Mel B claims she was drugged by her estranged husband throughout most
of their 10-year marriage, their bitter divorce battle has heard.
The former Spice Girl, real name Melanie Brown, has accused Stephen
Belafonte of domestic violence as they undergo an acrimonious split in
court in Los Angeles.
And in the latest development, Los Angeles Superior Court was told on Wednesday that she now claims he drugged her too.
One of Belafonte's lawyers, Philip Cohen, said: "Miss Brown now takes
the position she was drugged by Mr Belafonte throughout the course of
the marriage."
Mel B and Stephen Belafonte are currently locked in a divorce battle (Image: PA)
Mel B and Stephen Belafonte are divorcing after 10 years of marriage (Image: Getty) The America's Got Talent judge, made the allegation that
she was drugged throughout "much to most" of the relationship during a
recent deposition, Mr Cohen added.
Belafonte, also 42, is accused of tormenting Melanie with years of mental and physical abuse.
So far the preliminary hearings ahead of their full divorce trial have heard a series of damaging allegations.
Belafonte has claimed the singer has suffered from cocaine and alcohol
addiction, saying they were a "major issue" in their marriage.
Mel appeared as a judge on America's Got Talent (Image: NBCUniversal)
It has also been said that Melanie led an "extravagant"
lifestyle and had "wiped out" her 50 million dollar (£39 million) Spice
Girls fortune.
The couple married in Las Vegas in June 2007.
She filed for divorce on March 20, citing "irreconcilable differences" and detailing allegations of domestic abuse.
Belafonte's lawyers previously dismissed her claims as "nothing more than a smear campaign". A trial on the domestic violence allegations has been delayed and will now begin on November 6 ahead of the full divorce case.
Culled from Mirror
Friday, 20 October 2017
Lupita Nyong'o claims Harvey Weinstein 'tried to remove his pants after offering massage while his kids were in house'
The actress has described a number of encounters with the producer when she was just starting out in Hollywood
Lupita Nyong'o is the latest actress to come forward to describe her encounters with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Writing in an op-ed in the New York Times,
she alleged that not only did Weinstein attempt to ply her with alcohol
when she met with him at a restaurant, but after they moved the meeting
to his home to watch a film screening, tried to give her a massage.
At a later meeting, the 34-year-old Oscar-winning actress claimed Weinstein, 65, propositioned her in a hotel restaurant.
According
to Nyong'o, she met with Weinstein for the second time - after having
initially met him in 2011 at an awards ceremony in Berlin while she was
still in school at Yale - when he asked her to attend a screening at his
home after sharing lunch at a restaurant.
When she arrived at
the restaurant in Westport, Connecticut, close to where Weinstein lived,
Nyong'o told of how he ordered her a vodka soda and insisted that she
drink it, despite her protests.
The actress has opened up about her experience with Weinstein (Image: AFP) After finishing their meal, she and Weinstein relocated to
his home, where Nyong'o was introduced to his domestic staff and
children.
Nyong'o wrote that she, Weinstein, and his children all
began watching the film together. About 15 minutes into the film,
however, Weinstein asked her to accompany him outside the room.
"I
protested that I wanted to finish the film first, but he insisted I go
with him, laying down the law as though I too was one of his children. I
did not want another back-and-forth in front of his kids, so I complied
and left the room with him. I explained that I really wanted to see the
film. He said we'd go back shortly.
(Image: Splash News) "Harvey led me into a bedroom - his bedroom - and announced
that he wanted to give me a massage. I thought he was joking at first.
He was not. For the first time since I met him, I felt unsafe. I
panicked a little and thought quickly to offer to give him one instead:
It would allow me to be in control physically, to know exactly where his
hands were at all times."
Nyong'o alleged that after he removed his shirt and she began giving him a massage, he asked if he could remove his pants.
She said she would prefer that he didn't and that it would make her extremely uncomfortable if he did so.
Despite her protests, Weinstein allegedly got up to remove them, at which point the actress moved toward the door.
Emma Watson, Margot Robbie and Lupita at last year's Met Gala (Image: REX) "I opened the door and stood by the frame. He put his shirt on and again mentioned how stubborn I was," she wrote.
"I
agreed with an easy laugh, trying to get myself out of the situation
safely. I was after all on his premises, and the members of his
household, the potential witnesses, were all (strategically, it seems to
me now) in a soundproof room."
Nyong'o wrote that she "didn't quite know" how to process the massage incident, and rationalised it.
