Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Emporio Armani marks 40 years with soft, fluid spring collection

Italian designer Giorgio Armani presented a light and fluid Emporio Armani collection for women and men at Milan Fashion Week on Thursday, as he marks 40 years of the label. The spring/summer 2022 catwalk show featured an array of chiffon dresses, jumpsuits, light blazers and pyjama-like suits in soft materials. Emporio Armani is seen as a more youthful brand than the veteran designer’s main Giorgio Armani line.

R. Kelly’s defense says accusers had motive to lie. ‘Convict him,’ prosecutor says

R. Kelly’s accusers were motivated by money to lie about his alleged sexual abuses, a lawyer for the R&B superstar argued on Thursday in a final effort to persuade jurors not to convict Kelly of sex trafficking charges. In his closing argument in Brooklyn federal court, Kelly’s lawyer Deveraux Cannick portrayed the singer’s accusers as former fans or jilted lovers hoping to cash in on his fame, whether through book contracts or media appearances such as in “Surviving R. Kelly,” the 2019 Lifetime documentary.

Singer Natalie Imbruglia mixes motherhood with ‘personal’ new album

Natalie Imbruglia thought audiences might throw tomatoes at her when she first started out in the 1990s, but more than 20 years later the Australian singer-songwriter is still making music, releasing her sixth studio album on Friday. “Firebird” is Imbruglia’s first record of original music since 2009. It was written before the COVID-19 pandemic, but mostly recorded during lockdown in Oxfordshire, England, where she lives.

R. Kelly hid crimes in ‘plain sight,’ prosecutor says near end of sex trafficking trial

R. Kelly dominated not only women and girls but also his employees over a quarter century of sexual abuse, a prosecutor said on Wednesday as the R&B star’s sex trafficking trial neared its conclusion. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes told jurors during her closing argument in Brooklyn federal court that Kelly’s entourage of business managers, accountants, runners and other employees was “at his disposal.”

Britney Spears’ attorney proposes that her conservatorship end this fall

An attorney for Britney Spears on Wednesday asked a Los Angeles judge to terminate the 13-year-old conservatorship that oversees her personal life and finances by the fall. In a filing submitted to Los Angeles Superior Court, lawyer Mathew Rosengart asked that the musician’s father, Jamie Spears, be removed from the conservatorship by Sept. 29 and that a temporary replacement be named to wind down the arrangement.

Cuba Gooding, rape accuser agree to set aside liability finding against actor

Cuba Gooding Jr asked a U.S. judge to set aside a finding of liability in a civil lawsuit by a woman who accused the Oscar-winning actor of raping her twice in 2013, after she agreed his failure to formally respond to her accusations was not willful. According to a Wednesday filing in Manhattan federal court, Gooding never saw the complaint from the accuser known as Jane Doe until Aug. 3, five days after U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty granted her a default judgment true on liability.

Linda Evangelista files $50 million lawsuit over disfiguring cosmetic treatment

Former supermodel Linda Evangelista has filed a $50 million lawsuit over cosmetic procedures that she says left her “brutally disfigured” and turned her into a recluse. The Canadian model, one of the biggest figures on runways and magazine covers in the 1990s, said in an Instagram post that she had undergone treatment to reduce fat some five years ago.

Jagger calls Watts the rock that held the Rolling Stones together

The Rolling Stones get back on the road this weekend without drummer Charlie Watts, whom frontman Mick Jagger called the rock that held the band together. In interviews with Rolling Stone music magazine writer David Fricke, Jagger, Keith Richards and Ron Wood talked for the first time about their memories of Watts, who died in London a month ago at age 80.

Cinema returns to Somalia after decades of shut-downs and strife

Dozens of Somalis posed for selfies and chattered excitedly in rows of red, plush seats as they waited for the start of their country’s first movie screening in three decades.

Among the crowd in the National Theatre was 24-year-old Kaif Jama, the writer and star of both films on the programme – the horror story “Hoos”, about a single woman moving into an empty house, and a not-so-romantic comedy called “Date from Hell”.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle visit New York’s World Trade Center

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got a bird’s-eye view of the New York skyline as they kicked off their trip to the city with a visit to the observatory at One World Trade Center on Thursday. The royal couple is in town to attend Saturday’s Global Citizen Live event at Central Park to encourage equal access to COVID-19 vaccines. It was their first joint outing since the birth of their daughter Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor in June.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)