Category: Entertainment News Feed

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A book co-written by the man who prosecutors allege ordered the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur can be used in trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The defense attorney for Duane “Keffe D” Davis tried to bar the 2019 memoir “Compton Street Legend” from being used in trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 10, as well as statements Davis had made to police in 2008 and 2009.

Davis, 63, faces one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the drive-by shooting of the rapper in Las Vegas.

Shakur was in a black BMW on Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas with Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived with minor injuries.

Shakur’s death is considered one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the United States. The case had gone cold until Davis began making public statements about it, including in a book he co-wrote in which he said he was in the Cadillac and provided the weapon used to shoot Shakur. The book revived detectives’ investigation, and Davis was arrested in September 2023. Davis pleaded not guilty.

The state’s case hinges on the book Davis co-authored about his time in the gang South Side Compton Crips and statements he made in YouTube interviews.

Michael Sanft, his attorney, argued that the book was fictionalized to make a profit, and that it was unclear which parts — if any — Davis actually wrote. He also argued that statements Davis made to police in 2008 and 2009 should not be used in trial because Davis thought he had immunity due to a proffer agreement that allowed him to speak to detectives without being prosecuted.

Judge Carli Kierny determined that Davis adopted the statements in the book as his own, regardless if he wrote the whole book. She said he made multiple statements describing the book as the “real truth.” She also found the statements he made to law enforcement to be voluntary, but expressed concern that Davis was told in 2008 that he would not be prosecuted for what he said in the interview.

Marc DiGiacomo, chief deputy district attorney in Clark County, said those interviews were no longer considered inadmissible when Davis chose to write and speak about the events. The state has the right to prove that what Davis wrote is true by using those interviews, he said.

“Had he decided to never write the book, he would not, probably, have ever been prosecuted for the crime,” DiGiacomo said.

When Lexi Minetree auditioned for the part of a teenage Elle Woods in a “Legally Blonde” prequel series for Prime Video, she went for it with the determination and creativity that the character herself used to apply to Harvard Law School in the original film.

Minetree, said “Elle” executive producer Lauren Neustadter, “actually recreated her own version of the Harvard admission video featured in the 2001 movie that starred Reese Witherspoon, “and she hit it out of the park.”

The preparation to play Elle in the series debuting on Wednesday, didn’t stop there. Minetree says she watched “Legally Blonde” about “200 times at this point,” studying Witherspoon’s performance, but steering clear of an outright impression of the Oscar winner.

“Reese brought her essence to the character,” Minetree said. “And that is something that no one could ever replicate. It would be a disservice if I tried to do that, so I tried to bring the parts of myself that I thought were reflected in Elle.”

A fish out of water

In “Legally Blonde,” we met Elle as a sorority girl who applies to Harvard Law School, gets accepted, and is a star in her class.

“When I read the script it reminded me a lot of old Goldie Hawn movies, or ‘Working Girl,’ Witherspoon told The AP in 2001. “You think this girl is certainly not very smart because of the way she speaks and the way she looks, and then she just turns the tables on everybody and becomes smarter than everyone, and I just love that.”

Like the film, “Elle” underscores that people don’t have to sacrifice their true selves in order to achieve success.

How we meet Minetree’s Elle is at her blowout 16th birthday party, shortly before her parents (played by Tom Everett Scott and June Diane Raphael) break the news that they’re all moving to Seattle.

The students at her new school are less than friendly and shun Elle’s sunny disposition and pink attire. This is Seattle in 1995 and both grunge music and its culture are everything. Even the cheerleaders wear flannel. It takes time for the student’s to warm up to their new classmate, whose ice breaker is “I like iced coffee, the month of July and when people dress kind of tennis-y even if they don’t play tennis.”

“Such an integral part of the ‘Legally Blonde’ IP is not judging a book by its cover,” said Chandler Kinney, who plays Kimberly, one of Elle’s schoolmates who is particularly judgy — at first.

The lasting influence of ‘Legally Blonde’

The time seemed right to explore more of Elle’s story when Witherspoon noticed the pressures young women feel to live up to unrealistic standards curated online. Studies have linked social media to mental health issues among teens.

Witherspoon “really saw what was happening to young women,” said Neustadter of Witherspoon’s desire to explore the character as a young woman. “She felt like this was the right moment to give Elle to the next generation.”

“Elle reminds us that we should feel good about being ourselves, feel proud of who we are and to be kind and good to others. It feels like a good reminder for this moment in time.”

Telling an origin story of this character just makes sense, Raphael said. We’ve seen prequels about all kinds of male characters — but “we rarely get to do that with the iconic female characters that we love,” she said.

A surprise cast member
— James Van Der Beek

Viewers will recognize a familiar face in the first season of “Elle.” James Van Der Beek, who died in February after a diagnosis of bowel cancer, plays Dean Wilson, superintendent of Elle’s new school and a mayoral candidate.

