Category: Entertainment

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‘‘Battle After Another’ leads Golden Globes nominations with nine’’

Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically charged “One Battle After Another” leads the nominations for the Golden Globes with nine, organizers announced Monday, as the race to the Oscars kicked into high gear.

Norwegian family dramedy “Sentimental Value” was second with eight. It is followed by period horror movie “Sinners” with seven and Shakespeare family drama “Hamnet” with six.

“Wicked: For Good” ended up with five nominations – a disappointing showing for the smash hit musical, which failed to secure a nod for best musical/comedy.

The Globes, set for January 11, are widely seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards.

The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals – widening the field of stars who could walk the red carpet, and fueling the suspense.

“One Battle After Another,” which centers on an aging revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti), leads the contenders in the comedy/musical categories.

The film is a rollicking ride featuring leftist radical violence, immigration raids and white supremacists.

It won a pile of nominations, including best comedy/musical picture, best director and five acting nods: DiCaprio, Infiniti, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor.

“Sentimental Value,” a moving story of a fractured family, won nominations for Swedish legend Stellan Skarsgard and co-star Renate Reinsve.

It is one of several foreign language films to gain traction in the main categories, along with Brazil’s “The Secret Agent” and South Korea’s “No Other Choice.”

On the drama side, past Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence (“Die, My Love”) and Julia Roberts (“After the Hunt”) will do battle with Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”), Reinsve, Tessa Thompson (“Hedda”) and Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”).

Each main category will have six nominees, not five as in past years.

On the drama side, beyond the leader “Sentimental Value,” the top contenders all delve into the past.

“Sinners,” from “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, stars Michael B. Jordan as twins in the criminal underworld who encounter a sinister force as they return home to racially segregated Mississippi in the 1930s.

The film was a runaway box office success, and both Coogler and Jordan secured nominations. It led the nods for the Critics Choice Awards on Friday with 17.

“It has so much going for it – it’s a big moneymaker, it was a culturally significant hit,” explained Davis.

“Hamnet,” from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, who tries to forge a career as a playwright while his wife Agnes – played by Buckley – contends with the perils of plague and childbirth in Elizabethan England.

Both stars earned nominations, along with Zhao.

Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation of “Frankenstein” earned five nominations including one for Jacob Elordi as the iconic monster.

Oscar nominations are due on January 22, so the picks for the Globes will begin to map the road to the Academy Awards.

The Globes also honor the best in television, with HBO’s black comedy anthology “The White Lotus,” sci-fi office thriller “Severance” and searing teen murder saga “Adolescence” leading the contenders.

Last year’s Globes gala hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser was a hit with audiences, with more than 10 million tuning in.

Glaser will return as host of the January 11 gala in Beverly Hills. (Vanguard)

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Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, actor who performed in “Mortal Kombat”, dies at 75


Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a Tokyo-born actor known for his roles in the film “Mortal Kombat” and TV series “The Man in the High Castle” has died. He was 75.

Tagawa died surrounded by his family in Santa Barbara from complications due to a stroke, his manager, Margie Weiner, confirmed on Thursday.

“Cary was a rare soul: generous, thoughtful, and endlessly committed to his craft,” she said in an email. “His loss is immeasurable. My heart is with his family, friends, and all who loved him.”

Tagawa’s decades of film and TV roles truly got off the ground in 1987 when he appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning film “The Last Emperor.” Since then, he appeared in such films as “Pearl Harbor,” “Planet of the Apes” and “License to Kill.”

Tagawa was raised mostly in the US South while his Hawaii-born father was assigned to US mainland Army bases. He lived in Honolulu and on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a while.

Tagawa’s father met his mother while stationed in Japan, Tagawa told Honolulu Magazine in 2004. His parents named him after Cary Grant and his brother after Gregory Peck, he said.

His mother, Ayako, had been a stage actor in Japan, according to the Honolulu weekly newspaper Midweek. Tagawa said she asked him not to pursue acting because there weren’t many good roles for Asians.

He eventually began an acting career at age 36 after being a celery farmer, limo driver, pizza supply truck driver and photojournalist, he said.

