Latest news with #Trude
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
YouTubers covering the case of a missing Sumner County teen win some legal battles
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Some influencers have won in court after legal action targeting their coverage of a missing Sumner County teenager. Sebastian Rogers was last seen on February 25, 2024. Several YouTubers and TikToker content creators joined the search by March sharing theories, searching areas and gaining a following. However, that exposure quickly led to legal trouble. Two separate cases were filed — one in Sumner County and the other in Pennsylvania. 'The whole reason we are here is because I wouldn't let people violate my freedom of speech,' Andra Griffin, also known on YouTube and TikTok as 'Bullhorn Betty,' said. 'She is harassing me': Parents of missing Sumner County teen testify against YouTuber covering the case 'There is so much drama and different avenues for people to go down that it surpasses just the idea that a child vanished,' YouTuber owner of the channel 'Granny's Watching' Jessica Seng described. 'Nobody should ever entertain a frivolous lawsuit against people who just don't agree with your opinions, and that's really what I think it boils down to,' YouTuber Stephanie Trude, known online as 'BBQ Lady,' expressed. 'Just the worst part is that it is all on the back of a missing child.' The first case involved a protection order filed by Sebastian's mother and stepfather against Griffin that accused her of harassment and stalking. 'I've never talked to these people,' Griffin said. 'I've never tried to interview these people. I've never knocked on their door.' They later claimed Griffin violated that order, citing hashtags and online comments. However, a Sumner County grand jury declined to indict her due to a lack of evidence, ending the case. 'When it comes to my speech, it has emboldened me more because it anchored me,' Griffin expressed. 'Like how dare someone trample on my freedom of speech? I'm from Florida, and this is a public interest case, and I'm entitled to my opinions.' In the Pennsylvania case, Sebastian's biological father Griffin, Dog The Bounty Hunter, and seven others sued two YouTubers, Trude and Jessica Seng, as well as 50 additional people who were not named for harassment and endangering their safety. 'The entire frivolous nature and the financial strain that it brought upon us because nobody has tens of thousands of dollars lying around just to find legal representation,' Trude explained. 'A lot of what was quoted in this litigation just simply never took place,' Seng affirmed. The judge dismissed the case, saying that as public figures, they have a higher bar to reach when raising defamation allegations. The judge ordered the plaintiffs to pay the defendant's legal fees. 'It has made me never want to help use my platform to raise awareness because this has obviously cost an enormous financial impact on us both, and we were spreading awareness, doing our due diligence,' Trude expressed. 'A lot of people come out here and they will say, 'I heard' and it will be a thirty-minute discussion based around a rumor,' Seng said. 'It's a thin line to walk, but ultimately I think the most important thing is for people to remember the attention needs to remain on Sebastian.' As of publication, News 2 is awaiting a response from Dog The Bounty Hunter's team. , 15, was reported missing on Feb. 25, 2024 from the Beech area in Hendersonville. Sebastian is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, 120 pounds with dirty blond hair. He was last seen on Monday, Feb. 26 near Stafford Court wearing a black sweatshirt and black sweatpants, said the TBI. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) originally issued an Endangered Child Alert for Sebastian on the morning of Feb. 26 as multiple agencies took to the area to look for him. Based on additional investigative information developed during the search, the TBI issued an AMBER Alert for Sebastian on the afternoon of Feb. 27. An AMBER Alert is issued when there is reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction has occurred and the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death, per the DOJ. Multiple agencies including the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Nashville Fire Department, City of Hendersonville's first responders, Sumner County Sheriff's Office and Shackle Island Volunteer Fire have assisted in the search for Sebastian. If you have seen Sebastian or have info about his whereabouts, call the Sumner County Sheriff's Office at (615) 451-3838 or TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Washington Post
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
‘The Director' by Daniel Kehlmann book review
