

March 26, 2019 - 12:07 pm by Desire Thompson TWITTER
R. Kelly might evade another sexual misconduct trial again thanks to Michael Avenatti's extortion case.
The prosecutor, who has claimed to have multiple tapes of the singer engaging in sexual acts with underage girls, was indicted Monday (March 25) on a wire fraud scheme against Nike. The 48-year-old reportedly threatened to expose the company for paying college basketball players and their families. Avenatti tried to convince Nike to hire him to launch an internal investigation for $15 to $25 million. Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos was also named as a co-conspirator.
The very messy case has allowed R. Kelly's legal team to question how Avenatti retrieved the tapes for his case against the singer. Speaking to TMZ Tuesday (March 26), Kelly's lawyer Steve Greenberg believes Avenatti's credibility is shot. The unidentified man who was handed the tape over to Avenatti reportedly had a history with Kelly–he recently shared with prosecutors how he was paid upwards of a million dollars by Kelly's camp to keep the tape from the public.
Greenberg believes Avenatti might've used unlawful practices to get his hands on the tape. This might mean the troublesome case could be thrown out thanks to Avenatti's behavior.
This hasn't stopped the prosecutor from his battle against Nike. After he was released from police custody Monday, Avenatti took to Twitter to drop names in the alleged Nike funneling scandal and claimed the company orchestrated his arrest as a distraction. “We never attempted to extort Nike & when the evidence is disclosed, the public will learn the truth about Nike’s crime & coverup,” he wrote on Twitter.
Nike said in a statement they have been cooperated with officials in the NCAA investigation for over a year.
Either way, the rights and justices for black girls have been overshadowed by greed and corruption.
This hasn't affected Geragos' latest client Jussie Smollett. It was reported this morning that all charges against the Empire actor in relation to his alleged staged attack have been dropped.
See Twitter reactions from Avenatti's case below.
https://twitter.com/KayCTee/status/1110242132646903808
So uhhh, y'all couldn't tell/didn't realize #MichaelAvenatti was an "ain't sh**" mofo? pic.twitter.com/YsZDptDDYQ
— Ms. Williams (@MsWilliamsWorld) March 25, 2019
And to think--some folks ACTUALLY thought #MichaelAvenatti cared about the young women attached to the R. Kelly case... pic.twitter.com/Q6H2NWxU4x
— Ms. Williams (@MsWilliamsWorld) March 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/Kamino89/status/1110257324449562625
Mark Garagos is scum. He represented Michael Jackson, wife killer Scott Peterson and Cameron Brown, who was accused of killing his 4 y/o daughter by throwing her off a cliff. https://t.co/xUYLU1Pasc
— Nasty Woman (@HandToForehead) March 25, 2019
OPPS
CNN - Having a really bad day
Avenatti - Having a REALLY bad dayNow, Jussie Smollett is having a really bad day.
Mark Garagos co-conspirator w/Michael Avenatti.Garagos works for CNN AND Jussie Smollett.
Celebs are awfully quiet today.
Trump - Having a great day as POTUS https://t.co/s7paMnUFpj— Charlene Worley (@cworley2007) March 25, 2019
Dr. Dre was released from L.A. Cedars Sinai Medical Center on Friday (Jan. 15), nearly two weeks after he suffered a reported brain aneurysm. Ice T confirmed the news tweeting, “Just FaceTimed with @drdre. He just made it home. Safe and looking good.”
The 55-year-old music mogul will remain under 24-hour care for the next few weeks as medical professionals continue to monitor his progress. Doctors are still unclear on what caused the aneurysm.
Dre’s hospital release comes days after new details were revealed in his divorce from estranged wife, Nicole Young. According to court documents publicized this week, Nicole accuses Dre, birth name Andre Young, of putting a gun to her head in 2000 and 2001. She also details other alleged abuse incidents in 1995 (before they were married) and in 2016, when he allegedly punched her in the face and kicked down her door.
The Grammy winner has denied Nicole’s abuse claims.
Nicole and Dre tied the knot in 1996. The pair share two adult children, Truice and Truly. Nicole filed for divorce last summer.
In addition to demanding that Dre cover her legal fees, Nicole wants the court to take the abuse allegations into account when “awarding support and fees.” Dre has already agreed to pay $500,000 of Nicole’s legal bills and $2 million in temporary spousal support.
Cardi B is making her way back to the big screen. The Bronx native officially landed her first leading role in the upcoming Paramount comedy, Assisted Living.
According to Variety, Cardi will play a small time crook struggling to find a hiding place after her latest heist fails. Her character, “Amber,” disguises herself as an elderly woman and hides out at her grandmother's nursing home. The film is described as a “raucous comedy” similar to Mrs. Doubtfire and Sister Act.
Paramount acquired the rights to Assisted Living in 2019. The film’s script was penned by This Is Us writer, Kay Oyegun.
Cardi, 28, made her film debut in the 2019 celeb-heavy stripper flick, Hustlers. The “WAP” rapper appears to have hinted at her Assisted Living role in a recent interview with Billboard where she dished on filming scenes for Fast & Furious 9.
“After ‘Hustlers’ I filmed a little bit for 'Fast & Furious' so I felt like ‘I’m ready for this,’ I knew what to expect,” she explained. “But the characters were a little different so I was like ‘Oh wow, I’m going to need more acting classes.’ I’m planning on doing a movie this year and I’m going to be the lead role so I’m like ‘I need to execute this flawlessly.’”
Besides film, Cardi was a judge on the Netflix completion show, Rhythm & Flow, and landed her own Facebook Watch series, Cardi Tries.
Wendy Williams revealed that she was date raped by ‘80s R&B singer, Sherrick, early in her radio career. The talk show host shared the story with reporters while promoting her Lifetime biopic Wendy Williams: The Movie on Tuesday (Jan. 12).
“He mesmerized me with his twinkling eyes,” she recalled. “He flipped the interview around to where he was interviewing me — I was just gaga over this man and he asked me to go to an album release party with him that night.
“Before the party, I was date raped by him,” said Williams.
Sherrick, born Lamotte Smith, was a member of the group Kagny, whose song is featured on The Last Dragon soundtrack. He signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1987 and scored a marginal hit with the single “Just Call” off his debut self-titled album. Sherrick struggled with sobriety but declared himself “drug-free” before dying of unknown causes in 1999.
Williams says that she was raped in Sherrick’s Washington D.C. hotel room and it, unfortunately, wasn’t her first time being sexually assaulted. The New Jersey native had been date raped in college. “Those types of things happen to girls all the time and they’ve been happening a lot, to a lot of our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and their great-great-grandmothers too.”
From the sounds of it, Sherrick's widow doesn't exactly believe Williams' story. She not only questioned Williams' account but wondered why she waited so long to go public, and why she didn't call police at the time of the incident.
“As I will never minimize or dismiss the horrid actions of sexual assault, I am saddened that Ms. Williams feels the need to publicly make these allegations when the man she is accusing is no longer on this earth to defend himself,” Lynne Conner Smith said in a statement to Page Six. “Our family does not know Ms. Williams and are not aware of any relationship or encounter they may have had.”
The sexual assault will be chronicled in the film, as well as other details from Williams' life -- like her rise to talk show fame, her battle with drug addiction, and marriage to ex-husband Kevin Hunter.
Wendy Williams: The Movie premieres on Lifetime on Jan. 30.