Names and faces
A woman suing Bill Cosby for sexual battery attempted to sell a story about the comedian to a tabloid a decade ago and tried to extort money in exchange for her silence, Cosby’s attorney said in a court filing Thursday. Attorney Martin Singer wrote in the filing that the lawsuit by Judy Huth and her attorney followed a failed attempt to extort $250,000 from Cosby. In the filing, Cosby seeks more than $33,000 from Huth and her attorney. Huth’s suit claims that the comedian forced her to perform a sex act in 1974 when she was 15. The incident occurred in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion after Cosby gave Huth and a 16-year-old friend alcohol, according to her lawsuit. “[Huth’s] claims are absolutely false,” Cosby’s filing states. The filings state that Singer and Huth’s attorney, Marc Strecker, had several conversations about the allegations in the weeks before the lawsuit was filed. Strecker first demanded $100,000, then raised the demand to $250,000 in order to keep from filing a lawsuit on Huth’s behalf, Singer wrote. Strecker did not return phone messages seeking comment Thursday. “Your demand for money from Mr. Cosby is rejected,” Singer wrote in a Monday letter to Strecker.
Actor Mark Wahlberg is asking Massachusetts for a pardon for assaults he committed in 1988 when he was a troubled teenager in Boston, saying he has dedicated himself to becoming a better person in his adult years so he can be a role model to his children and others. The former rapper known as Marky Mark and star of movies including The Departed and The Gambler, set to open Dec. 19, filed a pardon application with state officials Nov. 26. New England Cable News first reported on the application Thursday. In 1988, when Wahlberg was 16, he hit a man in the head with a wooden stick while trying to steal two cases of alcohol in front of a convenience store near his family’s home in the Dorchester section of Boston, the application says. He punched another man in the face while trying to avoid police, according to the document. Wahlberg says in the application that he was high on marijuana and narcotics at the time, and police caught him with a small amount of “pot.” He also apologized for his actions. He ended up being convicted as an adult of assault and other charges, and he was sentenced to three months in jail. He said he was released after serving about 45 days. Wahlberg, 43, says in the application that he turned his life around and became a successful music artist, actor, and film and television producer.