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Tag: Los Angeles

  • American actor, Charlie Sheen attacked by neighbour in Los Angeles

    American actor, Charlie Sheen attacked by neighbour in Los Angeles

    Prominent American Actor, Charlie Sheen, was attacked and assaulted by his neighbour, Electra Schrock, at his Malibu home in Los Angeles.

    The police on Friday, confirmed the Schrock’s arrest, saying that she was with assault and burglary.

    Officers were called to the “Two and a Half Men” star’s home for a “battery/disturbance,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

    “Upon contacting the parties involved, deputies identified Charlie Sheen as a victim of assault,” the statement said.

    Suspect Electra Schrock was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, force likely to create great bodily injury, and residential burglary, the sheriff’s office said.

    According to Entertainment outlet, TMZ said Schrock, 47, is one of Sheen’s neighbors, who had “forced her way into his home and attacked him when he opened the door.”

    Read Also: Biden chooses Los Angeles to host Summit of the Americas

    “We’re told she ripped Charlie’s shirt and attempted to strangle him,” the title reported, adding that Sheen was seen by paramedics but not taken to a hospital.

    TMZ said this was not the first confrontation between the neighbors, reporting that previous incidents had included a sticky liquid being squirted on Sheen’s car.

    Sheen has appeared in numerous films including “Platoon,” “Wall Street” (alongside his father) and “Young Guns.”

    His television career has included “Spin City” and “Two and a Half Men,” a series loosely based on his hard-partying reputation.

  • Film director, John Singleton, dies at 51

    American film director and screenwriter, John Singleton has died after suffering from a stroke.

    The Oscar-nominated director, popularly known for his films including Boyz N The Hood(1991) and his remake of detective movie, Shaft (2000) was 51-years-old.

    Singleton directed “Boyz n the Hood” when he was 22 and fresh out of film school.

    The piece described youth and violence in South Central Los Angeles, the bleak, gang-ridden neighborhood of his childhood.

    A family statement confirmed the filmmaker had “passed away peacefully” shortly after being removed from life support in Los Angeles.

    The director’s family had earlier announced they had taken the “agonizing decision” to remove him from life-support following the stroke he suffered on April 17.

    A spokesperson for the family later confirmed that the award-winning director had died surrounded by friends and family.

    They also took the opportunity to raise awareness about hypertension, or high blood pressure, in the African-American community.

    They said the director had “silently struggled” with the condition, and urged people to familiarise themselves with symptoms.

    “We are grateful to his fans, friends and colleagues for the outpour of love and prayers during this incredibly difficult time,” they said.

    In 1992, Singleton became the first African-American filmmaker to be nominated for an Oscar as best director.

    His work on television included shows such as “Billions,” “The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story” and “Empire.”

    In 2014, he told Hollywood reporter that his upbringing had made him “more of a fighter, more of a hustler, and it made me really appreciate life in a different way as a storyteller”.

    His film, ‘Boyz N The Hood’ which was partly inspired by his childhood, explored themes of youth and friendship with the backdrop of inner-city violence in Los Angeles.

    He also directed 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Michael Jackson’s video for Remember the Time (1992).

    NAN

     

  • McGregor hangs out with hip-hop stars

    Conor Mcgregor took his mind off his defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov by watching Drake and other American hip-hop star perform live in Staple Centre, Los Angeles.

    McGregor – who was defeated by Khabib in the fourth-round last weekend at UFC 229 – made the most of his night out as he listened to Drake and hip-hop trio Migos, perform during their Aubrey and the Three Migos tour.

    The Irishman took to Instagram to show off his action-packed night out to his huge 29 million followers. McGregor hangs out with American singer Halsey at the Staples Center on the weekend

    McGregor was given a backstage tour by hip-hop trio Migos on Friday night as he poses alongside with Migos

    He posted a video of him backstage with Migos before posing with a bottle of his Proper Twelve whiskey during the gig.

    Furthermore, McGregor enjoyed spending time with American singer Halsey on Friday at the first of Drake’s three concerts at the Staples Center in Los Angeles – with Adele also in attendance.

    The 30-year-old appeared to be loving life at the gig despite it coming just a week on from his painful defeat by Khabib.

    And following last weekend’s loss, Ronda Rousey has now called out McGregor for his violent actions in the build-up to the eagerly-anticipated fight.

    McGregor appeared to be loving life despite his defeat by Khabib Nurmagomedov last week

    There were months of bad blood between McGregor and Khabib, with the Irishman having to undertake community service and anger management lessons after attacking the Russian’s bus.

  • Police arrest man for stealing Oscar Best Actress winner’s “golden man”

    Police arrest man for stealing Oscar Best Actress winner’s “golden man”

    A man was arrested on suspicion of stealing the Oscar of Frances McDormand – winner of best actress prize at the 90th Academy Awards, just after the ceremony on Sunday, the Los Angeles police said.

