Latest news with #TimesofLondon
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Russell Brand pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges as U.K. trial gets date
British comedian Russell Brand remained firm this week in denying he sexually assaulted four women from 1999 to 2005. The controversial "Get Him to the Greek" actor, 49, appeared in a London court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. Brand, who was charged in April, said "not guilty" after each count was read in Southwark Crown Court. A legal representative for Brand did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment on Friday. Brand, who is best known for starring in raunchy comedies including "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Rock of Ages" and "Arthur," entered his not guilty plea months after U.K. authorities announced its counts against the comedian. Read more: Russell Brand denies allegations after U.K charges him with rape and sexual assault The charges stem from four separate alleged incidents involving different women. Prosecutors allege Brand raped a woman in the English seaside area of Bournemouth in 1999. He also allegedly indecently assaulted a second woman in 2001, orally raped and sexually assaulted a third woman in 2004 and sexually assaulted the fourth woman between 2004 to 2005. The final three allegations occurred in Westminster, according to U.K. officials. At the time, Brand denied the allegations via social media. 'I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile. But what I never was was a rapist. I've never engaged in nonconsensual activities," he said in a video shared to Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). "I pray you can tell that by looking in my eyes.' Before he was charged, Brand faced previous allegations of rape and sexual assault in September 2023, when the Times of London published its joint investigation with 'Dispatches,' a news program on Britain's Channel 4. Several women came forward with allegations that Brand sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2013. At the time, Brand refuted the 'very, very serious criminal allegations' and claimed he was being targeted by the 'mainstream media' because of his views. Since distancing himself from Hollywood, Brand in recent years has refashioned himself as an anti-establishment commentator and platformed conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 9/11 attacks. Read more: Russell Brand: Baptism is 'opportunity to leave the past behind' amid sexual assault allegations In November 2023, the actor was sued for sexual assault in New York by a woman who said she worked as an extra in Brand's 2011 film "Arthur." That same month, the BBC said it received multiple complaints about the risqué comedian relating to his workplace conduct when he hosted radio programs from 2006 to 2008. In recent years, Brand has also turned his focus to religion. In 2024, he doubled down on his commitment to Christianity and was baptized in the River Thames. At the time, he said it was "an opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn in Christ's name.' As he arrived to court on Friday, Brand was seen clutching a copy of 'The Valley of Vision,' a collection of Puritan prayers. His trial is set to begin June 3, 2026, and is expected to last four to five weeks. Times staff writer Meredith Blake and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Russell Brand pleads not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges as U.K. trial gets date
British comedian Russell Brand remained firm this week in denying he sexually assaulted four women from 1999 to 2005. The controversial 'Get Him to the Greek' actor, 49, appeared in a London court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. Brand, who was charged in April, said 'not guilty' after each count was read in Southwark Crown Court. A legal representative for Brand did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment on Friday. Brand, who is best known for starring in raunchy comedies including 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' 'Rock of Ages' and 'Arthur,' entered his not guilty plea months after U.K. authorities announced its counts against the comedian. The charges stem from four separate alleged incidents involving different women. Prosecutors allege Brand raped a woman in the English seaside area of Bournemouth in 1999. He also allegedly indecently assaulted a second woman in 2001, orally raped and sexually assaulted a third woman in 2004 and sexually assaulted the fourth woman between 2004 to 2005. The final three allegations occurred in Westminster, according to U.K. officials. At the time, Brand denied the allegations via social media. 'I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile. But what I never was was a rapist. I've never engaged in nonconsensual activities,' he said in a video shared to Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). 'I pray you can tell that by looking in my eyes.' Before he was charged, Brand faced previous allegations of rape and sexual assault in September 2023, when the Times of London published its joint investigation with 'Dispatches,' a news program on Britain's Channel 4. Several women came forward with allegations that Brand sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2013. At the time, Brand refuted the 'very, very serious criminal allegations' and claimed he was being targeted by the 'mainstream media' because of his views. Since distancing himself from Hollywood, Brand in recent years has refashioned himself as an anti-establishment commentator and platformed conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 9/11 attacks. In November 2023, the actor was sued for sexual assault in New York by a woman who said she worked as an extra in Brand's 2011 film 'Arthur.' That same month, the BBC said it received multiple complaints about the risqué comedian relating to his workplace conduct when he hosted radio programs from 2006 to 2008. In recent years, Brand has also turned his focus to religion. In 2024, he doubled down on his commitment to Christianity and was baptized in the River Thames. At the time, he said it was 'an opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn in Christ's name.' As he arrived to court on Friday, Brand was seen clutching a copy of 'The Valley of Vision,' a collection of Puritan prayers. His trial is set to begin June 3, 2026, and is expected to last four to five weeks. Times staff writer Meredith Blake and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tom Cruise: ‘All the Great' Actors Should Know the Technical Elements of Filmmaking
