Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Lawsuit naming Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs alleges his son sexually assaulted woman
LOS ANGELES | A lawsuit that names Sean “Diddy” Combs as a co-defendant alleges that his son Christian “King” Combs sexually assaulted a woman working on a yacht chartered by his father.
The suit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court says Sean Combs created the circumstances that led to the assault and paid to cover it up afterward. It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits accusing the producer and music mogul of sexual misconduct, and it comes amid a federal sex trafficking investigation that led Homeland Security agents to raid his homes in Los Angeles and Miami last week.
Grace O’Marcaigh, who worked as a crew member and a bartender on the boat, says that in late December 2022, Christian Combs pressured her to drink tequila that she believes was spiked with other drugs. He groped her breasts and genitals and attempted to force her to perform oral sex, the suit alleges.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as O’Marcaigh has done. She also consented to being named through her attorneys.
Aaron Dyer, an attorney for Sean and Christian Combs, called the lawsuit “lewd and meritless.”
“We will be filing a motion to dismiss this outrageous claim,” Dyer said in a statement.
Dyer called the investigation that brought last week’s raids “nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
Sean Combs, who chartered the yacht throughout the holidays in 2022, “had full control of the staff and premises” and created circumstances where her assault was not only tolerated but encouraged.
O’Marcaigh, who was 25 at the time, said when Christian Combs, then 24, came aboard late one night, he appeared heavily intoxicated and began giving her inappropriate attention.
She said the two were in a music studio on board the ship, where producer Rodney Jones, who filed his own lawsuit in February, was told to be available around the clock for Sean Combs to work on his next album.
O’Marcaigh said in the suit that Christian Combs was insistent that she take shots of tequila, and she drank out of obligation.
The suit alleges he became increasingly aggressive with her, violently grabbing her arm as she tried to get out of the situation then groping her. The drinks made everything blurry, unusually quickly, the suit says.
Microphones in the studio, where Jones was told to capture everything, recorded their exchange, and the lawsuit includes a transcript where O’Marcaigh demands that Christian Combs stop touching her.
The suit alleges that he later continued the assault in the ship’s movie theater, which was used as a spare sleeping area and where she was attempting to find a place to spend the night because the rooms were all taken, before another crew member appeared and he stopped.
O’Marcaigh told the yacht’s captain about the assault the following morning, but she alleges that after Combs gave him a large amount of cash the same day, the captain failed to meaningfully investigate or take any action.
The suit says O’Marcaigh was eventually fired in retaliation and has since been unable to find work in the music industry where she had planned to build a career. It says since 2022, she has suffered severe emotional trauma.
The lawsuit seeks damages to be determined at trial.
Christian Combs is also a musical artist whose song “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” with Kodak Black topped Billboard’s Mainstream R&B Hip-Hop charts in 2022. He was at his father’s Los Angeles home during last week’s searches, during which he and his brother were handcuffed but not arrested.
The producer Jones’ federal lawsuit, filed in February by Tyrone Blackburn, the same attorney as O’Marcaigh’s suit, includes allegations that Sean Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
Dyer’s statement said the newest lawsuit is “filled with the same kind of manufactured lies and irrelevant facts we’ve come to expect from Blackburn.”
He pointed out that U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote criticized Blackburn in a separate lawsuit on Wednesday and referred him to a disciplinary committee for a “pattern of behavior” where he “improperly files cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly.”
Blackburn responded in an email that “a referral is not a sanction” and the statement from Combs’ lawyer was an attempt to “deflect and distract.”
“Christian Combs sexually assaulted Ms. O’Marcaigh, and we have it on tape,” Blackburn said.
Several lawsuits have brought public scrutiny to the music and business mogul, beginning with a November suit from his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, which alleged years of sexual abuse, including rape. It was settled the following day.
Combs and his attorneys have denied all of the lawsuits’ allegations.
Combs, a three-time Grammy winner and the founder of Bad Boy Records, is among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades. He turned his hip-hop empire into a broader business empire that includes private-label spirits, fashion, and a TV network.
‘Godzilla x Kong’ maintains box-office dominion
NEW YORK | “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” easily swatted away a pair of challengers to hold on to the top spot at the box office for the second week in a row, according to studio estimates Sunday.
