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Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a federal judge Thursday (April 17) to exclude the infamous 2016 surveillance video of him assaulting his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura from his upcoming sex trafficking trial, arguing it would “unfairly confuse and mislead the jury.”
The headline-grabbing clip, showing Combs striking his then-girlfriend in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, has been “altered, manipulated, sped-up, and edited to be out of sequence,” making it unusable as evidence at his trial next month, his lawyers told the judge.
“The admission of any of these inaccurate, unreliable video files would unfairly confuse and mislead the jury at Mr. Combs’s expense,” the star’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “Their admission would be infinitely more prejudicial than probative.”
In the lead up to the trial, Combs’ lawyers have repeatedly targeted the Cassie tape — likely a core piece of evidence that the government will present to jurors. In one motion, they argued that federal authorities had improperly leaked it to the press to “taint the jury pool.” Last month, they accused CNN of significantly altering the clip and then destroying the original before the network aired it last May.
With Thursday’s filing, Combs’ lawyers finally did what court-watchers were expecting: formally asking the judge to ban the clip from the trial. They cited a report from a forensic video expert that said the clip had been distorted beyond repair, including edits by CNN that Combs’ team says were intentionally made to make the video look worse.
“The manipulation of the videos was specifically designed to inflame the passions of CNN’s viewing audience, and that is what the government is hoping to leverage in this case,” Combs’ attorneys write. “The videos are sped up to make the violence look more violent. The sequence is reordered to leave the viewer with the impression that the woman has been dragged back to a hotel room. And the clips delete footage that provides important context making clear that the events were not as horrific as the government will suggest.”
Combs was indicted in September, charged with running a sprawling criminal operation that aimed to “fulfill his sexual desires.” The case centers on elaborate “freak off” parties in which Combs and others would allegedly ply victims with drugs and then coerce them into having sex, as well as on alleged acts of violence to keep victims silent.
A trial is currently set for May 5, though Combs’ lawyers are currently seeking to push the trial back by two months. If convicted on all of the charges, which include sex trafficking and racketeering, Combs faces a potential life prison sentence.
The Cassie video, which aired on CNN in May, showed him attacking her at the Intercontinental Hotel in March 2016. The clip drew far more public attention to the accusations against the star — who was then only facing a civil lawsuit — and prompted an apology from Combs shortly after it aired.
“My behavior on that video is inexcusable,” Combs said at the time. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry.”
Prosecutors and plaintiffs’ attorneys have criticized Combs and his lawyers over their efforts to bar the video from his trial. In one filing, the government said Combs was attacking the clip in an effort to “suppress a damning piece of evidence.” And Douglas Wigdor, Cassie’s attorney, called the star’s arguments “disingenuous” last month: “I am confident that the video fairly and accurately represents what happened, will be admitted into evidence, and that Combs will be held accountable for his depravity.”
In 2024, several young pop stars experienced eye-popping career explosions over the course of just a few months — but one of them, Gracie Abrams, thinks that the combined star power of two of her peers allowed her to climb the ranks without as many people realizing.
In her Billboard cover story published Thursday (April 17), the “That’s So True” singer reflected on how she, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan all quickly rose to superstar status in 2024, with Abrams emphasizing how she thinks her own arc has differed from theirs. “When I think about both of their rises, it’s like, boom,” she told staff writer Hannah Dailey.
“I feel like I’ve almost slipped under the radar a little bit [in comparison],” she added.
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As captured in the video interview, Abrams went on to gush about her admiration for both the “Espresso” singer and “Pink Pony Club” artist. “In pop culture, the impact that both Sabrina and Chappell have had on the industry has been so exciting to watch,” she said. “Forget being an artist and somebody that puts music out as well. I think as a young person, there’s something so liberating about both their catalogs of music and the way that they’re choosing to run their businesses.
“It’s so obviously them through and through,” Abrams added. “I find that to be deeply inspiring. I’m a mega fan of both of theirs, and, yeah, just constantly kind of screaming my head off for them.”
