The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Man charged with trying to extort Hart with video
LOS ANGELES — A man has been charged with trying to extort money from Kevin Hart by threatening to release video he secretly shot of the actor/comedian with a woman in Las Vegas.
Los Angeles County prosecutors charged 41-year-old Jonathan Jackson Wednesday with attempted extortion and extortion by threatening letter.
Jackson was held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Prosecutors say he tried to extort an undisclosed amount from Hart in August then tried to sell the video to celebrity news websites.
Attorney Lisa Bloom said in September that someone secretly filmed “bedroom images” of her client Montia Sabbag with Hart in a hotel suite.
Hart had apologized to his wife and kids what he called a “bad error in judgment.”
Rapper accused of trying to bring gun on plane
NEWARK, N.J. — Rapper Juelz Santana has been indicted on weapons charges after authorities say he tried to bring a gun on a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Federal prosecutors say the two-count indictment made public Wednesday charges Santana with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and carrying a weapon on an aircraft.
Santana initially faced both state and federal charges, but the state charges were dismissed after Essex County prosecutors said they would defer to federal authorities.
Authorities say security found a loaded .38-caliber handgun and oxycodone pills Santana didn’t have a prescription for in a carry-on bag containing his identification.
They say he fled the area, leaving two bags behind. He turned himself in three days later.
George Michael’s family asks fans to remove memorial shrines
LONDON — George’s Michael’s family is asking fans to remove flowers, photos and other tributes left outside the late singer’s two homes.
A grassy square across from Michael’s London house is bedecked in bouquets candles, flags and handwritten messages for the singer, who died in December 2016.
Similar offerings have been left outside the house in Goring, 50 miles from London, where Michael died.
In a post Wednesday on Michael’s website, his father, sisters and friend David Austin said they were touched by the tributes, but felt they couldn’t ask neighbors “to continue to accept as normality, the memorials so personal to you all, to remain as and where they are any longer.”
They asked fans to remove the tributes by May 27, “leaving any you wish us to have.”