Amy Sussman/Getty Images for the Critics Choice Association
Halle Berry received the Career Achievement award Monday night at the Celebration of Black Cinema and Television in Los Angeles, and the 55-year-old actress was honored to be surrounded by accomplished Black professionals at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel.
“To be in this room with so many of my peers and so many beautiful people of color just fills me up,” Berry said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “When I started 30 years ago there weren’t rooms like this where I could go and feel affirmed, esteemed. I was often alone; I was one of only a few Black people in the room searching to find my value and searching for my worth.”
Other winners included Ava DuVernay – Melvin Van Peebles Trailblazer Award; Anthony Anderson – Producers Award; Barry Jenkins – Director Award for Television, and Danielle Brooks – Actress Award for Television.
In other news, Saturday Night Live star Kenan Thompson announced he’s formed a production company, Artists for Artists, and his first project is with Mike Tyson, Deadline reports. The famed boxer, his wife Kiki Tyson, and his brother-in-law Azim Spicer, will produce Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth Part 2, a live stage tour, written by Kiki, that is a follow up to Tyson’s 2013 one-man show and HBO special.
Finally, Kandi Burruss and Kelly Price have joined the cast of the dating dramedy, A La Carte, which will debut in spring 2022 on AllBlk, according to Deadline.
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — Elizabeth Holmes finished her testimony on Wednesday and her defense team rested their case in her criminal fraud trial.
All that’s left now are closing arguments. Then the jury will begin its deliberations.
For the jury to convict Holmes, the founder of the now defunct blood-testing startup Theranos, prosecutors must prove she knowingly misled investors about her company’s technology — a key element in the 11 fraud charges she faces.
Holmes could be sentenced to decades in prison if convicted. The 37-year-old has pleaded not guilty.
As both sides prepare for the last leg of the trial, here’s a look at some of what we’ve learned from the former Theranos CEO.
The buck stopped with her
Throughout the trial, Holmes’ team has suggested that her coworkers — namely the lab directors and her ex-boyfriend and former company COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani — were responsible for certain aspects of the company.
But prosecutors got Holmes to acknowledge that when it came to making decisions at Theranos, the buck stopped with her.
“But, ultimately all roads, as the CEO, lead to you?” U.S. Attorney Robert Leach asked Holmes on day five of her testimony.
“Yes,” Holmes said.
“And is it fair [to say] that the buck stops with you?” Leach continued.
“I felt that,” she replied.
On redirect, Holmes told her attorney Kevin Downey that she felt the buck stopped with her, but said she was not aware of all the decisions that were made at the company.
Relationship with Sunny Balwani
Holmes held back tears during her last day of direct examination as she told jurors that Balwani had repeatedly abused her during their near decade-long relationship. Balwani, her co-defendant in the case, had his trial severed from Holmes earlier this year after learning of the abuse allegations. He has denied those allegations.
On cross examination, Leach sought to poke holes in Holmes’ narrative. He said the couple had texted each other the word “love” at least 594 times in the more than 12,000 messages they exchanged.
“Was just thinking about you and meditating on my tigress,” Balwani texted Holmes in 2015, a message she read aloud in court at Leach’s behest, fighting back tears as she spoke.
Trade secrets
The government called investors to the stand and asked if they knew Theranos used third-party machines to conduct their blood testing. None of the former shareholders testified they did. But many of them said they were sold on the smaller blood-testing device Holmes had coined the “Edison” or the “miniLab.”
Holmes admitted on direct examination her “3.5” device could never run more than 12 clinical tests. Many of the company’s tests offered to patients at Theranos Wellness Centers in Walgreens stores were run on modified third-party machines, she said.
Asked why Holmes never shared that information with her investors, or even Walgreens, she chalked it up to trade secrets.
If Theranos’ proprietary info got out, “the big medical device companies like Siemens could easily reproduce what we had done,” Holmes testified. “They had more engineers than we did and a lot more resources.”
On cross examination, Leach barely broached the topic. But he did get Holmes to admit that it would be wrong if Theranos told investors that the company was not using modified third-party devices.
Holmes said she informed the FDA, her board of directors and the federal lab regulator, CMS, that she was running tests on third-party devices because, unlike the investors, they could assure protection of her intellectual property. Although, during the cross-examination, Leach pointed out that Gen. James Mattis, a then-Theranos board member, testified he was unaware of the modified third-party devices.
Altered documents
Prosecutors have repeatedly suggested Holmes doctored documents while she was running Theranos. In her testimony, Holmes owned up to — but reframed — some of those allegations.
