ICYMI: Sean 'Diddy' Combs cops another lawsuit, Moana 2 makes history and Harry Potter star's $3.5m tax bill
Sean 'Diddy' Combs faces another lawsuit which accuses him of sexual battery, false imprisonment and other claims. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Welcome to ICYMI, where we recap the pop culture and entertainment news that you might have missed over the past few days.
Let us get you caught up.
Sean 'Diddy' Combs sued by fashion designer for allegedly dangling her off 17th-floor balcony
Days after a US judge rejected Sean "Diddy" Combs's $77 million bail plea, another lawsuit was filed against the disgraced rapper and producer.
Fashion designer Bryana "Bana" Bongolan filed a 17-page lawsuit against Combs this week in Los Angeles, according to Rolling Stone.
The lawsuit accuses Combs of sexual battery, infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment, among other claims, with Bongolan seeking $US10 million ($15 million) in damages.
Bongolan says she worked for Combs up until 2018 including on the 2016 Bad Boy reunion tour, album covers, music videos and a clothing line with Combs's former partner Cassie Ventura.
Among the claims in Bongolan's lawsuit are accusations that Combs lifted Bongolan by her armpits and dangled her over a 17th-floor balcony at Ventura's apartment. The suit says that Combs eventually brought her back over the balcony, at the insistence of Ventura, but not before allegedly slamming Bongolan onto the balcony's patio furniture.
The incident was also mentioned by Ventura in her sexual abuse and sex-trafficking lawsuit against Combs, which was settled in November last year.
Bongolan alleges in the lawsuit that Combs cornered her at a photo shoot of Ventura's and threatened her, saying, "I'm the motherf***ing devil. You have no idea what I could do to you. I could kill you."
Combs "firmly denied" Bongolan's claims against him in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Bongolan joins a group of 30 people that have filed civil suits against Combs for various instances of alleged abuse between the 1990s and 2022.
Combs was arrested on criminal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking in September of this year. He is currently being held in a New York prison with a trial date set for May 2025.
'Obtuse censorship': Director of Queer, starring Daniel Craig, slams Turkish ban
Luca Guadagnino has spoken out about the Turkish ban of a screening of his upcoming film Queer, vowing to "fight any institution that wants to tarnish" cinema.
Guadagnino, the Oscar-nominated director behind Challengers and Call Me By Your Name, spoke out about the ban at a press conference at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where he presides over this year's jury.
"They banned the movie because they said [it] was creating social disorder," said Guadagnino (via Agence France Presse).
"I really hope they do believe that the form of the movie brings the possibility of societal collapse. Because this means that my belief in the power of cinema is true and not delusional."
Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of Queer. (A24)
Queer was set to open streamer Mubi's Mubi Fest Istanbul in November, but was banned at the last minute by the city's governor.
Via a statement, the streamer claimed the governor believed Queer included "provocative content that could endanger the peace of the society". Mubi subsequently cancelled the three-day festival as a stance against "an intervention that restricts art and freedom of expression".
The film, starring Daniel Craig, is an adaptation of William S. Burroughs's semi-autobiographical 1985 novel of the same name, focusing on an exiled American's time in Mexico City, where he begins a relationship with a reluctant younger man. It also stars Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman and singer Omar Apollo.
The director questioned whether the film's press impacted the governor's ban: "I wonder if they've seen the movie or if they are just judging it by the outline or, let's say, the facetious stupidity of some journalist focusing on James Bond going gay."
"It's an obtuse censorship, particularly in this world where you can download the movie."
Queer will be released in Australian cinemas on February 6.
Moana 2 makes Australian box office history
Moana 2 was always going to smash the box office. But numbers from the Disney animated film's opening weekend have exceeded expectations.
Moana 2 has taken in an estimated $8.3 million in Australia since it opened on Thursday, making it the highest-grossing opening weekend of any Walt Disney Animation movie – ever.
This was after the film nabbed the record for the highest Walt Disney Animation Studios opening day of all time, bringing in $1.7 million on Thursday alone.
Other local records broken include the biggest animated opening day post pandemic and the second-highest opening day of 2024, behind Deadpool & Wolverine.
Moana 2 brought in a whopping $US386.3 million ($596 million) worldwide over the weekend, making it the second-biggest global debut of any film so far in 2024 (the Merc with the mouth has number one on lock … for now).
Harry Potter star faces $3.5 million tax bill
UK actor Rupert Grint has lost his appeal to UK tax agency HM Revenue and Customs. (Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
Actor Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter film series, is facing a £1.8 million ($3.5 million) tax bill, having lost an appeal with UK tax authorities.
Grint was first ordered to pay the fee in 2019, after HM Revenue and Customs investigated the actor's return from 2011-2012.
The UK's tax authority determined that Grint had wrongly classed £4.5million ($8.79 million) of Harry Potter residuals as capital gains rather than income.
Grint's appeal was denied this week. It's the actor's second legal battle over tax – in 2016, he lost an appeal for a £1 million ($1.95 million) tax refund.
Since the mainline Harry Potter series ended in 2011, the 36-year-old has starred in several film and television shows, with his most recent role in M. Night Shyamalan's 2023 horror, Knock at the Cabin.