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Hamilton is taking a stand.
The beloved musical was scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center for the third time in March and April of 2026, but have since canceled the run due to President Donald Trump‘s recent takeover of the performing arts institution. “Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy,” lead producer Jeffrey Seller said in a statement, shared to the official Hamilton X page. “These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of Hamilton. However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution.”
He continued, “The Kennedy Center was founded over 50 years ago with a sincere bipartisan spirit. Indeed, it was founded during the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower, named after President John F. Kennedy, and opened in 1971 under the administration of Richard M. Nixon. The Kennedy Center was meant to be for all Americans, a place where we could all come together in celebration of the arts. Politics have never affected the presentation of thousands of shows and the display of extraordinary visual arts.”
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However, Seller noted that, “Given the recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center.”
In the first month of his second term, Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s leadership and replaced the board of trustees with his supporters, ultimately announcing he had been “unanimously” elected the board’s chair. “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” he wrote on his social media website at the time, according to the Associated Press. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”
Several other famous names associated with the Kennedy Center resigned following the news, including Ben Folds, Renée Fleming and Shonda Rhimes. Like the Hamilton production, Issa Rae is also among those who cancelled shows at the Kennedy Center.
Jay-Z’s rape accuser says in court filings that she stands by her story, directly contradicting his recent lawsuit that claims she admitted to fabricating the allegations — prompting the star’s lawyers to offer testimony from private investigators and demand that the accuser sit for a deposition.
In Los Angeles court filings Monday (March 3), the unnamed Jane Doe stated that she had flatly refused to recant her story when approached last month by investigators for Jay-Z — an experience she said left her “intimidated and terrified.” She also denied that her attorney, Tony Buzbee, had pushed her to sue.
Those statements, which Doe made in a sworn affidavit, directly contradicted allegations leveled by Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) in a separate lawsuit filed earlier on Monday. In that case, he claimed Doe had “voluntarily admitted” directly to his team that her now-dropped lawsuit was premised on a false accusation.
“Although I ultimately chose not to pursue them, I stand by my claims in the New York action and believe that I had a meritorious claim against Jay-Z,” the woman wrote in Monday’s filing. “I ultimately decided to dismiss the [case] because I was frightened by the reaction of Jay-Z and his supporters, and the likelihood that I would have to be publicly named and subjected to public attacks.”
In the same sworn statement, the unnamed woman stressed that Buzbee had not sought her out, nor had he urged her to add Jay-Z to her allegations: “I told them that neither of those things ever happened, and I asked them to leave me alone.”
Monday’s statement from Doe quickly prompted a response from Jay-Z’s lawyers. In a flurry of new filings on Wednesday (March 5), they offered up sworn statements from the actual private investigators who allegedly talked to her, asking the judge for permission to add them to the case record.
In those statements, one of the investigators said, “Jane Doe stated to me that Mr. Carter did not sexually assault her.” At another point, the same investigator added: “Jane Doe stated ‘Buzbee brought Jay Z into it,’ and ‘he was the one that kind of pushed me towards going forward with him.’” Another investigator said Doe had told him that “lawyers at Mr. Buzbee’s law firm told her that, if she pursued Mr. Carter, she would get a payout.”
In the same filings, Jay-Z’s lawyers also made an alternative request: that the judge permit them to depose both the accuser and Buzbee under oath. “The new declaration only further reinforces the need for Jane Doe and Mr. Buzbee to sit for a deposition regarding their conversations, including her conversations with his colleagues who convinced Jane Doe to drop her lawsuit,” they wrote.
Depositions are not typically granted at the outset of such a case; instead, they are conducted during the later “discovery” phase as a case moves toward trial. But Jay-Z’s lawyers say Doe’s filing has opened the door to those issues and that the rapper is now “entitled to find out” what the woman knows.
