Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Almost Never by Amy Lamont Trevor Jackson On Almost Quitting Acting & Balancing Multiple Careers. Actor, singer and songwriter Trevor Jackson was the latest guest to join the cast of BET's Black Coffee, to discuss everything from career to Cardi B ! While there, the star of Grown-Ish and Superfly sat down with hosts Marc Lamont Hill, Gia Peppers and Jameer Pond to talk about his latest musical efforts, Rough Drafts Pt. 2 , as well as season three of the hit sitcom . During a discussion on the parallels between Grown-ish and the 80s-90s classic, A Different World , Jackson acknowledged it was an honor to be compared to the OG college-themed sitcom, while sharing his own thoughts on the fan comparisons. "I think it's an honor to be compared to something as legendary as [ A Different World ]. I always contribute everything to the writers, and Kenya [Barris]. People are always like, 'Oh my gosh, you do so good on the show. ' but I literally just read the lines. It's so good. The show is written so well. For me, I never tried to - even with the Superfly thing - I didn't want to try and redo anything. I feel like whenever something is amazing, let it be that. The comparisons are a compliment and icing on the cake, but I don't think that's ever the intention." While on the topic of juggling multiple careers, and whether it was difficult being a full-time actor and singer, the 22-year-old star replied, "No," and admitted he rather prefers having more than one thing to do. "I feel like it's who I am. I think it's hard for people to understand it, but for me, it's easy. I feel like I'm crazy when I'm sitting still and I'm not doing anything. So it's just like, 'Oh, what [more] can I do?' Life to me is like a grocery store. You take what you want, and your cart is who you end up being. People can offer you stuff, and you decide, 'Maybe I'll take some of that.' So that's always been what it is. It just also goes to knowing what you don't like. I feel like, you can make anything if you know what you don't like." Jackson also revealed that a few years back, he considered quitting acting altogether, however, he changed his mind after working on season two of American Crime . His time on the set would also inspire him to get more into behind-the-scenes work. "Wherever I'm at, I just try to absorb everything. I remember I was going to quit acting at one point, and then I did American Crime , and I literally was watching John Ridley work, Regina King , Timothy Hutton , Andre 3000 and I was re-inspired. Even off screen [I was inspired], and I wanted to start directing. So every video on Rough Drafts 1 and Rough Drafts 2 I directed and wrote all the treatments." For fans of Rough Drafts Pt. 1 , the R&B crooner reveals that the follow-up will offer up even more transparency and candidacy. "This album in particular, was me being the realest I've been. I'm just kind of revealing a lot of struggles. I feel like people see the journey on the outside looking in and it looks pretty and it's a pretty painting. But they never get the hours, and the painting room where you're sweating and you have paint on your clothes, and you might have cried, and you might have bled a few times, you know? I think I revealed the most I ever have on this album. I feel like music for me has become those lanterns that people light, and let go, and they're able to move on. So whether it's breakup, whether it's triumph, whether it's pain or it's joy, I've always been able to look back at music, or things that I've made from those places, and turn it into something beautiful. I've just been promoting self-acceptance, self-awareness and self-discovery. I feel like I've always known what I wanted to do, but now I'm learning the how and why." Watch the full episode on Black Coffee's official Youtube, here! Tune into Black Coffee live, every weekday, at 10am EST, on BET's official Twitter & Facebook pages! Interview with Amy Lamont, author of Almost Never. Almost Never was the book that almost wasn’t. I had a crazy series of health issues while Almost Never was on pre-order that caused me to postpone the release. It felt like I’d never get a chance to finish Harper and Declan’s story. But thankfully, I had a happy ending to that chapter of my life and I was able to get back to work and make sure Harper and Declan got their own happily ever after. Of course, they didn’t make it easy. Harper decided at a party her freshman year in college that Declan was just another overprivileged frat boy. The last thing she needed while she was working hard to keep her scholarship was to get involved with him. But Declan doesn’t give up on the idea of them so easily. He’s determined to show her that when it