Raphael had the most scenes with Van Der Beek and says it was an honor to share scenes with him.

”It’s so special to me,” she said. “His work on the show is so lovely, and he is such a lovely person. I’d never met him before, and I was so excited to work with him. I was really blown away by his charm and his charisma and mainly his ease.”

More ‘Elle’ is coming

Season 2 of “Elle” wrapped filming earlier this month, and Minetree is happy viewers won’t have to wait long to see a continuation to the story.

“Honestly, Season 2, it’s so good,” Minetree said. “Season 1 is amazing, but season 2 might be better.”

There are also plans to make a third “Legally Blonde” film starring Witherspoon.

“Absolutely, we’re on it,” Neustadter said. “Don’t you worry. We’re in the kitchen we’re cooking something up.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Filmmaker Pierre Coffin is the creator and chief practitioner of Minionese, but it’s a dialect — like most things Minions — that’s taken time to hone.

“I have this file on my phone of Indian dishes or weird words.” Coffin says. “People come up to me and say, ‘You should say that!’ and I write it down.”

“The hardest thing,” adds Coffin, “is just to find the melody.”

It’s been 16 years since Coffin co-directed Illumination’s “Despicable Me.” He has made three more movies in the franchise, directing “Despicable Me 2,” “Despicable Me 3” and “Minions.” But the Minions, like Coffin’s personal version of Frankenstein’s monster, have often remained a deviling, even mystifying force to him.

Coffin, a French Indonesian animator who lives in Paris, where Illumination productions are based, has struggled with both the dictates of Hollywood franchise-building and the strange narrative conundrums of movies based around a supervillain and gibberish-speaking henchmen.

“That’s why I kind of disappeared from the series,” Coffin said in a recent interview from Paris. “I mean, the first one was really good. A bad guy becoming a good guy after contact with three little girls, I could see it. The second one was a little bit more shady because it was like: That guy who’s no longer a bad guy falls in love and there’s a marriage at the end. That’s literally how Chris (Meledandri) pitched it to me. My French sensibility threw up a little bit.”

If you can’t tell, Coffin — the still-mischievous 59-year-old son of a French diplomat and an Indonesian novelist — is unusually candid about the franchise he helped create. Even movies that he directed, he’s highly critical of.

The previous “Minions” spinoff, 2022’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” Coffin won’t even talk about because, he says, “I don’t necessarily like it and it’s strange to me.” “Despicable Me 3,” the 2017 sequel was the last movie Coffin directed, but he says he didn’t even want to make it. Afterward, Coffin told Meledandri, the Illumination chief executive, that he was done.

“I told him: I got to move on. I did my trilogy, my prequel — I’m good. I can help with the voices, no problem. But I want to move on,” Coffin says. “I worked on separate things, but I always get pulled back by the Minions.”

The Minions have a way of manipulating their bosses, Coffin included. After walking away from them, he’s back for “Minions & Monsters,” the third standalone feature for the “Banana!”-shouting little guys.

“All the other ones I had doubts about. I was guided into a direction that I did not necessarily like or understand,” says Coffin of the previous sequels. “But the things were a huge success. I was humbled. OK, there has to be something I don’t understand.

“This one is horrible because I’m thinking I really like it,” Coffin says, laughing. “And I’m thinking, man, maybe I just killed the franchise.”

Making the Minions main characters

On the contrary, “Minions & Monsters,” which opens in theaters Wednesday, may be the best “Minions” movie yet. In it, the Minions turn filmmakers. Alongside Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, they try to make a monster movie in 1920s Hollywood.

The premise, suggested by Meledandri, was too enticing for Coffin to turn down. He even wanted to write the script, which he did with cowriter Brian Lynch. “Minions & Monsters” makes the yellow troublemakers something more than chaos-inducing sidekicks. They’re silent film stars who for the first time feel like actual protagonists.

“This movie has so much for people who were kids when they first encountered the Minions,” says Meledandri. “More than any previous Minion movie, it incorporates all of that wonderful silliness of the Minions but it’s also a terrific story.”

Even after seven films and more than $5 billion in box office, the Minions are still revealing themselves to Coffin. They were, in the first place, a product of evolution. For “Despicable Me,” they were first designed like hulking thugs, then more like robots, then more like mole men. Coffin, Chris Renaud and art director Eric Guillon kept refining. Add in some goggles, overalls and names like Stuart and Kevin and, bingo: movie history.

How to speak Minionese

Yet given that the Minions are impossible to understood, except for a word or two, they make for tricky protagonists. Hand them over to a new boss, and you risk making the Minions second bananas again. At the same time, long sections of uninterrupted Minionese can grow tiresome without some human interpreter.

“If it’s too long and annoying to the ear, we just kill it,” Coffin says. “All of these movies, we do until we find the little formula.”

