Month: January 2025

After plenty of rumours of an off-set rift between the It Ends With Us co-stars, things were taken up a notch in December thanks to a lawsuit.

Lively filed against the actor and director for sexual harassment and accusing him of attempting a ‘social manipulation’ campaign against her.

Baldoni then went on to sue her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million over alleged defamation and extortion.

And with these endless lawsuits, the Jane the Virgin star shared images of his family ‘in a basement’ during the It Ends With Us premiere. Supposedly, this happened following Lively’s request.

Filed by Baldoni’s attorneys on behalf of him, producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, the latest suit claims Lively took certain measures to gain control over the summer film.

Cited in these court documents, photos show the star with his wife Emily, friends and family sat at a table in a room that appears to be a basement, if not some kind of back room. They pose with boxes of popcorn as another snap shows them with crates of water and cola bottles. Baldoni can be seen wearing the same pink suit he had worn on the red carpet that day.

In the filing, it’s alleged the star’s guests were ‘ushered’ inside the film premiere before being ‘held’ in this room to ‘avoid even a chance of interaction with Lively or her guests’ when she arrived.

Baldoni’s lawsuit also alleges his co-star used ‘threats and extortion’ to ‘relegate’ her colleagues to ‘sit out their own premiere’ in the basement.

It said: “They were confined to a makeshift holding area surrounded by concession stand stock, with only fold-out tables and chairs arranged in a square.

“Surrounded by close friends, family, soda bottles, and a lot of love, the irony of being held in a basement on what was arguably one of the most important nights of Baldoni’s career thus far, was not lost on anyone.”

Baldoni’s lawyers have denied the claims made against him, calling them ‘categorically false’.

Lively’s lawyers have responded to the suit, claiming it is ‘attempts to turn the tables on the victim’, while Baldoni’s legal team have maintained it is ‘based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence’.

Yesterday (17 January) marked 11 years since the Martin Scorsese blockbuster released in the UK, and it’s still many’s favourite film around.

Played by Leonardo DiCaprio, it was based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir, documenting his career working in New York City and the corruption and fraud of Wall Street. And of course, that means featuring a load of drink, drugs, sex and profanities.

But with all that drama and wildness, you might think the film is heavily dramatised, with things exaggerated for the big screen.

However, Nadine Macaluso (Belfort’s ex-wife) has confirmed that much of it really did happen.

Appearing on the Anything Goes with James English podcast, she branded about ’90 percent’ of the film as accurate and claimed that in real life, things were actually even more over the top.

This is backed up by real footage of one of the parties hosted by Belfort, with him hyping up the crowd from the roof. Flocks of people can be seen in and around the pool getting rowdy while he carries out one of his famous speeches.

In a TikTok, Macaluso recalled meeting Belfort at one of those parties, revealing to be the portrayal in the film as pretty accurate.

“Well, it’s actually pretty similar to the movie. I was, I guess, 22 years old and modelling and my boyfriend at the time, said, ‘You want to go to this party in Westhampton in this house on the beach?’, and I was like, ‘Sure,’” she said.

“And so we pulled up, and I remember walking into the house, and there were all these people acting really weird. Little did I know that they were all Quaaluded out, I had no idea.”

During the film, when Belfort does go up to chat to her character (played by Margot Robbie), things are overshadowed when Jonah Hill’s character gets a bit rude.

Macaluso continued: “They’re with their wives and they were like, just making lewd and weird comments.

“And that scene where someone actually exposes himself to me was true. And I actually got terrified by that.

“I’m 22. And I said to my boyfriend at the time, ‘We have to leave this party,’ and we left right away.”

But you probably don’t want imagine having to spend over a decade on it.

And this man who spent 15 years on sick leave ended up suing IBM after it wouldn’t give him a pay rise.

Ian Clifford was an employee of the tech giant when he first went off work for his health back in September 2008. And his LinkedIn profile showed him as ‘medically retired’ from 2013.

In that year, the man raised a grievance with the company, complaining he hadn’t received any pay rise over five years.

Clifford managed to reach a ‘compromise agreement’ with his employer, meaning he was put onto its disability plan which prevented him from being dismissed.

