Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Travis Kelce lines up another TV job and joins FX’s ‘Grotesquerie’
While his superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift resumes her world Eras tour, Travis Kelce is keeping busy.
The NFL player has joined the cast of “Grotesquerie” on FX. The series is a horror drama from Ryan Murphy, but a spokesperson for the network says it is not under the “American Horror Story” umbrella.
Late Tuesday, cast member Niecy Nash posted a series of videos to Instagram featuring her on set with Kelce.
“Guys, guess who I am working with on ‘Grotesquerie’?” Kelce pops into frame and says, “Jumpin’ into new territory with Niecy.” A later video where she wrote “late night shenanigans” showed the two in what appeared to be a red convertible. “Look at this guy,” she says. “Buckle up!” added Kelce.
And a final video featured Murphy embracing Kelce and saying, “You were wonderful.” Off camera, Nash asks, “How do you feel?” Kelce replied, “Whoo! I’m just glad I didn’t hurt nobody.”
It’s been an off-season of new jobs for the three-time Super Bowl-winning tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. He also taped a stint as host of “Are You Smarter than a Celebrity?” for Prime Video.
Kelce hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live” last year.
Murphy has a history of interesting casting choices for his TV shows. In 2015, he cast Lady Gaga for a role on “American Horror Story: Hotel.” She went on to win a Golden Globe for her performance. Last year, he also chose Kim Kardashian for a role on “American Horror Story: Delicate” opposite Emma Roberts. Kardashian received positive reviews for her performance and now has other acting TV projects in the works.
Most suits over Astroworld concert crowd surge have been settled
HOUSTON | Nine of the 10 wrongful death lawsuits filed after a deadly crowd surge at the 2021 Astroworld music festival have been settled, including one that was set to go to trial this week, an attorney said Wednesday.
Jury selection had been set to begin Tuesday in the wrongful death suit filed the family of Madison Dubiski, a 23-year-old Houston resident who was one of 10 people killed during the crowd crush at the Nov. 5, 2021, concert by rap superstar Travis Scott.
But Neal Manne, an attorney for Live Nation, the festival’s promoter and one of those being sued along with Scott, said during a court hearing Wednesday that only one wrongful death lawsuit remained pending and the other nine have been settled, including the one filed by Dubiski’s family.
Noah Wexler, an attorney for Dubiski’s family, confirmed during the court hearing that their case “is resolved in its entirety.”
Terms of the settlements were confidential and attorneys declined to comment after the court hearing because of a gag order in the case.
The one wrongful death lawsuit that remains pending was filed by the family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, the youngest person killed during the concert. Attorneys in the litigation were set to meet next week to discuss when the lawsuit filed by Blount’s family could be set for trial.
“This case is ready for trial,” Scott West, an attorney for Blount’s family, said in court.
But Manne said he and the lawyers for other defendants being sued were not ready.
State District Judge Kristen Hawkins said she planned to discuss the Blount case at next week’s hearing along with potential trials related to the injury cases filed after the deadly concert.
Hawkins said that if the Blount family’s lawsuit is not settled, she is inclined to schedule that as the next trial instead of an injury case.
More than 4,000 plaintiffs filed hundreds of lawsuits after the concert. Manne said about 2,400 injury cases remain pending.
The announcement that nearly all of the wrongful death lawsuits have been settled came after the trial in Dubiski’s case was put on hold last week. Apple Inc., which livestreamed Scott’s concert and was one of the more than 20 defendants being sued by Dubiski’s family, had appealed a court ruling that denied its request to be dismissed from the case. An appeals court granted Apple a stay in the case.
In the days after the trial stay, attorneys for Dubiski’s family settled their lawsuit with all the defendants in the case, including Apple, Scott and Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company.
At least four wrongful death lawsuits had previously been settled and announced in court records. But Wednesday was the first time that lawyers in the litigation had given an update that nine of the 10 wrongful death lawsuits had been resolved.
Lawyers for Dubiski’s family as well as attorneys representing the various other plaintiffs have alleged in court filings that the deaths and hundreds of injuries at the concert were caused by negligent planning and a lack of concern over capacity and safety at the event.
Those killed, who ranged in age from 9 to 27, died from compression asphyxia, which an expert likened to being crushed by a car.
Scott, Live Nation and the others who’ve been sued have denied these claims, saying safety was their No. 1 concern. They said what happened could not have been foreseen.
After a police investigation, a grand jury last year declined to indict Scott, along with five others connected to the festival.
Kai Cenat’s riot charges dropped after he apologizes and pays
NEW YORK | Charges of inciting a riot will be dropped against online streamer Kai Cenat after he agreed to pay restitution and apologize for luring thousands of fans to New York’s Union Square last year, prosecutors said.
Cenat, 22, and two codefendants agreed to pay more than $57,000 in restitution and apologize on social media for the Aug. 4 mayhem that followed Cenat’s announcement he would be there giving away video game consoles and other electronic devices, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Tuesday.
After Cenat, who has millions of followers on Twitch, YouTube and other platforms, announced the giveaway, the teenage fans who showed up bashed car windows, climbed on buses, threw paint cans, and set off fire extinguishers. Scores of people were arrested and at least four were taken to hospitals with injuries.
Cenat apologized on Snapchat on Tuesday for “the disruption and damage to the community, the park, the vehicles, and the storefronts in the area.”
The streamer, who was born and raised in New York City, posted, “I wanted to do something cool and fun for people and did not think it was going to turn into something that caused harm to the city, and I should have thought more about the post before I announced it.”
Cenat faced charges of inciting a riot and promoting an unlawful gathering. M’Niyah Lynn, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said the case would be officially dismissed after the Snapchat apology was up for 24 hours. Cenat’s codefendants were also required to post the apology, as well as pay roughly $1,000 each, Lynn said.
Cenat was required to pay $55,000 to the Union Square Partnership to cover cleanup and landscaping repair costs.
Cenat had already apologized for the chaos days later.
“Beyond disappointed in anybody who became disruptive that day, bro,” Cenat said on Twitch.
Cenat said he had watched videos of people jumping on cars “and I’m asking myself when I’m watching the video, ‘Why? Like, why?’ You feel what I’m saying?”
Disney receives key approval to expand California theme parks
ANAHEIM, Calif. | Disney has received another key approval to expand its Southern California theme parks in its first push to make major changes to its iconic Disneyland in decades.
The Anaheim City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the plan to transform Disney’s 490-acre campus in densely-populated Southern California by moving parking to a multi-story structure and redeveloping a massive lot with new entertainment and rides. It was a second, required vote for the plan after the council gave initial approval last month. The approved zoning changes and ordinances require another 30 days for changes to take effect.
The proposal doesn’t expand the parks’ physical footprint but will help Disney create new, immersive experiences for visitors by building a land such as the snow-covered hamlet of Arendelle from “Frozen” or the critter-filled metropolis of “Zootopia.” It requires Disney to invest at least $1.9 billion in the project over the next decade and spend tens of millions of dollars on street improvements, affordable housing and other infrastructure in the city of 345,000 people.
It’s the first time Disney has sought a major change to its California theme parks since the 1990s, when the company obtained approvals to turn Disneyland, its original theme park dubbed “the happiest place on Earth” and built in 1955, into a resort hub. It later built the Disney California Adventure theme park and the Downtown Disney shopping and entertainment area in the city 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Disneyland was the second-most visited theme park in the world in 2022 with 16.8 million people coming through the gates, according to a report by the Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM.
—From AP reports
