Fame Under Fire

Drake's lawsuit against Universal Music Group over Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us was dismissed, but the legal battle is continuing after Drake appealed the ruling. New amicus briefs have brought more voices into the dispute, with arguments around artistic expression, rap music in courtrooms and First Amendment protections. Host: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Series Producer: Louise Clarke Senior Impac...

D4vd returned to court for a status hearing amid discovery delays and the huge volume of evidence in the case. The singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, faces charges including murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful dismemberment of human remains. The preliminary hearing has now been delayed until 29 June. D4vd has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Host: Anous...

A delayed preliminary hearing in the case against D4vd brings new scrutiny after prosecutors publicly filed a briefing document laying out their allegations. The filing includes claims relating to grooming, text messages, digital evidence, travel records and purchases prosecutors say connect to the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. D4vd has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Host: Anoushka Mutanda...

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have reached a settlement in their legal dispute linked to the movie It Ends With Us, ending proceedings two weeks before a trial due to begin on 18 May. A federal judge had already dismissed 10 of 13 claims, including sexual harassment, defamation, and civil conspiracy, leaving claims for retaliation, aiding and abetting retaliation, and breach of contract, to proc...

A small magazine with dogs in designer clothing on its covers finds itself up against Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue, in a trademark dispute over name. Both sides are defending the right to use the name ‘Dogue’. A separate case carries a $27m claim after a comedian’s take on The Lion King’s opening lyrics went viral. Host: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Series Producer: Louise Clarke Digital Video Pro...

D4vd, real name David Burke, has been charged with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and the unlawful mutilation of remains after the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Prosecutors say the charges include special circumstances, and Burke has entered a not guilty plea. Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty and our resident trial attorney Shaun Kent look at what the ch...

Motions in limine reveal competing attempts to restrict evidence in the Lively–Baldoni case, including challenges to witness testimony, viral material and past controversies. Legal arguments focus on whether the material informs the claim of retaliation, or risks biasing a jury. Our resident trial attorney Shaun Kent explains how evidentiary rules shape what may ultimately be presented in court. H...

A judge has thrown out several claims in Blake Lively’s lawsuit connected to the movie It Ends With Us. The decision is based on legal thresholds around where events took place and how her role was classified. Retaliation remains part of the case, based on alleged actions following complaints about working conditions. The court has allowed those claims to proceed. Both sides deny any wrongdoing. A...

Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills has been sacked from the BBC following allegations relating to his personal conduct. We look at what we know, and the ongoing uncertainty around the circumstances surrounding his exit. And there’s a fresh focus on the Epstein files. We examine exchanges between Jeffrey Epstein and model scout Ramsay Elkholy. Messages between the two include degrading descriptions of y...

A full season of The Bachelorette has been cancelled days before broadcast. ABC made the decision after a video surfaced of the latest Bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul in a domestic incident from 2023. The case had already been through the courts. Taylor Frankie Paul was arrested and later entered a plea in abeyance on a charge of aggravated assault. This means she had accepted responsibility in c...

The case against Marius Borg Høiby, the eldest son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has gripped Norway throughout its seven weeks. He faces 39 charges at Oslo District Court, including four counts of rape, coercive control of a former partner, drug offences, and repeated breaches of restraining orders. He denies the most serious charges. The most serious allegations center on four anonymou...

Controversial US rapper Kanye West - now known as Ye - has been ordered to pay $140,000 to a man he hired to renovate his $57m Malibu mansion. Handyman Tony Saxon claimed he was injured while working at the beachfront house in 2021, that he wasn’t paid properly and that he was fired after refusing to run generators that released carbon monoxide inside the property. West’s team had argued Saxon was...

US singer D4vd has been named as the ‘Target’ of a Grand Jury investigation into the apparent murder of a teenage girl. The body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 14, was found decomposing in a car belonging to the singer in Hollywood last September - but so far there have been no arrests, no charges and no indictment. Resident Fame Under Fire attorney Shaun Kent joins Anoushka to discuss the latest in...

