NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Arrested man says he never hit Pitt

LOS ANGELES

The ex-journalist who was arrested after jostling with Brad Pitt at a film premiere last week said Monday he was merely trying to give the actor a hug and didn’t mean him any harm.

Vitalii Sediuk, a former Ukrainian television reporter, told The Associated Press in an interview that he was in a fan area of the event that was open to the public when he went in to give the actor a hug. Sediuk, 25, has gained a reputation for outlandish pranks on red carpets in Moscow, Los Angeles and last month, at the Cannes Film Festival when he crawled underneath America Ferrera’s dress at a film premiere.

His contact with Pitt, which caused the actor to lose balance while he was signing autographs at the “Maleficent” film premiere Wednesday, led to Sediuk’s arrest. He spent two days in jail before pleading no contest to battery and unlawful activity at a sporting or entertainment event and was sentenced Friday to three years’ probation and a year’s worth of psychiatric counseling.

Trent Reznor to stay with Beats By Dre

NEW YORK

Trent Reznor and officials at Beats By Dre agree: Reznor is still with the company.

Reznor, a native of Mercer, Pa., tweeted Monday afternoon that he remains the company’s chief creative officer. Apple Inc. bought the headphones and streaming music company last week in a $3 billion deal.

Early reports last week speculated that the Nine Inch Nails leader would not follow Beats founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to Apple as the company is absorbed. He wrote “YES I am still CCO of Beats Music and looking forward to what lies ahead with Apple” on Twitter. A spokeswoman with Beats confirms that Reznor remains CCO, and that role will not change.

Top TV series for Twitter activity

The Nielsen company measured for the first time the season ranking of Twitter activity during television shows.

The measurement is the average number of people seeing at least one tweet about the show during an individual episode of a series, as well as three hours both before and after it airs.

1. “Breaking Bad,” AMC, 6.03 million people.

2. “The Walking Dead,” AMC, 5.17 million people.

3. “Pretty Little Liars,” ABC Family, 4.78 million people.

4. “The Bachelor,” ABC, 3.62 million people.

5. “Game of Thrones,” HBO, 3.51 million people.

6. “Teen Wolf,” MTV, 3.34 million people.

7. “American Horror Story: Coven,” FX, 2.84 million people.

8. “Scandal,” ABC, 2.43 million.

9. “The Voice,” NBC, 2.29 million people.

10. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 2.06 million people.

Associated Press