celebrity news

A California woman claims she had an eight-year affair with actor-director Woody Allen that began when she was 16 and he was 41, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Christina Engelhardt told the magazine in an interview published Monday that the affair began in October 1976 after the two met at Elaine’s, a New York City restaurant.

Engelhardt said Allen did not make the first move. She wrote her telephone number on a napkin, noting that “Since you’ve signed enough autographs, here’s mine.”

Engelhardt, 59, told the Reporter that while Allen never asked her age, she told the actor she was still in high school in New Jersey and was pursuing a modeling career in Manhattan.

Within weeks, she said, the pair had become physically intimate at his Manhattan apartment. The legal age for sexual consent in New York is 17, and Engelhardt did not turn 17 until Dec, 4, 1976.

""What made me speak is I thought I could provide a perspective. I'm not attacking Woody," Engelhardt told the Reporter. "This is not 'bring down this man.' I'm talking about my love story. This made me who I am. I have no regrets."

Four years into their affair, Engelhardt said, Allen introduced her to his girlfriend, Mia Farrow. Engelhardt said she was taken aback, believing she was Allen’s girlfriend.

"I felt sick. I didn't want to be there at all, and yet I couldn't find the courage to get up and leave,” Engelhardt wrote in an unpublished manuscript she shared with the magazine. “To leave would mean an end to all of this.”

Representatives for Allen, 83, and Farrow, 73, have not commented on Engelhardt’s claims, E!News reported.

Allen has been accused of sexual assault and abuse by his daughter, Dylan Farrow, E!News reported. Allen has denied all allegations and has never been charged.

Allen’s current wife, Soon-Yi Previn, is the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are planning a tour of the U.S. and Canada next year after the couple’s first child is born.

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The Duchess of Sussex, 37, who was born and raised in Los Angeles and worked in Canada where she met Harry, is due in April.

Royal expert Katie Nicoll told Entertainment Tonight that royal couple is in the “very early” stages of planning a tour for the fall of 2019.

Meghan and Harry traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga in October for their first official tour as a royal couple.

>> Related: Michelle Obama to Meghan Markle on public pressures: maximize your impact

They were married in a lavish, televised ceremony before hundreds of international guests last spring at Windsor Castle, where the two are planning to settle down after a renovation of a home on the castle’s extensive grounds.

Surfing legend Kelly Slater pulled off a miraculous recovery Sunday during a pipeline wipeout in Hawaii.

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Kelly, 47, an 11-time former world champion surfer, appeared to fall off his board inside a barrel wave at the Pipeline Masters in Oahu, and what happened next will go down as surfing legend.

He somehow managed to roll back onto his board inside the pipeline and jumped back into a standing position before shooting out of the barrel.

The recovery didn’t help Slater in the semifinals.

Gabriel Medina placed first, followed by Julian Wilson, according to the World Surf League’s website.

Atlanta rapper T.I. has accepted a plea deal on charges stemming from an incident in May outside of his gated community, his attorney said.

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The rapper’s attorney, Steve Sadow, told AJC.com that T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., maintained his innocence on all charges, but entered a no contest plea for a county ordinance violation for cursing in a public place to “put this matter to bed.” 

T.I. also paid a $300 fine Thursday, but all other charges against his client have been dropped, Sadow said.

On May 16, the rapper was arrested after returning to his gated Eagle’s Landing community without his keys, AJC.com previously reported.

>> Related: ‘You work for me’: 911 call released in rapper T.I.’s arrest

Security guard Euwan James wouldn’t let him in at first, but he eventually complied, allowing T.I. to go home. The rapper then returned to get the name of the guard’s supervisor, which is when things allegedly got heated.

A Henry County police report said T.I. was intoxicated and began to confront James using “vulgar, profane, loud and unbecoming language.” The profane language, which involved T.I. asking James to leave his guard shack to confront him, led to three counts of disorderly conduct.

>> Related: Police report details events leading to T.I.’s arrest outside gated community

He allegedly told James, “Nobody will get you out of this” and “you have to look me in the eyes as a man,” according to charging documents.

