Following is a abstract of present leisure information briefs.

Actor Vin Diesel hit with sexual battery lawsuit by former assistant

A former assistant to the actor Vin Diesel filed a lawsuit in opposition to him on Thursday alleging that he sexually battered her in 2010 and that she was fired from her job simply hours later. In the lawsuit, filed in a Los Angeles courtroom, the previous assistant Asta Jonasson alleges that Diesel assaulted her in an Atlanta lodge room whereas the pair have been engaged on the film “Fast Five.”

Netflix star Julia Haart visits Israel to indicate help

Fashion designer and Netflix actuality star Julia Haart toured Israeli communities this week, becoming a member of a rising roster of celebrities who’ve visited to indicate their help within the wake of the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas. Haart, star of the Netflix sequence “My Unorthodox Life”, mentioned it was essential to supply a transparent signal of solidarity with Israel as its struggle with Hamas continues into its third month and incidents of antisemitism have risen internationally.

Russians go loopy for avenue gang TV tragedy set amid Soviet collapse

A Russian tv serial exploring the tragedy wrought by brutal teenage avenue gangs combating for survival, cash and love within the final years of the crumbling Soviet Union has grow to be a sensation in Russia. The sequence – “A hoodlum’s promise – blood on the asphalt” – reveals the savagery of the gangs which carved up the Russian metropolis of Kazan in 1989 because the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev gyrated the Soviet Union in the direction of its 1991 demise.

Musical movie ‘The Color Purple’ dances from trauma to triumph

Following the celebrity of earlier variations, Ghanaian filmmaker Blitz Bazawule was undecided the 2023 musical movie adaptation of “The Color Purple” was a film that he might make.

“It’s been a brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning book by Alice Walker, it’s been a multi-nominated film by Steven Spielberg, and of course, a Tony award-winning Broadway play,” he mentioned.

Mariah Carey and the Christmas songs that grow to be hits – repeatedly

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” has been the soundtrack of the vacation season for practically 30 years. Why has this music grow to be a uncommon fashionable Christmas hit and what else can we glean from a more in-depth take a look at the U.S. Billboard Holiday 100?

ABBA’s digital present boosts London’s economic system to the tune of $225 million

Thank you for the music, London’s authorities would possibly say, after Swedish pop group ABBA’s digital live performance residency raked in 178 million kilos ($225 million) when it comes to internet financial profit to the British capital in its first yr. ABBA Voyage recreates Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad as high-tech, digital variations of themselves from their Nineteen Seventies heyday, because of motion-capture expertise.

God save the King’s fingers: Charles makes ‘sausage fingers’ joke in coronation movie

Britain’s King Charles poked enjoyable at his “sausage fingers” – a subject that has drawn immense media consideration and web memes in recent times – in a behind the scenes documentary that charts the royal household’s preparations for his coronation. When his son, Prince William, struggles to lock one of many ceremonial robes, Charles tells him to not fear, as he doesn’t have “sausage fingers” like himself, the BBC cited the then 74-year outdated monarch as saying on digital camera.

Martin Scorsese to obtain Berlin Film Festival lifetime award

The Berlin Film Festival will recognise Martin Scorsese’s outsized contributions to cinema with a lifetime achievement award at its 74th iteration this February, organizers mentioned on Thursday. Festival organizers – who described the Oscar-winning director’s newest movie “Killers of the Flower Moon” as one in all his biggest achievements – will award Scorsese, 81, an honorary Golden Bear on Feb. 20.

Lionsgate to spin off studio enterprise in $4.6-billion SPAC deal

Lionsgate will spin off its studio unit in a blank-check deal that values the enterprise behind the “Hunger Games” and “John Wick” film franchises at about $4.6 billion together with debt, the corporate mentioned on Friday. The studio enterprise will merge with Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp, a particular purpose-acquisition firm (SPAC), to create a brand new public agency for Lionsgate’s movie and tv belongings that embody about 18,000 titles.

(With inputs from businesses.)