Names and faces
Jennifer Hudson wasn’t just one of several celebrity performers during Saturday’s “March for Our Lives” rally in Washington. She is also the daughter, sister and aunt of victims of gun violence. After her stirring performance before hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallying for action against gun violence, the Oscar-winning singer spoke out about the march and her personal tragedy. “It is almost impossible to understand what the victims, the families, are going through, what they feel, or even to be able to relate to a situation like this unless you’ve been in it,” Hudson told CNN’s Van Jones. “So for people who are watching … know that it can be anybody. It can happen to anybody.” She added: “To me, the saddest thing is no one ever reacts until it happens to them, and then it’s too late.” Three close members of Hudson’s family were fatally shot in October 2008: mother Darnell Donerson, 57, brother Jason Hudson, 29, and nephew Julian King, 7. A jury found William Balfour guilty of the murders, and a judge sentenced him to three consecutive life terms. On Saturday, the singer closed out the march in D.C. with a rendition of “The Times They Are A Changin.’”
Russell Simmons has once again been accused of rape. A woman identified as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against him in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday. Simmons, the music mogul who co-founded Def Jam Recordings, denied the claim. In the suit, the woman alleges that she and her son met Simmons at a concert. After the performances, Simmons invited them backstage and, after dropping her son off at home, took the woman out for drinks. At the end of the night, Simmons asked her to accompany him to his hotel room: “She was reluctant, but Simmons insisted it was not an invitation to have sexual relations since he was dating a well-known model,” the complaint reads. The suit then alleges that he raped her in the room. The complaint seeks $10 million in damages for forcible rape, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit does not specify when the woman says she met Simmons. In a statement to Billboard, Simmons said he “vehemently” denied all of the allegations. “They have shocked me to my core as I have never been abusive or violent in any way in my relations with women,” the statement said. “I have submitted myself to multiple lie detector tests.” Over the past few months, Simmons has been accused of sexual misconduct, assault or rape by multiple women, and is the focus of a police investigation in New York City.