Lori Loughlin felt she had 'no choice' but to plead not guilty - CNN

Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded not guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Each of the charges is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Here's how the 33 wealthy parents have pleaded in the college admissions scam

"Lori doesn't understand why she's getting so much criticism for pleading not guilty," the source said. "People must not realize that she had no choice. The plea deal has been taken off the table, and this is the only way they've been told she and Mossimo can avoid jail time and get another plea (deal). They are hoping justice will prevail."

However, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN last week that neither Loughlin nor her husband have engaged in substantial plea discussions. And the same source has said prosecutors will be seeking jail time for every defendant, regardless of their plea.

Prosecutors say Loughlin and Giannulli paid $500,000 to a fake charity to get their two daughters accepted into the University of Southern California, falsely designating them as crew team recruits.

"She is focused on repairing her relationship with (her daughter) Olivia," the source added. "Things are very tense."

Loughlin is among 15 other wealthy parents who did not initially plead guilty in the federal investigation and were slapped with the secondary charge of conspiring to launder bribes and other payments to Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the scam, in a superseding indictment earlier this month.

Actress Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to facilitate cheating for her daughter on the SATs. In a statement, she expressed "deep regret and shame over what I have done." She has a plea hearing set for May 21 in federal court in Boston, prosecutors said on Twitter.

Despite Loughlin being dropped from her Netflix TV show "Fuller House" and multiple shows on the Hallmark Channel, including "When Calls The Heart," she is still hoping that she has a future in Hollywood following the scandal.

"(Lori) is hoping she can move past this and get back to work and doing what she loves," the source said.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the date of Felicity Huffman's plea hearing.

CNN's Mark Morales contributed to this report.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/entertainment/lori-loughlin-not-guilty-no-choice/index.html

2019-04-17 14:01:00Z
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Watch the final trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix - The Verge

20th Century Fox has released the final trailer for the upcoming (and likely final) installment of its X-Men franchise, Dark Phoenix, showing off Jean Grey’s struggles to contain the vast powers she acquires after an accident in space.

The film is adapting the classic Dark Phoenix storyline, first published in the 1980s, in which mutant Jean Grey is struck by a solar flare and transformed, returning to earth as the Phoenix, a being of pure thought. We’ve seen a couple of trailers for the film that show off this transformation for the film’s titular character (played by Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner) and how the X-Men struggle to contain her powers.

This new trailer twists what we’ve seen so far, showing how Jean struggles with her new abilities. The team is dispatched on a rescue mission in space after a shuttle accident (a Dark Phoenix / Gravity mashup video seems inevitable), and after the solar flare, Jean is left behind to be transformed. She returns home and deals with suspicion as she begins to realize that she’s changed. “When I lose control, bad things happen,” she says, but “it feels good.” It looks as though that leads to a showdown between the X-Men who want to save her, and Magneto who wants to eliminate her as a threat.

The film is likely going to be the final installment in the long-running X-Men franchise following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox earlier this year. The merger will bring together the two sets of properties, which have famously been separated as Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken off. What that future looks like remains to be seen, but it’s widely expected that the X-Men appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point. Hopefully, Dark Phoenix will be a good send-off for the series.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix will hit theaters on June 7th.

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2019-04-17 15:09:26Z
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Lori Loughlin felt she had 'no choice' but to plead not guilty - CNN

Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded not guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Each of the charges is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Here's how the 33 wealthy parents have pleaded in the college admissions scam

"Lori doesn't understand why she's getting so much criticism for pleading not guilty," the source said. "People must not realize that she had no choice. The plea deal has been taken off the table, and this is the only way they've been told she and Mossimo can avoid jail time and get another plea (deal). They are hoping justice will prevail."

Prosecutors say Loughlin and Giannulli paid $500,000 to a fake charity to get their two daughters accepted into the University of Southern California, falsely designating them as crew team recruits.