Tom Cruise is sharing his advice to fellow actors: Become a filmmaker. The 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' star and producer said, while receiving the coveted British Film Institute Fellowship (via Times of London), that it is imperative for actors to understand the below the line elements of filmmaking to better their own craft. Cruise even pointed to how fellow stars such as Marlon Brando worked with the camera. 'I always tell actors: spend time in the editing room, produce a movie, study old movies, recognize what the composition is giving you, know what those lenses are, understand the lighting and how to use it for your benefit,' Cruise said. 'Understand the art form to that degree. Brando absolutely understood lighting; all the greats did.' More from IndieWire Neon Names Ryan Werner President of Global Cinema, Courtney Ott Replacing Him as Head of Cinetic Marketing Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser Team Up to Steal an Indigenous Artifact in 'Americana' Trailer Cruise further pointed to how film schools do not widely teach production tools and filmmaking technology to acting majors. 'It is important to understand the tools around you,' Cruise said. 'There is tech. It is like understanding the stage as an actor but for a lot of artists, it is not taught in film school: How to understand the lens and what it can do, and why there is eye movement and recognize the effect it has.' Cruise, as his co-star and mentee Glen Powell shared in 2024, has his own six hour film school for colleagues. Powell told GQ UK that Cruise explained how cameras worked in the custom tutorial. 'He said, 'This is just for my friends',' Powell said. '[In the video Cruise] is like: 'Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…' The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go, 'OK, this is what a plane is. Here's how things fly. Here's how air pressure works.'' Of course, for those who aren't part of Cruise's famous six hour film school, auteur Werner Herzog has another way to encourage aspiring artists to learn about filmmaking. Herzog hosts an 11-day workshop that he deemed a 'film school for rogues,' and recently told CBS that he tells attendees to embrace their rebellious nature to make features. 'You do not become a poet by being in a college. […] You have to go outside of what the norm is,' he said. 'You have to have a certain amount of, I say, good criminal energy [to make a film.] [Filmmaking is] not for the faint-hearted.' 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
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Legendary Facebook Exec Scoffs, Says AI Could Never Be Profitable If Tech Companies Had to Ask for Artists' Consent to Ingest Their Work
Fresh on the heels from his exit from Meta, former Facebook executive Nick Clegg is defending artificial intelligence against copyright holders who want to hold the industry accountable. As the Times of London reports, Clegg insisted during an arts festival last weekend that it's "implausible" to ask tech companies to ask for consent from creators before using their work to train their AI models. During a speech at the Charleston Festival in East Sussex — which was, ironically enough, meant to promote his new book titled "How To Save The Internet" — Meta's former global affairs vice president initially said that it was "not unreasonable" that artists may want to "opt out of having their creativity, their products, what they've worked on indefinitely modeled." But he then went on to suggest that those same artists are getting greedy. "I think the creative community wants to go a step further," Clegg then charged. "Quite a lot of voices say 'you can only train on my content, [if you] first ask.' And I have to say that strikes me as somewhat implausible because these systems train on vast amounts of data." "I just don't know how you go around, asking everyone first," Clegg said during a speech to promote his new book, ironically titled "How to Save The Internet," that took place at this year's Charleston Festival in East Sussex, England. "I just don't see how that would work." The former deputy prime minister then added that if AI companies were required only in Britain to gain permission to use copyright holders' works, "you would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight." Clegg's comments came amid a fiery debate in England about AI and copyright, spurred on by a recent Parliament vote on an amendment to the UK government's data bill, which would have required companies to tell copyright holders when their work was used had it not been struck down in the House of Commons last week. His stance also put him in opposition to Paul McCartney, Elton John, Dua Lipa, and hundreds of other artists who called on the British government to "protect copyright in the age of AI," as Sir Elton put it in an Instagram post. Unfortunately, it seems that Parliament's lower house agreed with Clegg's sentiments and not the artists' — but history will show who was on which side of the AI wars. More on AI and copyright: Meta Says It's Okay to Feed Copyrighted Books Into Its AI Model Because They Have No "Economic Value"
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jennifer Lawrence is getting a megaton of Oscar buzz at Cannes
CANNES, France — The moment it crystalizes that Jennifer Lawrence is giving the most surprising, uninhibited performance of her career — the likes of which even her diehards may not have guessed she could deliver — comes quite early in Lynne Ramsay's absolutely punk-rock trip through one woman's psyche, 'Die, My Love,' which premiered Saturday night at the Cannes Film Festival. Lawrence plays an aspiring writer named Grace who has just moved to a rural fixer-upper with her husband, Jackson (Robert Pattinson). Late at night, she steps out of the room where she has been breastfeeding their newborn and sways down the hallway, with one breast still popping out of her nursing bra. She is purposeful in her dancelike movements. We assume she is headed to Jackson, with whom she seems to be animalistically attached. But Grace veers into another room, and stands alone, before pulling a fountain pen from a jar and splattering its ink on a piece of paper. What is she doing? Even she doesn't seem to know. She leans forward. Drops of milk leak from her breast and mix in with the black. A mother's Jackson Pollock. This is the first sign of Grace's postpartum depression, an affliction that is never named in Ramsay's psychological drama, which also features LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte. Lawrence erupts into unfiltered, often quite funny outbursts of rage — and keeps audiences guessing just how much of a danger she is to herself and others. The response at Cannes, where the movie debuted to a big standing ovation (yes, they all get standing ovations), has been fiercely divided. There is no indifference to this movie. You adore it or you despise it. 