looks like everything is falling apart, he’s the one that will be there to help her pick up the pieces. What or who inspired you to become an author? I’ve loved writing ever since I can remember, but walking through a book store one night, I passed a book by Anne Lamott on the shelves. From the corner of my eye, I could have sworn it was my name popping off the cover of that book. I still remember the thrill that shot through me, and I think that’s the moment I decided I wasn’t giving up until I saw my name gracing the cover of a book I wrote. What’s on your top 5 list for the best books you’ve ever read? I only get to pick 5? Not easy to narrow down that list, but I’ll give it a shot: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott Karen Marie Moning’s Fever Series Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley. Say you’re the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask? I’d have to have Janet Evanovich. I think there were already a dozen books in her Stephanie Plum series when I discovered it, and I plowed through all of them in less than a week! I’d love to ask her how she brought such a vibrant character to life and how she keeps her writing so fresh after so many books! What’s your favorite thing about writing? Hmm, being able to work in my pajamas is definitely on the top of the list. But I absolutely love when a story I’ve been struggling to write suddenly takes on a life of its own. There’s no better feeling than when I tap into the part of my brain that has the story all figured out and the words come pouring out almost faster than my fingers can keep up on the keyboard. What is a typical day like for you? s the mom of two teenagers, I’m up way too early in the morning to get them off to school. I usually manage to get some form of exercise in and then I mainline coffee while I read through and edit whatever I wrote the day before. I’ll outline the scenes I want to work on and then write for two hours or so. My husband works from home, too, so we usually get to chat over lunch before we get back to work. Then I spend the afternoon working on my other favorite thing–marketing. I love finding new ways to connect with readers who love romance as much as I do! What scene in Almost Never was your favorite to write? I loved writing the scene where Harper opens up to Declan about what her family life had been like growing up. After being let down by too many people too often, she’d learned to keep her defenses up at all times. The scene where she finally, finally decides to put some of her trust in Declan, if even just a little, was such an emotional and difficult one to write. Especially knowing I’d be putting Harper through a few more tough times that would give her reason to question herself for trusting him. It was bittersweet to give them that one perfect moment before things start to unravel. Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by? Say yes as often as possible! As an introvert, there are times I could let life pass me by as I stay cuddled under the covers with my dogs and a pile of books. But life is too short to hibernate for too long. I try to say yes to new opportunities and possibilities whenever I get the chance! Amy Lamont is the author of the new book Almost Never. Jurors find OPD officer liable, Award $880K, in Excessive-force Case. A federal jury Friday found that an Orlando police officer used excessive force when he took down an 84-year-old in a parking lot almost two years ago, breaking the elderly man's neck. After deliberating for roughly three hours, the panel determined Officer Travis Lamont violated Daniel Daley's civil rights and awarded the World War II veteran $880,000 in damages. Daley had little to say about the verdict he as left the Orlando federal courthouse. "I think they're right," he said, adding that he doesn't care about the money. When asked what the lesson is to be learned, Daley replied: "Behave." Daley's lawsuit against Lamont stems from an encounter he had with the officer in a parking lot off North Orange Avenue on Sept. 18, 2010. Daley, who was upset his car was going to be towed, admitted he repeatedly tapped Lamont on his arm while asking the officer for assistance in the dispute. Daley, now 86, said the tapping was only intended as a friendly gesture. The tow-truck driver also testified Daley repeatedly tapped him as he inquired why his car was being towed. But Lamont told jurors the encounter with Daley escalated when the elderly man threatened to knock him out while simultaneously cocking his fist up to his chest. The city claims Daley was drunk and belligerent - his blood alcohol level was 0.162 - and Lamont performed the armed-bar takedown on Daley because he was in fear. Lamont, now 28, and