TUPAC SCRIPT HACKED
A PRODUCTION company behind a forthcoming biopic about hip hop artist Tupac Shakur (pictured) acknowledged the film’s script was among those allegedly peddled by a Bahamian man who was arrested for hacking celebrities’ email accounts.
Alonzo Knowles, 23, is being held without bail after an appearance in Manhattan federal court this week on criminal copyright infringement and identity theft charges.
Among the information that Knowles allegedly hacked was a recently finished script for All Eyez On Me, a biopic of Shakur, according to Greg Mielcarz, executive vice president of marketing and publicity at Morgan Creek Productions, the studio making the biopic.
Earlier this month, Knowles offered to sell a popular radio host “a script for an upcoming hip hop artist biopic movie once it is completed at the end of the month,” according to a criminal complaint filed against Knowles.
Knowles later tried to sell the script to an undercover agent, according to the complaint but did not actually hand it over to the agent.
The undercover agent struck a deal with Knowles to buy scripts and other information, ultimately leading to Knowles’ arrest.
Mielcarz confirmed the identity of the Shakur biopic script in response to an inquiry by Reuters. CALIFORNIA Governor Jerry Brown has pardoned Robert Downey Jr for a nearly 20-year-old felony drug conviction that sent the Oscarnominated actor to jail for nearly a year.
Mr Brown’s office last week announced that Downey was among 91 people granted pardons for criminal convictions after demonstrating they had rehabilitated themselves.
While the pardon does not erase records of a conviction, it does restore voting rights and is a public proclamation that the person has remained out of trouble and demonstrated “exemplary behaviour”, according to materials on the governor’s website.
Downey, who was once a courthouse mainstay for a series of drug-related arrests, has become perhaps Hollywood’s greatest success story for career and addiction rehabilitation.
Since 2008, Disney has entrusted Downey to portray Iron Man in a series of blockbuster films, including The Avengers, based on the Marvel comic books.
Downey, 50, is a two-time Oscar nominee for his roles in 1992’s Chaplin and 2008’s Tropic Thunder.
The actor’s legal troubles began in June 1996 when he was stopped for speeding on the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles County and authorities found cocaine, heroin and a pistol in his vehicle.
In 1999, he was sent to prison for nearly a year for violating his probation.
A proclamation released by Mr Brown’s office says Downey obtained the pardon after getting a judge to issue a Certificate of Rehabilitation.
The process showed he has “lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law-abiding citizen,” according proclamation.
It also states Downey “has
to
the paid his debt to society and earned a full and unconditional pardon”.