On her second day of direct examination, she said she placed the logos of two pharmaceutical companies on blood-testing validation reports. She acknowledged she did this without the drugmakers’ permission and before she sent them to Walgreens.
“I wish I had done it differently,” she said on the stand Nov. 23 while being questioned by her attorney.
Leach later used that very same phrase six times on Nov. 30, the first day of his cross examination.
“Is that another thing you wish you had done differently?” he asked Holmes.
“One hundred percent,” she replied before later saying, “There are many things I wish I did differently.”
Leach also pointed to a third altered pharma report, which had been originally created by the drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline, after the company evaluated Theranos’ technology. Like the other reports, the changes Holmes said she made to this document included the company’s logo.
Downey characterized the issue of doctoring documents as a “sideshow” on Tuesday, suggesting that Holmes did not conceal the reports because two of the three altered versions were sent directly to the drugmakers.
Star Wars fans are just weeks away from the Mandalorian spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, and to keep them hanging on, Disney+ has released a new teaser.
Truth told, there’s not too much new footage in the sneak peek, but one cool sequence shows the bounty hunter suiting up in his trademark Mandalorian armor — with the help of some pit droids, the little skittish mechanics first seen in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
Also shown is Temuera Morrison scoping out the Tatooine palace of Jabba the Hutt in a scene apparently set before the events of Mando.
As that series’ second season finale showed, Fett and his fellow hunter, Ming-Na Wen‘s Fennec Shand, take over the palace headquarters of Jabba’s crime syndicate.
“Witness the return of the legend,” a title card reads.
The Book of Boba Fett debuts December 29 on Disney+.
Are you dreaming of a White House Christmas? A new holiday music special, In Performance at the White House: Spirit of the Season, will be airing on PBS later this month.
Camila Cabello, Jonas Brothers, Pentatonix and Norah Jones are among the artists who will be performing on the hour-long special. Each of the performances will take place in historic White House rooms. Viewers will also get an inside look at the White House holiday decor.
Actress Jennifer Garner will host the program, which will also feature special remarks from President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
In Performance at the White House: Spirit of the Season will premiere Tuesday, December 21 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings.
Sarah Hyland and fiancé Wells Adams woke up on Wednesday to people gushing over their adorable interactions at the People’s Choice Awards, such as Wells adjusting Sarah’s two-piece white Vera Wang dress as they walked the red carpet.
“There was a lot going on in that dress! Things needed to be poofed and fluffed,” Wells told ABC Audio. “If I’m known for anything, it’s my ability to poof and fluff… My gravestone is going to be, like, ‘Really good on red carpets, making sure things are poofed!'”
The two are glad their innocuous exchange brought smiles to so many faces because, as the Bachelorette alum says, “It has been a tough year, but we’re ending it on such a positive and good vibe!”
Another positive vibe is Sarah’s new show, Play-Doh Squished, arriving Friday, December 10, on IMDb TV and Amazon Prime Video.
“It’s so stinking cute. It’s a Play-Doh competition show… It is so freaking cute and is perfect for the holidays for families,” Sarah, who hosts the series, raved. “We have this one little girl in the show. Her name is Dorothy and she’s a star. If you watch it for anything, you watch it for Dorothy.”
Sarah and Wells are also looking forward to hosting their family — and their dogs — for Christmas.
“I think there will be one to three or at least five dogs, if not more at our house,” said the Modern Family alum — and Wells interjected, “And they’ll probably jump up on the table and eat all of our food, which happens every year.”
Speaking of pets, the couple is teaming with Petco for a Facebook Live holiday shopping event to share gift ideas and help find homeless animals their forever family. It airs Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. PT.
Luke Bryan and his wife, Caroline, are celebrating 15 years of marriage today, and the singer celebrated with a social media tribute that showcased the couple’s signature mix of sweetness and humor.
“Happy 15 Anniversary to my love,” Luke wrote alongside a selfie of himself and Caroline in the stands at a football game. “Don’t know how you put up with my goofy a**. I love you to the moon and back.”
Anniversary or no anniversary, both members of the busy couple still have to work: Caroline’s guest hosting on the E! Talk show Daily Pop today, and she replied to Luke’s anniversary message with a joke about their busy schedules.
“Happy 15th!” she commented. “Maybe we’ll see each other at some point today. Love you!”
Earlier this year, the country star couple remembered their first meeting in My Dirt Road Diary, a documentary about Luke’s life and career. They met as college students at Georgia Southern University at a bar called Dingus, and Luke describes the occasion as “love at first sight, college magic.”
