DeNiro, Pr Andrew, Children of God, Tyler Perry on the Perverted Lives of the Rich and Famous Episode XXVIII

Raging woke warrior De Niro accused of abuse

by former employee

© Reuters / Dado Ruvic

Actor and #Resistance stalwart Robert De Niro allegedly abused, sexually harassed, threatened and underpaid his former personal assistant, according to a lawsuit she filed citing “years of gender discrimination and harassment.”

Graham Chase Robinson, De Niro’s personal assistant for 11 years, is suing the actor for $12 million, claiming he created a “hostile work environment” and subjected her to mental and physical harassment in a discrimination complaint filed Thursday in a federal court.

De Niro made “unwanted physical contact” and sexual comments and underpaid her because of her gender, Robinson claims adding he demeaned her by assigning “stereotypically female duties like housework” and standing by silently while a friend slapped her buttocks. Robinson alleges the movie star De Niro threatened her when she tried to resign and that a lawsuit filed against her by his company Canal Productions is an act of retaliation.

That suit, filed in state court in August, calls Robinson a “disloyal employee” and accuses her of “repeatedly and methodically” abusing De Niro’s trust in order to embezzle funds. It was filed “to inhibit her from pursuing her claims, destroy her reputation and obliterate her job prospects,” Robinson’s lawyers claim in a statement provided to Newsweek.

On top of Viagra jokes and suggestions Robinson use her married male co-worker’s sperm to impregnate herself, De Niro also left her a threatening voicemail, which she included in the court filing. “You f***ing don’t answer my calls? How dare you! You’re about to be fired. You’re f***ing history,” the ‘Taxi Driver’ actor snarls in the recording.

While De Niro’s on-screen performances in films like ‘The Godfather’ trilogy and ‘Wag the Dog’ have been praised by all quarters, his offscreen image has become decidedly partisan, frequently making statements about Hollywood’s favorite punching bag, US President Donald Trump. Accusing politicians backing Trump of “making a deal with the devil,” he warned they would be “tainted for the rest of their lives” during an appearance on the Alec Baldwin Show in August.

De Niro has also played special counsel Robert Mueller alongside Baldwin on Saturday Night Live’s interminable political skits. And just last week, he repeatedly dropped the f-bomb while ranting about Trump and his supporters on CNN’s Reliable Sources. Calling the president a “gangster” and “crazy,” he demanded impeachment, stating “We’ve gotta get him out…This guy should not be president, period.” 

De Niro stayed largely silent as the #MeToo scandal unfolded last year, claiming “I don’t witness that stuff too much” and musing that he must have been “naive” not to realize how common sexual exploitation was in Hollywood.

But do people around you witness that stuff?

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Met Police chief at centre of botched VIP child abuse inquiry also closed Jeffrey Epstein investigation due to ‘lack of evidence’

Alahna Kindred
The Sun

THE Met police chief at the centre of a botched investigation into a non-existent VIP child abuse inquiry also closed the Scotland Yard inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein because of a lack of evidence.

Steve Rodhouse is the Director General (Operations) of the National Crime Agency and was a former deputy assistant commissioner (DAC) at the Metropolitan police.

He has faced criticism after the release of Richard Henriques's review into the VIP sex abuse inquiry revealed allegations of police misconduct. Mr Rodhouse was in charge of the department that closed the Scotland Yard investigation into the paedophile and his alleged links with Prince Andrew in 2015, the Sunday Times reports.

The investigation was sparked following court action earlier that year in the US after one of the Epstein's alleged victims Virginia Roberts claimed she was "trafficked" to London to sleep with the Duke of York.

She claimed Epstein turned her into a "sex slave" and that she slept with the prince three times when she was 17- which Prince Andrew has denied.


Roberts has also alleged that one of those times was at the house of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been accused of acting as Epstein's madam.

Ghislaine is the youngest child of deceased publishing magnate, and apparently, fraudster, Robert Maxwell. He stole so much money from his companies, they completely collapsed after his death. 

Maxwell has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein's crimes. The prince has strongly denied any wrongdoing during his friendship with Epstein.

Robert's claims are now being investigated by the FBI, along with Epstein’s links to the prince and Maxwell, but at the time Rodhouse's team was not convinced by the “available evidence”.

WAVE OF CRITICISM
A senior Met source familiar with the investigation told the Sunday Times: "The investigation by Scotland Yard would not have been stopped without Steve Rodhouse’s approval. As the DAC overseeing the serious crime directorate at the time, he would have made the final call on all the investigations.”

A spokesperson for The Met Police told The Sun Online: "As we have previously said, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) did receive an allegation of non-recent trafficking for sexual exploitation.

"Having closely examined the available evidence, the decision was made that this would not progress to a full investigation. As such, the matter was closed. We acknowledge the considerable interest and concern around this case and have revisited that decision making and believe it remains entirely appropriate.