'The Director,' by Daniel Kehlmann. (Summit) Early in Daniel Kehlmann's new novel, a man meets, and praises, the Austrian film director G. W. Pabst, who is living in exile from the Nazis. 'You are a master,' the man says. 'You're a dark painter, a true artist of dreams.' Little does this artist know that in a matter of years he will find himself swallowing his pride, abandoning his principles and creating more of those dreams within the nightmare of the Third Reich. 'The Director' sees Kehlmann once again blending fact with fiction to dramatize a famous figure. The Munich-born author has always managed this fusion with aplomb. His last novel, 'Tyll' (published in English in 2020), set a mischief-making character from German folklore against the backdrop of a 17th-century Europe ravaged by war and rife with black magic. His international bestseller, 'Measuring the World' (2006), mapped the lives and discoveries of two scientists of the German Enlightenment. Kehlmann's latest book, deftly translated by Ross Benjamin, focuses on a key period of Pabst's story and examines how his art was forged through both integrity and complicity. The first part of the novel constitutes a calm before the storm. It is the 1930s and Pabst has fled his homeland for Hollywood. Hailed as Europe's greatest director, he is talked into making a film with a weak premise. He has little creative control and the film flops. Fellow émigré director Fred Zinnemann tells Pabst's wife, Trude, that her husband could succeed in the United States if he picks himself up and 'learns the rules.' 'We escaped hell, we ought to be rejoicing all day long. But instead we feel sorry for ourselves because we have to make westerns, even though we're allergic to horses.' Pabst envisions making his mark in the U.S. with other projects. First, though, he returns to Nazi-run Austria with Trude and their son, Jakob, to visit his mother, whose health is failing. But his best-laid plans to move his mother to a sanitorium and his family back across the Atlantic are thwarted when Germany invades Poland. War breaks out ('world Jewry wouldn't have it any other way,' says one character) and borders close. Unable to escape, Pabst has no alternative but to accept the lifeline thrown to him by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and make films for the Nazi studios. Given good scripts, high budgets and fine actors, Pabst produces work he is proud of. But his decision to collaborate and to compromise will come at a heavy price to him, his family and his reputation. 📚 Follow Books Follow 'The Director' gets off to something of a false start with an opening chapter that revolves not around Pabst but rather his former assistant, the now-aged Franz Wilzek, who is so forgetful and volatile that he threatens to be a disastrous interviewee on an Austrian TV show. Wilzek turns out to bookend the novel. When he reappears in the closing chapter, the haze obscuring his memory briefly clears and he remembers a pertinent truth. This allows his creator to cap the proceedings with a neat twist — one that puts a character and a past event in a markedly different light. Between these two sections runs a narrative that is largely episodic. Most of those chapter-length episodes are interlinked but a few are stand-alone. Sometimes Kehlmann makes smooth transitions from scene to scene; on other occasions his chapters take the form of choppy jump-cuts. This can prove initially disorienting, particularly when he skips forward in time or switches viewpoint. However, it would be churlish to take Kehlmann to task over his structure as his episodes comprise a series of enthralling set pieces which, when pieced together, add up to a thoroughly satisfying whole. In one unsettling chapter, Pabst and his family are made to feel unwelcome in his mother's home by the property's caretaker, a Führer fanatic whose manner veers between subservient and malevolent. In another almost surreal chapter, Trude attends a book club and watches in shock as a woman is banished from the group for mentioning books the Nazis have banned and burned. A familiar scene on a train in which browbeating Germans in uniform check passengers' papers and passports is rendered more original, and indeed more sinister, by being relayed through the eyes of a young and naive Jakob. And there are thrills when an uprising in Prague forces Pabst and Wilzek to halt filming and make a frantic run for cover. Kehlmann also impresses with scenes involving Pabst and various historical personalities. Greta Garbo and 'living flame' Louise Brooks leave him high and dry by turning down his film pitch. Hitler's filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl rails against Pabst's creative criticism and threatens him with 'consequences.' P.G. Wodehouse, a prisoner of war in the Reich, remarks on how much freedom Pabst has as a director. But it is Goebbels's cameo that is the most entrancing. Kehlmann depicts 'the Minister' at his most unhinged: shrieking with rage, laughing with glee, smashing a telephone and giving Pabst, 'an enemy of the German people,' a choice between punishment and redemption. 'The important thing is to make art under the circumstances one finds oneself in,' Pabst says at one point. Kehlmann's novel is both a vivid depiction of those circumstances and a captivating portrait of the artist navigating them. Malcolm Forbes is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the Economist, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New Republic. The Director By Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin
News.com.au
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
After committing an ultimate sin in LA's party neighbourhood West Hollywood, I found refuge in an Aussie-owned eatery
