Supermodel Naomi Campbell, accused of assaulting her maid with a cell phone, failed to show up in court last week, puzzling the judge who asked for but never got a reason for her absence.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge James Gibbon responded by issuing a bench warrant for Campbell's arrest, but then decided not to put it into effect after Campbell's attorney explained that he and the prosecutor had an agreement. Defense attorney David Breitbart told Gibbon the prosecutor knew Campbell was going to be absent and had agreed not to seek her arrest. Gibbon said he would stay the warrant not put it into effect until the next court date, Nov. 15. Outside court, Breitbart said only that the British fashion model's absence was not related to work. He noted that she had not appeared in the New York and Italian fashion shows but declined to say why.
Breitbart also said he has been considering a plea offer from the Manhattan district attorney's office. He wouldn't say what the offer was.
The 35-year-old supermodel was arrested in March for allegedly throwing a cell phone at one of her employees in a dispute over a missing pair of jeans. Campbell has called the charges completely untrue. But the housekeeper, Ana Scolavino, was treated for an injury to the back of her head after the incident. Campbell has a history of anger problems with her employees.
Reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith exchanged vows with boyfriend Howard K. Stern on a boat near Nassau but there was no formal marriage and the ceremony is not legally binding, her attorney Michael Scott said Friday.
The exchange of vows happened aboard a catamaran Thursday, 18 days after Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel Smith died as he was visiting her in a Nassau hospital, where she had given birth to a baby girl, Scott said.
The couple exchanged vows before God but did not obtain a marriage license, Scott told reporters. Stern says he is the father of baby of the 38-year-old former Playboy Playmate.
Michael Jackson and his ex-wife, Deborah Rowe, have settled their lengthy legal battle over custody and visitation rights for their two children, their lawyers said Friday.
“We're still dealing with the details but it addresses all of the disputes between the parties,” said attorney Marta Almli, who represents Rowe. “I can't say anything about the terms of the settlement but I don't think it would have happened if both parties didn't agree it was appealing to both of them.”
She declined to give details on whether the settlement involves monetary payments to Rowe and visitation rights with the children, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.
The lawsuit was a byproduct of the 2003 charges filed against Jackson alleging child molestation. Rowe, who had relinquished all of her parental rights to the children, changed her mind after Jackson's arrest, according to court documents. Rowe and the pop star were married in 1996 and she filed for divorce in 1999.
The divorce became final in 2000. She filed to terminate her parental rights in 2001 and the court accepted her declaration in which she said, “Michael has been a wonderful father to the children, and I do not wish to share any parenting responsibilities with Michael because he is doing so well without me.”
According to court documents, she said, “I want to forever give up any and all rights pertaining to the children because I believe that by doing so, it is in the children's best interest.”
Before that, she said in documents, Jackson had allowed her visitation rights only if she went to distant locations such as Geneva and South Africa. Jackson also has a third child, Prince Michael II. The boy's mother has not been identified.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not