    The police confirmed that Terry Bryant, 47, had been arrested for grand theft, after the statuette was gone at the Governor’s Ball, which is the official formal dinner after the ceremony.

    The statuette has since been returned to the best actress winner.

    Witnesses said Bryant, dressed in tuxedo, strutted around at the party, claiming that McDormand’s Oscar was his.

    “Sup babies, look, my team got this tonight. Who wants to tell me congratulations?” Bryant said in a video posted on Facebook. “This is mine. We got it tonight, baby!”

    Read Also:  Two remanded for allegedly stealing policeman’s gun

    Onlookers asked to touch the statue and offered congratulations, apparently unaware the Oscar belonged to McDormand.

    The 60-year-old actress was celebrating her win of the award for best actress for her role in “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

    Her Oscar was awarded for playing an angry and bitter mother who is seeking vengeance after her daughter is raped and murdered.

    McDormand received a rousing reception for her acceptance speech, as she extorted all the women nominees and winners to stand up from their seats to get the recognition they deserved.

    NAN

     

  • Illegal migration: ‘income gap must narrow’- Harvard Don warns

    Illegal migration: ‘income gap must narrow’- Harvard Don warns

     

    Siddharth Kara, a leading expert on human trafficking and modern slavery has advised the Nigerian government to allocate resources equitably in order to curb   the vulnerabilities that drives people into illegal migranttion and modern-day slavery. Kara, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government made this known at a briefing in Los Angeles, where he addressed questions on the motivation behind the movie adaptation of his award-winning book on human trafficking titled ‘Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery,”.

    Kara who spent one month in Nigeria visiting Edo, Delta and Lagos to access the human trafficking burden said the country needs to start checking vulnerabilities by putting in place alternative economic opportunities that could ensure reliability and stability of income for the teeming population.

    “Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, there is a lot of grinding poverty. Poverty is the strongest force that drives vulnerability and population displacement being another, it is in that moment that traffickers come up with an offer. There is a lot of people who are super wealthy, so the income gap has to narrow. So many people are literarily boiling leaves for their meals, so income has to be more equitably allocated.

    Read Also: Firm to end rural-urban migration

    “There is a need to work on girl education, vocational training and economic opportunities as reasonable alternatives.  The government also need to find a way to increase security because so many people live under the threat of violence and those risks might make them want to leave or migrate abroad”, he stated.

    Kara, an adjunct lecturer who also teaches the only course on modern day slavery at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government argued that Nigeria is not a poor country. He likewise conceded to the fact that the country suffers from an issue suffered by most post-colonial countries which goes back to independence and how borders were drawn by colonial masters.

    Kara’s film on human trafficking which features a Nigerian character by the name ‘Mali’ was recommended by the U.S department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.  The book not only provides a global perspective on sex trafficking, it also shows the analytical framework and economic analysis for understanding the functioning and persistence of slavery in the current world.

    Close to 5000 Nigerians who are victims of labour and sex trafficking have been repatriated from Libya in recent times with the help of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the federal government.

     

  • Mayweather, McGregor press tour kicks off with a war of words

    Mayweather, McGregor press tour kicks off with a war of words

    Undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather and mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor traded barbs during a lively press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

    The press conference delighted the rowdy crowd in attendance ahead of their Aug. 26 fight in Las Vegas.

    The media conference was the first in a four-day international tour promoting the bout.

    The contrasts between the two was immediately apparent as McGregor, wearing a navy pinstriped suit and tie, danced around the stage smiling while Mayweather, wearing a track suit with American flag details, looked on stone-faced.

    As is expected in the bout, McGregor was the aggressor, wasting no time bringing up reports that Mayweather earlier this month asked the IRS for more time to pay his 2015 tax bill.

    “He’s in a track suit,” McGregor told the crowd of more than 11,000 people, who largely cheered the Irishman and booed the American.

    “He can’t even afford a suit anymore.”

    Later when Mayweather, whose nickname is “Money” and who frequently uses cash as a prop, pulled out a $100 million cheque on stage, McGregor told him to “give it to the taxman”.

    When asked about the tax issue, Mayweather said his attorneys were working on it and did not worry him.

    “I just showed you all a $100 million cheque that I haven’t even cashed yet, so we ain’t tripping on that,” he told reporters.

    The cheque appeared to be the $100 million he earned for his victory over Manny Pacquiao two years ago.

    Mayweather was more subdued than the fiery 28-year-old, reminding reporters that even though he is a heavy favourite, he is 40 years old and that anything can happen in a fight.

    He said he expected McGregor, who has never fought a professional boxing match, to try to pummel the defensive-minded Mayweather, who is putting his perfect 49-0 record on the line.

    “He’s upset, I’ve seen it before,” Mayweather said. “And when these fighters get upset with me they come out and they try to kill me,” he said with a laugh.

    “My job is to do what I do and keep my composure.”

