Entertainment
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sex Crimes Trial To Begin Monday
Jury selection is set to begin Monday in New York in the blockbuster trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who dramatically fell from grace following his incarceration on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Combs, 55, has been awaiting his day in court since last year on accusations of leading a crime ring that prosecutors say coerced victims into drug-fueled sex parties using threats and violence.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges, insisting that any sex acts were consensual. At a recent hearing, his attorney Marc Agnifilo offered a preview of his team’s defense by describing the artist’s free-wheeling “swinger” lifestyle.
The prosecution said in court it had offered Combs a plea deal — the specifics were not disclosed — but that he had rejected it.
If convicted, the one-time rap producer and global superstar, who is often credited for his role in ushering hip-hop into the mainstream, could spend the rest of his life in prison.
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Over the decades, the artist — who has gone by various stage names including Puff Daddy and P Diddy — amassed vast wealth for his work in music but also his ventures in the liquor industry.
The jury selection start date is notably the first Monday in May — which annually marks New York’s Met Gala, a glittering celebrity charity bash where Combs was once a red carpet mainstay.
Just two years ago, he posed for the cameras at that event uptown — but on Monday, he will be in downtown in federal court, as the panel of citizens tasked with determining his fate face a barrage of questions from lawyers on both sides.
Jury selection is expected to wrap up in about a week, with opening statements tentatively scheduled for May 12.Combs was arrested by federal agents in New York in September 2024 and denied bail multiple times.
He is being held at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, a facility plagued by complaints of vermin and decay as well as violence.
High-profile inmates there have included disgraced R&B star R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur convicted of fraud.
During pre-trial hearings, Combs has appeared in court looking remarkably aged, his once jet-black, styled coif now overgrown and gray.
‘Freak-offs’
Central to the case is Combs’s relationship with his former girlfriend, the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who is expected to be a key trial witness.
A disturbing surveillance video from 2016, which was aired by CNN last year, shows Combs physically assaulting Ventura at a hotel.
Prosecutors say the encounter occurred following one of the “freak-offs” they argue were a feature of his pattern of abuse.
The so-called “freak-offs” were coercive, drug-fueled sexual marathons including sex workers that were sometimes filmed, according to the indictment.
It’s unclear how much of the CNN video will be shown to jurors as evidence in court — the footage’s quality has been a sticking point between the opposing legal teams — but Judge Arun Subramanian has ruled that at least some of it will be admissible.
Combs has no major convictions but has long been trailed by allegations of physical assault, dating back well into the 1990s.
The floodgates against the Grammy winner opened after Ventura filed a civil suit alleging Combs subjected her to more than a decade of coercion by physical force and drugs as well as a 2018 rape.
That 2023 suit was quickly settled out of court, but a string of similarly lurid sexual assault claims from both women and men followed — and the federal criminal indictment dropped after a raid of his luxury properties in Miami and Los Angeles.
The indictment includes a charge of racketeering conspiracy, the federal statute known by its acronym RICO that was once seen as primarily targeting the mafia but in recent years has also been wielded frequently in cases of sexual abuse.
It allows government attorneys to project a long view of criminal activity rather than prosecuting isolated sex crimes, and requires proving “predicate acts” — the crimes elemental to the wider pattern of illegal wrongdoing.
In 2021, it was successfully used to convict R. Kelly, the fallen R&B hitmaker who was sentenced to more than 30 years of prison including for child sex crimes.
Industry watchers are also monitoring Combs’s case as a potential inflection point in the music world which, beyond the case of Kelly, has largely evaded the #MeToo reckoning that has rocked Hollywood.
AFP
Entertainment
Tinubu Doesn’t Trust Me – Cubana Chief Priest
Socialite and businessman Pascal Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana Chief Priest, has claimed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu does not fully trust him because of his previous support for Peter Obi during the 2023 presidential election.
The celebrity barman made the remarks during a livestream session with popular streamer Peller in a video that surfaced online on Wednesday.
Speaking partly in pidgin English, Cubana Chief Priest said the president still views him with suspicion because he openly backed Obi and the Labour Party in the last election.
“President Bola Tinubu no really trust me as an Igbo man that I am. He look me with one eye because he believes that this one that worked for Peter Obi before at the last election,” he said.
The businessman, who currently serves as the Imo State Coordinator of the Pro-Tinubu City Boys Movement, explained that he later switched allegiance because he did not want to remain on the losing side politically.
