“After a nearly two-week trial in Santa Monica, jurors found Cosby, 88, liable for the sexual battery and assault of Donna Motsinger. They awarded her $17.5 million in past damages and $1.75 million for future damages, … (plus) an additional $40 million in punitive damages,” totaling $59.25 million. - AP
“(Her) memorable film roles included a porn actress abducted by aliens in Slaughterhouse-Five, Lex Luthor’s secretary in two Superman films and an Oscar-nominated performance as the wife of Lenny Bruce in Lenny. (She died) following a 15-year battle with Parkinson’s disease.” - Deadline
Along with his happy student-teacher alliance with Hammerstein, the defining association of Sondheim’s life was his tortured relationship with the mother he described as a “monster,” among harsher words. - The Atlantic
Brendon said that “thousands of people had told him that helped them in hard times. ‘It just got them through, which means that this show is more than just dollars and cents,’ he said. ‘It’s something that needs to be honored.’” - The New York Times
An early profile of Jean Tinguley “defined an approach that informed the dozens of artist profiles he wrote for The New Yorker over the next 62 years … providing the magazine’s readers with a sophisticated guide to often arcane styles and -isms.” - The New York Times
The martial-arts grandmaster starred in more than 20 films, including Return of the Dragon, Missing in Action, and The Delta Force, as well as the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger. - AP
“The Oscar-winning U.S. actor has reached a confidential settlement with three British men who had filed civil lawsuits at London's High Court accusing him of sexual assault between 2000 and 2013. … Two of the claimants gave evidence during Spacey's 2023 criminal trial in London, where he was acquitted of all charges.” - Reuters (Yahoo!)
He wrote more than two dozen novels, from The ICPRESS File (1962) through Billion-Dollar Brain and the trilogies Berlin Game/Mexico Set/London Match (1980s) and Faith/Hope/Charity (1990s). He also wrote historical nonfiction, including a book about JFK’s assassination and Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain. - AP
“It’s a subject I’m anxious to change. I don’t feel symbolic. I feel actual. I feel like I’m a working writer trying to make his work.” The comments come almost four years after the knife attack that wounded his liver, intestines, and right eye. - The Guardian
Habermas "theorized that democracy emerged and could continue to exist in a healthy form only if there was a space that was outside the control of the state, where deliberation and the exchange of ideas could freely occur.” - The New York Times
She won an Olivier in 1979 and a Tony in 1981 for the title role in Piaf; alongside film and television roles — including a starmaking performance as Marie Curie in a BBC miniseries — she had a long career as an admired classical stage actor, in particular with the Royal Shakespeare Co. - The Guardian
“The British street artist’s identity has been debated, and closely guarded, for decades. A quest to solve the riddle took Reuters from a bombed-out Ukrainian village to London and downtown Manhattan — and uncovered much more than a name.” - Reuters
The now-disgraced entertainer is facing a number of lawsuits (one of which began trial this week) in California by women who allege that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them. - The New York Times
“(He) achieved international renown with the 1970 publication of A World for Julius, ... portraying the life of Lima's elite through the eyes of a sensitive and lucid child. The book continues to be studied in universities around the world and marked a before and after in Peruvian literature.” - Euronews
“His working approach was that a literary agent should be a creative and business partner for writers — a relatively novel idea at the time that he launched the agency, in 1973. Writers House now has over 20 agents and 50 employees and represents hundreds of authors,” many of them very prominent indeed. - Publishers Weekly