“The good news for Asian actors and Hollywood is that it’s better than it’s ever been, but the bad news is that it hasn’t changed that much,” he told Midweek in 2005. “The opportunities haven’t increased that much, but commercially there’s more exposure.”

Tagawa played the Baron in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” a 2005 movie based on the bestselling novel chronicling a young girl’s rise from poverty in a Japanese fishing village to life in high society.

Some critics said the movie lacked authenticity, but Tagawa said it was unrealistic to expect a fictional work written and directed by Americans to fully reflect Japanese style and sensitivities.

“What did they expect? It wasn’t a documentary,″ Tagawa told The Associated Press in 2006. “Unless the Japanese did the movie, it’s all interpretation.″

Tagawa told the AP that he studied various martial acts but left because he wasn’t into fighting or competition.

Instead, he developed a system he called Ninjah Sportz, which incorporated martial arts as a training and healing tool. He worked with professional athletes like World Boxing Council light flyweight champion Brian Viloria and advised members of the University of Hawaii football team.

In 2008, Tagawa pleaded guilty in a Honolulu court to a petty misdemeanor charge of harassing a girlfriend. She had bruises to her legs, police said at the time.

His attorney said he took full responsibility for the case from the beginning and made no excuses. (CNN)

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Netflix to buy Warner Bros film and streaming businesses for $72bn

Netflix has agreed to buy the film and streaming businesses of Warner Bros Discovery for $72bn (£54bn) in a major Hollywood deal.

The streaming giant emerged as the successful bidder for Warner Bros ahead of rivals Comcast and Paramount Skydance after a drawn-out battle.

Warner Bros owns franchises including Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, and the streaming service HBO Max.

The takeover is set to create a new giant in the entertainment industry, but the deal will still have to be approved by competition authorities.

Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos said the streamer was “highly confident” it would receive the regulatory approval it needs and it was running “full speed” towards this.

He said that by combining the library of Warner Bros shows and movies with the streaming platform’s series such as Stranger Things, “we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling”.

“Warner Bros have defined the last century of entertainment, and together we can define the next one,” he said.

Asked whether HBO should remain a separate streaming service, co-chief executive Greg Peters said Netflix believed the HBO brand was important for consumers, but added: “We think it’s quite early to get into the specifics of how we’re going to tailor this offering for consumers.”

Netflix estimates it will find $2bn to $3bn in savings, mostly through eliminating overlaps in the support and technology areas of the businesses.

Films made by Warner Bros will continue to be launched in cinemas, it said, and Warner Bros television studio will continue to be able to produce for third parties. Netflix will keep producing content exclusively for its own platform.

Labelling it a “big day” for the companies, Mr Sarandos acknowledged the acquisition may have surprised some shareholders but it was a “rare opportunity” to set Netflix up for success “for decades to come”.

David Zaslav, president and chief executive of Warner Bros, added the agreement would combine “two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world”.

“By coming together with Netflix, we will ensure people everywhere will continue to enjoy the world’s most resonant stories for generations to come,” he said.

The cash and stock deal is worth $27.75 per Warner Bros share, with a total enterprise value – which includes the company’s debts and the value of its shares – of about $82.7bn. The equity value, or cash price, is $72bn.

The boards of directors from each company unanimously approved the deal. (BBC)

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Udo Kier, German Actor who appeared in ‘‘My Own Private Idaho,’’ ‘‘Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein,’’ dies at 81

Udo Kier, a German actor and cult icon who collaborated with everyone from Andy Warhol to Lars von Trier to Madonna, died on Sunday morning in Palm Springs, according to his partner, artist Delbert McBride. He was 81.

Among the more than 200 films in his expansive body of work, Kier’s breakout collaborations with Warhol are among his most celebrated. Kier starred in the titular roles in both 1973’s “Flesh for Frankenstein” and 1974’s “Blood for Dracula.” Both directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Warhol, the films are subversive, sultry reimaginings of the classic Hollywood monsters, with Kier bringing a haunting yet comically inept spin on the title characters.