They married in 2006, and share two sons, Bo and Tate.
French Montana, Doja Cat and Saweetie combine futuristic elements of The Terminator with the 1979 classic gang film, The Warriors, in their new “Handstand” video which dropped Wednesday.
Set in a post–apocalyptic brawl filled with laser eyes and baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire, the streets are on fire as Doja spits her rhymes while blasting away with her metal machine gun bikini top.
“Handstand” is the latest release from Montana’s fourth studio album, They Got Amnesia, which dropped November 19. In addition to Doja Cat and Saweetie, the 20-track project also features John Legend, Rick Ross,Ty Dolla $ign, and the late Pop Smoke.
Jethro Tull has premiered a music video for a second advance track from its forthcoming studio album, The Zealot Gene, an English folk-flavored tune titled “Sad City Sisters.”
The clip, which was directed by Iranian filmmaker Sam Chegini, can be viewed at the band’s official YouTube channel. The video shows a female puppet that gets jostled and soiled as it gets passed along from hand to hand through various scenes and backdrops.
Explaining the inspiration for the song, Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson says, “‘Sad City Sisters’ throws up memories of a Saturday night in Cardiff, Wales when I was on my way home from our concert…some years ago. It could equally well have been any town in the UK, I suppose, or even most cities of the Western World. What possesses hell-bent and vulnerable young people to slip so easily into that tragic loss of dignity and end up sprawling drunk in a wet and windy street at midnight?”
“Sad City Sisters” is available now as a digital download and via steaming services. Its release was preceded by “Shoshana Sleeping,” which also was accompanied by a music video.
As previously reported, The Zealot Genewill be released on January 28, 2022. The 12-track collection is the first new studio album from the veteran prog-rockers in more than 18 years. Jethro Tull began work on The Zealot Gene in 2017, and the album includes a number of songs that incorporate Biblical imagery while examining religious themes.
The Zealot Gene, which can be pre-ordered now, will be released in multiple formats and configurations, including a CD digipak, a two-LP/CD set, a limited-edition two-CD/Blu-ray artbook, and a limited-edition deluxe three-LP/two-CD/Blu-ray artbook.
(NIAGARA FALLS) — One woman was killed after the car she was in crashed into the waters on top of the American side of Niagara Falls Wednesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The black sedan was roughly 75 to 100 yards from the brink of the falls Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation told ABC affiliate WKBW.
The Coast Guard said the unidentified female driver was pronounced dead at the scene after they sent a helicopter to airlift people from the vehicle.
It is not immediately known how the car crashed into the river or if there was anyone else in the vehicle.
(NEW YORK) — Several students in Michigan, including some in middle school, have been hit with criminal charges alleging they posted online threats to stage copycat attacks like the one eight days ago at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit that left four teenagers dead, authorities said.
“They are saying, ‘I’m going to bomb the school. I’m going to kill people,'” Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit told ABC affiliate station WXYZ in Detroit.
Of the students charged, one faces a count of possession of a weapon in a school, authorities said.
Savit said most of the students thought they were making anonymous threats online.
“Even if you believe you make it through an anonymous social media account, law enforcement has ways to track you down and find you and when that happens, you’re going to get charged,” Savit said.
Savit said his office has charged two students with making threats, both middle school students.
The Harper Woods Police Department in Wayne County announced the arrests of two students for making threats.
Waterford police in Oakland County told WXYZ they arrested an eighth-grader from Mason Middle School in Waterford after he posted a firearm on social media with the caption, “Bro mason your next I’m coming for you on Tuesday.”
Prosecutors in Macomb County said five students are also facing charges of making threats against schools and another five students are facing similar charges in Macomb County, according to WXYZ.
Meanwhile, Texas police are also investigating a high school student who allegedly made an online threat against his Houston area school.
The Klein Intermediate School District Police Department said it is working with the Harris County district attorney to bring criminal charges against the student.
David Kimberly, the school district’s police chief, said during a news conference on Wednesday that officials at Klein Cain High School received a string of threats of violence against the campus via social media on Monday and Tuesday.
In a letter to parents, Kimberly said his officers worked with the FBI to track down the student, who has since been expelled from the school.
The copycat threats follow the deadly Nov. 30 attack at Oxford High School that also left eight people wounded.
Ethan Crumbley, 15, a student at Oxford High School, was charged as an adult with two dozen crimes, including murder, attempted murder and terrorism, for the shooting rampage at the Oakland County school. Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, who allegedly provided their son with the gun used in the school shooting, were also arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and remain in jail on $500,000 bail each.
Ethan Crumbly and his parents have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