In a detailed statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Buzbee strongly denied the various claims advanced by Jay-Z’s investigators in the new court filings. He said he believes they “flat out made all of this up” and that he “can’t wait to see what they have been paid and who is paying them.”
“Jane Doe’s case was signed up in October by another law firm to pursue allegations against Jay-Z and P. Diddy. Apparently it came in through Facebook to that firm’s page. After it was vetted it was sent to my firm weeks later,” Buzbee said. “The allegation that I sat with Jane Doe and suggested a suit against Jay-Z is not only a lie, it’s proveably and demonstrably false and is contrary to the documentation from referring counsel’s intake process and our own firm documents.”
The blockbuster case against Jay-Z, filed in December, claimed that he and Sean “Diddy” Combs drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. It represented a shocking expansion of the already-sprawling claims against Combs and came amid speculation that other stars might be implicated in Diddy’s alleged decades of abusive behavior.
Jay-Z forcefully denied the allegations, calling them a “blackmail attempt.” He accused Buzbee of trying to extort settlements from innocent celebrities by falsely tying them to Diddy and vowed to fight back and never pay his accuser.
Last month, Doe abruptly dropped the case — without explanation and without any kind of payment from Jay-Z. Two weeks later, Jay-Z sued both Doe and Buzbee for defamation, malicious prosecution and other wrongdoing, claiming they had carried out an “evil conspiracy” to extort a settlement from him by making the “false and malicious” rape allegations.
“Mr. Carter does not commence this action lightly,” his lawyers wrote in Monday’s lawsuit. “But the extortion and abuse of Mr. Carter by Doe and her lawyers must stop.”
The recent filing from Doe rebutting those allegations, also filed Monday, was lodged in a separate lawsuit in California in which Jay-Z is suing Buzbee for extortion and defamation over the same rape allegations. At a hearing in that case last week, a Los Angeles judge said he would likely dismiss the star’s extortion claims but likely allow the defamation claims against the lawyer to proceed.
The world has been watching in shock as President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk break from long-held norms and attempt to concentrate political power in the presidency. Now, internet sensation Randy Rainbow is taking the pair to task for their latest executive actions.
In a new video posted Wednesday (March 5), Rainbow created another fake interview between himself, the president and Musk, where he called out the pair for making massive cuts to federal programs while attacking marginalized communities.
“Look, I realize the government might be a little bloated — trust me, I know bloated when I see it,” Rainbow says in the clip while gesturing at Trump and Musk. “But you two dime-store dictators are tearing down institutions and eroding our rights. It’s starting to feel super constitutional crisis-y.”
As is tradition in Rainbow’s parody videos, the clip then transitions to a parody version of “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, in which Rainbow begins to unravel “the same routine” that Trump is using from his first presidency. Playing both parts of Glinda and Elphaba, the comedian lambasts the president’s lack of care for the very concept of the power of the people.
“Close your mouth, you creep/ It’s time to cry, ‘Buh-bye democracy,’” Rainbow sings. “And watch this guy defy democracy/ Would someone stop this clown?!”
As the video continues, Rainbow’s costumes change constantly between the pink frocks of Glinda, the green face of Elphaba and the furry bodies of the flying monkeys as he begins to take shots at the Democrats’ inactivity in combating Trump’s proposals. When he finally arrives at the song’s iconic final moments, he extends the track just so he can fit all of his worst adjectives about Trump into one musical phrase.
“And no one in the whole U.S./ Can save us from this bleach blond mess?/ Who’s bats–t, cruel, obsessed with walls/ With ears of steel and tiny balls,” Rainbow sings while floating above the White House. “An actual convicted felon/ Dragging us all down to hell/ A narcissistic, instigating/ Fascist crook who feeds on hating/ Anyone outside his cult/ No porn star, Dem or sane adult/ Is ever going to stop this clown!”
Wacth Rainbow’s full Wicked parody above.