Even so, the “Risk” artist’s ascent has been something to behold. Following the release of her Billboard 200 No. 2 sophomore album The Secret of Us in June, Abrams’ fanbase has grown exponentially, and since the fall, she’s gone from playing theater-size venues to booking arenas on her ongoing international run of Secret of Us Tour dates.
As her star has risen, Abrams also told Billboard that another leading lady in pop has helped her stay grounded: Lorde. “She’s like 800 years old inside,” she said of the “Green Light” musician. “Whenever we’re together, I feel my nervous system regulate differently.”
There’s also two other women musicians Abrams has been loving right now: Doechii, whose music she says she’s currently “quite addicted to,” and Lady Gaga. “When I think about songwriter greats, she has been top of mind recently,” Abrams told Billboard of Mother Monster.
See Abrams on the cover of Billboard — plus photos from the shoot — below.
Fat Joe and Starz are teaming up once again for a series about the Bronx rapper’s life. According to Deadline, The Book of Jose will be a rags-to-riches story about Joe’s rise to fame. Born Joseph Antonio Cartagena and of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, Fat Joe grew up in the rough-and-tumble environment of the […]
Snoop Dogg says he only works with brands and companies that support his community. In an interview with Time published on Wednesday as part of the magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2025, Snoop was asked about how he successfully dabbles in multiple brands. He said he approaches each of his collaborations with a philanthropic […]
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Source: Getty Images / Roman Reigns / Donald Trump
WWE fans are losing their sh*t, and are outright disappointed in popular wrestler Roman Reigns throwing support behind the tariff abuser and divider-in-chief, Donald Trump.
Say it ain’t so, tribal chief, say ain’t it so.
That’s what wrestling fans are saying to Roman Reigns after he said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair that Trump was the “clear choice” when casting his vote in the 2024 election, despite him being a registered Democrat.
Per Vanity Fair:
Anoa’i is a registered Democrat, but he considers himself a centrist. In the most recent election, however, he says the choice was “very clear.”
“One person was giving us information. One person was answering questions, so it wasn’t that hard,” he says.
When I ask if that means that he backed Trump, Anoa’i pauses for a few seconds.
“I support our president. Trump is one of those guys where he’s got a vast history and a huge background. He’s been in entertainment. He’s been in big business, politics. At this point, I’m supporting a bright future for our country. Positive and competent leadership. For us to be what we’re supposed to be—to be a world leader and carry that respect and do what a world power like us should be doing.”
Reigns, real name Joe Anoa’i, did note that he isn’t totally onboard the MAGA train and that his support for Orange Mussolini isn’t unconditional. He does take issue with Trump going after political rivals, adding, “It’s like he needs that adversary,” while joking, “the world seems to be more like wrestling than any other form of entertainment.”
We wonder how he feels about the Trump administration sending people to El Salvadorian prisons by mistake, gross misuse of tariffs, and his administration’s attack on DEI, given that he is a person of color.
Social Media Is Superman Punching Roman Reigns
As expected, wrestling fans are BIG MAD and very disappointed in Reigns admitting to supporting Trump and have not been holding back in their criticism of the WWE superstar.
“fuck triple h, fuck donald trump, fuck roman reigns, fuck anyone defending this and especially fuck you hulk hogan,” one post on X, formerly Twitter said.
Another post read, “roman reigns is a trump supporter? THIS IS MY 9/11.”
Another user on X wrote, “finding out that Roman Reigns is a Trump supporter and one of the first things Trump did when he got back in office was cut funding for cancer research.. the jokes REALLY DO write themselves. just remember that wealth can’t buy health, look at Steve Jobs! just saying!”
Reigns’ support for Trump shouldn’t be shocking, especially regarding WWE wrestlers. The Undertaker and his fake brother Kane, whose real name is Glenn Jacobs, are both proud Trump supporters.
Linda McMahon, wife of disgraced WWE owner Vince McMahon, is the current Education Secretary in the Trump Administration.
