PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
CNN backs Cuomo after caught-on-video confrontation
CNN said it supports anchor Chris Cuomo after he was seen on video threatening to push a man down some stairs during a confrontation after the man apparently called him “Fredo,” in a seeming reference to the “Godfather” movies.
The video appeared on a conservative Youtube channel. Host Brandon Recor told The Washington Post the exchange happened Sunday at a bar in Shelter Island, New York, after a man approached Cuomo for a picture. The man made the video.
It doesn’t show the “Fredo” reference but depicts Cuomo’s profanity-laced reaction as he characterizes the comment as an anti-italian slur. The man says he thought “Fredo” was Cuomo’s name.
CNN spokesman Matt Dornic tweeted that Cuomo “defended himself ” after being slurred in what Dornic calls “an orchestrated setup.”
Hemsworth wishes Miley Cyrus ‘nothing but health’ after split
Liam Hemsworth wished wife Miley Cyrus “nothing but health and happiness” on Instagram days after Cyrus’ representative announced the couple’s separation.
A representative for Cyrus said the couple decided a break was best while they focus on “themselves and careers” after less than a year of marriage.
Hemsworth, who starred in “The Hunger Games” films, and Cyrus married in December.
Trial starting in defamation lawsuit against author Sparks
The trial is getting underway in a lawsuit that accuses novelist Nicholas Sparks of defaming the former headmaster of a private Christian school he founded in North Carolina.
Saul Hillel Benjamin accuses Sparks of telling Epiphany School parents, a job recruiter and others that Benjamin suffered from mental illness.
The jury in Raleigh, North Carolina, will decide whether the private K-12 school in Sparks’ hometown of New Bern, the author and the foundation Sparks created to support the school should pay damages.
Benjamin’s lawsuit alleges that the author of “Message in a Bottle” and “The Notebook” defamed him and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Benjamin was in the headmaster’s position for less than five months.
Associated Press