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Jay-Z is suing his former accuser, who he now claims has admitted that her story of being drugged and raped by him and Diddy as a 13-year-old girl at an afterparty following the 2000 MTV VMAs is false. Keep watching for the full story. What do you think of Jay-Z’s lawsuit? Let us know in […]
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Jay-Z is filing a lawsuit against the unnamed woman who accused him of rape last year, claiming she has now directly admitted that she fabricated those explosive allegations.
The new case, filed weeks after the lawsuit against Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) was abruptly dropped last month, alleges that the Jane Doe accuser and her attorney, Tony Buzbee, carried out an “evil conspiracy” to extort a settlement from the superstar by making “false and malicious” allegations against him.
Notably, the new lawsuit says the Doe accuser has now “voluntarily admitted” directly to Jay-Z’s team that the star did not assault her and that Buzbee “pushed” her to make those allegations.
“Mr. Carter does not commence this action lightly,” his lawyers write in a complaint filed Monday (March 3) in Alabama federal court. “But the extortion and abuse of Mr. Carter by Doe and her lawyers must stop.”
In a statement to Billboard, Buzbee sharply denied the allegations: “This case is baloney and has no legal merit. Shawn Carter’s investigators have repeatedly harassed, threatened and harangued this poor woman for weeks trying to intimidate her and make her recant her story. She won’t. Instead she has stated repeatedly she stands by her claims. These same group of investigators have been caught on tape offering to pay people to sue me and my firm. This is just another attempt to intimidate and bully this poor woman that we will deal with in due course.”
The blockbuster case against Jay-Z, filed in December, claimed that he and Sean “Diddy” Combs drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. It represented a shocking expansion of the already-sprawling claims against Combs and came amid speculation that other stars might be implicated in Diddy’s alleged decades of abusive behavior.
Jay-Z forcefully denied the allegations, calling them a “blackmail attempt.” He accused Buzbee of trying to extort settlements from innocent celebrities by falsely tying them to Diddy and vowed to fight back and never pay his accuser.
Last month, Doe abruptly dropped the case — without explanation and without any kind of payment from Jay-Z. Though he celebrated it as a “victory,” the star hinted he would seek to further clear his name: “When they quickly realize that the money grab is going to fail, they get to walk away with no repercussions. The system has failed.”
In filing Monday’s lawsuit, attorneys for the star are essentially seeking to impose those kinds of repercussions. They accuse Doe and Buzbee of counts of malicious prosecution, abuse of process and civil conspiracy, claiming they teamed up to abuse the court system to “assassinate the impeccable and lifetime-earned character of Shawn Corey Carter” in an effort to score a payday.
“Defendants devised and executed their plan to accuse Mr. Carter of sexual assault and used national news and media outlets to disseminate the fabricated accusations to millions despite the falsity of the accusation,” his lawyers write. “Defendants’ actions were willful and purposeful in order to maximize the reputational harm to Mr. Carter and induce Mr. Carter to pay them.”
The new lawsuit is most notable in that it claims the accuser herself has admitted the allegations against Jay-Z are false. A headline-grabbing interview with NBC News exposed serious inconsistencies in her story, and Jay-Z’s team repeatedly argued the lawsuit was frivolous. But in Monday’s complaint, his attorneys now say Doe herself has confirmed to them that the bombshell charge was not true.
“Doe has now voluntarily admitted directly to representatives of Mr. Carter that the story brought before the world in court and on global television was just that: a false, malicious story,” the lawsuit says. “She has admitted that Mr. Carter did not assault her; and that indeed it was Buzbee himself … who pushed her to go forward with the false narrative of the assault by Mr. Carter in order to leverage a maximum payday.”
It’s unclear from the complaint when exactly Doe made such admissions to Jay-Z’s representatives or in what context. Reps for his attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment.
