Merit: Last News

Having seen his 2024 White House bid embarrassingly misfire on the launch pad last week, Ron DeSantis is once again being mocked by both the Walt Disney Company and Donald Trump for his luckless battle with the Mouse House.

“Thus with a kiss I die,” wrote William Shakespeare in Romeo & Juliet, and thus echoed a Los Angeles judge today over the alleged sexual abuse and negligence lawsuit from the stars of Franco Zeffirelli Oscar-nominated 1968 adaptation of the doomed lovers play.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer A judge on Thursday said she will throw out a lawsuit over a nude scene in the 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” after finding that the film is protected by the First Amendment. The stars of the film, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, filed the suit in December, alleging that they were coerced by director Franco Zeffirelli into performing nude in the film’s bedroom scene. Hussey was 16 at the time of filming; Whiting was 17. Judge Alison Mackenzie granted Paramount’s motion to throw out the suit, finding that the plaintiffs had not complied with the provisions of a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims.

K.J. Yossman Prince Harry has lost a legal challenge in the U.K. over paying for private police protection according to the Press Association. The prince, who is also known as the Duke of Sussex, had attempted to launch a judicial review over the decision to reject his bid to privately hire members of the U.K. police force for his (and his family’s) personal protection. A judicial review is a court process that examines the way in which a decision has been reached by a public body. It does not consider the merits of the decision itself. When Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex took a “step back” from the Royal Family by relocating first to Canada and then to California, they lost their entitlement to publicly-funded police protection.

There was come old-school writer cred on the picket line outside the Fox lot in Century City today. David E. Kelley, he of the 11 Emmys and 30 nominations, is a veteran of multiple WGA strikes going back to 1988. Introducing himself as “David E. Kelley, old writer,” the Love & Death creator — whose many credits also include Big Little Lies, Big Sky, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Undoing, The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Picket Fences — told Deadline why he’s striking this time.

SNP MP Martyn Day has asked the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if it has considered increasing Universal Credit payment rates for claimants under the age of 25, who are paid £76.63 less than people over that age threshold, on the standard allowance.

Dumbarton’s Lorna McClymont has been crowned as the UK’s top student golfer after finishing the British Universities and Colleges (BUCS) Tour in top spot.

A Starz series from Ava DuVernay starring Joshua Jackson and Lauren Ridloff is the latest series halting its production as a result of the writers strike.

One of Bolton’s most iconic pubs is set for a major transformation as Yates’ Wine Lodge becomes a a Slug and Lettuce bar. The historic Yates’ pub, a Grade II listed building on Bradshawgate, has been a stop off on the social scene for generations of Boltonians enjoying a night out.

Scarlett Johansson still has a lot of love for Disney, though.

A proposal to turn shop storage space into six flats in Ayr High Street has ‘disaster written all over it’, according to an objector.

Dominated by modern commercial office buildings, Spinningfields has been described as the 'Canary Wharf of the North'.

A row broke out among Renfrewshire councillors as they debated the merits of the monarchy on the eve of King Charles III's Coronation.

Alison Herman TV Critic “Love & Death” feels familiar, as it should. The Max drama is the second series in less than a year to take on the same story: the case of Candy Montgomery, a Texas housewife who killed her friend and neighbor Betty Gore with an ax in 1980. This version follows closely on the heels of “Candy,” which aired on Hulu last year. The proximity practically demands comparison, and it’s tempting to draw up a laundry list of differences and call it a review. “Love & Death” casts Elizabeth Olsen as Montgomery, while “Candy” stars Jessica Biel. (The more jarring contrast is between the former’s Jesse Plemons and the latter’s Pablo Schreiber, two physically opposite actors who both assume the role of Allan Gore, Betty’s husband and Candy’s ex-lover.) “Candy” is inflected with horror, while “Love & Death” is more naturalist. “Candy” flashes back from the day of the murder, which saw Montgomery toggle from brutal homicide to eerily banal errands, while “Love & Death” is more linear in structure. The effect is not unlike that of 2019’s competing documentaries about the viral quagmire known as Fyre Festival, with the same details refracted through distinct sensibilities. But instead of racing to cover a recent event, these shows converge on a tragedy more than four decades old.

Two tourist attractions and a hotel in Perthshire have been recognised as the best in the UK by customers from North America.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced that it will put “protections in place” to ensure that “no one experiences financial loss” when Work Capability Assessments (WCA) are scrapped as part of upcoming changes to the benefits system.

A pensioner has been left housebound after she broke her hip stepping on a loose slab in Glasgow city centre.

The killer of Olivia Pratt-Korbel could have his 42-year prison sentence increased due to complaints that the verdict was 'too lenient'. Thomas Cashman, 34, could not face the nine-year-old's relatives in court when handed his sentence.

Thomas Cashman has appealed to have his 42-year jail term for the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel reduced - less than three weeks after being sentenced.

The latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that in August last year there were 956,448 people receiving weekly payments for Carer’s Allowance, including 83,196 living in Scotland.

Aberdeen have been told to forget about ripping up the rulebook to get a new panel for another Graeme Shinnie appeal – because the Dons helped write the laws in the first place.