Siya Kakkar, teen TikTok star with 2M followers, died by suicide at 16 years old
Siya Kakkar, a viral sensation with more than 2 million followers on video streaming platform TikTok, has died. She was 16 years old.
Her manager Arjun Sarin confirmed to The Post that Kakkar died by suicide on June 24 at her family’s home in New Delhi, India.
“She was an honest, fun-loving girl and I am shocked with this incident and I will always remember her as a great artist,” Sarin said Friday. “[To find] an artist like her is very rare, so we can only pray that her soul may rest in peace. She will always be in our hearts forever.”
Delhi Police — who reportedly seized Kakkar’s phone for further investigation — told India Today that she had been battling depression under coronavirus lockdown in the days prior to her death.
“Her family is in shock and has requested privacy,” a law enforcement rep told the local news outlet. “No suicide note has been recovered.”
Kakkar’s last TikTok video, posted Wednesday and featuring her signature Bollywood brand of singing and dancing, had garnered over 23 million views as of Friday night.
Sarin said he spoke to Kakkar shortly before her death, and “she was talking normal and like every time she talked to me she was very professional and focused on the work.”
He appealed to “all the media agencies to give time to her family so that God may give strength to them.”
Viral Bhayani, a fashion photographer based in Mumbai, India, also posted about her death on social media: “You go through her videos and you can [see] she was so good in her content, it’s really sad that she chose this path. If you are feeling depressed please don’t do this .”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/06/26/siya-kakkar-teen-tiktok-star-with-1-9-million-followers-dead-at-16/
Photo Credit: newsbreak
‘The Simpsons’ will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters
Fox has released a statement on casting for non-white characters on “The Simpsons.”
“Moving forward, ‘The Simpsons’ will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters,” the network said Friday.
The move comes as several television shows have pulled episodes featuring blackface from their streaming platforms, and amid a nation dealing with controversial depictions of race on TV and film.
On “The Simpsons,” Hank Azaria has been the voice of the black cartoon character Carlton Carlson. He also was known for voicing Apu, a character which has long been criticized for portraying a racist depiction of an Indian person. Azaria announced in 2017 he would no longer voice the character.
Harry Shearer voices the black character Dr. Julius M. Hibbert, one of several characters he voices, including Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy and Kent Brockman.
Fox’s new policy follows announcements several white actors, including Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell, who have agreed to stop voicing characters who are biracial. Mike Henry announced Friday that he would no longer voice the black Cleveland Brown character on Fox’s animated “Family Guy.”
Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection
Headteacher suspended for saying that some teachers were ‘sat at home doing nothing’ during lockdown
When Pauline Wood, a primary school headteacher from Teeside, agreed to be interviewed by her local radio station, she did not intend to be anything other than truthful.
But just two days after her interview, in which she said that some of her teachers were “sat at home doing nothing” during lockdown, she was shocked to learn she had been suspended.
During her appearance on BBC Radio Newcastle earlier this month, Mrs Wood was asked if all teachers had been working hard while schools have been closed.
She replied: “You can’t lump everyone together as if they are all one type…some teachers are coming up with the most imaginative, amazing things…and other people do sit at home doing nothing. I won’t defend those people.”
When asked whether that included teachers at her own school, she said: “Yes, I think it’s time we talked about the elephant in the room in some of this.”
Mrs Wood told the radio show that while “a lot can be done” by headteachers to motivate staff to work, it is a complex situation with “lots of HR rules, regulations, unions and people can say all reasons why they can and can’t work”.
Two days after the interview she was suspended by the chair of governors who told her she had bought the school into disrepute.
Mrs Wood told The Daily Telegraph that she stood by her comments, adding that headteachers around the country will agree with her but feel they have to “kowtow” to the unions and their local council in order to keep their jobs.
“I have broad shoulders, I am not going to lie,” Mrs Wood said. “But the barriers for most heads are too great. There is a lot of pressure to toe the party line and there are lots of heads who think it’s not worth raising their head above the parapet.”
She described how problems with staff began earlier this month, when she asked teachers to come for three days a week rather than two as more vulnerable children took up places at school. “We thought this was a perfectly reasonable request but a small minority of teachers didn’t like it,” she said.
“They started getting in touch with their union who spoke to the council and they bent the ear of the chair of governors who agreed to it.” Mrs Wood said that teachers are “paid to work five days a week and should be acting as role models to children.
“I have always promoted a hard work ethic, a no excuses and no quitting culture,” she said. “I always want to lead by example but this flies in the face of that.
So I am not just going to say nothing”. Mrs Wood, who was due to stand down as head at the end of this academic year, said that her treatment has been a “bitter pill to swallow”. During her 15 years as head at Grange Park Primary, Mrs Wood transformed the school from being rated by Ofsted as “inadequate” to “outstanding”.