In addition to focusing on the old lawsuit, Jay-Z’s lawyers also say the star is now facing new “extortionate threats” from Buzbee. They claim Doe’s attorneys warned them last week that if they reveal Doe’s statements admitting her story was false, they’ll issue a press release claiming she’s been “harassed” by Jay-Z’s team and that she “dropped the lawsuit only because she was afraid for her life.”
“Thus, the threats of extortion and further defamation continue to this day, necessitating that Mr. Carter take action to prevent unscrupulous actors from further preying on him,” his attorneys write.
The new case isn’t the first time Jay-Z has gone on the legal counteroffensive. Weeks before the headline-grabbing rape case was filed against him in December, attorneys for the star secretly filed a preemptive lawsuit under a John Doe pseudonym accusing Buzbee of extortion and defamation. Jay-Z’s role as the mystery plaintiff in that case was later revealed after Doe filed her rape lawsuit.
At a hearing in that case last week, a Los Angeles judge said he would likely dismiss the star’s extortion claims against Buzbee but that he would likely allow the defamation claims against the lawyer to proceed toward trial.
Liam Payne‘s family issued a strongly worded statement on Sunday (March 2) expressing their distress and disappointment at the way the press had reported on the circumstances of the late One Direction singer and solo star’s death last year.
“Liam’s death was an unspeakable tragedy. This is a time of tremendous grief and pain for those who knew and loved him,” read the statement, according to BBC News. “Liam ought to have had a long life ahead of him. Instead, [the singer’s son] Bear has lost his father, Geoff and Karen have lost their son, Ruth and Nicola have lost their brother and all of Liam’s friends and fans have lost someone they held very dear.”
The family added that they understand that the investigation into Payne’s death was “absolutely necessary, and the family recognises the work done by the Argentinian authorities. However, the family accepts the Court of Appeal’s decision to drop all charges. The constant media attention and speculation which has accompanied the process has exacted indescribable, lasting damage on the family, particularly on Liam’s son who is trying to process emotions which no seven-year-old should have to experience.”
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Their comments came just a few weeks after a court in Argentina dropped charges of criminal negligence against three of the five people indicted in connection with the singer’s passing after a fall from a third-story balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina last October. The court’s ruling cleared Esteban Grassi, head receptionist at the CasaSur Hotel, Rogelio Nores, an Argentine-American businessman and friend of the singer who accompanied Payne on the trip, and Gilda Martin, the hotel’s manager. Two other men, Ezequiel Pereyra and Braian Paiz, are still facing charges for allegedly supplying drugs to Payne on the night he died.
It was Grassi who made two emergency calls prior to the accident, first reporting that a guest was “trashing the entire room” and later expressing concerns that the guest “may be in danger.” A report from Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 14 released last month showed that an autopsy found that Payne, 31, had “alcohol concentrations of up to 2.7 grams per liter in blood” at the time of his death, or a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.27%, which is more than three times the U.S. driving limit and just below a level that is considered life-threatening.
The Argentinian report said that in addition to the dangerous BAC, the autopsy revealed that Payne had cocaine metabolites and the medication sertraline (Zoloft) in his system before he died of what has been described as “multiple trauma and internal and external bleeding” from the 40-foot fall at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel.
In their statement, the family also wrote that they always wished “for privacy to grieve and asks that they be given the space and time to do so… Liam, you are so loved and missed.” The singer’s kin also gave thanks for a touching tribute paid to Payne at Saturday’s Brit Awards, led by his friend Jack Whitehall.
“He achieved so much in the short time that he was on this earth, and was not only a supremely gifted musician but an incredibly kind soul who touched the lives of everyone he came into contact with,” the comedian said before the screen filled with soundbites, portraits and performance video of Payne set to 1D’s “Little Things.”
“We joined in that celebration of his life and will forever remember the joy that his music brought to the world,” the Payne family wrote. Payne was buried in November in the U.K., with his funeral attended by all his former One Direction bandmates, girlfriend Katie Cassidy, and ex-partner Cheryl Cole, with whom he shared son Bear.
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