Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
BET says ‘audio malfunction’ caused heavy censorship of Usher’s speech
Usher’s acceptance speech of the BET Awards’ lifetime achievement award was heartfelt, occasionally profane and lengthy — and few people got to hear it.
The 13-minute speech was largely censored by the network, leaving viewers at home curious to know what Usher said. A BET spokesperson told The Associated Press that “due to an audio malfunction during the live telecast, portions of his speech were inadvertently muted. We extend our sincere apologies to USHER as we couldn’t be more grateful for his participation.”
A full version of the speech is now available on BET’s YouTube channel and will be included in a Monday rebroadcast, with a few profanities removed. Much of his speech centered on the idea of fatherhood, forgiveness, and his three-decades’ long career. It appears that the heavy censoring started shortly after Usher said “Sorry, I’m gonna curse and let you know how I really feel” early on in his acceptance.
He recounted walking into music mogul L.A. Reid’s office at 12 or 13 years old and telling a room for of executives that he’d make it. “That wasn’t ego speaking. I rebranded that word that day,” he said in a section of the speech that didn’t air. “I rebranded that word that day. I expressed goals out loud.”
The R&B superstar is an eight-time Grammy winner who recently ended a two-year Las Vegas residency, “Usher: My Way” at the Park MGM. In February, he released his first solo album in eight years, and in August is scheduled to kick off a 24-city U.S. tour titled “Past Present Future.”
Usher’s 2024 Super Bowl halftime performance drew acclaim and included guest appearances by such stars as Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon and Ludacris. His album “Confessions” has sold more than 10 million units in the U.S., ranking it among one of the best-selling music projects of all time. It launched No. 1 hits such as “Yeah!” with Ludacris and Lil Jon, “Burn” and “Confessions Part II.”
TV personality Carlos Watson testifies
in his trial over collapse of Ozy Media
NEW YORK | Former TV host Carlos Watson took the witness stand Monday in the criminal trial surrounding the collapse of his Ozy Media, insisting he hadn’t schemed to con the startup’s backers.
“Mr. Watson, did you conspire to commit securities fraud?” asked his lawyer, Ronald Sullivan Jr.
“I did not,” Watson said, and repeated it when asked about the other charges against him, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Watson, a former news and talk show host on networks including CNN and MSNBC, is the key defense witness in the federal trial. He and the now-defunct Ozy are accused of giving backers and lenders phony financial statistics, forged contracts and other false information that created a glowing image of a company that actually was on the rocks.
It disintegrated in fall 2021, after The New York Times raised questions about Ozy’s audience size claims and practices, particularly a phone call in which company co-founder Samir Rao impersonated a YouTube executive to champion Ozy to some investment bankers.
Watson and Ozy Media have pleaded not guilty and sought to cast blame for any misrepresentations on Rao. He pleaded guilty, testified against Watson and is awaiting sentencing.
Watson, in his first hours of testimony, put some distance between himself and the fast-growing Ozy’s financial details. He said he was more focused during its early years on its vision and staff than on ensuring “every decimal point” was correctly placed.
And he suggested that revenue numbers logged into the company’s main financial software program didn’t reflect all the money coming in.
Prosecutors have pointed to differences between such internal records and external presentations to support their allegations that Ozy was lying to outsiders about its financial condition. But Watson appeared to suggest the company’s use of the software had simply been a work in progress.
“Like a lot of young companies, it was kind of incomplete. People were doing the best they could,” but some revenue was logged in other spreadsheets, Watson said.
Affable and engaging, Watson, a Harvard University and Stanford Law School graduate, went through his modest Miami upbringing and varied career, which ranged from Wall Street to starting and selling a college counseling company to TV. He described brainstorming about what would become Ozy with his mother as she battled cancer in 2012.
“As a Black kid growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, you wanted to know that the world would have space for your dreams and your ideas and your hopes … and I wanted to create the kind of media that would elevate that,” he told jurors, who watched keenly. Three sat forward in their seats as they appeared to take careful notes.
Ozy launched a website and newsletters in 2013. The Mountain View, California-based company eventually added TV shows, podcasts and Ozy Fest, a music-and-ideas festival that was held annually for several years in New York’s Central Park.
Ian McKellen withdraws from tour of his play to ‘protect my recovery’
LONDON | Actor Ian McKellen said Monday he is withdrawing from a U.K. tour of his latest play because he needs more time to recover after falling off the stage at a London theater last month.
McKellen, 85, said his injuries “improve day by day.”
“It’s with the greatest reluctance that I have accepted the medical advice to protect my full recovery by not working in the meantime,” he said in a statement.
The “Lord of the Rings” star spent three nights in a London hospital after tumbling from the stage during a performance of “Player Kings” at the Noel Coward Theatre on June 17.
The play is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s two “Henry IV” history plays, directed by Robert Icke. Several performances were canceled after the incident before the run resumed with understudy Devid Semark in the role of Falstaff.
Producers said Semark would continue to play the part during a national tour that runs July 3-27.
McKellen, who played Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings,” and Magneto in the “X-Men” films, is one of Britain’s most acclaimed Shakespearean actors, with roles including Richard III, Macbeth and King Lear.
He has won a Tony Award — for “Amadeus” — several Olivier Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, five Emmys and several BAFTA awards.
Redbox owner
files for bankruptcy protection
NEW YORK | Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, the parent of DVD rental operator Redbox, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The bankruptcy filing comes after months of a series of financial struggles for the company and piling unpaid bills. Chicken Soup for the Soul has accumulated nearly $1 billion in debt, the Chapter 11 filing submitted Friday in Delaware bankruptcy court shows, after reporting loss after loss over recent quarters.
The filing also discloses that Chicken Soup for the Soul owes millions to over 500 creditors — which range from big names in the entertainment world like Sony Pictures and Warner Bros, to major retailers like Walgreens and Walmart.
As of March of this year, Friday’s filing shows, Chicken Soup for the Soul had about $414 million in assets and $970 million in debts. Shares for the public company have fallen more than 90% over the last year.
Connecticut-based Chicken Soup for the Soul declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press Monday. In court documents, the company said that its lenders were unwilling to cooperate with refinancing.
Chicken Soup for the Soul acquired Redbox in 2022. At the time, the company billed the merger as the start of an entertainment conglomerate set to reach consumers across mediums and boost revenue, but losses continued to pile up. The acquisition also included the assumption Redbox’s reported $325 million in debt.
Redbox, founded in 2002, is best known for red-colored, self-serve machines that sit outside of pharmacies or groceries stores to rent or sell DVDs. In Friday’s filing, Chicken Soup for the Soul noted that it currently operates about 27,000 kiosks across the U.S. — down from 36,000 at the Redbox acquisition was finalized in August 2022.
Chicken Soup for the Soul also operates ad-supported streaming and video on-demand offerings. That includes Redbox Live TV and Crackle, a streamer that Chicken Soup for the Soul acquired from Sony.
—From AP reports