Even just writing for the Minions isn’t a clear process. Coffin, who voices all the Minions, is accustomed to improvising their dialogue back and forth. (For the first “Minions” movie, he’d begin his mornings with two hours alone with a microphone before commuting to the studio.) Putting pen to paper came less naturally.

“Brian didn’t know how to write them,” Coffin says. “He tried writing gibberish. I told him, ‘Don’t write gibberish. I don’t understand what they’re saying. Let’s write them in English.’ It took us a while to establish that dumb thing.”

Coffin can sound almost parental about the Minions. The characters he gave voice to aren’t just in the movies. They’re like mascots for Illumination, generated billions in merchandising. Not every treatment nails their singular nature.

“I don’t want to criticize what the others have done with the Minions, but when someone else does something with the Minions, I feel that they’re considering them creatures,” Coffin says. “But they’re not creatures. They’re creatures with a spirit, with a personality.”

Even he’s still figuring them out. In writing “Minions & Monsters,” Coffin wanted to think about the origins of friendships. He began surveying people about how they met their best friends. Many of the replies inevitably went back to when someone was 8 or 10 years old.

“That made it very clear to us: The Minions are kids,” Coffins says. “I discovered that on this movie. It dawned on me. They’re irresponsible, they don’t listen, they make a mess, they don’t listen to authority. From that moment onward, it was very easy.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood writer-director Carl Rinsch was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years in prison after being convicted of defrauding Netflix out of $11 million for a never-finished sci-fi series. Supporters including Keanu Reeves had asked the court to show him leniency.

Rinsch, best known for the 2013 samurai fantasy film “47 Ronin,” was convicted in December of federal wire fraud and other charges. According to prosecutors and trial testimony, he told Netflix he needed $11 million to finish a show called “White Horse” but diverted the money into a personal account and ultimately spent whopping sums on luxury cars, watches, clothes and household goods, including $638,000 on two mattresses.

Rinsch, 48, and his lawyers told the court Monday that his behavior was fueled by mental health struggles and medication problems, which they said he is now addressing with a new care provider.

“This process has forced me to confront things about my health, my judgment and my life,” Rinsch said. He apologized for his behavior, acknowledged that “real harm was caused,” and explained: “I failed to recognize the danger of the state I was in.”

His psychological troubles weren’t described in court, and he and his lawyers declined to detail them afterward.

Prosecutors argued that Rinsch —- who also owes about $11 million in restitution — should serve five years in prison.

“Mr. Rinsch had every possible advantage,” including family money, an elite education, famous friends and a high-flying career, prosecutor David Markewitz told the court. Rinsch’s motive, the prosecutor said, “was naked greed.”

Rinsch, who also has used the name Carl Erik Rinsch professionally, hails from the Los Angeles area and began making short films as a teenager. He later directed commercials, then got attention for “47 Ronin,” which stars Reeves. His character leads outcast samurai seeking to avenge their master’s killing.

Rinsch “bring exceptional joy and warmth to the people around him” and “creative inspiration to others through his creativity and vision,” Reeves told the court in a letter ahead of Rinsch’s sentencing.

The “Matrix” star said he didn’t know the details of the case, but he acknowledged that Rinsch “can self-sabotage by amplifying the scale, scope and landscape of what had been negotiated.” He said he hoped the director’s sentence “might be tempered with measures of leniency and mercy as well as justice.”

Prosecutors said Netflix initially paid Rinsch about $44 million for “White Horse” in 2018 and 2019, then provided another $11 million in 2020 after he said he needed more money to wrap up production.

But instead of putting that money toward the show, Rinsch steered the cash to a personal account and made a series of failed investments, losing around half the $11 million in a couple of months, according to prosecutors and witnesses’ testimony.

They said he put the remaining funds into the cryptocurrency market, netting some profit, which Rinsch deposited into his own bank account.

Then came the lavish purchases, prosecutors said, with Rinsch buying five Rolls-Royces, a red Ferrari, $652,000 worth of watches and clothes, and the pricey mattresses, plus another $295,000 on luxury bedding and linens. In addition, he used some of the money to pay off about $1.8 million in credit card bills, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said Rinsch’s mental health difficulties “may explain some of the excesses” but don’t “detract from the court’s conclusion that he was determined to lie to get substantial monies from Netflix, lie to cover it up.”

As Rakoff announced the prison term, Rinsch wrote on a piece of paper on a table in front of him. One of his lawyers, Benjamin Zeman, patted the director’s back.

After court, Rinsch — who’s due to report to prison in September — hugged several people who had come to support him. He and his lawyers declined to comment as they left, except that attorney Daniel McGuinness said they looked forward to appealing the case.

Netflix declined to comment on his sentence.