We answer your pressing questions on the biggest legal cases of the moment. First up, the Blake Lively v Justin Baldoni case in New York. How did dragons, Game of Thrones and Taylor Swift get dragged into all of this? And how might it impact Taylor? Next, your questions on the case France’s first family, the Macrons, have brought against American online commentator and provocateur Candace Owens. R...

As Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni head to court together for mediation behind closed doors, we look at how this process works. Legally, both must try and reach agreement before their dispute goes to full trial in May. So what happens at hearings like these? How do they work? Can they reach agreement and avoid a full public trial? Resident Fame Under Fire attorney Shaun Kent walks us through the l...

Social media has been rife with speculation about what is in the Epstein Files with stories of cannibalism, designer babies, and references to torture. But what is actually true? What more do we know? The episode answers the questions listeners most want answers to. And we hear about the latest legal developments from US lawyer Arick Fudali, who represents 11 survivors of Jeffery Epstein. What doe...

Reputations supposedly take years to build and seconds to destroy. But what if that's no longer the case? What if the normal rules about earning - and keeping - a reputation simply don't apply any more. This week, David Yelland is joined by Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty, from the BBC podcast Fame Under Fire. Together, they venture into some distinctly dubious corners of the internet to see how public...

The latest release from the Epstein files has once again thrown the spotlight on numerous famous names such as Bill Gates, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and President Trump. But within the millions of documents, other famous names have appeared, so what does it actually mean if your name is connected to the files? One of those mentioned is rapper Jay-Z, included after an FBI tip off many years ago. I...

Hollywood film-maker Tyler Perry is facing a second sexual assault lawsuit by an actor employed on one of his productions. Actor Mario Rodriquez claims Perry carried out a series of unwanted sexual advances, some of which happened in Perry’s Los Angeles home. The claims follow an existing sexual assault claim by another actor called Derek Dixon. He was also employed by Perry and is suing for $260...

Liam Neeson appears as the narrator of a controversial film promoted as an investigation into pharmaceutical wrongdoing and Covid-era decision-making. The narration includes claims about Covid lockdowns and vaccines described as “dangerous experiments”, raising the question of what it means when a beloved movie star becomes associated, even indirectly, with polarising health narratives. Host Amber...

A very public and very personal fallout places the Beckham family under renewed attention after Brooklyn Peltz Beckham publishes a series of Instagram statements to his millions of followers. He alleges that family relationships have been shaped by what he calls Brand Beckham, including claims about public promotion, social media expectations and long-standing tensions surrounding his marriage to...

Will Smith is accused of predatory behaviour by a violinist, Brian King Joseph, who played on Smith's 2024/25 tour to promote his latest album, "Based on a True Story." Smith's lawyers say the allegations are "false, baseless and reckless." King says that he and Smith had become close friends with the star once confiding in him that: "You and I have such a special connection that I don't have with...

A writer convicted of cyber-bullying the French president’s wife has told the Fame under Fire podcast he doesn’t regret it. Bertrand Scholler posted an edited photo of Brigitte Macron in a swimming costume. Her head had been cut out and a man’s torso edited in. He was one of 10 defendants in France accused of spreading false claims about Mrs Macron’s gender and sexuality as well as making “malicio...

Anoushka and the Fame Under Fire team would like to wish you a happy new year. We're back next week, but in the meantime, you can go back and catch up on some of the most recent episodes! Got questions? Send us a Whatsapp message on 0330 678 111 4. Subscribe to Fame Under Fire on BBC Sounds and turn on push notifications so you never miss an episode. We’ll let you know as soon as new episodes are...

The Macrons' lawyer has told the BBC that claims the French president and his wife ordered the assassination of Candace Owens are "deranged". The right-wing influencer first made the allegations in a tweet on 22 November which has now been viewed more than 44 million times. In the message labelled URGENT, Owens wrote that she was contacted by what she described as “a high-ranking employee of the F...