That pair of films made Kier famous, and he spent the next two decades working through Europe and collaborating with legendary writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder on films like “The Stationmaster’s Wife,” “The Third Generation” and “Lili Marleen.” Then, at the Berlin Film Festival, Kier met future two-time Oscar-nominated director Gus Van Sant, who Kier credits with securing him an American work permit and a SAG card.

In 1991, Van Sant widely introduced Kier to American audiences with his coming-of-age drama “My Own Private Idaho,” loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.” Kier appeared in a supporting role alongside stars River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.

Around the same time, Kier began his lifelong collaboration with von Trier. Starting in the late ’80s with “Epidemic,” Kier appeared in the 1991 film “Europa” before appearing in several episodes of von Trier’s long-running horror-thriller series “The Kingdom” through the ’90s and aughts. Their other film collaborations include “Breaking the Waves,” “Dancer in the Dark,” “Dogville,” “Melancholia” and “Nymphomaniac: Vol. II.”

The 1990s also saw Kier in several supporting roles in major Hollywood productions, such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “Armageddon” and “Blade.” He also appeared in Madonna’s book “Sex” in 1992, and made appearances in her music videos for “Erotica” and “Deeper and Deeper” from her album “Erotica.”

Most recently, Kier appeared in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s awards darling “The Secret Agent.” The film earned star Wagner Moura the honor for best actor at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Born Udo Kierspe in Cologne, Germany, in a hospital that was being bombed by Allied Forces, he moved to London at 18 after meeting Fassbinder in a bar.

“I liked the attention, so I became an actor,” he told Variety‘s Peter Debruge in a 2024 interview.

After working between Europe and the U.S. for many decades, Kier settled in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, where he lived in a former mid-century library and cultivated interests in art, architecture and collecting. He was a fixture at the Palm Springs Film Festival, where he warmly received accolades from fans. (Variety)

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Pras Michel: Fugees rapper ‘‘who betrayed US for money’’ is jailed for 14 years

A Grammy-winning rapper who “betrayed his country for money” has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, who was part of 1990s hip-hop group The Fugees, was convicted of illegally funnelling millions of dollars in foreign contributions to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.

The Justice Department had accused the 53-year-old of accepting $120m (£92m) from Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who wanted to gain political influence in the US.

Prosecutors said Michel “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his actions” – and sought to deceive the White House, senior politicians and the FBI for almost a decade.

In 2018, it is claimed he urged the Trump administration and the justice department to drop embezzlement investigations against Low.

Michel was convicted of 10 counts by a federal jury in 2023 – and last month, he was ordered to forfeit about $65m (£50m) for his role in the scheme.

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio testified at the trial, and Low was a primary financier in his 2013 film The Wolf Of Wall Street.

The Oscar-winning actor said the businessman’s funding and legitimacy had been carefully vetted before they entered a partnership.

Prosecutors had been seeking a life sentence to “reflect the breadth and depth of Michel’s crimes, his indifference to the risks to his country, and the magnitude of his greed”.

However, the rapper’s lawyer Peter Zeidenberg has argued that the 14-year term is “completely disproportionate to the offence” – and is vowing to appeal.

Last year, a judge rejected Michel’s request for a new trial after claiming that one of his lawyers had used AI during closing arguments.

Low Taek Jho has been accused of having a central role in the 1MDB scandal, amid claims billions of dollars were stolen from a Malaysian state fund.

The 44-year-old is a fugitive but has maintained his innocence, with his lawyers writing: “Low’s motivation for giving Michel money to donate was not so that he could achieve some policy objective.

“Instead, Low simply wanted to obtain a photograph with himself and then President Obama.”

Michel, who was born in Brooklyn, was a founding member of The Fugees with childhood friends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean – selling tens of millions of records. (SkyNews)

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Ayra Starr, Tyla, Burna Boy and more are nominated for 2026 Grammy Awards

The Recording Academy has announced the nominees for the 2026 GRAMMY Awards, unveiling the musicians and recordings that influenced the past year. The ceremony is scheduled for February 1, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, with a global broadcast on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

This year’s nominations arrive at a moment when African music has firmly entered the global conversation and is heavily informing and directing it. From Lagos to Johannesburg, Accra to Nairobi, and all the areas in between, the sound of the continent continues to influence how people dance, feel, remember, mourn, and celebrate. African artists are the moment, the center stage, the sauce, injecting global sounds with spirit and soul.

