Latest news with #CashOut
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Atlanta rapper Cash Out gets life sentence after RICO, sex trafficking conviction
The trial, which began in June, alleged that Cash Out and his family members had forced women into sex work. Rapper Cash Out, whose real name is John-Michael Hakeem Gibson, was sentenced to life in prison plus 70 years on Monday after being found guilty in his RICO and sex trafficking case. On Friday, the 34-year-old artist received a guilty verdict in an Atlanta court. According to WSB-TV Atlanta , the life sentence plus 70 years will run concurrently. His mother, Linda Smith, was sentenced to 30 years, and his cousin, Tyrone Taylor, was sentenced to life in prison plus 70 years. Gibson is known for his 2014 platinum hit 'Cashin' Out' and 'She Twerkin.' He released one studio album in 2014, 'Let's Get It,' and six mixtapes. Advertisement His career was stalled when he was arrested in a Georgia prostitution sting in June 2019. The trial, which began this past June, brought forth allegations that Gibson, his cousin and his mother had forced women into sex work. When they operated the 'house of horrors,' they were also said to have coordinated the sale of women and the corresponding payments. Prosecutors presented text messages from eight different phones as evidence. 'This has been going on for seven years,' Fulton County prosecutor Earnelle Winfrey said to the Atlanta courtroom on Friday. 'This ain't just straight pimping — this is trafficking.' She added that though they were 'pimping, for sure,' it was the 'force and cohesion' of the operation that made it trafficking. Advertisement Gibson first faced charges in June 2023. His legal team claimed that victims were pushed to testify. In closing arguments, his team argued that the women involved were not forced. His mother claimed that she was unaware of the trafficking, but prosecutors cited payment receipts linking her to the offenses. This included a leased residence where some of the victims were said to be housed. Additionally, witnesses claimed that Smith had engaged in prostitution herself.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Rapper Cash Out sentenced to life in prison for running trafficking ring under RICO charges
Atlanta rapper Cash Out, whose real name is John Gibson, has been sentenced to life in prison for rape, with an additional 70 years for a string of crimes including sex trafficking and racketeering. The court ruling, delivered on 18 July, brings to a close a harrowing trial that exposed a seven-year criminal enterprise hiding in plain sight. Rapper Cash Out sentenced to life for orchestrating vicious trafficking ring Cash Out rose to fame in the early 2010s with hits like "Cashin' Out" and "She Twerkin". But behind the celebrity image was a grim reality. Prosecutors say Gibson exploited his fame to lure vulnerable women into sex work. His victims were manipulated, starved, and abused, all under the guise of industry opportunities. Cash Out's mother 'Mama Cash Out' was also covicted The rapper's mother, Linda Smith, infamously known as "Mama Ca$h Out," was also convicted and sentenced to 30 years. His cousin Tyrone Taylor received life in prison plus 70 years. Prosecutors described the trio as the core operators of a trafficking network targeting women across Atlanta. Evidence included messages from eight seized phones and disturbing testimonies from survivors. Fulton County prosecutor Earnell Winfrey called the operation more than just pimping, it was modern-day slavery. One woman testified she was only fed if she performed sex acts. Prosecutors painted a picture of systematic abuse, with earnings collected in kitchen drawers and victims subjected to physical control and threats. Who is Rapper Cash Out? Signed to Epic Records in 2011, Cash Out seemed destined for stardom. Instead, his conviction now stands as a dark symbol of celebrity abuse. With 11 convictions including rape, aggravated sodomy, and RICO violations, Gibson's legacy has been shattered. He must also register as a sex offender and avoid areas connected to his crimes.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rapper Cash Out Sentenced to Life in Prison Plus 70 Years on RICO and Sex Trafficking Charges
