Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
King Charles III returns to public duties with a trip to a cancer charity
LONDON | King Charles III returned to public duties on Tuesday, visiting a cancer treatment charity and beginning his carefully managed comeback after the monarch’s own cancer diagnosis sidelined him for three months.
The event was the king’s first formal public engagement since Feb. 6, when Buckingham Palace announced that he would be taking a break from public duties to focus on his treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer.
Charles and Queen Camilla met with patients and staff at the University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in London during their visit.
It was the first of several public appearances Charles is expected to make before a state visit by the emperor and empress of Japan in June.
It is unclear how many of the summer’s traditional royal events, including the king’s formal birthday parade and the horse racing at Royal Ascot, Charles will attend as his treatment continues. The palace said last week that doctors were “very encouraged” by the king’s progress, but his schedule would be adjusted as needed to protect his recovery.
For now, Tuesday’s appearance gave Charles another opportunity to raise awareness of the benefits of early diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other health problems as he has done throughout his illness.
Unlike most royals before him, Charles chose to publicly disclose details about his health when he first underwent treatment for an enlarged prostate and later when he was diagnosed with cancer. The decision raised awareness of these issues.
The National Health Service in England said the number of people seeking advice about prostate problems increased 11-fold in the weeks after Charles’ announced he was undergoing treatment.
Prosecutors seek September retrial for Harvey Weinstein
NEW YORK | Prosecutors asked for a September retrial for Harvey Weinstein during a hearing Wednesday in Manhattan, the disgraced movie mogul’s first court appearance since his 2020 rape conviction was overturned by an appeals court last week.
One of Weinstein’s accusers, Jessica Mann, is prepared to testify again, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told the judge, suggesting locking in a date after Labor Day.
Blumberg noted Mann was in the courtroom Wednesday, and said she wants everyone to know that the defendant “may have power” but “she has the truth.”
“We believe in this case and will be retrying this case,” she said.
Weinstein, wearing a navy blue suit, was seated in a wheelchair at the preliminary hearing. The 72-year-old, who has cardiac issues and diabetes, has been in a hospital since his return to the city jail system Friday from an upstate prison.
In court, his attorney, Arthur Aidala, said he has no concern about his client’s mental abilities, describing Weinstein as “sharp as a tack. As sharp as he ever was.”
Aidala said his client wants to prove his innocence: “It’s a new trial. It’s a new day.”
In the New York case that is now overturned, Weinstein was convicted of rape in the third degree for an attack on aspiring actor Mann in 2013, and of forcing himself on a TV and film production assistant, Mimi Haley, in 2006. Weinstein had pleaded not guilty and maintained any sexual activity was consensual.
The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann have.
Speaking after the hearing, Haley’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said her client still hasn’t decided whether she wants to testify at the retrial, noting that doing so at the original trial was traumatizing and painful. Haley was not in court Wednesday, Allred said.
Weinstein was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to another 16 years in prison in California.
But he remains in custody in New York, and will head back to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, where he is expected to remain until his trial, Aidala said.
“He’s in constant pain that he’s fighting through. He’s fighting the best he can,” the attorney said, adding that he has nevertheless been reading avidly behind bars, including biographies on Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt.
“Harvey Weinstein was used to drinking champagne and eating caviar and now he’s at the commissary paying for potato chips and M&Ms” but is making the best of it, Aidala said.
On Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals vacated his conviction in a 4-3 decision, erasing his 23-year prison sentence, after concluding a trial judge permitted jurors to see and hear too much evidence not directly related to what he was charged with.
The ruling shocked and disappointed women who celebrated historic gains during the era of #MeToo, a movement that ushered in a wave of sexual misconduct claims in Hollywood and beyond.
Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day reprise viral Beavis and Butt-Head characters
LOS ANGELES | Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day aren’t done playing Beavis and Butt-Head yet — the pair appeared as the characters at the premiere of Gosling’s latest film.
Gosling, who stars in “The Fall Guy” opposite Emily Blunt, walked the carpet twice Tuesday during the Los Angeles premiere. He looked dapper for his first appearance in a mint green suit and shirt, but donned a blonde pompadour wig and “Death Rock” T-shirt for a second appearance as Beavis with Day’s buck-toothed Butt-Head.
The animated characters, known for their stupid antics, ridiculous laughs and crass jokes, were a mainstay in the 1990s on MTV.
Gosling and Day debuted their live-action take on the animated characters on “Saturday Night Live” last month, causing cast member Heidi Gardner and several other performers to break into laughter during the sketch. The bit, with Beavis and Butthead sitting in the audience of a panel discussion about artificial intelligence, has been viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube.
Gosling and Day posed on the carpet in character, including with “Fall Guy” composer Dominic Lewis, but did not do interviews in character.
Gosling plays a stunt man in “The Fall Guy,” which kicks off this year’s summer movie season in theaters on Friday.
George W. Bush’s portraits of veterans are heading to Disney World
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. | Walt Disney World will host dozens of portraits of service members and veterans from the nation’s Painter-in-Chief.
The George W. Bush Institute will loan the 60 color portraits by the former U.S. president to the Florida theme park resort. The paintings of service members and veterans will be displayed for a year at Epcot’s American Adventure pavilion starting next month.
Accompanying each painting is a veteran biography written by the former president. The exhibit also will include information and resources created to support veterans and their families.
“My hope is that those who have the opportunity to see this special exhibit will also remember the leadership, service and sacrifice behind each of the heroes painted and the unique challenges our servicemembers and their families face when transitioning out of the military,” said Ken Hersh, president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
—From AP reports
