so much for helping," the GoFundMe stated. The page had raised over $31,000 as of Wednesday, May 28. Texas Parks & Wildlife, the Grapevine Police Department and the Attorney General's office did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Hacks' EP and star Paul W. Downs on Deborah's shocking choice: ‘It is the most pivotal episode of the series so far'
Hacks, "A Slippery Slope." Not to be hyperbolic, but Thursday's episode of Hacks might be its most important one yet. "It is the most pivotal episode of the series so far," co-creator, co-showrunner, director, and star Paul W. Downs says on the latest episode of Awards Magnet. More from GoldDerby 'Solo Leveling' takes top prize at 2025 Anime Awards Cannes 2025: Why Oscars could be next for Palme d'Or winner Jafar Panahi's 'It Was Just an Accident' 'Lilo & Stitch': Director Chris Sanders reveals the iconic blue alien's surprising original design (exclusive art) In "A Slippery Slope," written by Downs and fellow creators and showrunners Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, the repercussions of network head Bob Lipka (Tony Goldwyn) doing Deborah (Jean Smart) a "favor" the previous episode by firing Winnie (Helen Hunt) start to build when Bob asks Deborah to have scandal-ridden movie star Ethan Sommers (Eric Balfour) on her show. After Deborah acquiesces when she's asked to cut her joke about his secret Snapchat, a peeved Ava (Hannah Einbinder) spills all to her old On the Contrary boss Lewis (Aristotle Athari), who decides to do an exposé on the coverup and refuses to kill it despite Ava's pleas. Bob tells Deborah to fire Ava because he needs give a head on a platter to the board. Just when it seems like Deborah will do just that and let Ava down again — she sends Ava on a fake assignment at the Oscars, Ava's badge is deactivated when she returns to the studio — she instead pulls a first: by putting someone else first for once. During her monologue on her post-Oscars show, Deborah announces that she won't fire her head writer and "creative partner" and "someone I love" as asked, and that this will be her final Late Night show, because she won't cave to corporate pressure. It is a slippery slope, and she says she's drawing the line — a nod to the title of the pilot, "There Is No Line." "It's really the first time Deborah chooses a relationship over her career, chooses it puts Ava first," Downs says. "And also it allowed us in this episode to really address a lot of the stuff that we meditate on in the season, around the changes in the television industry." SEE Hacks stars and EPs break down Deborah's promise: 'That's the thing that Ava is constantly dealing with' One of the themes of Season 4 has been art versus commerce. By dropping Deborah and Ava, independent creatives, into the corporate world, they not only have a boss to answer to now, but shareholders, advertisers, and disruptive tech that constantly shift the goalposts. "This is a business, and I get that," Deborah says in her monologue. "And there are good people on the business side who are trying to navigate the difficult intersection of art and commerce. But thanks to Wall Street and big tech disrupting our industry, it's gone too far. It's not enough to be No. 1 anymore or to make a profit or to even make you laugh. I might be a capitalist pig myself, but first and foremost, I'm a comedian. And I care more about making this show the right way than I do about making shareholders happy." "As she says at the end of the day, 'I'm a comedian and I'm here to make people laugh,' and that is the thing that she loves to do and wants to do," Down says. "She says the dream changed because as much as this has been the dream, to do the dream today when our industry has been so disrupted by tech and just being a part of publicly traded conglomerates that have shareholders to answer to. ... This industry has been a profitable industry for a century. This was not a broken industry because people want entertainment, they want stories. Since the dawn of language, we've wanted stories, and for it to be disrupted in the way that it's been disrupted is really a shame because it's not just enough to make a profit." And it's "impossible" to make a profit, Downs continues, "if you don't push down on all of the people, all the crews, all of the creatives, all the people that make those stories." While Hacks and Deborah's speech is about the entertainment industry, Downs believes it's a mutual feeling across any industry "where corporate greed has impacted the way in which people make things." Downs, Aniello, and Statsky spent a great deal of time on the monologue as they also wanted to explore what it means to get your dream in 70s and the glass cliff, the phenomenon whereby underrepresented groups are put in leadership positions during crises. "What it's like to finally give a woman an opportunity to do something at a time when things have really changed or it's higher risk because the the potential for failure is even greater?" he says. "We were able to, I think, put in Deborah's mouth a lot of the stuff that we think about in this industry, that it's not just enough sometimes to make people laugh." Jake Giles Netter/Max The episode is also a big one for Jimmy (Downs), as the pressures of his new job — starting his own company with Kayla (Megan Stalter), who's being poached by her dad — begin compounding. "We really think