Asked why he abandoned Obi’s camp, he replied, “Because I don’t want to lose again because they say first fool no be fool, na the second fool be proper fool.”
Cubana Chief Priest was among prominent entertainers who openly campaigned for Obi and the Labour Party before the 2023 elections. He has since aligned himself with the ruling All Progressives Congress and President Tinubu.
Entertainment
Erling Haaland Makes Acting Debut In Animated Film
Erling Haaland will follow in the footsteps of David Beckham and Vinnie Jones by taking his first steps into the acting world, with the Norwegian striker set to make his film debut.
The Manchester City striker will voice a character described as ‘an animated version of himself’, in the upcoming animated film Viqueens.
This is according to the Hollywood Reporter, who say that the 25-year-old is playing a Viking called Haaland in the motion picture.
The adventure-comedy is directed and co-written by the award-winning Harald Zwart, the Norwegian director known for The Karate Kid and Agent Cody Banks.
‘As a Norwegian storyteller making a Viking adventure for a global audience, having Erling Haaland join feels incredibly exciting,’ said Zwart.
‘Erling has already become a kind of real-life Viking icon around the world – powerful, fearless and uniquely Norwegian.
‘Bringing him into this universe as himself gives the film an unexpected energy and authenticity that felt completely right for this story.’
Solveig Langeland, managing director of Sola Media, added: ‘Erling Haaland transcends sports – he’s a global cultural figure.
‘His involvement brings another exciting dimension to a film that already combines international adventure, humour, and emotional storytelling in a way we believe will resonate with audiences everywhere.’
He follows the likes of Beckham and Jones, who have already hit the cinema screens around the country.
Beckham made his silver screen debut in his pal Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur back in 2017 alongside film stars Charlie Hunnam and Eric Bana, playing hardened battleguard Trigger in the flick.
Meanwhile, Jones is known for portraying gangsters on screen, and as recently as 2024 played gamekeeper Geoff in Ritchie’s series The Gentlemen, featuring Theo James.
He famously also played Coach Dinklage in She’s the Man, and was The Juggernaut in X-Men: The Last Stand.
Haaland may need a while before he becomes the big actor that Jones has become, though, with plenty of years on the pitch still ahead of him.
The striker’s focus will currently be on winning the Premier League with Manchester City, as they look to hunt down Arsenal, who are two points ahead at the top, with two games to go.
Haaland will next be in action on Tuesday night as they travel to Bournemouth.
Entertainment
I Don’t Want To Die Because Of A Woman– Frank Edoho
Popular television host Frank Edoho has opened up about his deepest personal fear, saying he does not want to die because of emotional pain caused by a woman.
Edoho made the revelation during an interview on the YouTube channel Outside The Box, released on Saturday, where he reflected on male vulnerability, silent struggles and how he hopes to be remembered.
“I don’t want to go to the gates of heaven and they ask me what killed me and they say it’s a woman. Whether that woman be my daughter, my wife, my mother, I don’t want that. I don’t want that to be my way out of this portal,” he said.
The broadcaster, best known for hosting the Nigerian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, said he hopes to leave the world having made a positive impact on others.
“I want to die with a smile on my face saying that all the people I met, I tried to put a smile on their face, and to have the only regret that I wish I did more good. Not that I wish I had more time, that’s all,” he said.
Frank Edoho also spoke about the pressures men face and the tendency to endure emotional pain without seeking help.
“The task of manhood is very daunting. Men don’t speak. Men go through a lot. Whatever a man is going through, he’s just silent. He doesn’t say it. He holds it to himself. And some of them go to the grave with it. Too many, actually,” he said.
He disclosed that he went through a difficult personal period for two years without telling anyone.
According to Edoho, his years in broadcasting taught him how to hide personal struggles while maintaining a calm appearance on air.
“For two years, there was a couple of years back I was in a very dark hole but nobody knew. I couldn’t call you guys. I just said, you know what, this is a journey I have to make on myself to reorganise myself. And I’m happy I did. But at the time, I thought that the walls were caving in,” he said.
“Broadcasting taught me how to have a poker face. No matter what you’re going through, when it’s time to go on air, ‘Hi, good evening, welcome, I hope you’re having a nice time’, the only reason you’re not there is that you’re dead. If you’re alive, it doesn’t matter what you’re going through, you have to be there doing just that.
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