The 2025 GRAMMYs offered a clear illustration of this shift. Tems won the award for Best African Music Performance with “Love Me JeJe,” a recognition that reflected positively on her ongoing rise and the Academy’s increasing acknowledgment of African innovation as a contemporary cultural force. South African flautist Wouter Kellerman also earned a win in the New Age/Ambient category, the third in his career so far, proving that African musicians are excelling across genres that have historically seldom recognized them. And although some African nominees did not take home trophies in the major categories, their presence alone marked a meaningful step forward. The Grammys have come a long way, but work still needs to be done if African music is to be viewed in its fullness. 

In the Best African Music Performance category, the nominees reflect the breadth of the continent’s sound in 2025. Burna Boy earns a spot with “Love”, while Davido and Omah Lay come in with the tender, radio-favored “With You.” Uganda’s Eddy Kenzo teams up with Mehran Matin on “Hope & Love,” while Ayra Starr and Wizkid’s effortlessly catchy “Gimme Dat” also makes the list, standing alongside Tyla‘s “Push 2 Start.” Angélique Kidjo returns to familiar territory with a nomination for Best Global Music Performance for “Jerusalema,” reaffirming her status as one of the continent’s most decorated and enduring cultural ambassadors. Similarly, Burna Boy extends his international streak with a nod for Best Global Music Album, making it the 11th time he’s been nominated.

Nigerian-American country artist Shaboozey earns a nomination for Best Country Solo Performance with “Good News,” and also appears in the Best Country Duo/Group Performance category for “Amen,” alongside Jelly Roll. In the Best Global Music Album category, two giants who have shaped the modern sound of the continent stand side by side. Burna Boy lands a nomination for No Sign of Weakness, while Senegalese maestro Youssou N’Dour, whose album Éclairer le monde (Light the World) speaks to his long-standing role as both cultural ambassador and sonic innovator.

The Recording Academy has continued to diversify and globalize its membership, incorporating more voices with lived experience across a wider array of musical cultures. As the voting body becomes more reflective of the world’s actual musical communities, the awards naturally shift as well, which makes possible an environment in which African musicians are an essential part of defining the core of the conversation. 

As anticipation builds toward February, the question now is how far this influence will extend and how it will continue to reshape the global landscape of sound. The nominations affirm that the continent is firmly in the room. It’s in the sound, the style, and the pulse of the present. (OkayAfrica)

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‘I no longer live in Nigeria’ — Ayra Starr

Afrobeats star Ayra Starr has confirmed that she has officially moved out of Nigeria.

During an online live session, the singer admitted to moving to New York, marking a new chapter in her personal life and career.

Though it has been less than two months since her relocation, the singer says the city already feels like home.

“Moved to New York in less than two months officially, but I’m always in newyork regardless, I’ve always been in New York, I’m a newyorker in my spirit,” she shared.

According to her, the bustling rhythm of New York echoes the familiar chaos and energy of Lagos, the city she grew up in.

“I’m a New Yorker in my spirit, I feel it; New York reminds me so much of Lagos,” she said.

The presence of a large African and Nigerian community in the city, she added, has made the transition feel natural.

“There’s a lot of Nigerians here, there’s a huge African diaspora here so it feels like home.” (Vanguard)

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Oscars: Academy reveals full lists of qualifying documentary, international and animated features

A total of 201 documentary features, 86 international features and 35 animated features are eligible for Oscar recognition this season in the best documentary feature, best international feature and best animated feature categories, respectively, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Friday.

The only time more documentaries were deemed eligible — 238 — was the year in which the pandemic led to an extension of the period of eligibility from 12 to 14 months (Jan. 1, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021) and docs that did not play in theaters were considered.

