VANESSA BRYANT ASKS JUDGE TO INCLUDE YOUNGEST DAUGHTER IN KOBE'S TRUST: According to TMZ, Vanessa Bryant has filed legal docs asking a judge to amend Kobe's trust so that it could include their youngest daughter, 9-month-old Capri, who was born after the most recent trust document was drafted and signed. According to the docs, Kobe created the trust for Vanessa and the kids back in 2003 and it was amended everytime one of their four children were born. The last time it was amended was in 2017. According to the trust agreement, Vanessa, Natalia and Bianka can draw from the principal and income in the trust during Vanessa's lifetime and then her kids get the remainder upon her death.
JADA PINKETT-SMITH AND WILL SMITH GET THE FACTS ABOUT COVID-19 ON 'RED TABLE TALK': Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith dedicated and entire episode of Red Table Talk to getting the facts about the coronavirus. Michael Osterholm, director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and Chiara Digiallorenzo, a 25-year-old COVID-19 patient, joined the Red Table via satellite yesterday (March 18th) to answer questions from the family and viewers.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG MODERATES THE VIEW FROM HOME: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Whoopi Goldberg moderated The View from Home. Co-host Sunny Hostin said, “Joy is still self-isolating at home and, as you all know, coronavirus in America is just spreading at an alarming rate. Life as we know it just keeps changing every single day, which is why our fearless leader Whoopi is joining us from home right now.” Whoopi said that she felt great and got the "all clear" form from her doctor to go to work but she decided to stay home due to “inconsistent messages” coming from state and federal leadership. While New York mayor Bill de Blasio told the city to prepare for “shelter in place,” Governor Andrew Cuomo downplayed the possibility. She explained, “My brain said, until they can get themselves together, until they can figure out what they’re doing, I should not go in. I just felt like, with all this inconsistency, it wasn’t good for me."
LINDA FAIRSTEIN SUES AVA DUVERNAY AND NETFLIX OVER 'WHEN THEY SEE US' PORTRAYAL: According to Variety, Linda Fairstein, the lead prosecutor in the 1989 Central park jogger case, who was protrayed in Ava Duvernay's Netflix docuseries When They See Us, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday claiming that she was publicly defamed. In the suit, which is against Netflix, Duvernay and co-writer Attica Locke, Fairstein claims that she was wrongfully portrayed as the mastermind behind the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of the Exonerated Five, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson. The suit stated, “Throughout the film series, Ms. Fairstein is portrayed as making statements that she never said, taking actions that she did not take—many of them racist and unethical, if not unlawful—in places that she never was on the days and times depicted." She also denied interrogating unaccompanied minors, suppressing DNA evidence, using derogatory terms against the boys, directing NYPD detectives to coerce confessions, and manipulating the timeline of the jogger’s rape. In a statement to Essence, a Netflix spokesperson said, “Linda Fairstein’s frivolous lawsuit is without merit. We intend to vigorously defend When They See Us–and Ava DuVernay and Attica Locke, the incredible team behind the series.”
THE VIEW Whoopi Goldberg moderates The View from home :
Will Smith on why we should be concerned about COVID-19 :