"She is focused on repairing her relationship with (her daughter) Olivia," the source added. "Things are very tense."

Loughlin is among 15 other wealthy parents who did not initially plead guilty in the federal investigation and were slapped with the secondary charge of conspiring to launder bribes and other payments to Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the scam, in a superseding indictment earlier this month.

Actress Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to facilitate cheating for her daughter on the SATs. In a statement, she expressed "deep regret and shame over what I have done." She has a plea hearing set for May 21 in federal court in Boston, prosecutors said on Twitter.

Despite Loughlin being dropped from her Netflix TV show "Fuller House" and multiple shows on the Hallmark Channel, including "When The Heart Calls," she is still hoping that she has a future in Hollywood following the scandal.

"(Lori) is hoping she can move past this and get back to work and doing what she loves," the source said.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the date of Felicity Huffman's plea hearing.

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2019-04-17 12:16:00Z
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Beyoncé's Netflix Documentary Gets Real About How Demanding Her Coachella Performance Actually Was - BuzzFeed News

Today, Beyoncé blessed us all and dropped her highly-anticipated Netflix documentary, Homecoming.

The documentary is based around Beyoncé's instantly iconic 2018 Coachella performance — rightfully nicknamed Beychella — and gives an incredibly intimate look at what was going on behind-the-scenes in the lead up to the show.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

As you can probably imagine, things weren't as glamorous as they looked on stage. In fact, Bey got real AF about how tough things were considering she was a new mom, to twins no less, and it all sounds pretty damn exhausting.

"I was supposed to do Coachella the year prior, but I got pregnant unexpectedly," Beyoncé opened up. "It ended up being twins, which was even more of a surprise. My body went through more than I knew it could."

And the pregnancy wasn't without its complications. Bey revealed that by the time she gave birth, she was 218 pounds and had suffered from high blood pressure, toxemia, and preeclampsia. Even more terrifying, she also revealed that one of the twins' heartbeats "paused a few times" which led to an emergency C-section.

Netflix

Beyoncé also opened up about her pregnancy complications in an essay published in Vogue last year.

So, when Beyoncé finally gave birth and got back into rehearsals for Coachella, things were tough. "I had to rebuild my body from cut muscles," she said while footage of rehearsals played. "There were days that I thought, you know, I'd never be the same. I'd never be the same physically, my strength and endurance would never be the same."

Being a mom to six-year-old Blue Ivy and newborn twins Rumi and Sir Carter was also playing on Beyoncé's mind throughout the rehearsal period, as she admitted: "My mind wanted to be with my children. What people don't see is the sacrifice."

She continued that in between rehearsals, she would go back to her trailer to breastfeed the twins and would try to have all three of her kids on set as often as possible. "It was a lot to juggle," she said on the subject. "It's not like before when I could rehearse 15 hours straight. I have children, I have a husband. I have to take care of my body."

To add to the list of sacrifices she made, Beyoncé also included footage of her working and rehearsing on the night of her anniversary.

The couple made up for it though, as it appears Bey and Jay renewed their wedding vows at some point last year.

On top of all the Coachella preparation, Beyoncé was also trying to get her pre-pregnancy body back, revealing that in the lead up to Coachella, her diet consisted of "no bread, no carbs, no sugar, no dairy, no meat, no fish, no alcohol".

And if you thought rehearsals just required Beyoncé to show up and dance a little, you'd be very mistaken as she later revealed just how involved with the entire performance she was.

I'm super specific about every detail. I personally selected each dancer, every light, the material on the steps, the height of the pyramid, the shape of the pyramid, every patch was hand sewn. Every tiny detail had an intention.

But I think everybody can agree that it was all worth it in the end. Beychella was flawless from start to finish and will surely go down as one of Coachella's best performances of all time. In short, Beyoncé did that, and God only knows what she'll do next.

Kevin Mazur / Getty Images

You can watch Homecoming on Netflix now.

Ben Henry is a celebrity reporter for BuzzFeed UK and is based in London.