What a damn shame.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Insanity
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From Mariah Carey‘s iconic gold Emancipation of Mimi gown to Destiny’s Child‘s grown and sexy Destiny Fulfilled… and Lovin’ It tour looks, 2005 was stacked with memorable fashion moments across pop culture. As the midpoint of the ’00s decade, 2005 housed the last vestiges of Y2K style before the culture slowly began its transition into more […]
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Source: Venla Shalin / Getty
Mass Appeal just shook the game with a major announcement: they’re set to drop seven albums from rap legends in 2025, and it’s a celebration of Hip-Hop’s golden era like never before.
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Fans can expect brand-new projects from some of New York’s most iconic names, including Nas & DJ Premier, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, Raekwon The Chef, Big L, and De La Soul. As for the seventh artist? Mass Appeal is keeping that under wraps, but they’ve promised a surprise that’ll be well worth the wait
One of the most anticipated projects in the lineup is Ghostface Killah’s “Supreme Clientele 2“, the long-rumored sequel to his 2000 classic. For years, fans have speculated whether this project would ever see the light of day, and now, it’s officially on the way. Meanwhile, fellow Wu-Tang legend Raekwon “The Chef” will be serving up heat on his upcoming album Emperor’s New Clothes, which is expected to deliver the gritty lyricism he’s known for.
Mass Appeal isn’t just looking to drop music, their goal is to honor the legacy of artists who’ve shaped the culture with timeless contributions. That’s why two of the first albums will pay tribute to fallen legends Prodigy of Mobb Deep and Trugoy The Dove of De La Soul, bringing fans new music that carries their spirits forward.
To top it all off, a posthumous album from Big L is also on the way, a rare and exciting treat for fans of the Harlem MC whose legacy still looms large in hip-hop history. Mass Appeal is clearly on a mission to blend nostalgia with fresh energy, and 2025 might just be a legendary year for rap.
More than three decades after The Bodyguard cemented Whitney Houston as a movie star, a remake is in the works — and Tyra Banks thinks Taylor Swift is the modern-day pop star who can fill the icon’s shoes this time around.
While guest-hosting a recent episode of Today With Jenna & Friends, the supermodel revealed that — as a big fan of the original movie — she’d love to see the Eras Tour headliner take over Houston’s role as famous musician Rachel Marron in the new film. “I’m so beyond excited,” Banks began of the announcement earlier this month that Warner Bros. is developing a revamped Bodyguard. “That movie is everything.”
When co-host Jenna Bush Hager asked her who should star in the flick, Banks replied, “I think Taylor Swift, because business, commerce, art.”
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And? “She would freaking sell like crazy,” the America’s Next Top Model host added.
As for who should step into Kevin Costner’s shoes as the leading lady’s titular protector, Banks thinks a certain British actor could balance out an onscreen duo with the “Fortnight” singer. “Okay, I’m just gonna be real. I’m a Black girl,” she said. “It was Whitney Houston as a Black girl and Kevin Costner as a white man. What if we flipped it, and it was Taylor Swift and Idris Elba?”
Of her idea for the pairing, Banks excitedly added that Swift and the Beast star would be “hot!”
Directed by Mick Jackson and released in 1992, The Bodyguard marked Houston’s first starring role in a film after she’d already scaled to the top of the charts as a pop star. Its corresponding album remains one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, spending 20 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spawning Houston’s timeless, Billboard Hot 100-topping rendition of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”
And though casting details for the upcoming remake remain unknown, Swift — who’s previously acted in films such as The Giver (2014), Cats (2019) and Amsterdam (2022) — does already have a connection to the project. Sam Wrench, who directed her blockbuster Eras Tour concert film, will be helming the new Bodyguard, as reported by Deadline on April 11.
Watch Banks share her thoughts on the upcoming Bodyguard remake above.
Sean Ono Lennon is confident that the One to One: John & Yoko documentary “is going to be very revelatory for everybody who sees it. For sure.”