After its above-expectations $80 million launch last weekend, the MonsterVerse mashup brought in $31.7 million over its second weekend, a 60% drop from its debut. The Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures release, directed by Adam Wingard, has thus far outperformed any of the studio’s recent monster films except for 2014’s “Godzilla.”
But with $361.1 million worldwide in two weeks, “Godzilla x Kong” could ultimately leapfrog the $529 million global haul of 2014’s “Godzilla.” The latest installment, in which Godzilla and Kong team up, cost about $135 million to produce.
“Godzilla x Kong” extended its box-office reign as another primate-themed movie arrived in theaters. Dev Patel’s “Monkey Man,” an India-set revenge thriller released by Universal Pictures, opened in 3,029 North American theaters with an estimated $10.1 million.
That marked a strong debut for Patel’s modestly budgeted directorial debut in which he stars in a bloody, politically charged action extravaganza. “Monkey Man,” which cost about $10 million to make, was dropped by its original studio, Netflix, after which Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions swooped in.
The weekend’s other new wide release, “The First Omen,” from Disney’s 20th Century Studios, struggled to make a big impact with moviegoers. It came in fourth with an estimated $8.4 million in ticket sales in 3,375 theaters, while collecting an additional $9.1 million overseas. The R-rated horror film, which cost about $30 million to make, is a prequel to the 1976 Richard Donner-directed original starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick.
This version, directed by Arkasha Stevenson and starring Nell Tiger Free, Tawfeek Barhom and Bill Nighy, follows 2006’s “The Omen,” which opened to $16 million and ultimately grossed $119 million.
The tepid opening for “The First Omen” allowed Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” to take third place with $9 million in its third weekend of release. The sci-fi comedy sequel has collected $88.8 million domestically and $138 million worldwide.
Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part Two” continues to perform strongly. It added $7.2 million in its sixth week, dipping just 37%, to bring its domestic total to $264 million.
One of the week’s biggest performers was in China, where Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning “The Boy and the Heron” landed in theaters. The acclaimed Japanese anime is setting records for a non-Chinese animated film. After opening Wednesday, its five-day total surpassed $70 million, a new high mark for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
Iowa-UConn semifinal most-watched hoops game in ESPN history
BRISTOL, Conn. | Iowa’s 71-69 victory over UConn at the women’s Final Four on Friday night averaged 14.2 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most-viewed women’s basketball game on record and the largest audience for an ESPN basketball broadcast.
The previous women’s hoops mark was 12.3 million for last Monday’s Iowa-LSU game in the Elite Eight. Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference finals between Cleveland and Boston was ESPN’s most-watched basketball game at 13.51 million.
That also makes it one of the most-viewed games in any sport other than college football and the NFL over the past couple years. Last year’s NCAA men’s title game between San Diego State and UConn averaged 14.79 million.
The Hawkeyes game, which saw the audience peak at 17 million, will likely go down as one of the top 50 primetime telecasts of 2024. It would have finished 32nd on last year’s list.
It is also ESPN’s second-highest audience for a non-football broadcast. The United States-Portugal match during group play in the 2014 men’s World Cup averaged 18.22 million.
The last NBA game to draw at least 14 million was Golden State’s title-clinching victory over Boston in Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals (14.22 million).
Clark’s five March Madness games on ESPN and ABC have averaged 8.3 million. Iowa will face South Carolina for the national championship Sunday afternoon on ABC.
South Carolina’s 78-59 victory over North Carolina State averaged 7.1 million viewers, making it the third most-watched women’s national semifinal since records started being kept in 1992.
The previous record for the most-viewed semifinal was Stanford vs. Virginia on CBS in 1992 (8.1 million).
Friday’s two games averaged 10.8 million viewers, a 138% increase over last year.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher say they filed for divorce
Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher say they filed for divorce last year after more than 20 years together.
The English “Borat” star and the Australian “Wedding Crashers” actor who married in 2010 announced their split Friday in joint Instagram posts that showed them together in tennis outfits.
“After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down,” the posts said. “In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage.”
It is not clear where or exactly when the couple filed to end their marriage, or when the divorce would have become final.
“We have always prioritized our privacy, and have been quietly working through this change,” the posts said.
Fisher, 52, and Cohen, 48, met at a party in Sydney in 2001, and became engaged in 2004.
They have a 16-year-old daughter, a 13-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son.
—From AP reports
—From AP reports