city attorneys left the courthouse Friday without commenting to reporters. "Every day police officers face difficult circumstances and make on-the-spot decisions in order to ensure the safety of our community. In this particular case, Mr. Daley admitted to lunging at and touching the officer at a time he had an elevated blood alcohol level," Orlando Police Department spokesman Sgt. Vince Ogburn said in a statement released Friday afternoon. "In this situation, the officer had to make the split-second decision of how much force to use in order to de-escalate the situation without harming the person involved." Jurors heard testimony from witnesses and use-of-force experts throughout the week. Witnesses who had been with Daley at The Caboose bar in the moments leading up to the controversial takedown testified they never saw Daley make a fist or make any threats toward Lamont. Those witnesses said they saw Lamont flip Daley and saw the elderly man's head strike the ground with his legs straight in the air. Lamont's backup officer, Natasha Endrina, told the jury she saw Daley lunge at Lamont's neck. But she didn't see the takedown maneuver because she was in the process of getting out of her car. Experts brought in by Daley's legal team said Lamont's actions were excessive and improper. Criminologist George Kirkham called Lamont's armed-bar takedown "very extreme and unwarranted." Lamont never threatened to arrest Daley if he didn't stop touching him. He also did not try other tactics such as threatening him with chemical spray, a Taser or other measures, Kirkham said. Daley initially filed suit against the city of Orlando and Lamont, but the charges against the city were dismissed this week - making Lamont the only defendant and focus of jury's decision. "The federal court judge completely validated the City's training, policies and actions in this case by dismissing the City from all claims," Ogburn said via email. "As for Officer Lamont, we respect the jury's decision and are pleased that Mr. Daley has made a complete recovery." During his closing argument Friday morning, Jason Recksiedler with NeJame Law, one of Daley's attorneys, told the jury the case was about excessive force. He described Lamont as having "sudden and uncontrolled rage." Daley, Recksiedler said, wasn't angry with Lamont. But Lamont was irritated that Daley kept patting him on the arm. Recksiedler said Daley was no gang member or street thug. He asked the jury what a reasonable officer would be afraid of. Daley, the attorney said, was "just an old man upset about his car being towed." Meanwhile, Lamont's attorney, Dennis O'Connor, told the jury the officer was cordial and he didn't intend to injure Daley. "At worst, ladies and gentlemen, this was a mistake," O'Connor said. Daley's attorneys asked the jury for more than $750,000 in damages, which includes past and future medical expenses. It wasn't immediately clear how the $880,000 will be funded. Heather Fagan, the mayor's deputy chief of staff, said city officials are evaluating their options related to the case. The city is self-insured up to a certain limit and carries private insurance for anything over that amount. Fagan said officials have not determined how the insurance in this case will be applied. Scots actress Amy Manson prepared for starring role in The Nevers by studying murderer from blockbuster movie Monster. AMY Manson reckons she plunged the depths of humanity to play a murderer in The Nevers - by studying real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos. The Scots actress stars in the big-budget sci-fi show as Maladie, a supernatural being who seeks violent revenge after being committed to an asylum. Viewers are introduced to Amy’s complex character when she interrupts the opera to slit the throat of an actor playing the devil before lecturing the audience about God. The Once Upon a Time favourite, 35, said she researched the role by looking at some dark material, including learning about Aileen Wuornos, the killer Hollywood star Charlize Theron, 45, portrayed during her Oscar-winning turn in 2003 flick Monster. Speaking on the Monsters and Critics YouTube channel, Amy said: “I went into really awful rabbit holes continuously and when I took myself out I had to go and see friends or go exercise or take myself out of that headspace. “But if you’re attempting to play a lunatic you’ve got to understand the truth of where it comes from and people aren’t born mad, they’ve been subjected to something in their life that makes them become a certain way.” On what she watched prior to filming, Amy added: “Charlize Theron in Monster was a big one because of Aileen Wuornos and the character she played in that. “There’s a lot of similarities of Aileen