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The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown out former Empire actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction for lying about a 2019 hate crime.

Smollett was found guilty in 2021 for faking a racist and homophobic attack and lying to the police. His lawyers said this violated his Fifth Amendment rights because, in 2019, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx had already agreed to drop the charges if Smollett paid $10,000 and did community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.

In its decision, filed on Thursday, the court stated they are resolving a “question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants.”

The court stated it did not find that the state could bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charges were dismissed as part of an agreement and the actor performed the terms of the agreement, noting that Illinois case law establishes that it is “fundamentally unfair to allow the prosecution to renege on a deal with a defendant when the defendant has relied on the agreement to his detriment.”

“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust. Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied,” it said.

The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision cancels earlier rulings by Cook County and appellate courts. The court has now sent the case back to the lower court to officially dismiss the charges.

A jury convicted Smollett in December 2021 on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from him filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.

He was sentenced to 150 days in county jail, ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, fined $25,000 and ordered to serve 30 months of felony probation.

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Believe it or not, Eva Mendes says she “never considered herself” beautiful — but it’s her longtime partner Ryan Gosling who makes her feel “really f****** sexy.”

That’s what the actress, mom, author and entrepreneur tells the Times of London in a new interview about her life and career. 

On the latter, she’s frank. “I was never in love with acting. I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way, but I wasn’t a great actress,” Eva says, allowing, “I had my moments when I worked with really great people.”

Two of those films are 2013’s The Place Beyond the Pines, on which she met her Barbie star beau and the mother of her two children, Esmeralda, 10, and Amada, 8, and 2014’s Lost River, the 50-year-old’s last film and Ryan’s directorial debut. 

“He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before,” she says. 

On that note, the actress credits Gosling with something else. 

“I feel really f****** sexy at times,” Mendes says. “The way my man looks at me is just … at times I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ That might not sit well with people, but so much of how I feel is a reflection of what he’s giving me.”

She adds, “There’s so many things that can make me feel sexy and I’d say that I feel more sexy than not. I guess because I’ve never considered myself beautiful, but I’ve always felt very sexy.”

For the record, Eva says she was “totally fine” with turning 50, adding, “It’s just that number sounds crazy.”

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Season 3 of Heartstopper debuted Oct. 3, quickly claiming a spot on Netflix’s top 10 and racking up exceedingly positive reviews. The beloved teen romance, starring Kit Connor and Joe Locke as boyfriends Nick and Charlie, is being praised for its handling of deeper themes including mental health, gender identity, sex and intimacy. 
 
“It was quite scary for us to put it out there because it is an evolution of Heartstopper,” series creator Alice Oseman tells ABC Audio of the new episodes. “It’s doing a lot of new things that the previous seasons didn’t do before and we didn’t really know how the fans would react to that. But the response seems to have been really positive, and everyone’s been so excited and happy with the story.”
 
Thursday, Oct. 17, is Spirit Day, an anti-bullying movement for LGBTQ youth, and Heartstopper deals with the trauma of bullying in Charlie’s mental health journey this season. The first half focuses on Charlie seeking treatment, while the second half follows Nick and Charlie as they grow closer than ever. Oseman says she wanted to focus on the “very relatable anxieties” teenagers have around having sex for the first time, as well as the importance of communication and consent.

While season 4 has yet to be greenlit by Netflix, Oseman says she feels hopeful about the prospect and that there are lots of people in the process “working really hard to try and make it happen.”
 
In the meantime, there’s still more story to tell when it comes to the graphic novels on which the series is based. Oseman is hard at work on Volume 6 of the series, with new pages posted online on the 1st, 11th and 21st of each month.
 
“Volume 6 is going to be very focused on Nick and Charlie thinking about the future and the fact that Nick is about to go to university and their school life together is coming to an end, and they’re both really, really scared about that,” she says. “Everything’s going to massively change for them.”
 
“There’s a lot more to come and I’m very excited,” Oseman says.

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