Guilty Pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Charges are dropped midtrial in ‘Hotel California’ lyrics case
NEW YORK | From the start, the case was highly unusual: a criminal prosecution centered on the disputed ownership of a cache of hand-drafted lyrics to “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits.
Its end was even more unexpected.
In the middle of trial, New York prosecutors abruptly dropped their case Wednesday against three collectibles experts who had been accused of scheming to hang onto and peddle the pages, which Eagles co-founder Don Henley maintained were stolen, private artifacts of the band’s creative process.
In explaining the stunning turnabout, prosecutors agreed that defense lawyers had essentially been blindsided by getting 6,000 pages of communications involving Henley and his attorneys and associates. The material was provided to both sides only in the past few days, after Henley and his lawyers apparently made a late-in-the-game decision to waive their attorney-client privilege to keep legal discussions confidential.
“These delayed disclosures revealed relevant information that the defense should have had the opportunity to explore” when Henley and other prosecution witnesses were on the stand late last month, Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Aaron Ginandes told the court.
With that, rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski were cleared of all the charges. They had included conspiracy to criminally possess stolen property.
The case centered on roughly 100 pages of legal-pad pages from the creation of a classic rock colossus. The 1976 album “Hotel California” ranks as the third-biggest seller of all time in the U.S., in no small part on the strength of its evocative, smoothly unsettling title track about a place where “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
Prosecutors had said the defendants knew the pages had a dubious chain of possession but sought to keep and sell them anyway, contriving to fabricate a provenance that would pass muster with auction houses and stave off Henley’s demands for the return of the handwritten sheets.
Through their lawyers, the defendants contended they were rightful owners of pages that weren’t stolen by anyone.
“The next step is building back our reputations,” Inciardi said in a written statement after the dismissal. Kosinski, leaving court, said only that he felt “very good” about the case’s end. Horowitz hugged tearful family members, then left court without commenting.
A lawyer for Henley, meanwhile, signaled that he isn’t done with the matter.
“As the victim in this case, Mr. Henley has once again been victimized by this unjust outcome,” attorney Dan Petrocelli said in a statement. “He will pursue all his rights in the civil courts.”
One of Kosinski’s lawyers, Scott Edelman, said they also were going to “evaluate next steps.”
“The district attorney in this case got blinded by the fame and fortune of a celebrity,” Edelman said outside court, “and that blinded them to the information that they weren’t being given.”
Judge Curtis Farber, for his part, said the prosecutors “were apparently manipulated.”
Without naming names, he said witnesses and their lawyers used attorney-client privilege “to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging.”
The communications that led to the case dismissal weren’t released publicly. But in court earlier this week, defense lawyers said the trove had identified additional potential witnesses and raised questions about some testimony from Henley and others.
The defense maintained that Henley gave the lyrics pages decades ago to a writer who worked on a never-published Eagles biography and later sold the handwritten sheets to Horowitz. He, in turn, sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski, who started putting some of the pages up for auction in 2012.
“These are three factually innocent men,” Inciardi’s lawyer, Stacey Richman.
Henley, who realized they were missing only when they showed up for sale, reported them stolen. He testified at the trial that he let the writer pore through the pages for research but “never gifted them or gave them to anybody to keep or sell.”
The writer, Ed Sanders, wasn’t charged with any crime and wasn’t called to testify. He hasn’t responded to messages about the trial.
Defense lawyers said in court Monday that emails they’d just received showed that Henley initially suspected someone else, before someone reminded him of the decades-old book project.
According to the defense, the emails also showed that Henley’s lawyers and investigator initially decided to characterize the pages’ disappearance as a burglary — and make no mention of Sanders’ 1979 book contract — because they believed that referring to a burglary would help their cause. Messages seeking comment were sent to the Henley attorneys involved.
The contract, often mentioned during the trial, said the Eagles would furnish Sanders with material, which would remain the band’s “sole property.” Prosecutors emphasized the last part. Defense lawyers said that their clients hadn’t known about the contract but that it showed the Eagles agreed to provide things to Sanders.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that they had repeatedly asked various witnesses to waive their attorney-client privilege, but they chose not to until the past few days.
But defense lawyers noted that the Manhattan DA’s office worked on the case for over seven years.