'Jennifer Lawrence bombs in a maternal splatterfest,' screamed the headline for Kevin Maher's review in the Times of London. Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised Lawrence's 'explosive' performance but called the movie a 'showy mess.' In general, though, the Oscar talk has been pervasive. Even critics who didn't like the movie agree that Lawrence is incredible. IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio wrote that 'you haven't lived' until you've watched the actress go 'full feral,' while Esther Zuckerman of the Daily Beast declared that the role cements Lawrence's status as one of the best actresses of her generation. Lawrence is 'astonishing' and 'mesmerizing' at channeling the pitch-black humor of a woman who has lost control of her existence and seems both scared and liberated by the experience, Richard Lawson writes in Vanity Fair. 'It's quite something to behold: a comedic performance that manages convincing notes of devastation, or a dramatic turn that is also screamingly funny,' he writes. 'What a thrill to see Lawrence expanding her artistry like this, a movie star reclaiming the talent that her celebrity once nearly obscured.' But how realistic is this Oscar talk? No other performance at this festival, and perhaps in theaters so far this year, comes close to being this combustible — although don't forget Rose Byrne as a mother who is being unraveled by her daughter's illness in 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You,' an A24 sensation out of Sundance. Lawrence's is the harder movie to watch, testing patience at every turn with Ramsay's lyrical, nonlinear approach. And it'll be a challenge, I suspect, for many Oscar voters to want to sit through it — even with the new rules that they have to watch every film if they want to be allowed to vote. Is there room in this year's best-actress race for two revelatory, barn-burner portrayals of the psychosis of motherhood? One can only hope so. We'll all get a chance to make up our own minds soon enough, because Mubi just bought 'Die, My Love' in the biggest sale of the festival, for a reported $24 million, and will be bringing it to theaters in the United States, Britain and other major markets around the world. If anyone can make a difficult movie an awards contender, it is the company that turned Demi Moore and 'The Substance' into legitimate threats in the 2024 Oscars race. Also, keep an eye on the beloved Spacek for supporting actress for her turn as Grace's empathetic mother-in-law, Pam, who is grieving the death of her husband (played by Nolte) and is the only person who can see what is happening to Lawrence's character. Pattinson is also quite good as the perplexed spouse, whose flaws get magnified as Grace's madness deepens — but this is Lawrence's movie, and his Oscar fortunes will depend on how much voters like the movie overall. What can't be underestimated in Lawrence's case is the clear desire among just about everyone to see her back on that Oscar stage. She has often seemed reluctant to be a movie star, despite how naturally good she is at it — and has been in only three other movies in the past few years, none of them Oscar-ready. This slowdown coincided with her marriage to art gallery director Cooke Maroney and the birth of their two children. Lawrence is a producer of 'Die, My Love,' based on Ariana Harwicz's short first-person novel of the same name, and she suggested during the news conference that her passion for making this movie was personal: She had read Harwicz's book right after having her first child. 'There's not really anything like postpartum,' Lawrence said. 'Extreme anxiety and extreme depression is isolating. … You feel like an alien.' In the film, Grace is in Montana without any friends or community of her own, but Lawrence said that postpartum is isolating 'no matter where you are.' Lawrence had wanted to work with Scottish auteur Ramsay ever since seeing her 1999 film, 'Ratcatcher,' and was the one to approach the director. Ramsay previously showed 2011's 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' and 2017's 'You Were Never Really Here' at Cannes. She has a Scorsese-like penchant for propulsive needle drops and a knack for empathetically probing human psychology. 'I was just like, 'There's no way,'' Lawrence said. 'But we took a chance and we sent it to her, and I just really cannot believe that I'm here with you [at Cannes] and this happened.' In what should bode well for an Oscars run, Lawrence was strikingly candid about motherhood — and the trade reporters near me were furiously writing up her every word. She was several months into her pregnancy with her second child while shooting the movie, which she said was her biggest asset. 'I had great hormones,' Lawrence said. 'You know, I was feeling great, which is really kind of the only way I would be able to dip into some of this visceral emotion.' The men on the panel, meanwhile, said making 'Die, My Love' helped them understand what the women in their lives had gone through. Stanfield said the movie helped him understand not only his wife's postpartum experience but also 'how it felt to be all the way alive … and a creator.' He said he just had to be a part of it, even though he has almost no dialogue in the movie. Pattinson said his own experience becoming a father had energized him creatively, but he laughed as he went on. 'This question is impossible for a guy to answer correctly.' As for Lawrence, she said that having children had changed her whole life. Parenthood is 'brutal and intense,' but 'in the best way.' Her children figure into every decision she makes, whether she is working or not. But they also opened her up as an artist. 'I didn't know that I could feel so much, and my job has a lot to do with emotion,' she said. 'I highly recommend having kids if you want to be an actor.'