His wife, Georgina Chapman, announced she was leaving him after the allegations surfaced (Image: REX/Shutterstock) "I reasoned that it had been inappropriate and
uncalled-for, but not overtly sexual. I was entering into a business
where the intimate is often professional and so the lines are blurred."
Nyong'o
continued that after the encounter she met up with Weinstein once more,
this time accompanied by friends as well as some of Weinstein's
colleagues, for dinner and a staged reading of his new Broadway show
Finding Neverland.
Harvey Weinstein has seen his empire collapse following allegations made against him (Image: REX/Shutterstock) During this meeting, Nyong'o experienced no untoward
attention, and the fact that Weinstein was accompanied by other female
actresses made her even more inclined to brush off the previous incident
as an awkward encounter.
A couple of months later, Nyong'o wrote, Weinstein invited her to have drinks with him after a screening of W.E.
According
to the actress, a male assistant arranged her transportation from the
reading to the Tribeca Grill, where she would meet Weinstein for drinks.
Weinstein, 65, meteorically
fell from grace after the claims were made public and has had ties
severed with his own firm, The Weinstein Company (Image: REUTERS) Although she assumed it would be a group of people, as it
had been for the reading, when she arrived at the restaurant, she was
informed by a female assistant that it would just be her and Weinstein.
The assistant waited with her until Weinstein appeared, at which time she left.
She
alleges that before their starters arrived he suggested that they go
upstairs to where he had a private room to have their rest of their
dinner.
"I told him I preferred to eat in the restaurant. He told
me not to be so naive. If I wanted to be an actress, then I had to be
willing to do this sort of thing. He said he had dated Famous Actress X
and Y and look where that had gotten them."
Lupita Nyong'o at the Queen of Katwe film premiere in Los Angeles (Image: Rex Features) The actress declined his offer and they left the restaurant and she went to get into a taxi.
"Before
I got in, I needed to make sure that I had not awakened a beast that
would go on to ruin my name and destroy my chances in the business even
before I got there," she wrote. "'I just want to know that we are good,'
I said. 'I don't know about your career, but you'll be fine,' he said.
It felt like both a threat and a reassurance at the same time; of what, I
couldn't be sure."
(Image: REX/Shutterstock) The next time she saw him was in 2013 at an after-party for
the premiere of 12 Years a Slave. Weinstein found her and commended her
for her rapid progress in the industry.
She alleges that he apologised for the way he had treated her in the past and he promised to respect her moving forward.
The actress thanked him, but says she made a promise to herself never to work with Weinstein.
Nyong'o
finished by explaining that she had no idea at the time that this
behaviour from Weinstein was something other women were dealing with as
well.
Nyong'o finished by
explaining that she had no idea at the time that this behavior from
Weinstein was something other women were dealing with as well (Image: Rex Features) The fact that he was one of the first people she'd met in
the industry also prevented her from coming forward sooner, and the fact
that no one else seemed to be challenging him.
In a statement to E! News, a spokesperson responded to the star's op-ed piece.
"Mr.
Weinstein has a different recollection of the events, but believes
Lupita is a brilliant actress and a major force for the industry.
He has "unequivocally denied" allegations of non-consensual sex through his spokeswoman (Image: AFP) "Last year, she sent a personal invitation to Mr. Weinstein to see her in her Broadway show Eclipsed."
A
number of actresses have come forward in recent weeks to accuse
Weinstein of sexual harassment, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Lena Headey,
Angelina Jolie, Cara Delevingne, Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd.
Weinstein
meteorically fell from grace after the claims were made public and has
had ties severed with his own firm, The Weinstein Company.
He has "unequivocally denied" allegations of non-consensual sex through his spokeswoman.
Police in London, Los Angeles and New York are investigating the 65-year-old.
Mirror
Wednesday, 18 October 2017
Senate under pressure to drop probe of $25b NNPC contracts
• Shifts takeoff of investigation
• Urges Buhari to split Fashola’s ministry
• Lawmakers summon Fayemi over lead poisoning in Zamfara State
The Senate has postponed the commencement of its planned
investigation into the alleged award of $25 billion worth of contracts
in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).Following the
allegation of abuse of due process made by the Minister of State for
Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, against the NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr.
Maikanti Baru, the Senate resolved to investigate the matter.
The upper chamber also resolved to investigate Baru over alleged
insubordination and abuse of office as contained in the leaked
Kachikwu’s letter to President Muhammadu Buhari.Deputy Senate President,
Ike Ekweremadu, who announced the postponement during yesterday’s
plenary session, said that the investigation would commence next
Tuesday.
The investigative panel headed by former Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu
Wamakko, ought to have started work yesterday.Ekweremadu, who presided
over the plenary, did not give any reason for the sudden postponement.
