Guilty Pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Morgan Wallen has been arrested after he threw a chair off of a six-story bar
NASHVILLE, Tenn. | Country music singer Morgan Wallen has been arrested after police say he threw a chair off the rooftop of a newly opened six-story bar in downtown Nashville.
Wallen, 30, was booked into jail early Monday on three felony counts of reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, Metro Nashville Police tweeted.
The charges stem from a chair being thrown from the rooftop of Chief’s bar and landing on Broadway near two police officers.
An arrest affidavit says the chair landed about 3 feet from officers, who talked to witnesses and reviewed security footage. Witnesses told officers that they watched Wallen pick up a chair, throw it over the roof and laugh about it.
Wallen’s attorney, Worrick Robinson, confirmed the arrest late Sunday and said the singer was cooperating fully with authorities. He was released from custody, and has a court date scheduled May 3.
Wallen is one of the biggest names in contemporary country. His third studio album, 2023’s “One Thing at a Time,” was the most-consumed album in the U.S. last year. It spent 16 weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 in 2023 — which meant he held the top spot for 30% of the year, more time at No. 1 than any other album since Adele’s “21” dominated over a decade ago. It included several top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “Last Night,” “You Proof,” “Thinkin’ Bout Me,” “Thought You Should Know,” and “Don’t Think Jesus.”
In 2021, the country singer was suspended indefinitely from his label and saw his music pulled by radio stations and streaming services after video surfaced of him shouting a racial slur. As a result, he was disqualified or limited from several award shows and received no Grammy nominations for his bestselling “Dangerous: The Double Album.”
In 2020, he was arrested on public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges after being kicked out of Kid Rock’s bar in downtown Nashville.
At the time, Wallen posted on social media that he and some friends were “horse-playing” after a few bar stops.
“We didn’t mean any harm, and we want to say sorry to any bar staff or anyone that was affected,” Wallen posted on X. “Thank you to the local authorities for being so professional and doing their job with class. Love y’all.”
Actor Jonathan Majors avoids jail time for assaulting his ex-girlfriend
NEW YORK | Actor Jonathan Majors has been ordered to complete a yearlong counseling program but avoided jail time Monday for assaulting his ex-girlfriend in a high-profile case that derailed the once-promising star’s career.
The 34-year-old star of “Creed III” and other films had faced up to a year behind bars after he was convicted of misdemeanor assault by a Manhattan jury in December.
In court Monday, Judge Michael Gaffey sentenced Majors to conditional discharge after noting that both sides in the case agreed the charges did not warrant jail time, given the actor was a first time offender with no prior criminal record.
He said Majors must complete a 52-week, in-person batterer’s intervention program in Los Angeles, where the actor lives. He also has to continue with the mental health therapy his lawyers say he’s been participating in. Majors faces a year in jail if found in violation of the terms, which also included a no contact order with his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari.
Majors, dressed in all black and accompanied by his girlfriend, actor Meagan Good, declined to address the court and left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.
His lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, said the actor did not want to make any public statement that Jabbari could use against him in the civil suit she’s filed against the actor.
Majors, she added, is “committed to growing as a person” and will complete any court-mandated programs “with an open heart” even as he maintains his innocence and plans to appeal.
“He’s lost his whole career,” Chaudhry said in court. “This has been the most challenging year of his life.”
But Jabbari, fighting back tears as she addressed the court, said Majors refuses to acknowledge his guilt and remains a danger to those around him.
“He’s not sorry. He has not accepted responsibility, “ she said. “He will do this again and he will hurt other women. He believes he is above the law.”
Jabbari said Majors had made her believe the two were in a loving relationship, but, in reality, he isolated her from the rest of the world and cut her off from family and friends.
“I was so emotionally dependent on him,” she said. “I became a different person around him — small, scared and vulnerable.”
Rather than acknowledge his actions, Majors has been openly critical of the court proceedings, launching a “high-powered PR campaign” that included a nationally televised interview, added Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galloway as she argued for a sentence of violence counseling for Majors.
Following the December guilty verdict, Majors was immediately dropped by Marvel Studios, which had cast him as Kang the Conqueror, a role envisioned as the main villain in the entertainment empire’s movies and television shows for years to come.
The conviction stemmed from an altercation last March in which Jabbari accused him of attacking her in the backseat of a chauffeured car, saying he hit her head with his open hand, twisted her arm behind her back and squeezed her middle finger until it fractured.