eventually finding God and also her being let down by the system. “Aileen’s story was that maybe she was physically abused when she was younger but she went into prostitution and she was on the streets and one man really physically abused her and then it was almost like her defence mechanism every time she was with another man she ended up killing them. “And there’s similarities in that with Maladie in the revenge. "There’s part of that within Maladie that I picked out. “Also A Woman Under the Influence, I love Gena’s (Rowlands) performance in that and I think it’s just crazy how a woman can be possessed and slowly driven out of her mind because of external circumstances.” Amy, who grew up in Aberdeenshire’s Portlethen and Westhill areas, filmed the first episode of The Nevers in June 2019 and reveals she spent ages getting into character as Maladie. The programme, the work of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly creator Joss Whedon, takes place in an alternate reality version of Victorian London in 1899. Laura Donnelly, 38, who plays Sam Heughan’s sister in Outlander, takes on the lead role in the programme alongside up-and-coming actress Ann Skelly, 24. The pair star as Amalia True and Penance Adair who live in an orphanage which houses those who’ve been mysteriously “touched” by a supernatural event that left them with “turns” resembling super-powers. Gogglebox’s Tom Malone Jr reveals girlfriend Bryony gets racist abuse ‘every day’ but says she’s ‘The One’ However, Maladie, whose skill is that she seemingly feels no pain, has her own history with Amalia as well as a very different mission in mind after receiving her own powers. Amy admits it was difficult to get to grips with the killer character before filming the no-expenses-spared HBO show. She said: “It’s all in the name Maladie, being French for illness. "She still confuses me. Initially when I got the part, Joss said if anybody figures out her mind we haven’t done our job. “She’s a shapeshifter and I wouldn’t say she’s mad. I think she chooses to be and I think she’s a step ahead of the game. “There’s so many layers but it was so much fun. That’s what I had to remind myself of. She’s out there causing anarchy because she’s choosing to.” Amy even went back to her old drama school teacher to get the role right after getting the part. She added: “Before I went in I remember printing a picture of Joss and putting it up on my wall just to look at it and just to talk to him so when I got in there so it wasn’t weird. “So when I went in it was just like he was my best mate. I was like ‘hey I think I picked apart your script’. “And he was like ‘nope, doesn’t mean that, doesn’t mean anything, I wrote it in five minutes’. “So that was the beginning of an amazing journey. “I actually went back to my drama school teacher for the first time. “Feeling that I was playing Maladie and then pre-Maladie I just wanted to give that layers. “How do I find the truth in this? Why is she so maniacal and why is she like this? “I don’t want to play a generalised baddie. She’s doing it for a reason.” Although The Nevers is set in an alternate reality, it stays true to its Victorian London time period. Most characters dress as people would have then and so the actors were forced to squeeze into tight corsets and other restrictive clothing. But Amy was able to dress differently and go through an entirely different process to fit the spooky style of Maladie. She said: “I tend to, in all my roles, get away with not conforming. My characters don’t conform to the norm of the period they’re in. “Maladie had smaller corsets to be able to move. She is just a bit more loose than a lot of the other buttoned up Victorian women of the time. "She just doesn’t care. Because corsets hide a multitude of sins, it’s like Maladie doesn’t care how she looks. “That’s another thing as an actor, especially with some of Maladie’s sentences and the way Joss wanted me to say certain sentences, it was almost like verbal diarrhoea. “You had to take a breath where you could but not show you were taking a breath so the corset not being tight really helped. “I also chose that I wanted to have her not wear any shoes at all. “Not to connect with the earth or anything but just the fact her ‘turn’ is pain and she doesn’t feel pain so why give her shoes if she doesn’t feel the ground she’s standing on. Politicians Behaving Badly: 7 British Government Scandals. Greed and corruption abound in the fictional Roadkill , but British Parliament members have a very real record of getting themselves into hot water. We turned to modern British history experts Dr. Laura Beers of American University and the North American Conference on British Studies and Dr. Catherine Haddon from London’s Institute for Government for a round-up of scandals that rocked recent UK politics—from a swinging sixties affair at the height of the Cold War to a staged death on a Florida beach. 