Celebrity

Jury Finds Ed Sheeran Didn’t Copy Marvin Gaye Classic

Published

2 years ago

2023-05-04

NEW YORK – A federal jury in New York determined Thursday that British singer Ed Sheeran did not steal key elements of Marvin Gaye’s classic 1970s song “Let’s Get It On” when he created his hit song “Thinking Out Loud,” prompting Sheeran to joke later that he won’t have to follow through on his threat to quit music.

The emotions of an epic copyright battle that spanned most of the last decade erupted as soon as the seven-person jury announced its verdict after more than two hours of discussion.

Sheeran sighed and buried his face in his hands before embracing his attorney, Ilene Farkas. Sheeran smiled as the jurors filed out of the courtroom and mouthed, “Thank you.”

He then spent nearly ten minutes speaking with plaintiff Kathryn Townsend Gryphon, the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the 1973 soul song with Gaye. They exchanged kisses and smiles.

Sheeran later spoke to media outside the courthouse, repeating his comment during the trial that if he lost the case, he would contemplate stopping songwriting.

“I am very pleased with the outcome of this case, and it appears that I will not have to retire from my day job after all.” But, at the same time, I am extremely frustrated that such baseless claims are even allowed to go to court,” the singer said, reading from a prepared statement.

He also stated that the trial caused him to miss his grandmother’s funeral in Ireland and that he “won’t get that time back.”

Gryphon waited in a hallway with her lawyers before leaving the courthouse, saying she was relieved the trial was over.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” she admitted. “We can become friends.”

She expressed delight that Sheeran approached her shortly after the judgment and had a lengthy conversation.

“It showed me who he was,” Gryphon explained.

She claimed that her copyright complaint was not personal.

“I did everything I could to protect my father’s intellectual property.” “I’m very proud of my father and his work, as well as of myself for doing what I must,” Gryphon concluded.

The verdict came after a two-week trial that included a courtroom performance by Sheeran, who claimed, sometimes furiously, that the trial posed a threat to all musicians who make their music.

Sheeran sat with his legal team throughout the trial, defending himself against Townsend’s heirs’ case. They claimed that “Thinking Out Loud” was too similar to “Let’s Get It On” and thus breached the song’s copyright protection.

At the start of the trial, attorney Ben Crump informed jurors on behalf of the Townsend heirs that Sheeran occasionally performed the two songs together. The jury witnessed a video of Sheeran performing in Switzerland, where he can be heard on stage transitioning between “Let’s Get It On” and “Thinking Out Loud.” Crump claimed it was “smoking gun” evidence he borrowed from the renowned song.

In her closing statement on Wednesday, Farkas stated that Crump’s “smoking gun was shooting blanks.”

She only claimed “basic to the tool kit of all songwriters” and “the scaffolding on which all songwriting is built.”

“They did not imitate it. Not on purpose. Not unintentionally. “Not at all,” Farkas replied.

During his two-day defense testimony, Sheeran repeatedly picked up a guitar resting behind him on the witness stand to demonstrate how he seamlessly creates “mashups” of songs during concerts to “spice it up a bit” for his large crowds.

Under cross-examination, the English pop star’s upbeat demeanor on display during his attorney’s questioning vanished.

“When you write songs, somebody comes after you,” Sheeran said, explaining that others closely followed the case in the industry.

He said he borrowed nothing from “Let’s Get It On” when composing his song.

In their lawsuit, Townsend’s heirs claimed that “Thinking Out Loud” had “striking similarities” and “overt common elements” that made it obvious that it was a knockoff of “Let’s Get It On,” a song that has been featured in numerous films and commercials and received hundreds of millions of streams, spins, and radio plays over the past half-century.

Sheeran’s song, released in 2014, was a smash, earning him a Grammy for Song of the Year.

The defendants in the “Thinking Out Loud” lawsuit included Sheeran’s label, Atlantic Records, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, but the trial focused on Sheeran.

Amy Wadge, his song’s co-writer who was not a defendant, testified on his behalf and hugged Sheeran after the verdict.

Gaye was 44 when he was assassinated by his father while attempting to interfere in a disagreement between his parents. He had been a Motown celebrity since the 1960s, but his songs published in the 1970s elevated him to the status of a generational musical giant.

Townsend, a singer, composer, and lawyer who wrote the 1958 R&B doo-wop classic “For Your Love,” died in 2003. Gryphon, his daughter, said at court that Sheeran was “a great artist with a great future.”

SOURCE – (AP)

Celebrity

Jason Kelce Smashes Football Fan’s Phone

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-11-02

Geoff Brown

Jason Kelce Smashes College Football Fan's Phone

Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce destroyed a Penn State football fan’s phone after the alleged heckler called his brother, Travis Kelce, a fag.

In now-viral footage published on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, Nov. 2, the retired Philadelphia Eagles great was seen accompanied by football fans outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., for the Penn State-Ohio State game.

As the individual capturing the tape lifted a fist to Jason, 36, and called his name for a fist bump, another man nearby hurled the homophobic slur at the retired Philadelphia Eagles star.

Hey, Kelce. How does it feel that your brother is a queer dating Taylor Swift?” the man questioned, referring to Travis, 34, who has been seeing Swift since 2023. Jason turned around seconds later, snatched the man’s phone, and crushed it to the ground.

“Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason,” the original X user who submitted the video remarked. “Wild scene in State College.”

“Kelce how does it feel that your brother is a f****t for dating Taylor Swift?”

Jason Kelce proceeded to slam this kids phone on the ground.

Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason. Wild scene in State College pic.twitter.com/3PEdZXWhSg

— Chives (@jarrett_daveler) November 2, 2024

Additional footage on X shows Jason smashing the phone on asphalt before picking it up and walking away. The phone’s owner, wearing a Penn State hoodie at the time of the incident, was shown in many videos strolling closely behind Jason and recording him before the conflict occurred.

Another footage published on X, which appears to have been filmed after Jason shattered the man’s phone, showed the hooded Penn State supporter trudging through a mob to pick up his phone off the ground.

“Give me my phone, bro,” he seemed to say to Jason.

The NFL alum seized the gadget first, then stood in front of the man and asked, “Who’s the fag now?” Others appeared to interfere.

The incident occurred while Jason was at Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. The Ohio State Buckeyes won Saturday’s game 20-13 over the Penn State Nittany Lions.

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Celebrity

Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-10-30

Kiara Grace

Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.

On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.

“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.

However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.

Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.

White claimed that his publicist emailed Dobrev a forged invitation to the event, which was scheduled to take place at the Golden Swan in New York City.

Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”

He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.

Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.

Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.

According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.

“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.

The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.

SOURCE | CNN

Celebrity

Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-10-30

Geoff Brown

Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," has passed away at 79.

Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.

Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”

Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.

Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.

She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.

In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.

Teri Garr, a comedian

Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”

She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”

Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.

“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.

The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”

Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.

A gift for spontaneous humor

Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.

She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.

Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.

During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.

Source: AP
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