Present company excepted, however. “I do think I know my parents pretty well,” says Ono Lennon, who co-executive produced the film (along with Brad Pitt and others) and served as its music producer. “I knew about that time. It was only a couple years before I was born. My mother spoke about it a lot. I know a lot about their story, including (this time period), so I would not frame it that I learned something necessarily.”
Other viewers, however, will get a thorough look into one of the most dramatic 18-month periods in the couple’s lives — which, for anybody who knows about them, is saying something — from their move to New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1971 to the One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 30, 1972, Lennon’s only full-length performances after the Beatles’ 1970 split. One to One premiered at the Venice Film Festival last August, also showing at the Telluride Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival before its IMAX rollout on April 11. One to One opens wide in theaters starting April 18 and will stream on Max later this year.
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Directed by Kevin Macdonald and distributed by Magnolia Pictures, One to One employs a montage-style collection of footage and sound recordings (some provided by the John Lennon Estate) to present Lennon and Ono primarily in their own words, without third-party narration. “Certainly Kevin and myself were sitting around in a room for quite a few weeks, scratching our heads — not in a bad way — deciding what direction we wanted to go in,” says co-director and editor Sam Rice-Edwards. “We didn’t want to make just another Beatles or Lennon documentary; there’s plenty out there, and this needed to be original and fresh.
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“Kevin came up with the concept of presenting the world as John and Yoko would have seen it in 1972; we felt if you did that, and we also spent time with them, in a way, that was really what people hadn’t done before. We found moments where we felt like the camera wasn’t on them…which gave us a fresh look at John and Yoko and allowed (the viewer) to be with them in a way you hadn’t before.”
Ono Lennon — who acknowledges that left to his own devices “I probably would’ve made a live concert film” — felt the approach was “really effective in telling their story. It’s not easy to maintain such a complex story, but (One to One) does it very beautifully. If it was narrated it would’ve been more of an op-ed. This is a true documentary in that it allows the subjects to tell their own story.”
Using other period footage — snippets of TV shows, commercials, news footage, etc. — to provide a context for the time, One to One finds Lennon and Ono embroiled in strident political activism, including an association with Jerry Rubin, that made them targets for FBI surveillance and, ultimately, attempts to deport Lennon by the administration of then-President Richard Nixon. “It’s really a beautiful story because you realize they were willing to risk everything, their careers and even their personal safety, to fight for their political and moral beliefs,” Ono Lennon says. But, he adds, only to a point.
“I think an important message to glean from the film has to do with the way my parents reacted to the more extreme elements of the radical activists they were working with at the time,” he explains. “At a certain point they realized the people they we working with, or some of them — Jerry Rubin specifically — were proposing to do things that were not necessarily aligned with my parents’ philosophy of pacifism and peace and love. You witness the trajectory of my parents experimenting with the radical groups and then realizing that they’d sort of gone too far, and they had to pull back — not just because it became dangerous for them but because people who were arguing for potentially violent activism were basically becoming as bad as the people they were fighting, which is really an important message for today, too.”
Ono Lennon says that as a youth his mother spoke frequently about that particular time, including being “freaked out” about the FBI wiretaps on the couple’s phones. “My early childhood was chaotic, obviously, and a lot of stuff that was happening in the film, the echoes were still resounding throughout my childhood,” he recalls — which includes the FBI planting an agent with the family after Lennon’s assassination in 1980. He adds that Ono “never believed activism was worth losing your life over. She always felt like it’s important to protect yourself so you can keep on doing good. If you’re not alive, what’s the point? Some people glamorized certain revolutionary kinds of characters willing to resort to violence. She never admired those people, and I don’t, either.”