The school, which is in a deprived community and has 40 per cent of pupils on free school meals, is one of the best performing in the country for maths and phonics.
Over 100 headteachers from schools around the country have come to visit Grange Park primary in recent years to learn from its approach to boosting attainment among disadvantaged children, and Mrs Wood has been invited to give lectures about how to turn around underperforming schools.
The school’s most recent Ofsted report, from 2011, said that the “relentless” way Mrs Wood and her leadership team “pursue excellence and improvement” has had an “extremely positive impact” on pupils’ results.
Grange Park Primary School declined to comment.
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/headteacher-suspended-saying-teachers-were-201437141.html
Photo Credit: currently.att.yahoo.com
Teen dies after staff at youth center restrained him for throwing a sandwich
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — Three staff members of a Michigan youth center have been charged in the death of a teenager who died while being restrained after throwing a sandwich, Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting announced Wednesday.
Cornelius Fredericks, 16, died May 1, two days after he lost consciousness while being restrained by staff at Lakeside Academy. The Kalamazoo County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed Fredericks’ manner and cause of death was a homicide.
Michael Mosley of Battle Creek, Zachary Solis of Lansing and Heather McLogan of Kalamazoo are charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse.
Mosley and Solis are also accused of restraining Fredericks in a “grossly negligent manner,” Getting said. McLogan is accused of gross negligence for allegedly failing to seek medical care for the teen in a timely manner.
Getting, who called Fredericks’ death a “tragedy beyond description,” said the accused employees are expected to turn themselves in for arraignment but didn’t say when that would happen.
Dr. Ted Brown, who performed the autopsy, said Fredericks had been restrained on the ground, resulting in asphyxia.
“In my opinion, the complications of him being restrained, on the ground in a supine position by multiple people, is ultimately what led to his death,” Brown said.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Lakeside Academy operator Sequel Youth and Family Services said company officials support the decision to bring charges against their former employees, calling Fredericks’ death “tragic and senseless.”
“We will continue to fully cooperate throughout this process to ensure justice is served,” the company said in the statement. “Additionally, we are committed to making the necessary changes to ensure something like this never happens again within our organization.”
Efforts to contact Mosley, Solis and McLogan for comments on the charges filed against them were unsuccessful Wednesday because telephone numbers for the three couldn’t immediately be found.
Sequel said it fired the three workers involved in Fredericks’ death and relieved the executive director of Lakeside Academy of his duties.
Earlier Wednesday, attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who represents Fredericks’ family, called for charges to be filed in the teen’s death. He said the attorney for the Sequel Youth Services of Michigan has refused to provide the Fredericks family the video of the incident that resulted in the teen’s death.
“It is time for the perpetrators to come clean,” Fieger said in a statement.
In a civil lawsuit filed Monday against Lakeside Academy and Sequel Youth and Family Services, the family said the teen screamed “I can’t breathe” as staff members placed their weight on his chest for nearly 10 minutes.
Fredericks went into cardiac arrest April 29. At the time, authorities said he was being restrained by staff after throwing a sandwich.
“The excessive use of restraints and the lack of concern for Cornelius’ life draw an eerily similar comparison to that of George Floyd’s death,” according to the lawsuit, which alleges negligence and says Lakeside staff improperly and wrongfully used restraints on Fredericks.
The lawsuit seeks damages allowed under the Michigan Wrongful Death Act. No financial amount was specified.
Lakeside Academy, a facility for teenagers with behavioral problems, last week lost its contract with the state of Michigan to care for youth in the state’s foster care and juvenile justice systems and its license to operate.
Photo Credit: Jon Marko
Will Smith & Warner Bros Grand-Slammed With Suit Over ‘King Richard’ Film Based On Serena & Venus Williams’ Father’s Life
Will Smith’s movie about the life of Serena Williams and Venus Williams’ fathere may still be shut down from concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, but King Richard certainly is being served in the courts thanks to a potentially multimillion-dollar breach of contract lawsuit.
“This case presents an unfortunate and tawdry situation: the cold and calculating misappropriation and interference with Plaintiffs’ intellectual property,” says the seven-claim complaint from TW3 Entertainment and Power Move Multi Media filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday against Smith’s loan-out company and Warner Bros, among others, over the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed film. “Plaintiffs’ good faith and contractually protected efforts to bring an amazing story into visual art form were met with Defendants’ greed and disregard for Plaintiff’s existing rights.”