    The crossover fight has been criticised as a publicity stunt by boxing purists who give McGregor no chance.

    But UFC president Dana White said the fight is one that fans of both sports have wanted.

    “When two guys get in there and start throwing punches, anything is possible,” White said.

    “If you are a fan of combat sports, there has never been a better time.”

  • George Lucas’ Star Wars’ museum to be located in Los Angeles

    George Lucas’ Star Wars’ museum to be located in Los Angeles

    “Star Wars’’ filmmaker George Lucas has settled on Los Angeles for the home of his 1 billion dollars storytelling museum, after pulling the project from Chicago last year.

    Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Tuesday that the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will be located in Exposition Park in downtown Los Angeles.

    “I believed in the vision for the Lucas Museum, and we went after it with everything we have  because I know that L.A. is the ideal place for making sure that it touches the widest possible audience,’’ Garcetti said in a statement, thanking Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson.

    The museum was initially planned for Chicago, but Lucas ran into legal challenges from an open-spaces group and pulled the project.

    Garcetti immediately moved to woo the filmmaker to house the museum in Los Angeles.

    The proposed museum, valued at 1 billion dollars and funded by Lucas, would feature exhibitions of Lucas’ collection of paintings, illustrations and digital art from the blockbuster “Star Wars’’ movie franchise he started in 1977.

    “South Los Angeles’s Promise Zone best positions the museum to have the greatest impact on the broader community, fulfilling our goal of inspiring, engaging and educating a broad and diverse visitorship,’’ the museum’s board of directors said in a statement.

    The proposed site for the museum is next to the University of Southern California, where Lucas studied film and met future collaborators, including Steven Spielberg.

    Lucas sold his “Star Wars’’ franchise to Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N) in 2012 for 4 billion dollars.

  • Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher to be buried side by side

    Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher to be buried side by side

    A joint memorial service and side-by-side burial are being planned for mother-and-daughter Hollywood stars, who died a day apart earlier this week in Los Angeles, the family said on Friday.

    Courtesy:www.mirror.co.uk
                                                                                                   Courtesy:www.mirror.co.uk

    Carrie Fisher

     

     

     

    Todd Fisher, son of Reynolds and younger brother to Carrie, said that he caught a glimpse of hummingbirds at a cemetery site at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.

    This, he noted convinced him it was the ideal spot for their final resting place.

    “That’s the way it was meant to be,” Todd Fisher, 58, told Reuters, recalling that his mother, the Oscar-nominated singer and actress, had a special fondness for hummingbirds, which were regular visitors to the grounds of her Beverly Hills home.

    Fisher said he and other relatives were gathering this weekend to firm up funeral arrangements, including dates.

    He said the family was planning two private events – a joint memorial celebration and a burial of his mother and sister next to one another at Forest Lawn – to be followed by some form of public commemoration of the two women.

    Reynolds, who sang and danced her way into the hearts of moviegoers in such Hollywood musicals as “Singin’ in the Rain,” suffered a stroke and died on Wednesday at the age of 84.

    Her daughter, Carrie Fisher, best known as Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” films, died a day earlier on Tuesday, four days after suffering a heart attack on a flight from England, where she had been shooting the third season of a British television comedy. She was 60.

    Carrie and Todd Fisher were both born to Reynolds and the late singer Eddie Fisher, whose marriage ended in scandal in 1959 after the crooner began an affair with actress Elizabeth Taylor.

    Todd had in an interview on Friday on the ABC News programme “20/20,” elaborated on his mother’s final hours, insisting “she didn’t die of a broken heart” but rather “just left to be with Carrie.”

    “It wasn’t that [Reynolds] was sitting around inconsolable, not at all,” her son recounted in excerpts from the interview published by ABC.

    “She simply said that she didn’t get to see Carrie come back from London, and expressed how much she loved my sister.

    “She then said she really wanted to be with Carrie,” he added. “In those precise words, and within 15 minutes from that conversation she faded out, and within 30 minutes, she technically was gone.’’

  • Nigeria to feature in seven events at 2015 Special Olympics

    The Lagos State Committee for Special Olympics said on Wednesday that Nigeria would feature in seven of the 26 events at the 2015 Special Olympics, scheduled for Los Angeles, United States.

    Olawunmi Makinde, the coordinator of the committee, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone that the events were athletics, basketball, table tennis, swimming, badminton, soccer and cycling.

    Makinde, who said the committee had begun preparation to ensure a successful outing at the Games, noted that early preparation would guarantee winning more medals at the competition.

    The coordinator said part of the preparations for the international competition was the regional competition for special athletes held in May in Ogun.

    She added that the forthcoming national games for special athletes scheduled for 2014 in Lagos would also serve as preparation ahead of the competition.

    “The Games will further expose the athletes to intensive training and rigorous exercises to equip them with the skills needed to excel at the competitions.

    “I can truly say that special athletes from schools in Lagos would be among the few that will make the national team because of their commitment to training,” she said.