Therefore, the man remained as an IBM employee with ‘no obligation to work’.

Under this health plan, workers have the right to earn three-quarters of their agreed earnings. So, the man got an annual pay of £54,028 which he could keep getting until he hits 65. Yep, with some maths, that would mean he’d be paid about £1.5 million while on ‘sick leave’.

However, Clifford wasn’t best pleased over the amount not budging over the past decade so decided to sue.

In February 2022, he took IBM to an employment tribunal on claims of disability discrimination, with a similar grievance to the last time he raised concerns.

The man said he had been treated ‘unfavourably’ as he’d received no salary increase since 2013 and warned the ‘value of the payments would soon wither’ due to punishingly high levels of inflation.

He said: “The point of the plan was to give security to employees not able to work – that was not achieved if payments were forever frozen.”

But it didn’t quite go how he hopes as the employment tribunal in Reading dismissed his claim. Clifford has told that he was getting a ‘very substantial benefit’ and receiving ‘favourable treatment’.

“Active employees may get pay rises, but inactive employees do not, is a difference, but is not, in my judgement, a detriment caused by something arising from disability,” employment Judge Paul Housego said in his dismissal of the case.

“The complaint is in fact that the benefit of being an inactive employee on the Plan is not generous enough, because the payments have been at a fixed level since April 6, 2013, now 10 years, and may remain so.

“The claim is that the absence of increase in salary is disability discrimination because it is less favourable treatment than afforded those not disabled.

“This contention is not sustainable because only the disabled can benefit from the plan.

“It is not disability discrimination that the Plan is not even more generous.

“Even if the value of the £50,000 a year halved over 30 years, it is still a very substantial benefit.”

Across nine Apollo missions, a total of 24 astronauts have been to the moon, with 12 of them walking on its surface.

But it was during Apollo 15, back in 1971, that two astronauts laid a very special memorial to remember their fallen colleagues.

The commemorative plaque was left on the moon back in 1971, during Apollo 15, in memory of 14 NASA astronauts and USSR cosmonauts, who had sadly died in previous years.

Just next to the plaque also lies a tiny figurine, representing each astronaut.

NASA explain: “Their names are inscribed in alphabetical order on the plaque. The plaque was stuck in the lunar soil by astronauts David R. Scott, Apollo 15 commander, and James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, during their lunar surface extravehicular activity.”

The astronauts represented on the plaque are as follows:

1. Charles A. Bassett II
2. Pavel I. Belyayev
3. Roger B. Chaffee
4. Georgi Dobrovolsky
5. Theodore C. Freeman
6. Yuri A. Gagarin
7. Edward G. Givens Jr.
8. Virgil I. Grissom
9. Vladimir Komarov
10. Viktor Patsayev
11. Elliot M. See Jr.
12. Vladislav Volkov
13. Edward H. White II
14. Clifton C. Williams Jr.

Apollo 15 set off on 26 July 1971, with a number of different objectives, including exploring the Hadley-Apennine region of the moon, setting up and activating surface experiments, making engineering evaluations and conducting lunar experiments.

The team – consisting of David R. Scott, James B. Irwin, and Alfred M. Worden – set a number of records while in space, with NASA explaining: “Apollo 15 set several new records for crewed spaceflight: heaviest payload in a lunar orbit of approximately 107,000 pounds, maximum radial distance traveled on the lunar surface away from the spacecraft of about 17.5 miles… most lunar surface EVAs and longest total of duration for lunar surface EVAs.”

The mission also set the record for the longest time in lunar orbit, as well as the longest crewed lunar mission and the longest Apollo mission.

It is believed that the existence of the plaque wasn’t made public until the mission was complete.

The first men to walk on the moon were Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin on 20 July 1969.

At the time, Armstrong uttered the famous words: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The crew returned back to Earth on 24 July. Over the following few years, 10 astronauts also visited the moon, with the last mission taking place in 1972.

Fans of the genre will know how creepy the film adaptions of Stephen King’s books often are and there’s one 2017 release that’s particularly popular.