This year’s list of eligible documentary features includes titles that have dominated at the doc community’s precursor awards, including Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor and Apocalypse in the Tropics, Apple’s Come See Me in the Good Light and Neon’s Orwell: 2+2=5. It also includes two acclaimed films made by celebrities about their famous parents, HBO’s My Mom Jayne and Apple’s Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which were directed by Mariska Hargitay and Ben Stiller, respectively. And there are several titles related to recent turmoil in the Middle East, including Hemdale/Metallux’s Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on New York City Streets and the self-distributed Coexistence, My Ass!, Holding Liat and Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.

This year’s list of eligible documentary features includes titles that have dominated at the doc community’s precursor awards, including Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor and Apocalypse in the Tropics, Apple’s Come See Me in the Good Light and Neon’s Orwell: 2+2=5. It also includes two acclaimed films made by celebrities about their famous parents, HBO’s My Mom Jayne and Apple’s Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which were directed by Mariska Hargitay and Ben Stiller, respectively. And there are several titles related to recent turmoil in the Middle East, including Hemdale/Metallux’s Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on New York City Streets and the self-distributed Coexistence, My Ass!, Holding Liat and Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.

The most glaring omission from the list: The Eyes of Ghana, a documentary directed by the two-time Oscar-winning documentarian Ben Proudfoot, which is still seeking distribution. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that a late decision was made to hold the film for next awards season. Other high-profile docs that were expected to be on the list but are not, either because they were not submitted or because they failed to meet the eligibility requirements, include A24’s Marc by Sofia, Oscar winner Sofia Coppola’s portrait of Marc Jacobs, and Oscar winner Questlove’s Hulu film Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius).

The list of eligible international features includes five widely lauded films that are being distributed in the U.S. by Parasite backer Neon and could conceivably all earn nominations: Norway’s Sentimental Value, Brazil’s The Secret Agent, South Korea’s No Other Choice, Spain’s Sirāt and France’s It Was Just an Accident. It Was Just an Accident, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, was directed by Jafar Panahi, a filmmaker from Iran but does not reflect well on the country; as a result, Iran submitted the much lower-profile Cause of Death: Unknown, while France submitted It Was Just an Accident, on the basis that much of the film’s financing was French.

Other countries that made interesting submissions include Japan (GKIDS’ Kokuho, a film about Kabuki performers, which is now the highest-grossing non-animated film in that country’s history); Iraq (Sony Classics’ The President’s Cake won two prizes at Cannes); Belgium (Music Box’s Young Mothers could bring the brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne the first Oscar noms of their distinguished careers); and Taiwan (Netflix’s Left-Handed Girl, which was co-written by Anora Oscar winner Sean Baker).

Meanwhile, at least three countries submitted acclaimed documentaries for best international feature consideration: Ukraine (PBS’ 2000 Meters to Andriivka, a doc about a Ukrainian platoon’s fight to retake a city from Russian invaders, which was directed by Mstyslav Chernov, who won the best doc feature Oscar two years ago); North Macdeonia (Nat Geo’s The Tale of Silyan, from Tamara Kotevska, whose 2019 film Honeyland was nominated for best international feature and doc feature Oscars); and Denmark (Mr. Nobody Against, a film about Vladimir Putin’s propaganda efforts, which is still seeking U.S. distribution).

And the list of animated features includes giant blockbusters like Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, which is now the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time and the highest-grossing international film in the U.S. of all time, as well as the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2025; streaming hits like Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, which is now that streamer’s most watched film ever; acclaimed indies like Neon’s Arco, a French-language critics’ darling that counts Natalie Portman among its producers; and highly-anticipated forthcoming titles like Disney’s Zootopia 2.

Among the animated films that were expected to contend but are not on the list of eligible titles, either because they were not submitted or because they failed to meet the eligibility requirements, are A24’s Ne Zha 2, Sony’s Paddington in Peru and Paramount’s Smurfs.

The documentary feature and international feature categories are winnowed down to shortlists before nominations, while the animated feature category goes straight to nominations. Shortlist voting will span Dec. 8-12, 2025, and the announcement of the shortlists will come on Dec. 16. Nominations voting in all categories will span Jan. 12-16, 2026, and the announcement of the nominations will come on Jan. 22, 2026. (THR)

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Jamaican Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff dies at 81

Reggae icon, Jimmy Cliff, one of the most prominent and beloved proponents of reggae music, died on Monday, at the age of 81.

