Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Ann Wilson announces cancer diagnosis, postpones Heart tour
LOS ANGELES | Ann Wilson, lead singer of rock band Heart, says she has cancer and the band is postponing the remaining shows on its Royal Flush Tour while she undergoes treatment.
Wilson said in a statement Tuesday that she underwent a surgery to remove a cancerous growth and is recovering steadily, but that her doctors urged her to undergo preventive chemotherapy and take time off from performing “in order to fully recover.” That meant the rest of the shows on the North American tour will be postponed to dates in 2025.
“To the ticket buyers, I really do wish we could do these gigs. Please know that I absolutely plan to be back on stage in 2025,” Wilson said in the statement. “My team is getting those details sorted & we’ll let you know the plan as soon as we can.”
All previously purchased tickets for the now-postponed shows will be honored. The rescheduled dates will be announced in the coming weeks, according to the release.
“This is merely a pause. I’ve much more to sing,” Wilson continued in the statement before adding, “Respectfully, this is the last public statement l’d like to make on the matter.”
Over 50 shows at stadium and arena venues in dozens of cities across the U.S. and Canada are impacted by the postponement. Select shows were set to include performances from Def Leppard and Journey, and Heart has not announced whether those bands will accompany them at the rescheduled performances.
The band, led by Wilson and her sister Nancy Wilson on the guitar, canceled the European leg of their tour in May, citing that the singer had to have “a time-sensitive but routine procedure for which the minimum recovery time is six weeks.”
Wilson posted on Instagram at the time of the European shows’ cancellation, writing, “I’m okay! Please don’t worry. I do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. It’s certainly an inconvenience for me.”
The Wilson sisters, who made hits like “Magic Man,” “Crazy on You” and “Alone,” formed the band in 1973. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers were honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2023.
Hunter Biden sues FOX News over explicit images
NEW YORK | Hunter Biden accused FOX News in a lawsuit of unlawfully publishing explicit images of him as part of a streaming series.
The president’s son filed the lawsuit Sunday in state court in Manhattan over images in “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” which debuted on the streaming service FOX Nation in 2022. The series features a “mock trial” of Hunter Biden on charges he has not faced and it includes images of Biden in the nude and engaged in sex acts, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims the dissemination of intimate images without his consent violated New York’s so-called revenge porn law.
“FOX published and disseminated these Intimate Images to its vast audience of millions as part of an entertainment program in order to humiliate, harass, annoy and alarm Mr. Biden and to tarnish his reputation,” according to the lawsuit.
A FOX News spokesperson called it an “entirely politically motivated lawsuit” that was “devoid of merit” in an emailed statement. The statement noted that attorneys for Biden sent them a letter demanding its removal from streaming platforms in April 2024.
“The program was removed within days of the letter, in an abundance of caution, but Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of multiple investigations and is now a convicted felon. Consistent with the First Amendment, FOX News has accurately covered the newsworthy events of Mr. Biden’s own making, and we look forward to vindicating our rights in court,” according to the emailed statement.
Hunter Biden was convicted last month of three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.
The mock trial in the series involved charges of bribery and improper financial dealings with foreign governments, charges that have not been brought against Hunter Biden, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and an order directing FOX to remove any copies of the explicit images.
The lawsuit claims promotional materials have not been entirely removed by FOX and that the program is still available on some third-party streaming platforms.
Man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie rejects deal
The man charged with stabbing author Salman Rushdie rejected a plea deal Tuesday that would have shortened his state prison term but exposed him to a federal terrorism-related charge, the suspect’s lawyer said.
Hadi Matar, 26, has been held without bail since the 2022 attack, in which he is accused of stabbing Rushdie more than a dozen times and blinding him in one eye as the acclaimed writer was onstage, about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.
Matar’s attorney, Nathaniel Barone, confirmed that Matar, who lived in Fairview, New Jersey, rejected the agreement Tuesday in Mayville, New York.
The agreement would have had Matar plead guilty in Chautauqua County to attempted murder in exchange for a maximum state prison sentence of 20 years, down from 25 years. It would have also required him to plead guilty to a federal charge of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, which could result in an additional 20 years, attorneys said.
Rushdie, who detailed the attack and his recovery in a memoir, had spent years in hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for his death over Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. The author reemerged into the public the late 1990s and has traveled freely over the past two decades.
Matar was born in the U.S. but holds dual citizenship in Lebanon, where his parents were born. His mother has said that her son had become withdrawn and moody after visiting his father in Lebanon in 2018.
Rushdie wrote in his memoir that he saw a man running toward him in the amphitheater, where he was about to speak about the importance of keeping writers safe from harm. The author is on the witness list for Matar’s upcoming trial.
Representatives for Rushdie did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Two men were arrested on public road within Oprah’s Hawaii ranch
KULA, Hawaii | Two men arrested last month on a public road within Oprah Winfrey’s property on the Hawaiian island of Maui are suspected of illegal night hunting, state officials said Monday.
The two Maui men, both 19, were arrested just before midnight on June 21 after officers found them using a hunting spotlight on a public road that runs through Winfrey’s ranch in Kula, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a news release.
While they were not caught actively hunting, officers found a loaded shotgun and a loaded rifle in the pair’s truck, and Winfrey’s ranch surrounds the road where they were stopped, the state said.
The men were arrested on suspicion of hunting on private lands without permission, not having a hunting license and other violations. One of them was also arrested for an unregistered semi-automatic rifle.
Invasive axis deer run rampant on Maui and other islands of Hawaii.
Maui County prosecutors will review the case and determine if there will be charges. Records show the men were released pending investigation, county officials said.
“Last month, DLNR reached out to Upcountry ranchers regarding their efforts to prevent illegal poaching throughout the area and we agreed to cooperate. The arrests did not happen on the property,” Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, said Monday in an emailed statement.
—From AP reports