Featuring a murderer based on a real-life killer, Gerald’s Game boasts a whopping 91 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

But when they’re getting frisky in the bedroom, Gerald dies from a heart attack, leaving his wife handcuffed to the bed with no key. Claustrophobia and panic begins to set in as Jessie must battle her inner demons while encountering some pretty weird figures.

One of the film’s creepiest elements is the ‘Moonlight Man’, a terrifying figure lurking on her periphery that comes to embody death in her mind.

And while both Jessie and us viewers are unsure if he’s just a hallucination, the character is based on real-life serial killer, Ed Gein.

Just as the Moonlight Man has a bag of bones and trophies, Gein exhumed corpses from a nearby graveyard in a ‘dazed state’.

He’d haul the bodies back to his home, where he’d take the skin and bones of his victims to make various objects like lampshades.

Police also found a female body suit, which authorities believed Gein had made to wear so ‘that he could become his mother – to literally crawl into her skin’.

In case that character isn’t creepy enough, there’s another scene in particular that has really turned viewers’ stomachs.

So, hopelessly cuffed to the bed, Jessie eventually figures out she can use her blood as a lubricant. Yeah, told you it gets gross.

She then smashes a glass and uses it to slice her wrist open and slide free from the cuffs.

It’s an extremely graphic scene and is nestled into an uncomfortable watch as other scenes depict her past traumas.

On Reddit, one user wrote of the film: “Literally almost made me throw up. Which a movie has never done to me before. I had to push it down.”

Another echoed: “I mean explicitly the scene with the hand… the way the skin/flesh peels off the hand is truly traumatic. I have never been so disgusted.”

If you’ve watched the movie, you’ll know there are some iconic moments in the film, including when Jordan – played by Leonardo DiCaprio – asks Brad Bodnik (Jon Bernthal) to sell him a pen, only for him to respond with a flawless answer.

Turns out though, it’s not the response that the real Jordan Belfort would have given.

In the movie, Bodnik takes on the task by asking Belfort to write his name on a napkin, to which Belfort responds by explaining he doesn’t have a pen on him.

Of course, Bodnik then hands him the pen, explaining: “Supply and demand, my friend.”

In real life, the actual Jordan Belfort had a different response.

Appearing at the Oxford Union for a Q&A, Belfort was asked to ‘sell this pen’ by an audience member – and he knew exactly what to do.

“Let me tell you what that whole exercise really stands for, right,” he began.

“The whole ‘sell me this pen’ narrative is a test that you give to a salesman to see if they really understand what selling is all about.

“If you ask someone who’s not a professional salesman, who doesn’t have the right instincts, they’ll start actually trying to sell you a pen.

“‘This pen is great, this pen writes upside down, it’s the best value for its money, this pen will last forever.'”

“‘So tell me, how long have you been in the market for a pen? What type of pens have you used in the past? Is it business or personal? Do you buy expensive pens?’

“The key to selling is to find out, step one, what are your clients needs, values, what are they looking for? What do they need? You’ve got to fill that need.

“When you just go out and try to sell something to someone, what you’re saying is, ‘I don’t give a s**t about you, I’m just going to ram this down your throat.'”

The former stock broker is, of course, the subject of the legendary 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street, which was based on Belfort’s 2007 memoir.

It documents the American’s career working in New York City as well as the corruption and fraud of Wall Street.

It is thought that Gary Carl Simmons Jr’s final blowout is the most decadent ever recorded in US history.

He was put to death at the Mississippi State Penitentiary on 20 June, 2012, after spending 15 years behind bars for murder.

The killer – nicknamed ‘The Butcher’ due to his modus operandi and his former profession – was given the ultimate punishment by a US court after he was convicted of kidnap, rape, and capital murder.

Simmons, 49, was sentenced to death in August 1997 for the slaying of 21-year-old Jeffrey Wolfe, which took place a year prior.

The young lad had driven from Houston to Mississippi with his girlfriend to collect a drug debt, according to records from the Mississippi Supreme Court.

But after the couple arrived at his home, Simmons and his accomplice, Timothy Milano, told Wolfe they didn’t have the money or any substances, the Daily Mail reports.

Wolfe was fatally shot with a .22-caliber rifle after an argument broke out, with Milano pulling the trigger.

