Lifestyle

Chris Brown Hits Warner Bros. Discovery With $500 Million Defamation Suit

Published

3 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Chris Brown Hits Warner Bros. Discovery With 0 Million Defamation Suit

Chris Brown is suing the producers behind Investigation Discovery’s “Chris Brown: A History of Violence” docuseries … alleging the project was full of straight up lies.

In new court documents obtained by TMZ … the singer accuses Warner Bros. Discovery, Ample, and other individuals behind the series of promoting and publishing defamatory claims against him — even after allegedly being provided with “proof” that their narrative was false.

Not only does Brown state the Jane Doe at the center of the docuseries has been repeatedly discredited, but he highlights he has never been found guilty “of any sex related crime” … slamming the docuseries for labeling him “a serial rapist and a sexual abuser.”

He claims they based the docuseries largely on a lawsuit Jane Doe brought against him … adding she later withdrew the suit because it was full of lies.

chris brown

Brown says the producers and the Jane Doe chose to disregard fact in order to defame him and his reputation … which he says he’s spent over a decade repairing.

The singer claims he’s taken accountability for his “past mistakes” – including the physical assault on ex-girlfriend Rihanna – and has grown from them … and slams ‘A History of Violence’ producers for pushing an old narrative in the name of fame and fortune.

Brown says he’s been directly impacted by this docuseries … as it’s taken a toll on his reputation, career, and business opportunities. So, he’s seeking $500 million in damages … which he partly plans to donate to victims of sexual abuse if awarded.

We’ve reached out to Ample and Warner Bros. Discovery for comment … so far, no word back.

Lifestyle

Street Style Trend of the Week: Clashing Prints

Published

2 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

Street Style Trend of the Week: Clashing Prints

Jeffrey Bernick, 41, in his numerous patterns and prints, was impossible to ignore as he was walking on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron district of Manhattan on a Saturday in December.

Mr. Bernick, a costumer for TV shows and films, said he was on his way to Trader Joe’s and had just been browsing the selection of clothes and accessories at the nearby Filson store. He described the outfit he was wearing as cozy and having an “upstate vibe.”

“I spend most of my days surrounded by tons of clothing and lots of creatives that all have their personal style,” Mr. Bernick said. “I feel I take inspiration from them and vice versa. We get to play all day and put things together that you may not have thought would work, but look amazing onscreen.”

Lifestyle

Fresh Off ‘Severance,’ John Turturro Tries Male Modeling

Published

10 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

Fresh Off ‘Severance,’ John Turturro Tries Male Modeling

When John Turturro saw that the setting for Zegna’s runway show here was a grassy knoll, he wondered if he’d fallen into an Italian wormhole and landed back on the set of “Severance.”

“That was my first thought,” Mr. Turturro said backstage after the show, still bristling with energy from having just completed his first ever turn as a runway model.

See, Zegna’s verdant stage looked a lot like a set from Season 2 of “Severance,” which had its premiere on Friday. It’s not quite a spoiler to discuss this, as the nubby green landscape is visible in the season’s trailer. Still, Mr. Turturro, 67, the journeyman American actor who plays one of the metaphysically split Lumon Industries employees on the show, was not keen to reveal any more about where the show was heading.

So we left it at that. But, Mr. Turturro was happy to discuss his modeling cameo for 115-year-old Zegna. (For what it’s worth, the setting was designed to evoke the grassland where sheep graze: Zegna used the collection to introduce Vellus Aureum designs, which it boasts are made from the finest wool in the world. Grass, sheep, wool. Got it.)

“That was my virginal walk,” said Mr. Turturro, still dressed in the plunging V-neck sweater and swishy pleated trousers he sported on the runway. He had shed the va-va-voom tweed coat, and it was lying nearby.

A “Severance” outfit this was not. That show’s corporate cogs trudge about in blue suits and uninspired no-iron shirts — clothes that make them appear inoffensive to the point of being invisible.

In contrast, this masterful Zegna collection, designed by Alessandro Sartori, Zegna’s longstanding artistic director, demanded close inspection and a good bit of attention. Plaids were scaled up as if peered at through a microscope. And a corduroy suit, a men’s wear archetype about as old as Zegna itself, slouched like a nubbly bathrobe.

Peer closer: Yes, that was two button-up shirts trickily stacked on top of each other. (It may have been lost on Mr. Sartori, an Italian, but to American eyes, this is a layering move that calls to mind one person: Steve Bannon.) And the button on that sport coat was planted lower than usual. And yes, its lapels were beefier than the average, making the models, many of them gray-bearded and a good generation beyond the models you normally see in Milan, look like 1970s casino magnates you wouldn’t want to cross.