Rapper Cash Out has been sentenced to life in prison plus 70 years after being found guilty in his RICO and sexual assault case. Cash Out, born John Gibson, was found guilty on Friday in his Atlanta trial. He was sentenced to life in prison for his rape charge as well as an additional 70 years for RICO and his other convictions, according to WSB-TV Atlanta. The sentences will be concurrent. More from Variety 'Cash Out' Review: John Travolta Goes Through the Motions in Uninspired Crypto Caper The Atlanta emcee experienced moderate success in the early 2010s, with his 2012 debut single, 'Cashin' Out,' reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Rap Airplay chart. He scored another hit with 'She Twerkin' two years later, when he also released his sole album, 'Let's Get It.' Alongside his sentencing, his mother Linda Smith was also sentenced to 30 years on RICO charges, while his cousin Tyrone Taylor was given life in prison plus 70 years. The trial, which began two months ago, concerned allegations that Cash Out, his mother and cousin coerced and forced women into sex work over the course of several years. They were accused of exploiting women for profit, with prosecutors using evidence that included text messages from eight cellphones. Charges were initially brought in June 2023 against Cash Out, who allegedly leveraged his celebrity status to commit his crimes. His legal team argued that the victims were bullied into testifying against him, while the prosecution claimed that he had engaged in a 'seven-year reign of terror.' 'This has been going on for seven years,' said Fulton County prosecutor Earnell Winfrey during the trial. 'This ain't just straight pimping—this is trafficking.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? Final Emmy Predictions: Talk Series and Scripted Variety - New Blood Looks to Tackle Late Night Staples
New York Post
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘And Just Like That' reveals character has prostate cancer in shocking new storyline
And just like that… Charlotte and Harry's lives turned upside down. Kristin Davis is opening up about Season 3, episode 5 of 'And Just Like That…' titled: 'Under the Table.' In the episode, Charlotte (Davis) learns that her husband, Harry (Evan Handler), has prostate cancer. Harry is optimistic about his diagnosis and beating cancer, but Charlotte is overcome by anxiety. Advertisement 7 Kristin Davis, Evan Handler in 'And Just Like That…' Max 'I knew something would happen, right? We couldn't just go on, if you know what I mean,' Davis, 60, told Variety on Friday about her storyline. 'I was relieved that it wasn't something horrible. It could have been worse — at least I didn't have to cheat on him or something like that, right?' 'That would be so out of character; it would make no sense,' she added. 'I knew [creator] Michael [Patrick King] wouldn't do that, but I was like, 'Oh, God — cancer.' Which is how Charlotte feels, and, of course, how everyone would feel.' Advertisement Sharing what fans can expect down the road, Davis — who has portrayed Charlotte since 'Sex and the City' in 1998 — admitted: 'The thing that I love, that you'll see in the second half, is that it has a really great way that it goes.' 7 Kristin Davis, Evan Handler, Christopher Jackson, and Nicole Ari in Season 3 of 'And Just Like That…' Max The 'Couples Retreat' alum elaborated, 'In terms of Charlotte having to keep the secret that Harry wants her to keep, and the toll that it takes on her. She's trying to take care of him, and then she's trying to fulfill his wishes about who she tells or doesn't tell. So she really doesn't have her friends, and she ends up not taking care of herself.' Davis also noted that this plot line is universal and one that can resonate with a multitude of viewers. Advertisement 'This is something that a lot of people relate to — women and men — if you have a partner who gets a disease, and you forget to take care of yourself,' she discussed. 'It has a comedic element to it, which was really fun and scary to do, but it's just really true to life. It seems like a perfect storyline for Charlotte that she would, of course, forget to take care of herself, and then have her own health.' 7 Kristin Davis as Charlotte. Max 7 Evan Handle as Harry. Max Charlotte and Harry have been together since Season 5 of 'Sex and the City,' when she hired him as a divorce lawyer during her split from her first husband, Trey. The couple, who have been married for 22 years, share kids Lily and Rock. Advertisement 'It's hard to remember that sometimes,' Davis said about how much the on-screen love interests have been through over the years. 