Names and faces
■ Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who rose to fame representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her fight with President Donald Trump, pleaded innocent
Avenatti Monday to a slew of charges that he embezzled money from his clients, failed to pay millions of dollars in taxes and lied in bank loan applications. Avenatti, 48, entered the plea to a 36-count indictment at a hearing in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif. Federal prosecutors have accused Avenatti of keeping millions of dollars meant for his clients in legal settlements to finance his coffee business, purchase a share of a private jet, and pay for his personal expenses. Before entering his plea, Avenatti issued a statement on Twitter, demanding that he be presumed innocent and suggesting the charges were politically motivated. “We don’t convict someone in America based on a one-sided argument and a press conference,” Avenatti wrote. “Even when he is one of the biggest enemies of the president and his son.”
■ Placido Domingo has starred on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera for a whopping 50 years — and is still singing at age 78. The Met literally turned Domingo
the tables on Sunday and threw a dinner on the same stage for the Spaniard’s golden anniversary. Guests included soprano Renee Fleming and the company’s new music director, Yannick Nezet-Seguin. “I have been lucky with a healthy throat and the passion for what I do,” Domingo said, standing by his table in the middle of the stage before the empty 4,000-seat house, surrounded by dinner guests and joking, “for once, I’m here and I don’t have to sing!” Domingo is currently appearing in his 52nd main role at the Met — as Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata — among 151 global career roles, and counting. The lifelong tenor now sings as a baritone, appearing in top theaters. On Sunday, he remembered his Met debut a half century ago, when he was suddenly called to replace an ailing singer. He was speeding in from his home in Teaneck, N.J., vocalizing behind the wheel when the driver in the next car started laughing at him. Domingo rolled down his window and yelled out, “Why are you laughing?” The man said, “because I’m going to the Met and I’m already hearing the opera.” Domingo shouted back, “Well, you’ll be hearing me tonight!”