As Mr. Turturro walked his rookie walk — his coat easing back at the shoulders, his hands stuffed in his pockets, a slight smirk conveying that he was in command and unbothered — it was evident just how Zegna had won over the Davos set and the self-assured Hollywood types.

“You would feel that at my age you don’t get new experiences,” Mr. Turturro said after the show. “This was a new experience for me.” Certainly he was a long way from Lumon Industries.

Lifestyle

These 26 hiking trails burned in the Eaton fire

Published

11 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Press Room

These 26 hiking trails burned in the Eaton fire

An accounting of the damage of the Eaton fire is still ongoing. Since starting in early January, it has burned more than 14,000 acres, destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in Altadena and, as of Friday, killed 16 people.

Now that the fire is 65% contained, we can begin to examine the damage and trail closures in the surrounding mountains as well. The fire is believed to have started in Eaton Canyon, a beloved hiking area, before spreading east and west into Angeles National Forest.

More than two dozen trails, many of them popular, interconnected day hikes, appear to have also burned. Many of them were favorites among locals who could walk a short distance from their homes in Altadena to the trailheads. Last week, I visited Eaton Canyon and observed the blackened manzanita and other chaparral. Even though the Eaton Canyon Nature Center burned down, the oaks and sycamores around it appear to have survived, some only singed from the fire.

The Rubio Canyon trail was burned in the Eaton fire.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

To better understand where you can hike responsibly (and what areas you must avoid), I constructed the list below. To put together a better picture of the damage, I consulted mapping tool CalTopo, cross-referencing its maps and the fire footprints with lists of local hiking trails to determine which routes were in the burn area.

That said, just because a trail is in the burn area doesn’t mean it was destroyed. We’ll learn more about specific conditions of each trail in the coming months. Trails burned in wildfires often stay closed for several months to years to allow for the forest to recover and for trail maintenance crews to repair routes and infrastructure.

Keep in mind that hiking (and any other activity) is temporarily prohibited in Angeles National Forest through Friday, even outside the burned trails listed below. Officials said this measure to temporarily close the forest was necessary because the fire risk is at “critical,” the highest level of danger in the graduated scale used by the U.S. Forest Service.

The 700,000-acre area is set to reopen at midnight Saturday unless officials extend the closure. The trails below will likely remain closed even when Angeles National Forest remains open.

Trails burned in the Eaton fire

Part of the Eaton Canyon trail after the Eaton fire.

Burned cacti along the Eaton Canyon trail.

Middle Sam Merrill Trail northeast to Muir Peak Road: This trail is also referred to on some maps as Upper Sam Merrill Trail. There is another trail northeast of this route that some maps refer to as Upper Sam Merrill Trail.
One Man & Mule Trail (or Muir Peak Road), including Inspiration Point and Muir Peak
Mt. Lowe Railway Trail to Mt. Lowe Road, including Echo Mountain: The first 1.4 miles starting from the Rubio Canyon Trailhead is sometimes referred to as Old Echo Mountain Trail.
Mt. Lowe East Trail: Sometimes referred to on maps as the Upper Sam Merrill Trail, the first 0.8 mile of this trail appears to have burned. The rest of the trail, whether you take it 0.6 mile to Mt. Lowe, or continue northeast about one mile to the Markham Saddle, near the San Gabriel Peak trailhead, appears to be outside the burn zone. (Mt. Lowe itself may have burned. It is on the edge of the fire’s northern perimeter.)

Eaton Canyon as seen from the Eaton Saddle Trailhead in 2021.

Mt. Lowe West Trail: The first two-thirds of a mile of this trail appears to have burned while the last half-mile appears to fall outside the fire’s perimeter.
Sunset Ridge Trail: The first 1,000 feet of this trail is in the burn zone. The next 0.8 mile is not, but the last mile appears to have burned.
Dawn Mine Trail: Outside of the first 1,000 feet that follows the Sunset Ridge Trail, the majority of this trail did not burn. One mile after you start from the Sunset Ridge trailhead, there’s a small section, about 450 feet, that did burn. The area around Dawn Mine appears not to have burned.
Millard Canyon Falls Trail: Starting from the parking lot, the first half-mile of the path burned. The area around Millard Canyon Falls doesn’t appear to have burned.
Lower Millard Canyon Trail: Also referred to as Millard Canyon Crest Trail, just over half of this short trail from the Millard Canyon parking lot southwest to a residential area in Altadena appears to have burned.
Tom Sloane Trail to Saddle: The first mile heading west to Tom Sloane Saddle is burned. The remaining 0.8 mile to the Saddle is not burned.
Chaney Trail
Mt. Lowe Motorway to Mt. Lowe Trail Camp: The majority of this five-mile trail is burned, including the Mt. Lowe Trail Camp.