Along with the AT&T-owned studio, Bad Boys star Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment, Richard Williams himself, his son and sometimes business partner Chavoita Lesane, and production company Star Thrower Entertainment and its key executives are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs claim in the suit that they bought the rights to Williams’ book for a mere $10,000 three years ago from Lesane, who was involved in an initial draft of a script for the project too. The complaint details that the elder Williams allegedly gave limited power of attorney to Lesane, for “purposes of dealing with film and media rights for his book.” It was in that vein that TW3 and PMMM supposedly picked up rights to the memoir of the father of two of the greatest tennis players of all time for what could be considered nickels on the dollar.
Putting more of a backspin on the situation now, not only do the Neville Johnson-represented TW3 and PMMM want wide-ranging unspecified damages from the big-budget King Richard movie, their court action also seeks “an injunction requiring all profits for any project using the Richard Williams Rights to be placed in trust for Plaintiffs’ benefit.”
“Plaintiffs and Warner Bros. entered into an implied-in-fact contract, based on their
conduct as alleged above, whereby Plaintiffs disclosed ideas and materials regarding the Richard Williams Rights to Defendants for sale, i.e., in consideration for Defendant Warner Bros’ obligation to pay and credit Plaintiffs if Defendant Warner Bros. or any of its affiliated entities used any of those ideas or materials in any motion picture, television program merchandising program, or otherwise,” the jury trial seeking complaint proclaims (read it here).
In the past couple of years, the elder Williams supposedly sold rights to his life to the King Richard filmmakers for $1 million, thereby kneecapping the earlier TW3 and PMMM agreements.
With a shifting cast of characters, the lawsuit is full of dense dealmaking, high-stakes pitch sessions and sit-downs with WB Entertainment EVP and CFO Kim Williams (no relation), plus a mention of a March 2019 Deadline scoop on Star Thrower shopping a King Richard script by Zach Baylin, and the CAA-repped Smith getting onboard. Ultimately, TW3 and PMMM’s complaint boils down to their assertion that they were working on the Richard Williams story before Warner Bros and Overbrook made a deal for a vehicle with Smith in the lead role.
“Defendant Warner Bros. used Plaintiffs’ ideas and materials in King Richard, and such ideas and materials provide substantial value to Defendant,” the complaint goes on to assert amidst claims of a May 2017 agreement for rights to the elder Williams’s 2014 memoir Black and White: The Way I See It and “Plaintiffs’ pre-existing property rights.”
Not only is the thrust that Star Thrower and WB knew TW3 and PMMM owned the rights to Williams’ book and life, but that they even saw the small company’s efforts directly. “However, Defendant has not compensated or credited Plaintiffs for the use of such ideas and materials. Accordingly, Defendant has breached, and continues to breach, its implied-in-fact contract with Plaintiffs,” the suit states in some of the bluntest language to be found in the entire complaint.
“Plaintiffs reasonably expected to be compensated for such use of any of their ideas or materials, and Defendant Warner Bros. voluntarily accepted Plaintiffs’ offer and disclosures, knowing the conditions on which they were made, i.e., that any use of any of Plaintiff’s ideas or materials in any motion picture, television program, merchandising program, or otherwise, whether by Defendant Warner Bros. or any of its affiliates, carried with an obligation to, inter alin, compensate and credit Plaintiffs for such use,” the filing also says.
Warner Bros declined to comment and Overbrook did not responded to request for comment from Deadline on the matter. With that in mind, as King Richard optimistically looks to a 2021 release date, you can be damn sure the heavy-hitter defendants will be launching a response to the plaintiffs, with the near dominance of Serena’s running forehand, in court in time.
Article via YahooNews
9 brands of hand sanitizer may be toxic, FDA warns
Article via CBS
U.S. consumers should not use any of nine brands of possibly toxic hand sanitizer that may contain methanol, or wood alcohol, a substance that’s potentially dangerous when absorbed through the skin or ingested, the Food and Drug Administration warned.
The agency’s alert comes at a time when hand sanitizers are in especially heavy demand due to the coronavirus pandemic that has public health officials urging consumers to frequently wash their hands.
In issuing its warning Friday, the FDA said the Mexico-based manufacturer Eskbiochem SA de CV had rebuffed its request that it remove the “potentially dangerous products” from the U.S. market. Agency tests found samples of one product, Lavar Gel, contained 81% methanol and those of CleanCare No Germ contained 28%.
Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizers and should not be used due to its toxic effects, the FDA stated. The agency urged consumers to stop using the products, which should be immediately discarded in hazardous waste containers.
“Do not flush or pour these products down the drain,” the agency’s announcement stressed.
The FDA is not aware of any reports of adverse effects from using the products, it added. Still, consumers exposed to hand sanitizer containing methanol should seek immediate treatment, which is critical in potentially reversing the toxic effects of methanol poisoning, according to the FDA.
