Some stories linger in the ether like a noxious fumes.  Take Jussie Smollett.  You’ll recall that after it was alleged that he was complicit with those mega-hot Nigerian brothers in concocting assault claims, he was charged with felony disorderly conduct for making a false report to the police.  At one point, he had a deal to make the whole thing go away.  He simply had to repay the City of Chicago the $130K they spent investigating the incident.  He declined, the wheels of justice are turning, and a trial is looming.  Smollett moved to have the case dropped, but a new judge quashed that motion.  In perhaps an effort to rehabilitate his image, Jussie donated a carload of items to the Jenesse Center – an LA non-profit organization that helps victims of domestic violence.  He even enlisted the aid of his sister, Jurnee Smollett…talk about domestic violence!  The trial is slated to commence next week.

The most surprising story of the week concerns Tina Turner suing an impersonator!  This immediately brought to mind another case – Joan Rivers v. Frank Marino.  In that suit, Rivers was upset because Marino was performing many of the same routines that Rivers was doing in her act.  This case is different because Tina retired from the stage in 2009!  And yet she’s still suing Dorothea “Coco” Fletcher.  We’re told that Turner’s team feels Fletcher looks a bit too much like the real thing – which is also strange because she’s 50 years younger!

There’s been a new development in the case between Anthony Rapp and Kevin Spacey.  Back in 2017, a reporter contacted Spacey’s publicists and lawyers tipping them off about “Rapp’s assertion that the defendant made a sexual advance on him in 1986 when Rapp was 14 years old.”  This led to an intense e-mail thread between Spacey, his manager, his two lawyers, and his two publicists.  And therein lies the problem.  “None is a communication between the defendant and his lawyers without one or more of the manager and the PR people at least copied on the email.  Such communications are not lawyer-client communications made in confidence and/or generated for litigation,” says the judge.  Reminiscent of Hillary Clinton – Spacey needs to produce those e-mails or suffer the consequences.