New this week: 'The Pale Blue Eye,' Iggy Pop and 'The Menu'
This weekโs new entertainment releases include albums from veteran Iggy Pop and rising star Brandon Ratcliff, Lifetime concludes its coverage on R. Kellyโs victims with a two-night special, and Christian Bale stars as a detective in an 1830 whodunit alongside a young Edgar Allen Poe.
EXPLAINER: R. Kelly acquitted on rigging trial. Why?
Federal prosecutors this week scored multiple convictions against R. Kelly at the singerโs trial in Chicago, but they lost on the headline charge โ that Kelly obstructed justice by rigging his 2008 state child pornography trial, at which jurors acquitted him.
Witness about R. Kelly: I didn't want to 'carry his lies'
A woman who says she was sexually abused hundreds of times by R. Kelly before she turned 18 has testified that she agonized several years ago about whether to cooperate with federal investigators who were looking into child abuse allegations involving the singer.
Disgraced R&B star R. Kelly back in Chicago for sex trial
R. Kelly has returned to the federal jail in downtown Chicago ahead of his trial on child pornography and obstruction-of-justice charges, just two weeks after the disgraced R&B star was sentenced in New York to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking.
R. Kelly behavior mirrors abuse tactics, expert witness says
Prosecutors are inching closer to concluding their case at the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial, calling two final witnesses to try to further cement allegations he groomed young victims for unwanted sex and psychological torment in episodes dating to the 1990s.
Left out of MeToo: New initiative focuses on Black survivors
Tarana Burke, founder and leader of the #MeToo movement, stands in her home in Baltimore on Oct. 13, 2020. A coalition of three groups vital to the #MeToo movement is collaborating on an initiative to focus on a population that has often felt left out of the conversation: Black survivors of sexual violence. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark, file)Itโs been more than three years since the #MeToo movement launched a culture-shifting conversation about sexual violence. In a statement, the groups said they were working together to create safe spaces for Black survivors; to confront narratives "that harm and silence Black survivors;" and lastly to come up with new practices that will help get Black survivors โbelieved, heard, and supported.โBurke said the most important immediate impact will simply be that a national conversation is being had. AdAmong the initiative's concrete plans: narrative research; conversation guides; a five-part event series; and โrapid-response toolsโ to support Black survivors who come forward.
Country artist Cam confronts hard truths on 'The Otherside'
Country singer Cam poses in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020 to promote her second album The Otherside. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)NASHVILLE, Tenn. โ The five-year journey between albums for country singer Cam was an evolution in coming to grips with hard truths about a music industry that had left her a bit bruised but not broken. But two years ago, Cam decided to walk away from Sony Nashvilleโs imprint Arista citing different values, but remaining under Sony on the RCA Record label based in New York. The title track, a meticulously crafted country dance track, was co-written with acclaimed Swedish dance artist Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling. She knew what she was getting into when she heard Smithโs easily recognizable voice on the demo for โHappier For You,โ a melancholic country song that fit well with Cam's aesthetic of moody and introspective country tunes.
Appeals court agrees R&B singer R. Kelly should stay jailed
NEW YORK R. Kelly can remain behind bars awaiting multiple trials on child pornography and other charges in three states, an appeals court in New York said Tuesday as a lawyer for the R&B singer cited another inmate's attack on Kelly last month as one reason he should receive bail. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a decision by a Brooklyn federal judge to deny bail to Kelly, 53, who remains in a federal jail in Chicago. The 2nd Circuit said prosecutors had proven both and that no condition or combination of conditions could assure against those risks. The appeals court said the lower court also did not err in finding Kelly failed to demonstrate a compelling reason for temporary release. In a court filing in Chicago federal court Friday, Leonard wrote that Kelly sustained unspecified injuries when he was attacked at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago in late August by another inmate. A bail application is pending in Chicago, though the 2nd Circuit ruling would keep him behind bars even if he won bail in Illinois.
Kelly's lawyers want to question gang member in cell attack
CHICAGO Attorneys for R. Kelly want to question a convicted member of the Latin Kings gang who says he beat up the jailed R&B singer in a Chicago cell. Kellys lawyers filed a motion Friday in federal court to question Jeremiah Farmer under oath, the Chicago Tribune reported. Farmer, 39, is facing mandatory life in prison in a racketeering conspiracy that involved a 1999 double murder, according to the newspaper. It appears that MCC personnel simply followed Mr. Farmer, allowed him to carry out the attack, and then only intervened after Mr. Kelly had already sustained serious injuries, Kellys attorney Michael Leonard wrote in the motion. Kellys attorneys have been trying to have him released on bond pending his trial.