Substantial methanol exposure can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death, it said.
Young children who accidentally ingest these products and adolescents and adults who drink them as an alcohol (ethanol) substitute, are most at risk for methanol poisoning, the FDA said.
The FDA listed the following products in its warning:
- All-Clean Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-002-01)
- Esk Biochem Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-007-01)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-008-04)
- Lavar 70 Gel Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-006-01)
- The Good Gel Antibacterial Gel Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-010-10)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-005-03)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-009-01)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-003-01)
- Saniderm Advanced Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-001-01)
Camila Mendes: ‘Riverdale’ sexual assault claims damage the #MeToo movement
Camila Mendes is defending her recently-accused-of-sexual-assault “Riverdale” co-stars.
“Someone saying to me that somebody would do such a thing to prove a point? It seems so trivial,” Mendes said on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” Tuesday.
“You really went to that extent? To damage not only the integrity of the #MeToo movement, but to potentially damage the careers of these people and their lives? To do that in order to make a point about how easily people believe things, it’s so backwards to me.”
Mendes also defended her colleagues Monday via Instagram.
“It’s incredibly destructive to falsely accuse people of sexual assault,” Mendes shared. “Whatever point this person was trying to make about how quickly people believe what they read, it was not worth damaging the integrity of the me too movement.”
The CW star continued, “It’s sickening and doesn’t prove anything except that there are twisted people in this world who have no concern for the consequences of their harmful actions.”
“Riverdale” co-stars Lili Reinhart, Cole Sprouse and KJ Apa have all faced sexual assault allegations from anonymous people on social media. Sunday, a woman named Victoria claimed on Twitter that Sprouse “became aggressive” in his room after a party at his NYU dorm. Another woman came forward Monday to accuse Reinhart of groping her while taking a fan photo together.
“It invalidates the men and women who are brave enough to come forward with the truth,” Reinhart, 23, tweeted in response to the accusations. “This kind of lie can ruin lives and careers — and I can call it a lie because the person who made the allegations already admitted that the stories were fabricated.”
The “Hustlers” actress also retweeted one of Sprouse’s tweets stating the cast and their teams were investigating the source of the false claims, adding, “I have always taken sexual assault allegations seriously. But it was proven that this account was created specifically to create false stories about me and my cast. I can’t think of something more twisted than lying about sexual assault.”
Article via PageSix
Extraction | Official Trailer
Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is a fearless black market mercenary who embarks on the deadliest mission of his career when he’s enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son of an international crime lord. Directed by Sam Hargrave, this action-packed, edge-of-your-seat thriller is produced by Joe and Anthony Russo, the visionary directors of Avengers: Endgame.
Tina Fey requests “30 Rock” episodes with blackface be removed from streaming platforms
Tina Fey asked streaming platforms to remove episodes of “30 Rock” that included blackface and her request is being honored, according to Vulture. Four episodes of the hit NBC show are being removed from Hulu and Amazon Prime and are no longer available for purchase on iTunes and Google Plus.
The change comes after Fey, the show’s star and executive producer, sent a note to distribution partners asking them to remove episodes that include the offensive “race-changing,” makeup, Vulture reported. The episodes will also no longer air on TV.
“As we strive to do the work and do better in regards to race in America, we believe that these episodes featuring actors in race-changing makeup are best taken out of circulation,” Fey wrote. “I understand now that ‘intent’ is not a free pass for white people to use these images. I apologize for pain they have caused. Going forward, no comedy-loving kid needs to stumble on these tropes and be stung by their ugliness. I thank NBCUniversal for honoring this request.”
“30 Rock” aired from 2006 to 2013. The historically racist blackface makeup was worn by Jane Krakowski’s character, Jenna, in two episodes, Vulture reports. Reddit users noticed that these episodes, which were part of seasons three and five, were removed at least a week ago.
Two additional episodes will also be removed, according to Vulture. The show’s live episode from season six, which features guest star Jon Hamm in blackface, will no longer be available. Another live episode from season five will also be removed. However, only the East Coast version is being pulled. The West Coast version will remain, says Vulture.
The decisions come after HBO Max temporarily removed “Gone with the Wind” amid outcries over the film’s dated depictions of slavery and racism, according to multiple reports. That decision followed the publication of an op-ed by “12 Years a Slave” screenwriter John Ridley in the Los Angeles Times. Ridley said “Gone with the Wind” not only falls short with regard to representation. “It is a film that glorifies the Antebellum South,” he said.
A spokesperson for HBO Max said the film will eventually return to their streaming catalog, along with additional content that would contextualize the controversial historical depictions and elements of the story.
Article via CBS