Contact Ben Henry at ben.henry@buzzfeed.com.

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2019-04-17 12:18:00Z
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Beyoncé's 'Homecoming' doc on Netflix is black excellence - CNN

The music festival wasn't ready, nor was the world, for what the pop star turned out: two nights of performances that were as much about history as they were history in the making.

Thanks to Netflix, we now have some insight into the performance that launched a thousand think pieces.

"Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé," premiered early Wednesday and it was the fulfillment of all the ancestors' hopes and dreams. Beyoncé also dropped "Homecoming: The Live Album" on her husband's streaming service, Tidal.

Written, directed and produced by the singer, and shot over eight months, the Netflix project is part concert film, part documentary with a behind-the-scenes look at the two weekend performances which made her the first black woman to ever headline the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Beyoncé makes history with Coachella performance

And it was one for the ages.

"Beychella" took up the entire stage, complete with an orchestra culled from historically black college and university (HBCU) band members, dancers, themes related to African-American culture and her stirring rendition of the black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

There were also guest appearances by her fellow Destiny's Child members, her sister Solange and her husband, rapper Jay-Z.

For nearly two hours, Beyoncé reminded us why her fan base, known as the Beyhive, loses it when she so much as posts a photo on Instagram.

But while the uninitiated may have thought they were just enjoying a hell of a Beyoncé concert, "Homecoming" lets it be known how intentionally and lovingly black it all was.

Filled with quotes from famed black intellectuals, as well as snippets of an audio diary in which the superstar shares how and why her Coachella performance came to be, "Homecoming" is a love letter to HBCUs (the title alone is a nod to the importance of homecomings on black campuses with its band and drumline performances, as well as sorority and fraternity events).

For that reason, special advance screenings were held for students at some of the venerable HBCUs, including Spelman and Morehouse in Atlanta and Howard University in Washington DC.

There was plenty of "swag surfing" (a popular dance done at concerts) by attendees and singing along with the hits.

There was also a plethora of emotion and gratitude that such a superstar would use her celebrity to share the beauty, pain and joy that is the black experience.

Far from shying away, Beyoncé has embraced her blackness and issues of race.

Her 2016 visual album "Lemonade" was critically acclaimed and lauded for its themes of black feminism, love, betrayal, empowerment, tribalism and family.

Decoding Beyonce's 'Lemonade'

Weeks before that album's release, her costume references to the Black Panthers during her Superbowl halftime performance outraged police unions and led to calls to boycott her performances (something that didn't come to fruition).

Why the Beyoncé controversy is bigger than you think

It hasn't stopped either the singer or her husband from continuing to use their influence to shed light on the state of people of color.

He is the executive producer of "Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story," a six-episode unscripted series devoted to the 2012 killing and subsequent trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of the teen.

In January, the rapper was part of a group of sports and business leaders who launched an organization to try and reform the criminal justice system.

Jay-Z and Meek Mill launch prison reform organization

Jay-Z appears in "Homecoming" at points seemingly in awe of his wife as task master.

A perfectionist, she controlled every aspect of the Coachella performance, right down to the beading on the costumes.

It was a struggle, not only because of the multitudes involved in making the performance happen, but also because it occurred months after she had given birth to her twins, Rumi and Sir (daughter Blue Ivy is 7).

In "Homecoming," Beyoncé shares her desire to be with her growing family, even as she worked diligently to give her audience the show that had been delayed a year because of her pregnancy.

She presents a performance that was so unapologetically black that even her mother, Tina Knowles Lawson, said in an Instagram post at the time that she "was afraid that the predominately white audience at Coachella would be confused by all of the black culture and Black college culture because it was something that they might not get."

"Her brave response to me made me feel a-bit selfish and ashamed," Lawson wrote. "She said i have worked very hard to get to the point where i have a true voice and At this point in my life and my career i have a responsibility to do whats best for the world and not what is most popular."