"Therefore no further action is being taken. The Met will always take seriously any allegation concerning sexual exploitation. Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse was not involved in the decision making process in relation to this matter."

Mr Rodhouse recently been met with intense criticism over the Met's handling of the VIP sex ring scandal. Retired High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques produced a report in 2016. At the time it was produced, vital sections that included the shortcomings of individual detectives were redacted.

The largely uncensored version was published yesterday, revealing allegations of poor leadership, misleading public statements and lack of empathy for those falsely accused.

It criticised Mr Rodhouse's decision-making and professionalism which ultimately resulted in £2.5million of public money being spent on the words of a single "source" - the now convicted fantasist Carl Beech, aka Nick.

The judge explained in the report it appeared there was "no sufficient consideration to the plight of suspects," while giving "every possible consideration" to Nick.

The prince has come under fire for visiting Epstein after he was released from prison for child prostitution offences. The convicted child sex offender was found hanged in his cell in August, weeks after being charged with child-trafficking offences.

The Duke was last pictured with Epstein in New York in 2010 after the hedge fund manager had been released from prison and was a registered sex offender.

At least five women who say they were abused by Epstein have filed lawsuits against his £458million estate after the paedo killed himself. All said Epstein used a “vast enterprise” of associates to recruit them, subject them to unwanted sex acts and keep them under his control.

He was arrested on July 6 over claims he was involved in the sex-trafficking of dozens of girls as young as 14 from at least 2002 until 2005.

Joaquin Phoenix and Rose McGowan Spent Their Early Years in a Religious Cult. Then it Became Infamous

BY GABRIELLE BRUNEY
Esquire

Joker star Joaquin Phoenix had an unconventional early childhood, living in Venezuela, Florida, and eventually Hollywood with his peripatetic parents and siblings Summer, Liberty, Rain, and late fellow actor River. But until Phoenix was around three years old in 1977, the family were followers of the Children of God, a cult helmed by a rogue preacher called David Berg that would later become notorious amid allegations of child sexual abuse. And he’s not the only celebrity who spent some of their early years in the group—Rose McGowan also spent part of her childhood in the cult.

Who are the Children of God?

In 1968, preacher David Brandt Berg founded a group initially called Teens for Christ, which at first consisted of young runaways and hippies. This church would evolve into the Children of God, which at one point counted 15,000 members around the world.

The church believed in group living and zealous proselytizing, and soon grew to include hundreds of communes. Members of these communities could be isolated, as they didn’t work—people who held real-world jobs were called “systemites”—or send their children to school.

Berg’s church melded worship of Jesus Christ with ’60s-era free love, and preached a fairly standard cult leader prophecy—the apocalypse was coming, and soon. This doomsday predication encouraged his followers to live hand-to-mouth rather than making long-term plans; ex-members later told The Guardian of begging for alms and subsisting off of donated food.

Members of the Children of God dance in Toronto in 1972.

What are the allegations against the group?

The cult earned notoriety for its sexual practices, which included what Berg dubbed “flirty fishing,” and which found him ordering female followers to have sex with men in order to bring them into the cult. In 1979, he reported that “flirty fishers” had added 19,000 members to the group’s ranks. "It was religious prostitution," one of Berg's daughters told Timeline in 2017.

Joaquin Phoenix told Vanity Fair that the introduction of the "flirty fishing" policy drove his parents to leave the group. "They got some letter, or however it came, some suggestion of that," he said, "and they were like, '**** this, we’re outta here.’"

His mother, Heart Phoenix, told the magazine that "it took several years to get over our pain and loneliness" after leaving the group. Rose McGowan’s family also escaped the cult during her childhood.

Members of the group sit down to a communal meal in 1974 California.

Michel GINFRAY Getty Images

Some in the cult reportedly extended its sexual policies to children, allegedly permitting and even encouraging child sex abuse. Berg himself was accused of sexual abusing young girls, including his daughters and granddaughters. "It definitely wasn’t a safe place to grow up, especially if you were a girl," one former member told The Guardian in 2017. "Close friends of mine growing up were abused and raped."

In 1993, a former member of the group named Ricky Dupuy appeared on Larry King Live, and told the host that he’d been ordered by the group to rape a 10-year-old. Dupuy, like other ex-members of the group, later committed suicide.

David Berg died in 1994, and at the time of his death he was under investigation from both Interpol and the FBI. His wife, Karen Zerby, inherited leadership. But the cult landed in the headlines again in 2005 after their son, Ricky Rodriguez, killed himself and another former member of the group.

Rodriguez was well-known in the cult—his childhood had been recounted in a parenting manual spread among the members. The New York Times, after reviewing pages of the book sent by former followers, reported that in it, "the toddler Ricky is described or else pictured as watching intercourse and orgies, fondling his nanny's breasts and having his genitals fondled."

Rodriguez left the cult in adulthood, and his wife told The Times that he wanted his mother “prosecuted for child abuse.” He also supported other women’s accounts that Berg had sexually abused his own daughters and granddaughters.

