Names and faces
Britain’s Prince William, his wife, Kate, and his brother, Prince Harry, are spearheading a campaign to encourage people to talk openly about mental health. The royals released 10 films Thursday as part of their “Heads Together” campaign to change the national conversation about mental health. The videos feature celebrities and members of the public talking about the breakthrough conversations that helped them come to terms with their mental- health problems. The former England cricket captain Andrew Flintoff and former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, Alastair Campbell, are among those featured speaking about their experiences with anxiety or depression. The royals urged people to talk more openly about these matters. “When you realize that mental health problems affect your friends, neighbors, children and spouses, the walls of judgment and prejudice around these issues begin to fall,” they said in a statement. Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental- health charity Sane, said public awareness campaigns are more powerful when the celebrities promoting them have personal experience with the issue being highlighted. “Princes William and Harry speak from their experience of loss and sorrow,” she said in an interview. The films can be viewed on the Heads Together website and YouTube page and are promoted on Facebook, Twitter and Google.
Lawyers say nine people, including actor David
Tennant and former Formula One driver Eddie Irvine, have begun legal action against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper operations over alleged phone hacking. The London law firm Collyer Bristow said Thursday that it is representing former
Doctor Who star Tennant, Irvine and seven others over “phone hacking and other unlawful activities.” Murdoch closed the tabloid
News of the World in 2011 after revelations that it had eavesdropped on the voice mails of celebrities, politicians and even a 13- yearold murder victim. Several journalists were convicted, and Murdoch’s company paid out millions in compensation. Collyer Bristow partner Steven Heffer said the compensation program ended in 2013, and “my clients have been left with no alternative but to issue claims in the High Court.” Murdoch’s News U. K. had no immediate comment.