West Hollywood is the hip party neighbourhood of Los Angeles, home to heaving bars, trendy restaurants, and countless boutiques and galleries, where anything goes. Well, almost anything, I discover when arriving at a Mexican diner housed in the lobby of a recently opened boutique hotel. 'You can't come in wearing those,' the maître de tells me. She gestures at my tailored navy blue Ralph Lauren shorts, paired with a simple linen white shirt, which I thought would be more than suitable for an early 5.30pm reservation – especially pre-sunset on a balmy 32C day. I've dashed straight from a wine tour in Malibu and I've got a jazz club show to get to, so there's no time to rush back to my hotel to change and return for my booking. I wind up eating a packet of cashews from the minibar inside my chic suite at the stunning Kimpton La Peer while ironing a pair of slacks and kicking myself for not staging some kind of Pretty Woman -esque scene at the restaurant. My first few hours in West Hollywood aren't off to a great start and I wake on Saturday nervously reassessing the limited, early autumn-heavy wardrobe I've packed for this two-day sojourn. Given the embarrassing experience, I'm nervous about looking my semi-formal best when I head out to lunch. It's hot again, but I'm wearing pants – just to be safe – and well on my way to chaffing when I arrive at Great White. There's a line out the door and around the corner. This uber trendy eatery has received rave reviews since opening and LA locals and visitors alike are keen to get in. And many of them are wearing shorts. 'Do you have a dress code?' I ask my waitress when I'm seated. 'A dress code?' she says, a bemused look on her face. 'In WeHo? No, of course not.' Of course not indeed. Despite being one of the hottest eateries in the neighbourhood, it turns out Great White isn't up itself for one key reason. It's owned by Australians. 'Something we love about the hospitality in Australia is that it's welcoming, honest, laid-back and full of personality,' co-founder Sam Trude explains. 'It's not forced or rehearsed. This is something we strive for across all Great White locations – promoting a culture where ultimately everyone can be themselves and enjoy themselves.' Trude and his business partner Sam Cooper grew up together in Sydney and went to the same high school, reconnecting when they both lobbed in Los Angeles. Like many expats, they found themselves reminiscing about their favourite all-day cafes back at home and wondered why a similar concept hadn't been done in California, which leant itself perfectly to a casual, outdoorsy and fresh hospitality offering. 'The weather, lifestyle and landscape are so similar to that of Sydney and other coastal Australian cities,' Cooper said. 'We saw a gap in the market in LA for a casual, all-day concept that serves fresh produce prepared simply and thoughtfully and delivered in a casual and friendly way, and decided it was up to us to create it.' Their WeHo location is their third. 'This part of West Hollywood is particularly interesting as it seamlessly connects all the different layers of the area, from the entertainment to the night-life to the tourism,' Trude said. The space was totally enclosed when the boys came across it, but now stands as a kind of monument to indoor-outdoor dining that's visible from the street, enticing those wandering by to wander in. Its design keeps with Great White's signature style of European-inspired aesthetics, with plastered walls, softwoods, clay wall lights, large woven pendants and Zellige tiles throughout. The hand-applied plaster covering the walls is in a specially designed shade of pink – the very same colour adorning Cooper's childhood home back in Australia. The setting, architecture and interiors, and sense of hospitality have certainly turned heads and Great White in WeHo has had a roaring trade. 'It feels humbling and exciting to have a supportive community behind us,' Trude said. 'We have locals who visit their neighbourhood location multiple times a week, sometimes daily. 'We also get visitors from all over the world who come by to experience something new yet feel a familiarity that is hard to explain without experiencing it yourself.' But the food has also gone down a treat. I start with a mixed greens salad that's fresh and crisp, followed by steak frites with a prime New York strip that's so tender it almost melts on the fork. I know you're supposed to drink red with steak, but I had probably two glasses too many last night and can't stomach the thought, so I opt for a glass of chenin blanc from Maison d'Amis, a boutique vineyard in the Napa Valley. And call me tragic, but I can't go past the pavlova for dessert. Why not when I feel so much at home in this faraway but somehow familiar place? The boys have just opened their fourth location in Brentwood, joining their existing spots in WeHo, Venice and Larchmont Village. 'One of the most exciting elements of expanding the brand is immersing ourselves in all the unique pockets in and around Los Angeles and curating elements of our experience to meet the needs of that specific customer,' Cooper said. 'We have some exciting locations in the pipeline for Great White and always have something up our sleeves at our Venice sister restaurant and cocktail lounge, Gran Blanco.' While you're in West Hollywood I'm reassured that my shorts-phobic experience is unusual for this very lively part of Los Angeles, more on par with 'anything goes' than 'not in those'. And it's a fantastic neighbourhood to base yourself in. Kimpton La Peer is an ultra-chic boutique hotel right in the thick of the action, with oversized rooms, a pool, and an absolutely pumping bar. The Sun Rose is an intimate music venue inside The Pendry that's fast becoming a hotspot on the famed Sunset Strip thanks to its full calendar of shows. By day, witness everything WeHo has to offer with a two-hour e-bike tour with Bikes and Hikes, exploring Santa Monica Boulevard, the Design District, and the Sunset Strip. When you're hungry, head to Great White at 8917 Melrose Avenue – walk-ins welcome and bookings from 4pm encouraged. It's open Monday to Sunday, 8am to 10pm.