of Jimmy and Kayla as sort of this bizarro version of Deborah and Ava. They are their own duo, but we always try and dovetail their stories and have them reflect the larger themes that we're dealing with in the season," Downs says. "And so this season, it's one thing if you work at a management company and have deal with the culture there or deal with the downward pressure if it is again a publicly traded company, but now they're starting their own. So there's all the pressures of being a startup, being a sort of this fledgling management company, but also he's dealing with the stress of Deborah and Ava having the grist they have in the beginning of the season." Like Deborah and Ava, Jimmy and Kayla also have completely different management styles. "She goes guerrilla mode, he leads with love, but this was such a fun episode because Jimmy was on a real emotional roller coaster." Jimmy and Kayla frantically search for Dance Mom (Julianne Nicholson), whom they find passed out from a bender on the streets of Wisteria Lane. Dance Mom insists on doing cocaine to straighten out before her Late Night performance and demands that Jimmy "boof it." A hilarious tug-of-war ensues over Dance Mom's eight ball-loaded purse. "We do a lot of alts, so there's not a lot of time to sit and rehearse, but that was one scene that, because there was so much physical comedy in it, it was so choreographed between, like, running to the door, cutting the coke, getting her out of the ice bucket," Downs says. "And obviously resets are so tricky with cocaine and ice water and all that stuff that we did rehearse that scene the night before. And so there was not really a lot of room for improvisation because it was very, very choreographed. "People had to knock on the door at the right time. We had to get her into the couch at the right time. She had to knock into a cart." One thing Downs did improvise was Jimmy angrily putting the purse on his shoulder as he walked out the room. "You know, I had to take the purse and then why not wear it out?" he says. "There was a little bit of discovery on the day, and that was one of those moments." SEE 'No one ever asks me to do comedy': Julianne Nicholson explains how she became Dance Mom on Hacks After Dance Mom manages to perform, Jimmy reaches his breaking point, and just like Ava in the sixth episode, he drives off the studio lot (in a golf cart). But the nice guy that he is, he doesn't break the studio gate. After the ultimatum from Bob, Deborah goes to Jimmy's house to apologize for not showing enough appreciation for all he does, and to clue him in something. Before Deborah goes on for her monologue, she has a brief chat with Jimmy, and it's still murky what her big plan is. "It was really tricky because you don't want to tip it one way or the other. You don't wanna like overly be mustache-twirly and make it seem like she's definitely done something sinister and you don't want it to seem like, 'OK, we're about to blow up the show, we're in cahoots in some way.' So it was very, very tricky cause we didn't want to push the misdirect. We wanted to make it a little bit neutral, and so there were a bunch of different versions of it," Downs says. "We did try a bunch because I was very aware. I think the way that I played it when I was thinking about it was I was playing it as if [Ava] was fired because I, knowing the truth of the scenario and what she was about to do, it was very hard not to be like, 'Poof, OK, you're about to go on television [and quit].'" At the end of the episode, Bob tells Deborah that she can't do anything because that the network has an 18-month non-compete on her. The reveal after that doozy of an episode could've served as the season finale — and it nearly was. "It was the finale initially," Downs shares. "We considered it going out on the static [when the feed is cut] that it's like, 'Well, what happened there?' We also considered going out on, 'We own you, we have a non-compete.' ... But then we thought, why are we delaying that?" "That" being what transpires in the season finale. The Season 4 finale of Hacks premieres Thursday, May 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Max. Email your questions to slugfests@ Best of GoldDerby 'The Pitt' star Tracy Ifeachor thinks about Collins and Robby's backstory 'all the time': 'It just didn't work out because it's not the right time' How Eddie Redmayne crafted his 'deeply unflappable' assassin on 'The Day of the Jackal' TV composers roundtable: 'Adolescence,' 'Day of the Jackal,' 'Interview With the Vampire,' 'Your Friends and Neighbors' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Deborra-Lee Furness Officially Files for Divorce from Hugh Jackman Nearly 2 Years After Announcing Breakup
Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness announced their amicable separation in 2023 after 27 years of marriage Furness' lawyer recently submitted filings that will finalize the former couple's divorce The two actors share two children Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness's divorce is now official. Furness, 69, has filed for divorce in New York almost two years after the former couple announced the amicable ending of their marriage in September 2023. The Daily Mail was first to report the news. Furness' lawyer, Elena Karabatos, also submitted filings relating to the duo's settlement, health care coverage and medical child support, PEOPLE has learned. Jackman, 56, and Furness, who wed in 1996 after meeting in 1995, share two children: son Oscar and daughter Ava. The filings indicate the terms of the Australian actors' divorce are uncontested and will only need a sign-off from a judge. A rep for Furness did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Announcing their separation in a September 2023 statement exclusively shared with PEOPLE, Furness and Jackman said, "We have been blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth." A source revealed at the time that while the mutual decision was amicable, the split was "very hard" for the duo. "It was not a snap decision — they took a lot of time and consideration of everything, and they made this decision together," the insider told PEOPLE. "They are going on separate journeys, but they will always be a family. They'll always be co-parents and best friends." Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Furness recently appeared solo at the Parsons School of Design's 2025 Parsons Benefit in N.Y.C. on May 20. Jackman was spotted a few days earlier walking in N.Y.C. with Sutton Foster, who he's been linked to since January. Furness also stepped out with daughter Ava at the 2025 Australian Open in January. Last May, Furness caught up with PEOPLE at a screening of her movie Force of Nature: The Dry 2. '[I learned] that I'm strong and resilient,' she said at the time of what she's learned about herself filming her first screen role since 2016. 'We are all a constant evolution.' In addition to upcoming films Song Sung Blue and Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie, Jackman currently stars in the off-Broadway play Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Class. The Deadpool & Wolverine star is also performing his concert series From New York, with Love at Radio City Music Hall on select dates each month between now and October. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Hacks' Renewed for Season 5 at HBO Max
There's always more Deborah Vance to go around: IndieWire can announce that beloved HBO Max series 'Hacks' has been renewed for Season 5. The Season 4 finale is set to debuts May 29 on streamer HBO Max, with Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) looking to conquer late night TV. The Emmy, Golden Globe, and Critics Choice Award-winning series is created and showrun by Emmy winners Paul W. Downs (who also stars), Lucia Aniello, and Jen Statsky. 'Hacks' is executive produced by Downs and Aniello via their Paulilu banner, and Statsky via First Thought Productions, as well as Emmy winners Michael Schur via Fremulon, David Miner for 3 Arts Entertainment, Morgan Sackett, and Joe Mande. The studio is Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. More from IndieWire 'Hacks,' 'Umbrella Academy,' 'Four Seasons,' and More Filmmakers Invite Viewers Into Their Storytelling Process 'The Penguin' Director Jennifer Getzinger: Learn How to Keep Quiet | 'What No One Tells You' In addition to Smart, Einbinder, and Downs, the series stars Megan Stalter, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Mark Indelicato, and Rose Abdoo, plus Dan Bucatinsky, Helen Hunt, Tony Goldwyn, Kaitlin Olson, Jane Adams, Lauren Weedman, Christopher McDonald, Poppy Liu, Lorenza Izzo, Johnny Sibilly, Paul Felder, Polly Draper, Luenell, and Aristotle Athari. Season 4 marked the series debuts for Julianne Nicholson, Michaela Watkins, Bresha Webb, Robby Hoffman, Eric Balfour, Danny Jolles, Gavin Matts, Grover Whitmore III, Holmes, Jasmine Ashanti, Katy Sullivan, Matt Oberg, and Sandy Honig. 'We congratulate 'Hacks' singularly talented cast and crew and our great partners at Universal Television,' Sarah Aubrey, Head of Max Original Programming, said in a press statement. Erin Underhill, President of Universal Television, added, 'Like Deborah Vance herself, 'Hacks' only gets bolder, sharper, and more iconic with time. We're beyond thrilled to keep the laughter rolling with Jen, Paul, Lucia, our extraordinary cast and crew, and our partners at Max.' In total, 'Hacks' has garnered 48 Emmy nominations, including a Season 3 win for Outstanding Comedy Series. The show has been a top five series on HBO Max since its Season 4 debut in the U.S., and a top 10 series globally. According to HBO, Season 4 has been pacing as the series' best season yet and has achieved both domestic and global week-over-week growth every week so far this season. The IndieWire review for Season 4 praised the comedy series for spotlighting its stellar ensemble cast, with critic Ben Travers writing, ''Hacks' has long made room for all the voices in its ace ensemble, but no one has been able to overshadow its leads, Smart (who has three Emmys for the role) and Hannah Einbinder as Ava (who should have at least two). In part, that's because both actors are delivering impeccable work, balancing their caustic comic chemistry with course, unbridled vulnerability.' Travers teased that the Season 4 finale has its own conclusion while still making room for possible new directions, including perhaps even 'giving Poppy Liu's Kiki the DJ treatment in Season 5.' For next season, 'the floor will also always be incredibly high, given the talent involved,' Travers wrote. 'I just hope there are more rewarding fights ahead, for Deborah, for Ava, and for 'Hacks.'' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