While the defendants were accused of not asking enough questions about the pages’ ownership, “it appears that failure to do a full investigation lies with the other side,” said one of Horowitz’s lawyers, Jonathan Bach. “This case should never have been brought.”
On the road to its breakdown, the nonjury trial provided sometimes gossipy peeks into the height of the Eagles’ career and the workings of the music business.
The court heard the band’s longtime manager lament on a decades-old tape about dealing with “a pampered rock star” and heard Henley himself answer questions about matters ranging from creative methods to contracts to cocaine.
During testimony that stretched across three days, the Grammy-winning singer and drummer held in his hands some of the pages on which he and, sometimes, Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey spitballed words to such Eagles songs as “After the Thrill is Gone,” “One of These Nights” and “The Long Run.”
Henley recounted highlights from the band’s heyday, such as the writing of “Hotel California.” And he discussed personal low points, including his 1980 arrest after authorities reported finding a 16-year-old girl who was ailing from drug use at his home. It happened as the Eagles were breaking up, and Henley was reeling.
“The band was everything to me, and it’s something I’d been working towards since I was 15 years old. It was my whole world” and “my identity,” he said. “We had accomplished so much in the previous decade.”
In the long run, it wasn’t the end. The Eagles reunited in 1994 and are still touring.
Oscars producers promise cameos and surprises for Sunday’s show
LOS ANGELES | With just a few days to go until the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, the show’s producers are feeling good about what they’ve put together.
The nominees are some of the best the Oscars have seen, including some true blockbusters like “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.” Ryan Gosling is singing “I’m Just Ken” during the show. There will be a live orchestra in the theater. And the ever-reliable Jimmy Kimmel is back to host the proceedings for the fourth time.
“We’re really excited about this year,” said Molly McNearney, who is executive producing the show for the fourth time. “It’s a phenomenal year of movies. And we have great movies that the home audience is familiar with, which makes our jobs easier.”
The producers were hired earlier than usual, meaning they’ve had more time to plan and study past Oscars broadcasts to try to home in on what works and what doesn’t. One thing they’ve learned is that if the room is laughing, the audience at home is usually laughing too.
McNearney, who is married to Kimmel, said that they’re focusing on jokes over big, highly produced comedy bits. Kimmel will do his 10-minute monologue to kick off the show and will be sprinkled throughout.
“I think an evening that just makes people feel good is a win,” McNearney said. “Our job as producers is to keep that feeling good moving quickly because it is a long show and we want to make sure people are staying throughout.”
Another thing that works: When the speeches are good and people feel invested in the winners. Last year there were a lot of great comeback and underdog stories, from Brendan Fraser to Ke Huy Quan, which helped. This is not something the producers have any control over, but they are optimistic about the nominees and setting up scenarios with presenters who have a genuine connection either with each other or people in the audience.
“We want everybody to feel included, that they are part of our story,” said executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor. “I hope that we have put another kind of modern take on it that really focuses on storytelling and connection and that the audience in the theater and at home will just feel immersed in the experience all throughout the evening.”
Kapoor noted that the live performances of the Oscar-nominated original songs should be a real highlight of the show too, from the Osage singers to Gosling. They’ve also re-designed the stage so that an orchestra of 42 musicians can be in the Dolby Theatre and seen on camera. And Kapoor teased that the In Memoriam sequence is something they’ve put a lot of time and thought into and that it is poised to tug at audience heartstrings.
“There’s going to be entertainment and lots of surprises and a few cameos and things that haven’t been announced yet. We’re just really excited for everybody to come watch with us,” Katy Mullan said. “The Oscars is one of those last giant tentpole pop culture moments that everybody looks forward to and gathers around that TV set. It’s co-viewing at its best. And we’re in this moment where there’s more interest around these big live moments than there has been in years.”
Their main concern at the moment is that the global audience remembers that the broadcast begins an hour earlier than normal, at 7 p.m. EDT. It’s also the first day of daylight saving time.
“I think people are going to bed earlier and people are very excited, hopefully, that it’s starting at 7,” Mullan said. “It won’t be so late for everyone hanging on for the best picture announcement.”
The 96th Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 10 with the pre-show beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT.