1929-1964: Politician, Commentator, Bounder. Robert “Bob” Boothby was a Conservative party member as well as a recurring BBC commentator on public affairs. He entered parliament in 1924, at a time when politicians’ private lives and private infidelities, however well known within Westminster, almost never made the headlines. During his more than 30 years in parliament, Boothby had a protracted affair with Dorothy Macmillan, the wife of his Conservative colleague Harold Macmillan, beginning in the 1930s and continuing through Macmillan’s succession to Prime Minister in 1956. Boothby also had a gay affair with notorious East End gangster Ronnie Kray, who with his identical twin Reggie, dominated London’s underworld for twenty years. That illicit relationship was hushed up by the largely pro-Tory tabloid press for years before being inferred by the Daily Mirror in 1964, a year after John Profumo (see below) rose to notoriety. The revelations sparked an MI-5 investigation but did not derail the career of the now Baron Boothby, who continued to sit in the House of Lords until his death in 1986. 1961-1963: The Profumo Affair. If Bob Boothby had entered politics a generation later, he may well have met the same fate as his Tory colleague John Profumo. Profumo was British Secretary of State for War when he began an affair with 19-year-old model, Christine Keeler. The two were introduced at an exclusive party at Lord Astor’s Cliveden estate, adding an extra layer of aristocratic debauchery to the story. At the time of their relationship, Keeler was also involved with Soviet naval attaché and suspected spy, Yevgeny “Eugene” Ivanov. Rumors of the affair and its potential security implications spread rapidly and, unlike Boothby’s underworld associations, did not stay quiet. Profumo denied the affair to the House of Commons. The police became involved and Keeler testified to the relationship, leading to Profumo’s resignation on June 5, 1963. Profumo’s wife Valerie stood by him, and a “chastened and redemptive” Profumo became an anonymous volunteer with the poor. After his death, declassified M15 documents from the 1930s revealed Profumo had also had an affair with a Nazi spy. 1961-1979: A Very British Scandal. The true story of the first British politician to stand trial for conspiracy to murder was featured in the 2018 miniseries starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw. Jeremy Thorpe was the stylish and charismatic Liberal party leader, desperate to hide a previous affair with Norman Scott, a stable hand he met while visiting a friend in 1961. When Scott refused to stop contacting Thorpe after the married MP ended their relationship, Thorpe allegedly paid to have his former lover killed. The October 1975 attempt on Scott failed, though his beloved Great Dane Rinka was shot. Scott publicly accused Thorpe, who was forced to resign as leader of his party in May 1976. But the resignation did not end the scandal, which dragged on in the press and ultimately in the courts, with Thorpe becoming the first sitting MP to stand trial for murder in May 1979. While Thorpe was ultimately acquitted, the scandal ended his political career. 1974: A Faked Death. Even among British political scandals the story of John Stonehouse is a standout. Stonehouse was a former Labour cabinet minister who fell into financial trouble and came under investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry. Rather than face prosecution, he allegedly deposited his clothes on a beach in Miami, Florida to leave the impression that he had drowned. As Miami police investigated his apparent demise, Stonehouse and his secretary fled to Australia to start a new life under assumed names. The pair lasted only a month before being discovered by chance. They were eventually deported to England where Stonehouse would stand trial in 1976 for fraud, theft and forgery. Remarkably, Stonehouse refused to relinquish his parliamentary seat after his “resurrection” and sat in parliament until conducting his own defense. He was convicted, served time in prison, and eventually wed his secretary. 