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.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
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Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50