Archives for December 2022

The family of Nicole Brown Simpson is speaking out days after Chris Rock’s tasteless joke about hosting the 2023 Oscars.

Earlier this week, we told you that during a comedy set in Arizona over the weekend, the comedian and Fargo actor said he was approached to host the 2023 Oscars but decided to turn it down—likening it to “returning to a crime scene.” Show attendees at the Arizona Financial Theatre said that Rock then referenced the O.J. Simpson murder trial and said that coming back to the event would be like “asking Nicole Brown Simpson to go back to the restaurant where she left her eyeglasses before being killed.”

Well, that comment didn’t go over too well with Simpson’s family, more specifically, her sister Tanya who called the comedian out for the “distasteful” joke and for his comment towards Jada Pinkett Smith during this year’s Academy Awards.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tanya took to Instagram to express her disdain in a post of Rock: “Nothing Is more lovely then to wake up on a Tuesday morning (Not) with TMZ calling you saying Chris Rock made a horrible “joke” about Nicole. BEYOND distasteful!”

Listen to your gut
Nooci is an East-meets-West herbal health brand whose ReNoo packets are full of herbs and goodness to promote better digestion.

She continued, “Nothing funny about his joke towards Jada as she suffers from a physical condition and nothing funny about equating an Oscar host invitation to a double homicide. I always thought he was funny, but he crossed the line with this one. In other words, Y’all!!!! Stop using my sister, OJ and Ron part of your cricking comedy act. There are families behind this tragedy!”

Per ET, Christopher Darden, the prosecutor in Simpson’s trial, also echoed Brown’s sentiments in a separate post to his private Instagram account, which read:

“I don’t advocate violence but I guess this guy hasn’t learned his lesson. I guess Will failed to slap any sense into him. I know some people who are deeply hurt and offended by this joke. Lame as it is. I mean he has every right to say what he said but maybe if some of his jokes were more general in nature and not so specific as to mock specific people. Nicole was somebody’s mother bruh and Ron was a son and a brother, you know? Do you always have to make a joke at somebody else’s expense? Ain’t you learned nothing from the slap that was heard around the world?”

A Kaikōura cafe owner jailed for two months for selling food without adequate council registration is languishing in the local police cells awaiting a transfer to prison – where the first-time offender will spend Christmas without her family.

Her family say she is still in shock, upset and tearful over the sentence which they have described as “crazy” and “an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars”.

The two charges, under the Food Act 2014, were brought by the Kaikōura District Council.

Kaikōura District Council CEO Will Doughty said it was “regrettable” that the council had “no other option but to prosecute” Rayner.

“The Court’s ruling is sadly the inevitable conclusion of a year-long process in which Ms Rayner has been provided with numerous opportunities by Kaikōura District Council to comply with the Food Act, as all other food sellers do, and avoid prosecution – opportunities which she chose not to take,” he said in a statement posted to Facebook on Sunday.

Doughty said Rayner had “previously complied with food safety regulations”.

However, in 2021 she requested that her valid food registration be withdrawn.

“She then continued to sell food to the public without food registration measures in place at her cafe Bean Me Up, and has continued to do so right until the day of sentencing,” said Doughty.

“For Kaikōura District Council not to seek prosecution of a food operator who has been given every opportunity to comply with the Food Act by Council and the Court would have been a dereliction of Council’s duties to the public under the safety provisions of the Food Act.

“It would also have been unfair to other businesses who meet their food safety requirements under the Food Act – indeed many in the same street.”

Rayner and her family acknowledge she did not legally comply with the Food Act but maintain that both her business and the produce served complied with the rules.

She simply did not want to register anything with the council.

Rayner’s daughter Holly Timms told the Herald her mother was still being held in the police cells at Blenheim, waiting to be transferred to Christchurch Women’s Prison.

She had been able to spend time with her there and has also spoken to her on the phone.

“She’s doing okay given the circumstances, but she’s in shock, she’s in disbelief,” Timms said.

“She wasn’t prepared for jail, we thought maybe she would get home detention but that was never discussed.”

Timms said her mother was distrusting of authorities and refused a court-appointed lawyer and government-funded Legal Aid.

“This is her first offence, she’s never even had a speeding ticket – she’s 55 years old and the first port of call was to send her to prison?” Timms said.

“What the hell has just happened?

“At the moment she’s just going through the motions, she’s a bit upset, she’s been crying… her dog misses her, my grandma is beside herself and told me ‘I’m going to die from this’.”

Timms said for her and the wider family it had been a “very emotionally draining time”.

While there was a lot of support for Rayner in her community and across New Zealand, there was also a lot of hate being directed at the family.

“I’ve had random idiots message me on Facebook and say ‘I hope your mum dies in there’ and ‘I’m glad she got jail time, she’s a piece of sh*t’,” Timms said.

“It’s just crazy.”

Timms accepted there had to be a consequence in her mother’s case but said prison was “ridiculous”.

“I look at the case of Jayden Meyer in Tauranga and he didn’t even get any jail time for rape,’ she said.

“It’s pretty shocking… it’s a complete overreach.”

Earlier this year Meyer was sentenced to nine months’ home detention for the rape of four 15-year-old girls and the sexual violation of another.

He was 16 at the time of the offending.

“So why are they doing this to mum? There’s just no empathy, no compassion,” Timms said.

Timms hoped that she would be able to spend time with her mother at the prison on Christmas Day.