His girlfriend was then tied up by Simmons, and the former supermarket butcher later raped her.

The killer savagely dismembered Wolfe’s corpse in a bathtub with knives which he had sharpened at work, according to the court documents.

The 21-year-old’s remains were then callously dumped in an alligator-infested bayou. His girlfriend courageously escaped and alerted authorities.

Milano was sentenced to life in prison for the horrific crimes, while Simmons was slapped with the death sentence for the 1996 killing.

The ex-butcher said he had ‘made peace with God and was remorseful’ as his execution by lethal injection approached, according to Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps.

However, this didn’t stop Simmons from making a meal out of his final ever feast.

During his eating extravaganza, the killer gobbled down almost 30,000 calories – and for reference, the NHS recommend that blokes consume just 2,500kcal a day.

The banquet that Simmons tucked into behind bars involved several dishes and would have been enough to feed numerous people, according to reports.

Simmons is said to have started off by scoffing a Pizza Hut medium Super Supreme Deep Dish pizza, double portion, with mushrooms, onions, jalapeño peppers, and pepperoni.

This was followed up by another pizza, regular portion, with three cheeses, olives, bell pepper, tomato, garlic, and Italian sausage.

As well as putting the Pizza Hut employee through hell with that list of specifications, he probably put his stomach through a lot of anguish with the rest of his order.

Simmons also requested ten 8-oz. packs of Parmesan cheese, ten 8-oz. packs of ranch dressing, one family size pack of Doritos nacho cheese flavour, 8-oz. jalapeño nacho cheese, and 4-oz. sliced jalapeños.

As well as all this, he wanted a super-size order of McDonald’s fries with extra ketchup and mayonnaise, and two pints of strawberry ice cream.

To wash it all down, the inmate asked for two large strawberry shakes and two 20-oz. cherry Cokes.

Simmons obviously didn’t have to worry about his waistline while tucking into his final meal, so it seems he decided to go to town with it.

It isn’t clear if he managed to clean his plate or not – although officials said he had got about halfway through around 90 minutes before his execution.

The Department of Corrections claimed the 49-year-old had dabbled in everything but the fries and was still shoving food down by that point.

When strapped to the gurney, Simmons said: “I’ve been blessed to be loved by some good people, by some amazing people. I thank them for their support.

“Now, let’s get it on so these people can go home. That’s it.”

After uttering his last words, Simmons left this world with an extremely full belly at 6.16pm on 20 June, 2012.

Riley Keough is the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough, who were married from 1988 to 1994. The eldest grandchild of Elvis, she has followed in her family’s footsteps in becoming an actor, known for roles in TV shows and films like Daisy Jones & the Six, The Girlfriend Experience and American Honey.

Following her split from Danny, Lisa Marie was married to the ‘Thriller’ singer from 1994 to 1996.

And during an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Riley reflected on those two years with Jackson as her stepdad.

“Our life wasn’t crazier because that was already there. That already existed, like the press and the crazy, the paparazzi and, you know, all that,” she explained.

“But … I think when [Lisa Marie Presley] saw Michael’s life, there were things that he had that she didn’t have. She didn’t have a plane at the time, or things like that.”

Riley recalled how it made her mum think she ‘should have a plane’ and other things, meaning their life ‘in that way kind of got bigger.’

“Before that, she was with my dad, and their life was very simple … she didn’t have 10 million assistants. She didn’t need all of that, and I think that changed,” the actor added.

Riley was only about five-years-old when her mum married Jackson and when the marriage happened, it wasn’t long since the singer had first been investigated by police.

Jackson had been accused of sexual abuse by families of four kids, he denied the allegations and was later acquitted.

Riley said she was ‘never told anything’ about these accusations while the pair were married.

“I would imagine that my dad was really heartbroken and reading the news, and… I would imagine he said all kinds of things to my mum that we didn’t know about,” she told host Alix Earle.

“The way my parents parented was very much like, ‘We don’t fight around the kids. We don’t ever say anything around them.’ We didn’t know about any allegations. We had no awareness of that.”

Lisa Marie died in January 2023 and Riley completed her memoir for her, From Here to the Great Unknown, which was released in October 2024.