A simple assault charge was previously dropped when the rapper’s accusation was amended on Oct. 16, court documents showed. At that point, he still faced charges of public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

>> Related: ‘Baseless, ill-founded and unjustified’: T.I.’s attorney responds to Henry County accusation

When T.I. was formally charged in September, Sadow said the accusations were “baseless, ill-founded and unjustified.” He pointed to the fact that the guard was eventually fired by his security company for what Sadow said was “the way he handled the situation with T.I.”

“Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks” star William “Willbilly” Hathaway died in a car crash Saturday afternoon in Salisbury, Maryland, according to the state police.

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Hathaway, 36, called his wife right after the accident and told her another driver made a sudden turn in front of him forcing him into a ditch, but that he was OK, according to WBOC-TV, but by the time EMS arrived Hathaway was not breathing. He was pronounced dead at a local medical center.

Investigators told WBOC the airbags in Hathaway’s Toyota pickup had not deployed.

The fishing community in Ocean City, which Hathaway was part of, released a statement on his death in a Facebook post.

"He was an exceptional human being whose passion was the sea. He always brightened the day of anyone he met," the statement said.

The group is raising money for Hathaway’s wife, Mary Malone Hathaway, and the couple’s daughter, Molly Jean.

>> Related: ‘Wicked Tuna’ reality star Nicholas ‘Duffy’ Fudge dies unexpectedly at 28

Hathaway’s “Wicked Tuna” co-star Nicholas “Duffy” Fudge, 28, also died this year, unexpectedly over the summer. 

The Super Bowl halftime has given us teasing glimpses of Prince and Beyonce and Springsteen. With such talent on hand, why, oh, why do they have to even play a second half of football? Certainly, that is a question the Falcons have asked themselves more than once.

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Less than six weeks out from the Atlanta Super Bowl, this now-epic intermission is reportedly on the ropes. A story in Variety has labeled this halftime show “Music’s Least Wanted Gig,” because everything, even something more essentially frivolous than a football game - a football game’s bathroom break - must be politicized.

To quote from the Variety report: “Who would have thought that the Super Bowl halftime show, an American institution watched by more than 100 million people, would become the least wanted gig in music? But thanks to the ongoing controversy concerning the NFL’s stance on a player’s right to protest, brought to the forefront by football’s top conscientious objector Colin Kaepernick, Maroon 5 learning the precarious stance that the performance represents.”

While no performer has yet been officially announced for halftime at Mercedes-Benz on Feb. 3 – it’s getting rather late, don’t you think – Maroon 5 is believed to be a headliner. But the band has found that no one wants to join it on stage, having been turned down by at least half-dozen top acts, according to Variety.

>> Trending: Miss Universe 2018: Philippines’ Catriona Gray wins crown in Thailand

The entertainment community has joined arms, taken a knee and vowed not to perform for the evil NFL in support of Kaepernick and his rights to be employed even if no team wants to employ him. The nation’s leading sports league and its grandest sports event have become as toxic to the beautiful and the talented as red meat and carbon. 

Rihanna supposedly has passed on Atlanta. And she has appeared in the United Arab Emirates, whose human-rights record apparently is cleaner than that of today’s NFL. 

Comedian Amy Schumer has taken to social media to implore Adam Levine and the rest of Maroon 5 to skip this halftime, too. She has vowed to appear in no commercial that would air during the game – and who could forget her 2016 Bud Light ad, considered the “Citizen Kane” of 30-second beer spots? We will all be left a little poorer by her absence. 

If this situation can’t be resolved, what choice is there but to cancel the game?

What’s the point of playing a Super Bowl, if there is no decent halftime? Why that would be like trying to enjoy a fine meal without the soup course.

OK, honestly, there are a couple other choices.

First, you can never go wrong with a Frisbee-catching dog at halftime. They can all be replaced by one spunky Jack Russell terrier and an owner with a decent arm.

>> Trending: Bankrupt Sears to pay $25.3 million in bonuses to executives

A good college band, or even a couple guys wearing rocket packs (that was part of halftime for Super Bowl I) are never bad fallbacks. 

Or, secondly, the viewing public can make its own bold statement this Super Bowl, and finally rise up as one and go to the can and grab another beer, as was always the intended purpose of halftime. 