1993: “Back to Basics” The 1980s lacked the political drama of the preceding decades, but there was nonetheless a sense within the Conservative Party that the Tories needed to change their image. While many admired Margaret Thatcher as the “Iron Lady,” others saw the Tories as the “nasty party.” When John Major took over for Thatcher in 1990, he set out to change the party’s image. In a 1993 speech, he famously declared that the country should go ‘back to basics’, returning to core values of “neighbourliness, decency, courtesy”. The slogan came to be a source of ridicule for the government over the next few years as ministers were caught in a quick succession of sex and money scandals that harkened back to those of the 1960s and 1970s. Chancellor Norman Lamont was revealed to have a sex therapist living in his rented-out London flat. David Mellor resigned as a minister after sordid revelations of an extra-marital affair with actress Antonia de Sancha. Transport minister Steven Norris was reportedly having simultaneous affairs with three women who did not know about each other. Conservative MP Stephen Milligan was tragically found dead on his kitchen table as a result of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Major himself denied an affair with Downing Street caterer Clare Latimer. Years later, it was revealed he’d had a four-year affair with fellow conservative MP Edwina Currie. (Their relationship is assumed to have provided fodder for Currie’s political novels, including A Parliamentary Affair. ) In addition to press revelations of sexual improprieties, The Guardian brought the financial misconduct of certain ministers to light. The newspaper accused two MPs of being paid thousands of pounds to ask questions in Parliament on behalf of Harrod’s owner Mohammed Al-Fayed: Tim Smith resigned as Northern Ireland minister and later admitted to accepting the money; Conservative MP Neil Hamilton lost his libel suit against Al-Fayed when the court was satisfied the Harrod’s owner had, indeed, made his case. The Guardian and ITV’s investigative series both alleged that Conservative Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken had improper commercial relations with Saudi businessmen. Aitken sued the news outlets but was later jailed for perjury after lying under oath. A far cry from the “decency” which Major had promised the British people! 1998-2010: Third Time’s a Charm. “Decency” is a word few have ever associated with Tony Blair’s longtime confident and New Labour mastermind Peter Mandelson, the political Svengali who orchestrated the 1997 election campaign resulting in Labour’s landslide victory. Blair rewarded Mandelson by making him a Minister with Portfolio, or senior cabinet advisor, before moving him to the Department for Trade and Industry. “Mandy” was forced to resign this post after only five months when he was discovered to have accepted (and failed to declare) an Interest-free loan from a fellow ministerial colleague. He was back in government less than a year later, however, when Blair appointed him Minister for Northern Ireland. This time he lasted a year before being accused of inappropriately helping an Indian billionaire secure a British passport and resigned again In 2001. In 2004, Peter Mandelson left parliament for the European Commission, where he served four years as a trade commissioner. Blair brought him back to Westminster in 2008 and Mandelson was appointed to the House of Lords, returning to government for a third time as Business Secretary. This time, he survived the post until the government lost office in the 2010 election. 2009: Expenses Crisis and the Duck House. MPs were perhaps willing to overlook Mandelson and others’ financial improprieties in part because they were worried about the skeletons in their own closets. In addition to their official salaries, ministers are entitled to reimbursement for expenses associated with their parliamentary careers, including the costs of maintaining two homes—one in London and one in their constituency. These parliamentary “perks” had previously been kept from taxpayers’ prying eyes, but in 2009, stories of widespread abuses led journalists to launch a Freedom of Information Request to obtain access to ministers’ expenses. Two months before the official disclosure, The Telegrap h newspaper obtained a leak of the records. Offenses included MPs falsely designating a second home in order to claim more expenses; submitting extra expenses for renovations or refurnishing homes; and evading or avoiding tax. One conservative MP was discovered to have claimed nearly £2000 for a new duck house. Several ministers and the Speaker of the House of Commons had to resign from their posts and five MPs were sent to jail as a result of fraudulent claims. While less egregious than attempted murder or affairs with gangsters and feigned death, these “everyday” revelations of graft and dishonesty proved ultimately more damning to public confidence in ministers and in British politics more generally. Editorial assistance for this feature provided by: Dr. Laura Beers, Professor of History at American University and Executive Director of the North American Conference on British Studies.