Majors claimed the 31-year-old British dancer was the aggressor, flying into a jealous rage after reading a text message from another woman on his phone. He maintained he was only trying to regain his phone and get away from Jabbari safely.
Majors had hoped his two-week criminal trial would vindicate him. In a television interview shortly after his conviction, he said he deserves a second chance.
But the California native and Yale University graduate still faces Jabbari’s civil suit, which she filed last month in Manhattan federal court. In the suit, Jabbari accuses Majors of assault, battery, defamation and inflicting emotional distress, claiming he subjected her to escalating incidents of physical and verbal abuse during their relationship. The two met in 2021 on the set of Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” in which Majors played Kang.
Majors’ lawyers have declined to respond to the claims, saying only that they are preparing to file counterclaims against Jabbari.
The actor had his breakthrough role in 2019’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” He also starred in the HBO horror series “Lovecraft Country,” which earned him an Emmy nomination, and as the nemesis to fictional boxing champ Adonis Creed in the blockbuster “Creed III.”
As for Marvel, a looming question remains whether the studio will recast the role of Kang or pivot in a new direction.
Majors’ departure was among a recent series of high-profile setbacks for the vaunted superhero factory, which has earned an unprecedented $30 billion worldwide from 33 films.
Billie Eilish announces new album, ‘Hit Me
Hard and Soft’
NEW YORK | Billie Eilish announced Monday that her highly anticipated third studio album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” will be released on May 17.
The news arrived via Instagram, where Eilish shared the album artwork showing the pop singer floating in a body of water after being ejected from a door. In the caption, she wrote that she will not drop singles in advance of the release.
“I wanna give it to you all at once,” she captioned the image. “I truly could not be more proud of this album.”
Eilish worked with her brother and longtime collaborator Finneas on “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” The pair recently took home their second Oscar for their big “Barbie” ballad “What Was I Made For?” In doing so, Eilish, 22, became the youngest person by far to have won two career Oscars.
Earlier this month, Eilish signed a new open letter submitted by the Artist Rights Alliance nonprofit, calling on AI tech companies, developers, platforms, digital music services and platforms to stop using artificial intelligence “to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists,” according to the letter.
All physical variants of “Hit Me Hard and Soft” will feature the same tracklist and will be made of 100% recyclable materials, a press release from Eilish said.
Disney allowed to pause its federal lawsuit against Florida governor
ORLANDO, Fla. | An appellate court on Monday granted Disney’s request for a two-month pause in a federal lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his appointees to Walt Disney World’s governing district after the two sides reached a settlement on separate litigation in state court.
Disney’s request last Friday to the federal appellate court was motivated by last month’s settlement deal involving two Florida lawsuits between Disney and the DeSantis-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. After DeSantis took over the theme park’s governing board, the company and the district began fighting in state court over how Disney World will be developed in the future.
As part of the settlement, Disney agreed to pause the separate federal lawsuit, which is being appealed, pending negotiations on a new development agreement with the DeSantis appointees. The district provides municipal services such as firefighting, planning and mosquito control, among other things, and was controlled by Disney supporters for most of its five decades until the DeSantis appointees took it over last year.
Disney had a deadline of next week to file an opening brief in its appeal to the federal Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, but that deadline is now set for mid-June.
The settlement deal halted almost two years of litigation that was sparked by DeSantis’ takeover of the district from Disney supporters following the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called Don’t Say Gay law.
The 2022 law banned classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades and was championed by the Republican governor, who used Disney as a punching bag in speeches while running for president earlier this year. He has since dropped out of the race.
As punishment for Disney’s opposition to the controversial law, DeSantis took over the governing district through legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature and appointed a new board of supervisors. Disney sued DeSantis and his appointees, claiming the company’s free speech rights were violated for speaking out against the legislation. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in January, but Disney appealed.
Before it was filled with DeSantis appointees early last year, the board — then composed of Disney supporters — agreed to give Disney control of Disney World’s design and construction. The new DeSantis appointees claimed the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers and the district sued the company in state court in Orlando to have the contracts voided.
Disney filed counterclaims and asked the state court to declare the agreements valid and enforceable.
Under the settlement, the development agreement and covenants giving Disney design and construction control would be considered null and void, and the new board agreed to operate under a master plan that had been in effect before DeSantis took over the district.
—From AP reports