Black National Convention puts spotlight on police brutality
Black Lives Matter activists are holding a virtual Black National Convention Friday, Aug. 28, to adopt a political agenda calling for slavery reparations, universal basic income, environmental justice and legislation that entirely re-imagines criminal justice reforms. Anyone who is watching, who is both enraged or looking for action, will find a space" in the Black National Convention, Byrd said. The Black National Convention was originally planned to take place in-person in Detroit, the nations Blackest major city. Fridays convention is expected to be the largest gathering of Black activists and artists, albeit virtual, since the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which concluded with the introduction of a national Black agenda. The Black National Convention broadcast begins after the D.C. march has concluded.
R. Kelly's manager charged with phone threats to theater
Donnell Russell, 45, of Chicago, was charged with conspiracy and with threatening physical harm by interstate communication. Threats of gun violence aimed at intimidating and silencing victims of sexual abuse are unlawful as well as unacceptable," she said. William F. Sweeney Jr., head of New York's FBI office, said it defies logic that a threat like the one alleged here could stop victims from speaking about their alleged abuse." Kelly remains jailed in Chicago after pleading not guilty to dozens of state and federal sex crime charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York. The charges range from sexual assault to leading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying Kelly with girls.
How an arrest upended filming of 'Surviving Jeffrey Epstein'
This combination of photos released by Lifetime shows participants in the new docuseries Surviving Jeffrey Epstein top row from left, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Teresa Helm, Jena Lisa Jones, Kiki, Rachel Benavidez, Marijke Chartouni, Chaunte Davies, and Courtney Wild. (Lifetime via AP)NEW YORK The filmmakers behind Surviving Jeffrey Epstein moved quickly when Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested on federal charges that she acted as a recruiter for the financiers sexual abuse. If your timing can be great, our timing was great, said executive producer Robert Friedman. Production was underway when the 66-year-old Epstein killed himself in his New York City prison cell last August after his arrest on sex trafficking charges. To finally have a shot at it (after Maxwell's arrest) is remarkable.Maxwells arrest just a month before the series' premiere triggered a race, but definitely worth it said Sundberg.
R. Kelly's sexual misconduct trial date set for April
(CNN) - Embattled singer R. Kelly is set to go on trial next spring on sex misconduct charges. Kelly's initial trial date on 13 federal charges in Illinois has been set for April 27, 2020. U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber set the trial date Wednesday. Kelly, 52, has vehemently denied any allegations of sexual misconduct in the past. The documentary series, "Surviving R. Kelly," which aired this year on Lifetime, revived public interest in the case against Kelly.
Too Much Too Soon: The Life and Death of Aaliyah
Speaking to Inside Edition in 1997, though, Aaliyah shot down the rumors. Aaliyahs mom, Diane Houghton, vehemently denied that Kelly had a sexual relationship with Aaliyah while she was underage after Surviving R. Kelly was released. But I am really busy with a career.Months after her interview with Inside Edition, she released her biggest single, Are You That Somebody? from the Dr. During her interview with Inside Edition, she expressed that she wanted to make sure she branched out of music. The secret to life is just living, she told Inside Edition 1997.
R. Kelly set to be arraigned in federal court in New York
R&B singer R. Kelly leaves the Leighton Criminal Courts Building following a hearing on June 26, 2019, in Chicago. (CNN) - R. Kelly is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on charges of racketeering, kidnapping, forced labor and sexual exploitation of a child. Kelly pleaded not guilty last month to 13 federal charges stemming from a separate federal indictment in Illinois. Kelly is due back in a Chicago court on September 4 for a status hearing on the Illinois charges. A grand jury later indicted him in May on 11 additional charges pertaining to one of the four accusers, including aggravated criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual assault.
R. Kelly's crisis manager resigns for 'personal reasons'
CHICAGO - R. Kelly's crisis manager, Darrell Johnson, has stepped down for "personal reasons," he said in a text to CNN Monday. Greenberg!" Greenberg also released a statement to CNN thanking Johnson "for his tireless assistance" and looks forward to Johnson's return. "He shares our confidence that this is an unprecedented assault against R. Kelly by others, for their own personal gain, and in the innocence of R. Kelly," Greenberg's statement read. Johnson also said during the interview that he was worried about Kelly, saying he was "a mess," scared and isolated.
US Marshals to escort R. Kelly to New York
R. Kelly will be arraigned in a federal court in New York on August 2, a prosecutor for the US attorney's office in Chicago said Friday. US Marshals will take the singer from Chicago to New York, Assistant US Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick said. Kelly has been in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago since last week after he was indicted in Illinois and New York and arrested. Fitzpatrick said in an email to CNN that Kelly will appear in New York, then be returned to Chicago. Before his arrest last week, Kelly had been out on bond from state charges in Illinois.