Children of God followers worship in 1980 Germany.

At the age of 29, Rodriguez invited one of his former nannies—a woman who appeared in the book documenting his alleged abuse—and stabbed her to death before killing himself. His wife gave reporters a video he recorded the night before the murder-suicide. "He said he saw himself as a vigilante avenging children like him and his sisters who had been subject to rapes and beatings," wrote The Times of the footage.

A spokeswoman for the group recently told the BBC that, "although the Family International has apologized on a number of occasions to former members for any hurt, real or perceived, that they may have suffered during their time in our membership, we do not give credence to tales of institutionalized abuse."

What is the status of the group now?

In 2004, the church again changed its name to the Family International. In the years following Berg’s death, the group relaxed many of its demands of its followers in an apparent attempt to boost declining membership. Followers are now allowed to live in private homes and work outside of the cult. In 2009, the leadership announced that they no longer believed the apocalypse to be imminent. The church still exists, and though its website says that the group underwent a “reorganization in 2010 as an online community,” it claims to have 1,700 members.

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Irish police investigating sexual assault on young woman ‘by famous national sports star’

FILE PHOTO: AFP

Police in Ireland are investigating claims of sexual assault on a young woman by “a famous Irish sports star,” according to local media reports.

The alleged attack is said to have taken place near a pub in west Dublin on Friday night, the Irish Mirror reports, adding that a complaint was made to gardai on Saturday morning.

A statement by police to Dublin Live read that "investigations are ongoing and no arrests have been made at this time.

“Owing to the nature of the investigation we will not be commenting further at this time."

The alleged incident is said to have taken place at around 9pm local time on Drimnagh Road in the Crumlin area of the city.

Reports further state that the sports star in question is believed to be the same person being investigated for an alleged sexual assault in the city back in December.

Tyler Perry Reveals How He Healed From

His Tragic Childhood Sexual Abuse

Lizzie Wells | Cheatsheet

Tyler Perry may be known for comedy, but what he suffered as a child is anything but funny. Many aren’t aware of the trauma and sexual abuse that Perry suffered in his younger years. It took a lot of inner work for Perry to heal from the pain and be able to make us laugh today. Here’s the inspiring story about how Perry was able to get past his childhood trauma. 

After a long career, Perry is 50 years old and has finally reached a place of healing from his traumatic childhood, but it was a long journey. Before the age of 10, he was sexually molested by three different men and a woman.

The first time was at the age of 5 when a neighbor put his hands down his pants. His first sexual experience with a woman was when an adult coerced him into having sex as a child. He also suffered severe beatings, physical and mental abuse from his own father.

“[It was] a living hell,” Perry told Oprah Winfrey in 2010.

It’s hard to imagine the kind of pain that Perry must have suffered from his years of abuse, and it took a long time before he was able to come to terms with the damage they created.

Tyler Perry tried to ignore his past

For most of his life, Perry tried to ignore the abuse and move forward without dealing with the trauma. “I didn’t know what was going on or the far-reaching effects of it,” he told People in a recent interview. “I just moved through it. Go onto the next thing. ‘Boys don’t cry, shut up and move on.'”

Unfortunately, this is a common reaction from those who have suffered sexual abuse, especially males. There’s a lot of misinformation around the sexual abuse of men.

Many people believe that it’s not possible for men to experience sexual abuse because “men always want sex.” These kinds of stigmas can make it very difficult for male survivors to seek help. However, it’s believed that around 1 in 6 men have been sexually abused.

Pushing the memories away and not dealing with the trauma caused Perry to experience a lot of negative emotions as a young man. He admitted that there was a lot of anger in his teenage years and into his 20s.

“A lot of anger, a lot of confusion, a lot of frustration trying to just be OK,” Perry said.

Writing helped Tyler Perry heal from his childhood trauma

If we don’t deal with these negative emotions, then they never really go away. Fortunately, Perry did eventually find a way to process what had happened to him.

While watching an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, he was inspired to find a creative outlet. During the episode, Winfrey discussed the healing power of the creative processes, and Perry decided he was willing to give it try.

Yes!! I’m still celebrating my 50th!!! And I’m gonna celebrate all year. Seriously. So many of the people I grew up with never made it to 50. The odds were against all of us. I'm so grateful to God that I was one of the ones who beat the odds!! Won’t he do it!

Writing was the perfect outlet for Perry. He started creating characters and through that, he was able to understand their motivation and personalities. The process allowed him to understand some of his own motivations and behaviors so that he was finally able to work towards healing.

Of course, writing helped him in other ways as well. Once he began writing plays, he was able to develop an entire career around his creative process and that’s how we know his name today. Now, Perry is able to relate to others who are struggling and tries to encourage them to keep moving forward.

“I would challenge anyone who is struggling or trying to figure out what to do to press on,” Perry said, “because whatever this plain was, there is an opposite. Here I am in it and I’m loving every day.”

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