___

Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a resident who accused police officers of illegally detaining him for following an Ohio National Guard patrol while playing Darth Vader’s theme song from “Star Wars” on his cellphone, according to a document released Monday.

The plaintiff, Sam O’Hara, sued the district, four Metropolitan Police Department officers and a guard member from Ohio over what he says was his act of protest against President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C.

A court filing on Thursday disclosed the settlement but didn’t specify any monetary terms. The amount is included in a copy of the settlement agreement that D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb’s office provided to The Associated Press.

The $50,000 settlement includes attorney’s fees and costs. O’Hara is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia. In an email on Friday, an ACLU spokesperson referred to the settlement’s financial terms as “a significant amount” that O’Hara “is pleased with” but said they weren’t disclosing the dollar figure to protect his privacy.

O’Hara, an artist who works in the hospitality industry, agreed to drop his claims against the district and the MPD officers within three business days of receiving the settlement payment. The settlement isn’t an admission of wrongdoing by the district, the agreement says.

O’Hara’s settlement with the district doesn’t resolve his related claims against an Ohio National Guard member, Sgt. Devon Beck, who has asked a judge to dismiss O’Hara’s claims against him.

O’Hara said in a statement that he is satisfied with the settlement but conflicted that taxpayers are footing the bill.

“Those who actually violated my constitutional rights should be the ones paying the price, like taking the money from their pensions. That’s what real accountability looks like,” he said. “This settlement is a reminder that our freedoms are worth fighting for, especially when the powerful would rather we suffer in silence.”

O’Hara sued the district in October, claiming police officers violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizures and excessive force.

O’Hara played “The Imperial March” theme from “Star Wars” on his phone as he followed several National Guard troops down a public street on Sept. 11, 2025. One of the troops summoned police officers, who stopped O’Hara and kept him handcuffed for 15 to 20 minutes before releasing him without charges, according to the lawsuit.

Trump’s ongoing deployment of guard members in Washington began last August after the Republican president issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital. The surge inflamed tensions with residents of the heavily Democratic district. Hundreds of guard members remain deployed in the district nearly a year later, with no clear end in sight.

LONDON (AP) — Penelope Keith, a comic performer who shone as flinty but loveable upper-crust characters in British sitcoms “The Good Life” and “To the Manor Born,” has died aged 86.

Keith’s family said Monday that she had been diagnosed with cancer and died at her home in Surrey, near London.

Keith began her acting career onstage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963. But she found her greatest fame on television.

She won a BAFTA award in 1977 for “The Good Life,” playing Margo Leadbetter, a snobbish suburbanite appalled by her back-to-the-land neighbors Tom and Barbara Good, played by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal.

Kendal called Keith a “comic genius.”

“She was a joy to know and work with, and she will be much missed,” Kendal said.

Keith displayed a similar mix of imperiousness and deadpan wit in “To the Manor Born,” broadcast between 1979 and 1981 and brought back for a 2007 Christmas special. Keith played cash-strapped aristocratic widow Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, forced to sell her country estate to a nouveau millionaire, played by Peter Bowles, with whom she has a love-hate relationship.

Keith’s velvet tones featured on children’s show “Teletubbies” and in ads for everything from Pimm’s to Parker Pens. She also presented cozy documentary TV series, including “Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages.”

Keith continued to perform in stage roles into her 80s. Theaters in London’s West End will dim their lights on Wednesday evening in tribute to her.

In 2014 she was made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight, for services to the arts and to charity.

She is survived by her husband, Rodney Timson, and their two adopted sons.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Chicago rapper known as Twista has pleaded guilty to five counts of willfully failing to pay his income taxes and faces up to five years in prison.

The IRS Criminal Investigations division, the crime-fighting arm of the IRS, says Twista, whose legal name is Carl Mitchell, failed to pay income tax from 2019 to 2023 and owes more than $440,000 in back taxes.

Last week, Mitchell pleaded guilty to five counts of willfully failing to pay income tax. He is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 22.

Best known for his 2004 album ’Kamikaze,” Mitchell has collaborated with musicians including Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and Jamie Foxx on the song “Slow Jamz.” He has received two Grammy nominations.

His income stemmed from performances, album sales, streaming and royalties, according to IRS-CI.

Despite warnings from both the IRS and his own accountants of his tax debts, “instead, Mitchell entered into agreements with a third-party company to pay him advances on future royalties, knowing that the IRS would not be able to levy these funds,” the IRS said in a statement.

Mitchell also has unpaid tax liabilities dating back to 2011, and the government alleges Mitchell made large purchases to support his lifestyle, including buying at least four luxury vehicles.

Representatives for Mitchell did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

“IRS Criminal Investigation doesn’t care how famous you are or what you’ve accomplished,” Adam Jobes, with IRS-CI’s Chicago field office, said in a statement. “If you willfully refuse to pay your taxes, we’ll follow the money and bring you to justice.”