A star since the 1960s, Cliff helped bring the sound of Jamaica to a global audience with hits including Wonderful World, Beautiful People and You Can Get It If You Really Want.

He also starred as a gun-toting rebel in the 1972 crime drama The Harder They Come, a cornerstone of Jamaican cinema, widely credited with introducing reggae to America.

Using the late icon’s official Instagram account on Monday, Cliff’s wife, Latifa Chambers, announced his death.

“It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia.

“I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him.

“To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.

“Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes,” she wrote.

The message was also signed by their children, Lilty and Aken.

Born James Chambers in 1948, Cliff grew up as the eighth of nine children in abject poverty in the parish of St. James, Jamaica.

He began singing at his local church at the age of six, and by 14 had moved to Kingston, adopting the surname Cliff to reflect the heights he intended to reach.

He recorded several singles before topping the Jamaican charts with his composition Hurricane Hattie. In 1965, he moved to London to work with Island Records—later home to Bob Marley—though early attempts to adapt his sound to rock audiences were not fully successful.

Cliff struck gold with the 1969 single Wonderful World, Beautiful People—an upbeat anthem—and the politically charged Vietnam, which Bob Dylan called “the best protest song ever written.”

Cliff became an international star with The Harder They Come, playing Ivan Martin, a young man trying to break into Jamaica’s corrupt music industry.

“The film opened the door for Jamaica,” Cliff recalled. “It said, ‘This is where this music comes from.’”

His later works included Grammy-winning albums Cliff Hanger (1985) and Rebirth (2012). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. (Punch)

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Baba Ijesha not cleared of sexual assault charges –LASG

The Lagos State Government has dismissed circulating claims that Nollywood actor Olanrewaju James, popularly known as Baba Ijesha, was released from prison because he was cleared of sexual offences charges by the Court of Appeal.

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN), issued the clarification on Sunday, describing the claims as “false, misleading and irresponsible.”

Nollywood actor, Yomi Fabiyi, had on Friday alleged on his Instagram post that Baba Ijesha regained freedom after being exonerated by the Appeal Court.

Fabiyi further claimed the court cleared the actor of ever sexually assaulting a minor, calling the case “a charade.”

Pedro explained that the clarification became necessary following Fabiyi’s claims that the Court of Appeal “cleared” the convict of ever defiling a minor and that the entire case was a “charade.”

He said the public must disregard those claims, stressing that Baba Ijesha was released only because he had completed the prison term affirmed by the Court of Appeal.

The Attorney General recalled that the High Court of Lagos State convicted the actor on July 14, 2022, for sexual assault and indecent treatment of a child in an incident that occurred in 2021, sentencing him to five years and three years, respectively, to run concurrently.

Baba Ijesha challenged the conviction at the Court of Appeal.

In its judgment delivered on June 28, 2024, the appellate court set aside only the counts relating to alleged offences committed between 2013 and 2014 but upheld his conviction and sentence for the offences committed in 2021.

Pedro noted that the actor’s further appeal to the Supreme Court was filed as Appeal No. SC/CR/757/2024—was struck out on 29 May 2025 for incompetence.

A subsequent application for leave to file a fresh appeal (SC.ML/333/2025) was also dismissed by the apex court on October 9, 2025, leaving the Court of Appeal’s decision intact.

“Mr. Olanrewaju James’s release was not as a result of the Appeal Court overturning his conviction or sentence,” Pedro said.

“He was released solely because he had fully served the punishment affirmed by the Court of Appeal. He was not cleared of the offences of sexual assault and indecent treatment of a child,” Pedro said.

The Attorney General warned Fabiyi and any media platform spreading the false information to desist or risk criminal prosecution for publication of false news with intent to cause fear and alarm to the public, contrary to Section 39 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

He urged the public to ignore the misinformation, reaffirming that the state remains committed to upholding the rule of law and protecting child victims of sexual abuse. (Punch)