The grail find for the One To One documentarians was an unlabeled box of reel-to-reel tapes that held recordings of Lennon and Ono’s phone calls, which they began making when they discovered their lines were bugged. The conversations, with manager Allen Klein as well as a variety of employees and friends, were discovered by Simon Hilton, vice president of Multimedia Projects for the Lennon Estate, amidst the Lennon archives in New York. Rice-Edwards recalls that “we knew pretty quickly this was really important. Listening to John and Yoko, or the people around them, when they thought they weren’t being listened to was extremely revealing about who they were. And a lot of what they were talking about in the phone calls was relevant to events we were covering in the film.” Ono Lennon, meanwhile, considers the tapes “a pot of gold,” for the film as well as for himself.
The One to One concert materials have been released before, but Ono Lennon and the filmmakers went to great pains to correct shortcomings from the original source material, which was initially released as a TV special directed by Steve Gebhardt and featured appearances by some of the other acts, including Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack and Sha Na Na. “There was some really crazy camera work,” Rice-Edwards says. “A lot of people working on the film, the camera people, were really high, so we had to work with that. But there was some really great stuff as well. That fact it was shot on film originally — in lovely 35mm — helped, and it was certainly good. We just treated it in the right way and made it the best we could.”
On the audio side, Ono Lennon found that “the recordings themselves were quite chaotic…. There were mics that were misplaced, and a lot of mics were moved between the matinee and evening shows. It seems like things were done in an improvised and last-minute manner. But we didn’t mind because it was more fun to have the challenge. I don’t want to give away too many of the tricks. I think there’s a reasonable amount of movie magic in there, let’s put it that way; it was a great time, technologically speaking, for us to reinvestigate the mixes. We have more tools than ever to bring out the best and turn down what’s undesirable. It did take a lot of work to get it where it is now, but that was part of the joy of doing it.”
He did come away with favorites among the performances, including sharpening the mixes of “Cold Turkey” and “Come Together” and hearing his father’s performances of the song “Mother.” “To see him sing that song, which is a very different style from Beatles music…His voice is so incredible and so moving,” Ono Lennon says. “It’s kind of shocking, honestly, and it’s very sweet as well…very vulnerable, but also powerful at the same time.”
His mother’s aggressive rendition of “Don’t Worry Kyoko” also resonated with him. “She had several styles (of music), but ‘Don’t Worry Kyoko’ is the more challenging, punk rock stuff…there wasn’t even (punk rock) yet. Some people might not have liked listening to it on the stereo, but when you see the show and see the audience live, it really does translate. It’s all about the energy, and the groove is there. It’s undeniably rockin’.” He adds that Ono, retired at 92, was not deeply involved with One to One but is “not unhappy with anything” about the film.
ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO
Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Ono Lennon has finished work on a One to One soundtrack release slated for Oct. 9 in several formats and packages. The full two concerts will definitely be part of it, while additional performance content from the period — such as songs from Lennon and Ono’s stint on The Dick Cavett Show during September 1971 — is currently being discussed and licensed.
“Whatever we can put on we’re putting on,” says Ono Lennon, who’s also finishing work on a new album of his own. “I think we’ll put on basically everything that would make sense to put on it…to satisfy the hardcore fans.”
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Wallo267 continues to live in his purpose. He recently discussed how he saved an allegedly suicidal man from jumping off a bridge to his death in Philadelphia.
As spotted on TMZ, the media personality was recently in Beverly Hills for business. The celebrity website caught up with him while he was on foot and he made it clear it was his duty to assist. “I was driving, I just came from the airport in Philadelphia. And in the process of me driving, I seen a brother right there, two police officers was there,” Wallo267 told the reporter. “He was going through a lot of depression. A lot of family issues, lost his mother, niece, just a lot,” he explained. “Just totaled a car. I had a chance to get up close on him, called some of his family members, got him on a FaceTime. We was able to help him come down, so it was a blessing. He was going through a lot.”
Wallo267 also added that the local authorities on the scene were not able to truly connect to the man. “I think sometimes when you’ve got the complexion for connection and you see your people in the community. There’s some support there.” He went on to speak to his family directly after the successful intervention. “I think finding people to talk to and getting the right help, I think that’s the best thing you can do,” Wallo said.
You can see Wallo267 talk about the situation with TMZ below.