Friday 21 Lifestyle | Features Friday, July 2, 2021

Los Angeles court denied Britney Spears, CNN reported. a rare insight into her personal life after her Spears’ request to eject her father from a “The conservator’s request to suspend lawyer Samuel Ingham said in April that Spears Aguardianship arrangement that gives him James P. Spears immediately upon the wanted to directly address the court. “I just want control of her affairs, US media reported yester- appointment of Bessemer Trust Company of my life back. It’s been 13 years and it’s day. The decision comes a week after the as sole conservator of estate is enough,” Spears said in the 20-minute state- singer made an impassioned plea to end the denied without prejudice,” Judge Brenda Penny ment. The 39-year-old star’s finances and per- “abusive” conservatorship during which she said in court filings seen by CNN. The decision sonal life have been largely managed by Jamie said she has been medicated to control her did not take Spears’ statement from last week Spears since her highly public breakdown more behavior, prohibited from making decisions on into consideration. Spears’ father has asked the than a decade ago, leading some adoring fans friendships or finances, and prevented from court to investigate the music superstar’s alle- to launch a “FreeBritney” online campaign in having a contraceptive implant removed, gations that she was medicated with lithium recent years. Supporters have long scoured despite wanting more children. The Los and made to perform against her will, CNN her social media accounts for hints about her Angeles Superior Court ruling made on reported. The revelation that the conservator- well-being, and any sign that she may be eager In this file photo, Britney Spears holds her Best Wednesday was in connection to a request ship is preventing her from removing a contra- to throw off the guardianship.— AFP Pop Video Award and her Michael Jackson Video filed in September by Spears’ lawyer to add ceptive IUD sparked outrage from fans and wealth management firm Bessemer Trust to the reproductive rights groups online. Vanguard Award in the press room at the 2011 conservatorship and remove her father Jamie Spears’ emotional address by videolink was MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). — AFP

lated by the law due to her participation in their Actress Allison Mack investigation. Mack had detailed to investiga- Cosby: From US tors how Raniere, a “self-help” guru, had tricked his female employees into recruiting women gets three years in US and making them have sex with him. She gave a recording of a conversation with Raniere to cultural icon prosecutors that proved crucial to his convic- jail for sex cult role tion. In the recording, he explained a filmed ritu- al during which some of the women were to prison... and branded like cattle with his initials. Mack was mallville” actress Allison Mack was ordered to surrender to authorities to begin her In this file photo actor and comedian Bill Cosby sentenced to three years in jail sentence on September 29. arrives for the second day of jury deliberations in “SWednesday for her role in recruiting Raniere, whose cult was based near Albany now, a reprieve the retrial of his sexual assault case at the women to be sex slaves in ’s con- north of New York City, was jailed for 120 years Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, troversial NXIVM cult. Mack, 38, received a in October, after being arrested in Mexico in reduced sentence after pleading guilty to rack- Pennsylvania. — AFP 2018. He swapped personal development train- ill Cosby’s trailblazing Hollywood career eteering charges in April 2019 and cooperating ing courses for sex sessions as the head of a is recognized in the Smithsonian’s jury convicted him and he was led away in with prosecutors. “I’m ashamed of the way I group of up to 20 women. Followers signed up BAfrican American Museum of History behaved,” Mack, who played ’s best for $5,000, five-day self-help courses, but some and Culture in Washington-a decision the handcuffs-what had been thought to be the final fall from grace after years of scandal. friend from 2001 to 2011 in the series, told the were then financially and sexually exploited and institution defended even after his conviction hearing in federal court in . The had to follow a restrictive diet as Raniere- for sexual assault, which was noted in the dis- Wednesday’s decision by the high court in Cosby’s home state of Pennsylvania upended German-born American added that she was known as “Vanguard”-exerted his control, the play. A new chapter in the 83-year-old come- “filled with remorse and guilt” for what she the script once again. jury at his trial in 2019 was told.—AFP dian’s tumultuous life story was written called a “horrific chapter of my life.” Wednesday when he walked free from prison Prosecutors had recommended a more The star few really knew after Pennsylvania’ Supreme Court vacated lenient sentence than the 14 to 17 years stipu- When comedian Hannibal Buress took to his conviction. It was another stunning turn of the stage in 2014 to tell Cosby to stop moral- events for the Emmy and Grammy winner izing to African Americans and accused him of once known as “America’s Dad,” whose being a “rapist,” the floodgates opened. image was shattered when he was convicted Around 60 women, many of them onetime in 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a aspiring actresses and models, came forward woman in 2004. publicly to brand him a calculating, serial Cosby-the first African American actor to predator who plied victims with sedatives and star in a primetime US television drama and alcohol in order to have sex with them over the man who personified upper-middle-class four decades. But only one case had not sur- Black success on the small screen on his passed the statute of limitations: the alleged long-running eponymous sitcom-once com- assault of Andrea Constand at Cosby’s home manded the utmost respect. His cultural influ- in the Philadelphia area. ence was once so great that chat show queen Both a first and a second trial-which ended Oprah Winfrey credited Cosby with helping to with his conviction-revealed a dark underside pave the way for America’s first black presi- to his signature role of benevolent father fig- dent, Barack Obama. “The Cosby Show”- ure and affable obstetrician Cliff Huxtable on which ran from 1984-92 — “introduced “The Cosby Show.” “Everybody knows you, America to a way of seeing Black people and Mr Cosby,” said a police officer taking down Black culture that they had not seen before,” his original deposition. “Not really,” came the German-born American TV actress Allison Mack (center) leaves Brooklyn Federal Court on Wednesday Winfrey said in 2013. But then a Pennsylvania elusive reply.—AFP in New York, after being sentenced for three years, for her role in the alleged sex cult NXIVM. — AFP