'It's good to be reminded — but when you're in the moment, [the history is] there, but you're trying to make sure you're doing what you're supposed to do right now. But it informs everything.' The 'Cash Out' alum hosts a rewatch podcast, 'Are You a Charlotte?,' which gives her a chance to take a walk down memory lane, for not only her story but that of Carrie, Samantha and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) as well. 7 Samantha Jones text cameo. Max 7 Samantha Jones makes a cameo via text. HBO She shared with the outlet, 'When I'm looking back at the old show for my podcast, I'm always like, 'Wow.' All these things happen that I forgot — it's impossible to remember it all, just like how in our regular lives, it's impossible to remember everything.' Thursday's episode also featured another cameo by Samantha Jones. Just like in Season 1, it came via a text message. The role of Samantha was played by Kim Cattrall, who opted not to return for the reboot. In the scene, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) texts Samantha for information on her new downstairs neighbor, Duncan Reeves (Jonathan Cake). 'They say he's a lot of fun. Why?' Samantha writes back about the British author. Carrie then fills in her longtime bestie that 'he's living under me,' to which Samantha responds, 'I wish he was under me.' Advertisement 7 'And Just Like That' Season 3 premiere. WireImage Despite Charlotte and Harry's decades-long marriage, Nixon, 59, revealed that the show works best when the core group of characters aren't in long-term romances. Much like how the ladies, including Carrie, are exploring new options. Nixon told Entertainment Weekly in May, 'I think our show is always at its most quintessential when as many of us as possible are single and dating and failing at it.'
Telegraph
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How John Travolta went from $20 million to £128 a film
If you had been one of the millions of cinemagoers who watched Look Who's Talking in 1989, you would have hardly have predicted that it was a cursed film. Yet now, three and a half decades later, unfortunate fates have befallen its three lead actors. Kirstie Alley died in 2022, after a series of personal and professional disasters. Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia around the same time and retired from acting, leaving his lasting legacy as the films he made in his heyday, rather than the immediately forgotten low-budget B-movies he specialised in for the last years of his career. And as for John Travolta? Well, he's still working, and still making pictures. Except, for his own dignity, it might be time that he stopped doing so. If you have not seen the 71-year-old Travolta's latest film High Rollers, then don't worry, nobody else has either. It has received the most nominal of theatrical releases imaginable in the UK, and may well have made about the same kind of money that 2023's Mob Land grossed when it came out: an unimpressive $171 (approximately £128) from three screens. It is the kind of quickie that the actor has been specialising in for years, to negligible artistic or financial impact. In fact, it is the swiftly made sequel to another film, 2024's Cash Out, which stars him as the same character, mastermind professional thief Mason Goddard. However this one does, a third picture in this series has already been filmed, between March and April this year, and will probably be released early in 2026, if not before. In 2018, one of this newspaper's writers, reflecting on Travolta's apparently moribund career, reflected that 'He's a relic of a different time, and struggling to find his place in a world that has evolved far beyond him.' This has been the case for many actors who once bestrode the heights of Hollywood like colossuses but have now been reduced to appearing in the most derivative and poorly made pap imaginable. (The lack of quality inherent in Cash Out and High Rollers might be best expressed by its director Randall Emmett, to whom we shall return, working under the pseudonym 'Ives', as if in shame. Don't worry, Mr Emmett, you will not be forgotten.) It is generally a given that the star system has collapsed (Tom Cruise and, if F1 does the business, Brad Pitt aside). A-list actors who once commanded $20 million (approximately £14.9 million) a picture without blinking (as Travolta once did) have either had to endlessly reprise their best-known roles (hello, Harrison Ford), quietly retired from cinema (we're looking at you, Mr Nicholson) or have continued to work in ever-worsening projects. Still, even by these miserable standards, Travolta seems to have thrown himself in at the shallow end with gusto. One of the many low points came when he played the mobster John Gotti in a curiously indulgent biopic that portrayed a mass-murdering gangster as a charming, essentially decent family man, to critical and audience disbelief alike. It is one of the relatively few mainstream pictures to have an uncoveted 0 