The Philippines’ Catriona Gray beat out contestants from 93 countries to win the 67th annual Miss Universe pageant Sunday night in Bangkok, Thailand. 

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Gray bested first runner-up South Africa’s Tamaryn Green and Sthefany Gutierrez of Venezuela, who rounded out the top three.

>> PHOTOS: Miss Philippines Catriona Gray wins Miss Universe 2018

She succeeds Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of South Africa who took home the crown last year.

>> Who is Catriona Gray, Miss Universe 2018?

Comedian and talk show host Steve Harvey returned to host the contest and did not misread the winner’s name as he did in 2015, although Miss Costa Rica, a TV host, too, joked about the infamous mix-up, according to PhilStar Global.

Harvey asked her if she had any professional advice for him 

and she joked, “If they ever give you, like, a really, really, really important envelope, try to read it carefully, OK?”

The pageant was judged this year by seven women, including business women and former Miss Universe winners, in keeping with the contest’s theme of “Empowered Women.”

>> Related: Miss America to end swimsuit competition

The pageant also made history this year with the first transgender contestant to ever take part in the contest. Miss Spain, Angela Ponce, however, did not make the top 20.

Miss USA, Sarah Rose Summers, did make the finals, but did not break the top 10.

“You are cordially invited to return to Downton Abbey.” 

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The first official trailer for the eagerly anticipated movie based on the award-winning PBS Masterpiece drama was released with little detail about what might happen next at the Grantham estate, but it expressly invites fans to the big-screen version of the smash TV hit.

Here’s what we do know. Michael Engler is directing the film, which was written by the creator of the TV show, Julian Fellowes. In the movie Henry Talbot, played by Matthew Good, returns, as do Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary, Elizabeth McGovern as Lady Cora and Hugh Bonneville as the Earl of Grantham. Maggie Smith also reprises her role as the Dowager Countess.

The TV show, which ran for six seasons, spans 12 years and focuses on the drama between the classes on a great English estate on the verge of a vanishing way of life.

>> Related: New ‘Lion King’ trailer for live-action remake of 1994 classic released

The film is due out in September 2019.

Pete Davidson made an appearance on this week's "Saturday Night Live," putting worried fans at ease hours after the comedian told his Instagram followers that he didn't "want to be on this Earth anymore" before deleting his account.

>> Pete Davidson posts despondent message on Instagram, deletes account

"I'm doing my best to stay here for you but I actually don't know how much longer I can last," Davidson, who has been vocal about his struggles with borderline personality disorder, wrote Saturday in the Instagram post. "All I've ever tried to do was help people. Just remember I told you so."

>> See the post here

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The post alarmed many of Davidson's friends and fans, including ex-fiancee Ariana Grande, prompting messages of support and a wellness check by New York police. According to The New York Times, a spokesperson for NBC told police that the comedian was OK.

In Saturday's episode, Davidson briefly appeared to introduce a performance by Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson and Sean Ono Lennon. He wasn't in any live sketches, but did appear in one that was taped in advance.

>> Watch the clip here

After Davidson introduced the musical guests, fans quickly flooded social media with well-wishes.

Read more here.

Awkward.

Less than two weeks after Cardi B announced her split from her husband, Offset, the Migos rapper made a surprising attempt to win back his ex Saturday night as she performed at the Rolling Loud Festival in Los Angeles.

>> Click here to watch the clip (WARNING: Profanity)

According to Variety, Cardi, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, and her fans looked stunned as Offset took the stage. Standing in front of a floral display that read, “Take me back Cardi,” he started to apologize, promising to “do whatever I gotta do to show you I love you.”

>> Cardi B announces split with husband Offset: 'We grew out of love'

But the "Money" rapper seemed less than thrilled. She appeared to have a heated conversation with her ex, who then left the stage before the display was removed, Variety reported.

>> See a photo here

The move came after Offset, legally named Kiari Kendrell Cephus, apologized to Cardi B on social media Friday.

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"I embarrassed you," he said in an Instagram video Friday. "I made you go crazy."

The pair, who were married last year in Atlanta, welcomed daughter Kulture Kiari in July.

Read more here.