Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

September 11, 2012

Green Lantern weds Gossip Girl

From news service reports

CHARLESTON, S.C. — One of the sexiest men alive is off the market. Again.

Ryan Reynolds married Blake Lively in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Sunday night at Boone Hall Plantation, according to a person familiar with the ceremony who requested anonymity because that person wasn't authorized to speak on the matter.

Representatives for the actors didn't return requests by The Associated Press for comment.

Although it is Lively's first marriage, Reynolds was previously wed to Scarlett Johansson. Their divorce was finalized last summer after three years of marriage.

Lively and Reynolds both starred in last year's "Green Lantern."Lively was previously linked to her "Gossip Girl" co-star Penn Badgley and to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Reynolds was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 2010.

Slander verdict: Casino king awarded $20 million

LOS ANGELES — A jury Monday awarded casino mogul Steve Wynn $20 million in his slander case against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis, who claimed the creator of some of Las Vegas' most upscale resorts threatened to kill him over a gambling debt.

Witnesses disputed Francis' claims during a four-day trial, including Grammy-winning record producer Quincy Jones, who Francis said told him about Wynn's threats and showed him a stack of emails that contained them. Wynn vehemently denied that.

In siding with Wynn, the jury determined that there was clear and convincing evidence that Francis slandered the casino mogul and knew his allegations were false when he made them. Francis had claimed Wynn threatened to hit him over the head with a shovel and have him buried in the desert.

Neither Wynn nor Francis was present in court Monday morning when the verdict was read.

On Friday, Wynn's attorney had asked the panel to award the billionaire $12 million plus punitive damages to send a message that false statements that travel far in the Internet age will not be tolerated. A second phase of the trial to decide punitive damages will begin Tuesday.

Wynn's attorney, Barry Langberg, said after the verdict was read that the jury clearly saw the harm in Francis' remarks. "The evidence was clear that there was falsity and there was damage," Langberg said. "(Francis) did it for a simple reason -- he didn't want to pay his debt."

Francis said he expects the verdict to be overturned on appeal because of judicial error.

He said the judge erred by letting Wynn's attorneys allow jurors to consider a new claim of slander based on an interview Francis did with "Good Morning America" after the trial started. The panel awarded Wynn $11 million in damages on that claim alone.

Jolie heads to tent city of refugees

AMMAN, Jordan — The U.N. refugee agency says its special envoy, actress Angelina Jolie, is in Jordan to visit Syrians who fled the civil war in their country.

Refugee agency spokesman Ali Bebe said the Hollywood star arrived Monday and is to visit Jordan's first tent city for Syrian refugees on Tuesday morning. Jolie will be accompanied by U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on the visit to the Zatari camp, which hosts about 27,000 Syrians displaced by the 18-month conflict.

Jordan has sheltered more than 185,000 Syrian refugees, the largest number in the region.

In April, the refugee agency promoted Jolie from serving as its goodwill ambassador to special envoy due to her work for the agency. Jolie has contributed $5 million to U.N. efforts aiding refugees worldwide,

 

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