Jury hears closing arguments in trial of armorer over shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. | A jury would soon weigh whether a movie weapons supervisor should be held to blame in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin during rehearsal on the set of a Western movie, as attorneys Wednesday delivered closing arguments in the trial of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
Gutierrez-Reed, a 24-year-old on her second feature film at the time of the 2021 shooting, has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering at a trial in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The proceedings are a preamble to a likely trial against Baldwin scheduled for July on a single charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Baldwin, who has pleaded not guilty, was pointing a revolver at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Prosecutors say Gutierrez-Reed unknowingly brought live ammunition onto the set of “Rust” at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe, where the rounds lingered for at least 12 days until the fatal shooting.
Delivering her closing arguments, prosecutor Kari Morrissey described “constant, never-ending safety failures” on the set of “Rust” and Gutierrez-Reed’s “astonishing lack of diligence” with gun safety.
“We end exactly where we began — in the pursuit of justice for Halyna Hutchins,” Morrissey told the jury. “Hannah Gutierrez failed to maintain firearms safety, making a fatal accident willful and foreseeable.”
Prosecutors contend the armorer repeatedly skipped or skimped on standard gun-safety protocols that might have detected live rounds on set.
“This was a game of Russian roulette every time an actor had a gun with dummies,” Morrissey said.
Defense attorneys contend problems on the movie set extended far beyond Gutierrez-Reed’s control, including the mishandling of weapons by Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer who crew members were loath to confront.
They say prosecutors have not come close to proving where live ammunition originated, failing to fully investigate an Albuquerque-based ammunition supplier.
Dozens of witnesses testified over the course of 10 days at trial, running the gamut from FBI experts in firearms and crime-scene forensics to a camera dolly operator who described the fatal gunshot and watched Hutchins go flush and lose feelings in her legs before death.
The prosecution has painstakingly assembled photographic evidence they say traces the arrival and spread of live rounds on set, using testimony from eyewitnesses to the shooting including Souza to reconstruct the day it happened on Oct. 21, 2021.
Prosecutors say six live rounds found on the “Rust” set bear mostly identical characteristics — and don’t match live rounds seized from the movie’s supplier in Albuquerque. Defense attorneys say the cluttered supply office was not searched until a month after the fatal shooting, undermining the significance of physical evidence there.
A second charge against Gutierrez-Reed of evidence tampering stems from accusations that she handed a small bag of possible narcotics to another crew member after the shooting to avoid detection.
The felony charges against Gutierrez-Reed carry a possible sentence of up to thee years in prison.
Painting by Denmark’s artistic Queen Margrethe exceeds expectations
COPENHAGEN, Denmark | An abstract painting by Denmark’s Queen Margrethe, who surprised her country by abdicating earlier this year, has been sold at a Copenhagen auction at $23,300 — exceeding the estimated price of $11,000-14,550
The artistic works of the 83-year queen has long been publicly known, and several of her paintings have been exhibited at museums in Denmark and abroad.
The unnamed 1998 acrylic painting, whose starting price was $6,550, was sold late Tuesday at Denmark’s main auction house to an unidentified buyer. The painting was originally a gift to a former aide who died in 1989, and was in the family’s possession.
The works by Margrethe who also has designed ballet costumes and sets, church vestments and dinnerware, and made book illustrations, are rarely put up for sale, said Niels Boe-Hauggaard of the Bruun Rasmussen Auction House.
“The queen’s recent abdication may also have given the painting an extra layer to its history,” he added in a statement.
On New Year’s Eve, Margrethe announced she would be stepping down, citing health issues. Her declaration stunned a nation that had expected her to live out her days on the throne, as is the tradition in the Danish monarchy.
On Jan 14. Margrethe became the first Danish monarch to voluntarily relinquish the throne in nearly 900 years. Her son ascended the throne as King Frederik X after she formally signed her abdication.
Margrethe had undergone major back surgery in February 2023 and didn’t return to work until April.
Denmark’s monarchy traces its origins to 10th-century Viking king Gorm the Old, making it the oldest in Europe and one of the oldest in the world. Today the royal family’s duties are largely ceremonial.
Tuesday’s auction was not the first time a painting by Margrethe has gone under the hammer. In 2021, the same auction house sold one of her works for $33,500.
—From AP reports
