newsmakers
newsmakers
Jury sides with Hogan in sex-tape lawsuit
st. petersburg, fla.
A jury sided with ex-pro wrestler Hulk Hogan on Friday and awarded him $115 million in his sex-tape lawsuit against Gawker Media.
The jurors reached the decision Friday evening, less than six hours after they began deliberations. The trial lasted two weeks.
Earlier Friday, in spirited closing arguments, lawyers for Hogan and Gawker discussed themes of personal life versus celebrity, and freedom of speech versus the right to privacy.
Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, sued Gawker for $100 million for posting a video of him having sex with his former best friend’s wife. Hogan contended the 2012 post violated his privacy.
Hogan’s attorneys told jurors this is the core of the case: “Gawker took a secretly recorded sex tape and put it on the Internet.”
Taylor Swift makes surprise appearance at Nashville hospital
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
Pop star Taylor Swift made a surprise appearance at a Nashville, Tenn., children’s hospital to help “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest open a broadcast studio for patients.
Swift met with children Friday at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after the ribbon cutting on the new Seacrest Studio built at the hospital.
She told the crowd that she visited one of the now 10 studios that Seacrest’s foundation had built at children’s hospitals across the country and wanted to be involved when he opened the latest one in Music City.
“What I saw when I went there was an opportunity for the kids to find excitement and to express their creativity and to learn about what it is to create content, whether you would like to make your own radio show or whether you want to record,” Swift said. “It was so exciting to see the excitement that it brought to this one hospital.”
It wasn’t the first time that Swift made a surprise visit to a children’s hospital: She previously visited others, including Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I. She said she has visited the children at the Nashville facility before and the studio gives the city’s many singers and songwriters a place to reach all the children at the hospital.
Associated Press