It was, however, learnt that pressure was being mounted on the Senate
leadership from many powerful quarters to abandon the probe.
When Senate President Bukola Saraki constituted the ad-hoc panel last
week, following a resolution of the Senate and public outcry over the
award of the alleged contracts, the committee was given four weeks to
submit its report.A source said that an earlier meeting scheduled last
week by the panel chairman, Wammako, was also called off at the last
minute for undisclosed reasons.
Wamakko is yet to address the press about the modalities his
committee would adopt in conducting the investigation.After the Senate
announced its decision to probe the alleged contracts, the presidency
came out to deny their existence.Already, an Abuja-based lawyer,
Johnmary Chukwukasi Jideobi, has asked a Federal High Court sitting in
Abuja to restrain the Senate from inviting Baru over the allegation.
In his suit, Jideobi asked the court to set aside the October 4, 2017
proceedings of the Senate on the ground that its planned investigation
was based on the contents of an unconfirmed document of doubtful origin.
According to the originating summons, the counsel to the plaintiff,
Ramsey Abuchi Omego, wants the court to determine “whether in view of
combined reading of Sections 5 and 88 (2) (a) and (b) of the amended
1999 Constitution, the investigative power of the Senate is extendable
to the contents of documents with unconfirmed, doubtful origin forming
the basis of a probe into the activities of Baru in his management of
the NNPC.”
The plaintiff is also seeking an order declaring the October 4, 2017
resolutions of the Senate as illegal and therefore liable to be set
aside.The plaintiff has also asked the court to issue an order
restraining the Senate from acting on the votes and proceedings of
October 4, 2017.The defendants in the suit include the NNPC, Baru,
Saraki and the Senate.
Also yesterday, the Senate urged President Muhammadu Buhari to
appoint a separate minister to take care of power to facilitate higher
performance in the sector.
Former Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fasola, has been the minister in
charge of Works, Power and Housing since the inception of the Buhari
administration in 2015.
Adopting a motion sponsored by Senator Mustapha Bukar (APC-Katsina)
on the “Need to Establish and Delegate Special Purpose Vehicles to
Execute and Operate Major Power Sector Development Projects”, the Senate
sought the immediate incorporation of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs)
for the implementation of alternative energy projects. It equally sought
the use of gas as the source of energy for the Kaduna project in
accordance with the original concept.
Defending his motion earlier, Bukar noted that the Federal Government
in 2004 conceived the idea of an integrated power project which
metamorphosed into the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC)
incorporated in 2005.“This was in government’s quest to bridge the
power gap for sustained economic growth in Nigeria by adding significant
new generation capacity to Nigeria’s electricity supply system,” he
said.
He noted that the National Assembly enacted the Electric Power Sector
Reform (EPSR) Act, 2005 on March 11, 2005, which kick-started the
process of privatisation of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry
(NESI).This, he said, was in a bid to develop a Competitive Electricity
Market with the establishment of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory
Commission (NERC). The function of NERC is to provide for the licensing
and regulation of the entire value chain of the Nigerian Electricity
Market (NEM).
“The privatisation became effective on Nov.1, 2013 when the unbundled
Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was sold and transferred to
successful bidders of the six generation companies (GENCOs) and the 11
distribution companies (DISCOs).“The ownership and control of the
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) was retained by the Federal
Government for strategic reasons,” he said.
The lawmaker further said that consequent upon the commencement of
the privatisation and establishment of the NEM, the role of the Federal
Ministry of Power, Works and Housing was restricted.The Chairman, Senate
Committee on Power, Eyinnaya Abaribe, said the committee was already
making moves towards securing greater efficiency for the sector.
“We are working toward ensuring that these concerns that have been
raised by this motion are looked into.“The ministry of power today is
combined with works and housing and the thrust of the ministry is to
give quality direction. But what we find is that the ministry continues
to appropriate these jobs that are specifically meant to be done by
agencies under the ministry,” he said.
Ekweremadu said every talk about growing the economy would not work
unless the power sector was repositioned.The lawmakers summoned the
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, for a briefing on
his plans to protect people in mining communities.They mandated the
Committee on Environment and Solid Minerals to visit affected
communities and ascertain the levels of damage.
The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by
Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central) and four other senators on lead poisoning
in Zamfara State.The chamber further directed the Committee on
Environment to investigate activities of the Ministry of Environment
with regard to the mining sector.
Meanwhile, Fayemi has disclosed significant gains made by the mining
sector, saying improved funding and planning could soon make the
industry break Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil.