"Homecoming" is a testament to that hard work.

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2019-04-17 11:51:00Z
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Beyoncé drops surprise live album with release of Netflix documentary - Fox News

FILE: Beyonce sits at court side during the second half of the NBA All-Star basketball game in New Orleans. (AP)

Beyoncé surprised her fans early Wednesday morning by dropping a previously unannounced live album just as her new documentary “Homecoming,” began streaming on Netflix.

Both the live album and the documentary capture the 37-year-old’s 2018 performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which marked the first time a black woman headlined the event.

The documentary features rehearsal footage and clips from backstage before the historical 2018 event which became known as “Beychella.”

KACEY MUSGRAVES SHAMES COACHELLA CROWD FOR FAILING AT CALL-AND-RESPONSE

The complimentary album includes 38 tracks from the 2018 performance and two bonus tracks: “I Been On” and “Before I Let Go,” which was originally performed by Frankie Beverly and Maze, a 1970s soul band.

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No stranger to surprise releases, Beyonce first executed the tactic for her 2013 album "Lemonade." The release of the "Homecoming" album and documentary comes ahead of Coachella’s second weekend.

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2019-04-17 09:37:07Z
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Spoilers For Avengers: Endgame Have Leaked, Be Careful Online - GameSpot

Bad news, Marvel fans: the ending for Avengers: Endgame has leaked online. As a result, it might be a good idea to go on high alert and take the necessary actions to try and defend against spoilers. We recommend muting Avengers-related hashtags on Twitter and to be generally extra mindful of social media. If you can't stay offline for the next 10 days, and need any other tips to remain unspoiled, we've compiled a list of actions that you can take to give yourself a better chance of avoiding the spoilers.

Endgame hits cinemas in Australia on April 24 and comes to the United States on April 26, so the leak comes about 10 days before the film's release. Spoilers are always a concern, but the profile is higher with Endgame considering the dramatic conclusion to Infinity War where Thanos snapped his fingers and wiped out half of the galaxy.

In the time since the Endgame leak, the Marvel subreddit has gone on lockdown. The moderators have confirmed this is temporary, while they sift through posts and ensure that there's nothing that could ruin the experience for eager fans. "Spoilers are bad. We strive to keep this community spoiler-free, and due to recent events, we must take these measures to ensure that," reads a post on the subreddit.

"Until we are more satisfied with our filter's ability to weed out the influx of new spoilers, all posts will be subject to approval. This shouldn't last too long. If your post is removed, is NOT a spoiler, and not approved within a reasonable time, message one of the mods and we will help you out. Also feel free to message us if you have any other questions concerning this."

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have also issued a response to the Avengers: Endgame spoilers leak. In an open letter shared on Marvel Studios' official Instagram and Twitter accounts with the hashtag #DontSpoilTheEndgame, the duo said they "have worked tirelessly for the last three years with the sole intention of delivering a surprising and emotionally powerful conclusion to the Infinity Saga."

They continued: "Because so many of you have invested your time, your hearts, and your souls into these stories, we're once again asking for your help. When you see Endgame in the coming weeks, please don't spoil it for others, the same way you wouldn't want it spoiled for you. Remember, Thanos still demands your silence."

Endgame is believed to wrap up more than 10 years worth of Marvel Cinematic Universe storytelling that began back in 2008 with the original Iron Man. The film marks the end of the MCU Phase 3. Marvel is expected to provide the first details on Phase 4 after the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home in July, so keep checking back for that.

Ahead of that, Disney and Marvel have released a new Endgame trailer. This one celebrates the journey so far, giving each character that has been pivotal to getting us where we are some time in the spotlight, so fans can reminisce.

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Brie Larson, Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Danai Gurira, Paul Rudd, and Josh Brolin star in Endgame. Tickets went on sale last week, and so far presales have far exceeded those for Captain Marvel, Infinity War, Aquaman, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi combined.

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2019-04-17 10:58:00Z
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