"The Talk of the Town"
Actor and comedian Russell Brand has been charged with one count of rape, one count of oral rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault, the Metropolitan Police in London announced.
The charges relate to four separate women. The alleged crimes span from 1999 to 2004 or 2005, authorities said.
Brand, 50, is due in court in London on May 2.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(SPOILER ALERT) Episode six of Severance season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+, and it offers further developments in the relationships between characters whose Innie and Outie worlds have been colliding all season.
Severance follows workers at the mysterious Lumon Industries who’ve voluntarily undergone a “severance” —while at work, they have no knowledge or memory of their non-work lives and vice versa. But this season, we’ve seen crossover between the “Innies” — the workers — and their “Outies,” i.e. who they are in the “real world.”
Zach Cherry‘s Dylan has gotten a chance to meet his Outie’s wife, who he didn’t know existed until season 1’s finale. Their relationship progresses in episode six, and Cherry tells ABC Audio it’s a “unique story.”
“There’s this almost love triangle with one guy and his wife and his Innie and his Outie,” he says. “It was also a lot of fun to learn more about Dylan on the outside world and then watch how the Innie learning about himself affects him on the inside. … It was great to get to kind of open that up this season.”
Episode six also brings developments in the “love triangle” between Adam Scott‘s Mark S. and Britt Lower‘s dual role of Helly and her Outie, Helena Eagan, daughter of Lumon’s CEO.
Lower tells ABC Audio that Helena’s unexpected behavior this season toward Mark is easier to understand when you see her with her father, as we did in season 1.
“I think a lot can be extrapolated from that relationship and how isolating Helena’s upbringing must have been,” she notes. “Being indoctrinated by this company that has almost cult-like rituals.”
“It makes a lot of sense that her Innie, her inner child, would have this kind of really alive rebellion within her,” she adds. “And that the two sides of them are now on a collision course.”
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Midas Man, about The Beatles‘ manager Brian Epstein, is now streaming. Epstein, a gay man from an immigrant Jewish family, died of an accidental drug overdose at age 32 after shepherding the Fab Four and other music acts to worldwide fame. Queen’s Gambit actor Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, who plays Epstein, says he initially didn’t know much about Epstein — or even The Beatles’ music.
“There was so many songs that I really hadn’t heard properly before. … So, yeah, I spent a lot of time listening,” he tells ABC Audio. “It was like a real perk of the job. I mean, I felt like, ‘I’m listening to albums. That’s my work for the day. … Lucky me.’ But … somehow being familiar [with the songs] felt important.”
Fortune-Lloyd also studied up on Epstein, who died in 1967, and he concludes that Epstein was the “perfect manager” for The Beatles because he “understood what artists needed to create.”
He says, “When people talk about The Beatles and the extraordinary things they were doing … I think without someone like Brian looking after things, being the adult in the room, giving them the space to create and not have to worry about anything else — I don’t think they could do that.”
Midas Man is a sympathetic portrait of a troubled man, and Fortune-Lloyd said he’d “love” for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to see it, though he suggests it might be “difficult to watch,” seeing as how they were “so close” to Epstein.
“I’ve been made aware that they know about the film, and I really hope that they get to see it,” he says. “I hope they recognize and appreciate that we tried to honor the man and their relationship, and we created a loving portrayal of their friend. So, it’d be beautiful to share it with them.”
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What, like it’s hard? Tom Everett Scott is set to play Elle Woods’ father in the Legally Blonde prequel series Elle, Deadline reports. The show will be for Prime Video and is executive produced by the film’s star, Reese Witherspoon. Elle follows how Elle Woods’ high school experiences shaped her into the woman and lawyer she becomes …
Lizzo will star as Sister Rosetta Tharpe in an upcoming biopic, Deadline reports. Tharpe, who died in 1973, was a Black gospel singer, songwriter and guitarist who influenced and shaped early rock ‘n’ roll artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis Presley …
Linda Cardellini will play the lead role in the new Friday the 13th prequel series at Peacock, as Variety reported. The actress will play Pamela Voorhees in the new show, which is titled Crystal Lake. Pamela is the mother of Jason Voorhees, the famous slasher from the horror franchise …
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