But the holiday season had been ruined by the sentence.

“I don’t even want to put the Christmas tree up, it doesn’t feel very festive or worth celebrating,” she said.

She said her mother still did not want a lawyer so it appeared she would serve the time and then return to Kaikoura to try and restart her life.

“At the moment she hasn’t thought about what she’s going to do, there’s no master plan yet – it’s really just taking each day as it comes and riding out the sentence,” Timms said.

“It’s just unbelievable – she’s done no harm to anyone, there has never been a complaint to the council about her, there’s been not one case of sickness related to her cafe since she started it in 2012, she’s been in hospo for 40-plus years and they’ve just thrown her in jail?

“It’s just awful.”

Stephen “tWitch” Boss was a thoroughly modern dancer. He grooved with his family in TikTok videos. He appeared in the “Step Up” movies and the “Magic Mike” sequel. He lit up the stage of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” for nearly a decade.

But when it came to the root of his own creative inspiration, Boss looked back to the early 20th century and the loose-limbed luminaries of Hollywood’s golden age.

“The greatest of all time had to be Gene Kelly, man. Gene Kelly, because he’s a guy’s guy. I love Fred Astaire, but Fred Astaire was so smooth, and it was great. He was so classy,” Boss told The Associated Press in 2014, the year he joined the “Ellen” show.

“But Gene Kelly — he could be like somebody’s dad, who just decided to get up off the couch and dance around and clean the kitchen up,” Boss added.

In the course of his all-too-brief artistic career, Boss — who died this week, at 40 — embodied so much of what he admired about Kelly: the easy charm, the infectious enthusiasm, the palpable zeal for his craft. You could imagine him dancing around his own kitchen.

He could make others feel like jumping off the couch, too. In his eight years at the “Ellen” show, Boss richly endeared himself to viewers. He was a staple of the daytime series, helping to set a tempo that got audience members on their feet.

The tributes that streamed in Wednesday were a testament to his effect on others and the sheer depth of his talent.

Paula Abdul, a dancing star of the 1980s and a former judge on “So You Think You Can Dance,” praised him as a key member of the contemporary dance world.

“tWitch greeted the world every day with a beautiful smile that was a direct reflection of his beautiful heart,” Abdul said in a statement. “He was a beacon of light & a true talent whose legacy & impact will live on in the dance community.”

Stephen Laurel Boss was born on Sept. 29, 1982, in Montgomery, Alabama. He started dancing as a teenager, performing in several local and regional theater productions. He specialized in freestyle moves.

Boss studied dance performance at Southern Union State Community College and Chapman University, and he later taught hip-hop dance at school back home in Alabama.

“He has the personality and the look to succeed,” Leslie Crook, one of his former students, told The Montgomery Advertiser in 2008. “He is just one of those ‘so likable’ people.

“Everyone that meets him falls in love with him,” she said.

Boss eventually moved to Los Angeles to chase his dreams of professional dance stardom. He scored small but career-boosting roles in the movies “Blades of Glory” and “Hairspray,” an adaptation of the Broadway smash.

“So You Think You Can Dance,” a reality show on Fox, introduced Boss to a much wider audience. He was the first runner-up during the show’s 2008 season, and he served as a judge a decade later.

“It really ingrained in me that you can do anything if you put your mind to it,” Boss told The Montgomery Advertiser in February 2009.

Boss made national headlines during the 2008 season, when he and a dance partner, Kherington Payne, performed a Viennese Waltz set to the Celine Dion song “A New Day Has Come.”

The dance had been created by choreographer Jean Marc Genereux as a tribute to his young daughter who had Rett syndrome, a severe genetic disorder.

The performance reportedly moved the judges and audience members to tears.

“The only time she gets so animated is when she sees people move,” Genereux told The New York Times, referring to his daughter. “Hopefully this piece will make her react and feel great.”

“So You Think You Can Dance” sent Boss to the next level of his career. He landed a part in the 2010 movie “Stomp the Yard: Homecoming” and got cast in three entries in the “Step Up” film series: “Step Up 3D,” “Step Up Revolution” and “Step Up: All In.”

Boss also appeared in a small role in “Magic Mike XXL,” the 2015 sequel to Steven Soderbergh’s portrait of a male stripper, played by Channing Tatum.

Boss began his tenure on the “Ellen” show in 2014, where he started out as a recurring guest DJ before taking on a more permanent role. He was a beloved fixture of the show, and in 2020 he was promoted to an executive producer role.

When the “Ellen” show was coming to an end last year, the host paid tribute to her sidekick and collaborator in glowing terms.

“I’m supposed to be throwing to a montage right now of some of our favorite celebrity moments, but I’m not going to do that,” DeGeneres said. “Over a decade ago, I met somebody who changed my life and our show — and I’m talking about you, tWitch.”

Boss, seemingly caught off guard, embraced DeGeneres and sat down next to her for an extended homage. The audience cheered and applauded.

Boss continued to reach into the homes of his fans even after the “Ellen” show ended. He and his wife, fellow professional dancer Allison Holker Boss, frequently posted videos on TikTok: the couple dancing to Lizzo; their kids dancing to a Fisher Price DJ toy.

She wished him a happy birthday in a TikTok video on Sept. 29. tWitch could be seen dancing, surrounded by family and friends, seemingly lost in the ecstasy of what he loved most.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.