The Theory of Everything actor Eddie Redmayne is celebrating more than his Best-Actor nominations for a host of film awards – he is also a newly-wed. A spokeswoman for the actor said he married his girlfriend, Hannah Bagshawe, during a private ceremony attended by a small number of close family and friends on Monday in England. Redmayne, 32, has been generating big awards buzz for his performance as scientist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and has already garnered nominations from the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. His other film credits include roles in Les Misérables and My Week With Marilyn. – AP
Malick and Branagh top the bill AT Berlin
New films from Terrence Malick, Kenneth Branagh and Peter Greenaway are among the first movies announced for the Berlin International Film Festival in February. Organisers said that Malick's Knight of Cups, a film about the perils of fame starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman, will have its world debut in the event's competition. Malick won the festival's prestigious Golden Bear top prize for The Thin Red Line in 1999. Branagh will show his retelling of the Cinderella story, featuring Blanchett, Lily James and Helena Bonham Carter. Fellow British director Greenaway will bring Eisenstein in Guanajuato to the festival, the story of the Russian director of Battleship Potemkin's exile in Mexico. Other entries include the directorial debut from Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante, Ixcanul Volcano, along with films from Andreas Dresen, As We Were Dreaming, and Britain's Andrew Haigh, 45 Years. The Berlin event, which runs from February 5 to 15, is the first of the year's major European film festivals. American director Darren Aronofsky will head the jury for the Golden Bear and other prizes. – AP & AFP
Grammys to honour Stevie Wonder
The Grammys will pay tribute to Stevie Wonder with a special concert after the music industry’s annual awards night. A two-hour show in the 64-year-old Motown legend’s honour will be recorded on February 10 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, two days after the awards, and broadcast on CBS television in the US, on February 16. – AFP
Cosby’s wife speaks out on sex-assault claims
Bill Cosby’s wife has spoken out to reject the sex-assault allegations against her husband of 50 years, saying the man accused by at least 15 women of drugging and having sex with them is “a man I do not know.” Camille Cosby dismissed the accusations, which date back as far as the late 1960s, suggesting that her husband, not the women, was the party being harmed.
“None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim,” she said. “But the question should be asked – who is the victim?”
Cosby is being sued for defamation by one alleged victim and for sexual battery by another woman who says he forced her to perform a sex act when she was 15. He has never been charged in connection with any of the accusations, and his lawyers deny many of the allegations. He settled with a Pennsylvania woman who in a 2005 lawsuit said Cosby drugged and molested her in 2004.
A new round of claims of sexual assault and rape began in November – accusations Camille Cosby said haven't been properly vetted by the media. She likened the media's handling of the accusations to a Rolling Stone article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia that later proved to be untrue, saying her husband's accusers have been "given a pass" by the media.
"The [Rolling Stone] story was heartbreaking, but ultimately appears to be proved to be untrue," she said. "Many in the media were quick to link that story to stories about my husband – until that story unwound."
Noting that she married Cosby in 1964, a year after they met, she said, “The man I met, and fell in love with, and whom I continue to love, is the man you all knew through his work. He is a kind man, a generous man, a funny man, and a wonderful husband, father and friend. He is the man you thought you knew.”
Earlier, Spelman College in Atlanta, a historically black institution, announced it was suspending its endowed professorship with Cosby.
While many of the allegations against Cosby are blocked from court by statutes of limitations, a Southern California woman has sued the comedian, claiming he molested her at the Playboy Mansion about 1974 when she was 15 years old.
A lawyer for the woman, Judy Huth, wrote in a court filing at the weekend that he has interviewed two witnesses who corroborate her story. Attorney Marc Strecker also says he has photographs of Huth and Cosby that were shot at the Playboy Mansion when she was underage.
Cosby’s attorneys are seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that Huth’s efforts to sell her story to a tabloid 10 years ago undercut her claim that she only recently discovered the psychological damage she contends Cosby caused. – AP
