- Stolen
art seems to be the sort of thing that happens in other parts of the world and
not as much in the United States, as many of the world’s top museums are in
Europe or elsewhere on the planet. But if you believe the claims in a lawsuit
filed by a Pennsylvania man against the University of Notre Dame, the Indiana
school is displaying $575,000 worth of early American art that was stolen from
his father. Scott Leff and his wife filed the lawsuit last month, accusing Notre
Dame of buying his father's figurine collection more than a decade ago from a
New Mexico dealer, who previously purchased it it from Jay Leff's ex-wife. The
university can easily claim regardless of what the legal situation is that it
purchased the art with honorable intentions, but Scott Leff claims his father's
ex-wife pilfered his art collection in 1996 after his father filed for divorce.
It’s a classic “eff you” divorce-process move, heisting valuable items and
selling them off for a fraction of their actual value, and for that alleged
misdeed, Scott Leff is seeking the art's return or damages equal to its current
value. A private school with deep pockets, the university is standing its
ground on this one, noting in correspondence with Scott Leff that he has no
ownership proof and did nothing to get the art back for 20 years. A university
spokesman says Notre Dame acquired the figurines in good faith and Leff could
end up spending more in fighting this case than he’s going to win should he
emerge victorious in this case……..
- When Brock
Lesnar boasted that he was “the modern-day Bo Jackson” after announcing his
return to the UFC for a one-off match against hard-hitting Mark Hunt at UFC 200,
maybe he should have toned the hyperbole down a bit. After all, trying to style
yourself as a legitimate two-sport athlete is a stretch when one of those
sports is actually sports entertainment, a blend of some elements of athletic
competition sprinkled in around scripted theatrics. Lesnar was good, but not
dominant when he was in UFC the first time, so that part of the comparison to
Jackson, an NFL Pro Bowler and MLB All-Star in the 1980s and ‘90s, doesn’t
really fit either. It especially doesn’t fit for Jackson, who was recently
asked about Lesnar’s comparison and didn’t react angrily or with great offense,
but rather with genuine bewilderment. "I don't even know who Brock Lesnar
is, man,” Jackson said. "I don't watch [UFC and pro wrestling]. If I
didn't make money in it, I don't know nothing about it." It’s an odd policy
because many athletes love watching sports other than their own and don’t stick
strictly to the sport or sports they played professionally once they retire,
but Jackson has always been a different sort of dude and that peculiar approach
seems to have followed him into life after professional sports. Lesnar’s UFC
200 bout was approved by WWE as a standalone happening and with his already
sparse schedule of fake wrestling in WWE, it couldn’t have been all that
difficult to find enough time to train and compete for the fight with Hunt. The
better comparison might be Nate Robinson, the former NBA player who recently
failed to impress the Seattle Seahawks in a tryout session as he attempted to
cross over to football from basketball……….
- It’s
the ugly underside of the Philippines’ new leader and his promises to whip the
country back in shape and now, the kids are caught in the middle. A crackdown
bearing the Philippine president-elect's name is underway and police have
rounded up hundreds of children or their parents to enforce a night curfew for
minors. Apprehending drunk and shirtless men roaming metropolitan Manila's
slums is shaky enough, but the poor people who were among Rodrigo Duterte's
strongest supporters are finding out that their support doesn’t guarantee much
in the war against crime he has vowed to wage. In a surprise sweep, a girl who
appeared to be about 10 years old was dragged to a police van for curfew
violation despite claiming she was only outside to take out the garbage, while
a boy about the same age was seen sobbing as a slightly older-looking boy
dropped food he’d just bought when police apprehended him. A mother sleeping on
a sidewalk had her toddler ripped from her arms by a social worker and was
dragged to a police vehicle, ironically enough while wearing a rubber bracelet
bearing Duterte's name. The crackdown is dubbed "Oplan Rody," with
Oplan an acronym for "Rid the Streets of Drinkers and Youth" and Rody
the nickname of Duterte, who becomes president June 30. With this sort of
build-up to his impending reign of terror, complete with police and local
officials reviving little-enforced city ordinances like night-to-dawn curfews
for minors, a ban on drinking alcohol in the streets and shirtless men in
public places, it’s easy to see where there is extreme apprehension about what
the rest of his term in office will bring……..
- Being
a part of “American Horror Story” seems to have opened some new doors for Lady
Gaga. The pop singer and part-time actress is reportedly in talks to star
opposite Bradley Cooper in his long-planned remake of “A Star Is Born,” in
which Cooper is now planning to direct, produce and star. He’s been linked to
the project dating back to 2012, at which point Clint Eastwood was attached to
direct. At that time, Beyoncé Knowles was attached to play the film's female
lead, but when the project stalled she elected to move on elsewhere in her
ongoing quest for domination of the entertainment world. The original film starred
Janet Gaynor in 1937, with icons Judy Garland (1954) and Barbra Streisand (1976)
taking on the role in subsequent years portraying an ambitious female singer who
falls in love with an aging rocker, only to watch her career take off as his
goes into decline. The deal isn't done, but Lady Gaga is now in negotiations
for the role after her screen test with Cooper impressed Warner Bros.
executives. Will Fetters, who has written for “The Lucky One” and “Remember Me,”
has penned the script for this one and previously said he based the aging
rocker character on the late Kurt Cobain. "I approached A Star Is Born
[imagining] if Kurt Cobain never got to go unplugged and survived and it's 20
years later and it's now, and he wanted to try to do that album with that understanding
as this grunge icon,” Fetters said. “That'd be tough to get done if he was past
his prime, no longer selling, how does he get that album?" Thanks for
making Cobain an even more depressing, melancholy figure than he already was,
Billy………
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