per cent rating on the reviews aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, meaning it has not received a single positive review. Only slightly better received was the Fred Durst directed and co-written stalker drama The Fanatic, in which Travolta played an autistic man obsessed by his favourite film star. As one of the most famous figures in Hollywood, you might have expected the actor to bring an unusual degree of empathy and knowledge to the role. But as the New York Times remarked of The Fanatic, it 'delineates the border that separates the merely stale from the genuinely rancid'. Since 2018, he has made eight films including Gotti and The Fanatic, and one curious short offering, The Shepherd, based on a novella by the late Frederick Forsyth, and in which he fleetingly appears as the eponymous shepherd, a ghostly WWII pilot guiding other airmen to safety. Still, the Iain Softley-directed, Alfonso Cuarón-produced mini-feature is infinitely more watchable than just about anything else that he has appeared in over the same period, harnessing what remains of his movie-star charisma to diverting effect. Otherwise, his pictures are more of the same; braindead action and crime films that manage to rope Travolta in alongside other actors, who are paid a lot of money for a few days' work and to put their name above the title. These have included Willis, who cannot be blamed for putting together a retirement fund, Morgan Freeman and even Robert de Niro, whose appearance in the 2013 thriller Killing Season (opposite Travolta, naturally) may have represented a nadir in the career of the man who once appeared in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. But since then, de Niro has gone on to reunite with Scorsese and be Oscar-nominated, as well as to be charmless and monosyllabic in interviews. His co-star, by way of contrast, continues his inexorable decline into mediocrity. You'd call him the Doug McClure of contemporary cinema, but at least McClure was having fun in his B-movies like Warlords of Atlantis and At The Earth's Core. Travolta, meanwhile, is stuck far beneath the earth's core, in endless, awful dross that represents a kind of cinematic hell. The man responsible for keeping him in this eternal bondage is Emmett, whose company Emmett/Furla Oasis Films has become synonymous with a bait 'n' switch technique known as the 'geezer teaser'. The idea is that audiences are lured into watching a picture with a well-known lead, usually a Willis or Travolta, but these actors have only been hired to work for a couple of days, and are on screen for a matter of a few scenes and 10 minutes or so. (One obvious giveaway – in higher-budget films, too – is that the actor appears on the same set for all their scenes, in only slightly different costumes.) While Emmett, aka 'the Tasmanian devil', as his business partner once called him, has been involved with some artistically respectable pictures (including Scorsese's Silence), most of his output is poorly made rot that has negligible appeal to anyone apart from the terminally bored or the pathologically undemanding. As for the A-list actors paid huge amounts to appear in his terrible pictures, Al Pacino, who earned $6 million (approximately £4.4 million) for 19 days of work on American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally, cheerily set out his own estimation of Emmett when he sent him an email – which subsequently leaked. 'Let's do this Randall. I'm not going for the A's or the B's,' Pacino wrote. 'I'm going for something between C and B. I don't like Ds.' Still, Pacino is a bona fide cinematic legend, whereas Travolta these days is an increasingly pitiable figure. His Nineties heyday of Pulp Fiction and Face/Off is long since gone, and the last cinematic release of any note that he appeared in was Oliver Stone's modestly successful 2012 picture Savages, in which he had a supporting role as a corrupt DEA agent. He has had occasional flurries of visibility since then, admittedly. There was a major appearance in 2016's The People vs OJ Simpson as the attorney Robert Shapiro, for which he was Emmy and Golden Globe nominated. At his best, Travolta was always better playing an anti-hero, or an outright villain, than he ever was a good guy. In most of his most memorable roles, there's something off-the-leash about him, and as Shapiro, his line readings and over-the-top theatrics gave him his most enjoyable part since 2001's Swordfish. Few would dispute Travolta's acting ability, more his choice in projects, which presumably stems from a lavish lifestyle that includes his own Boeing 737, parked outside his capacious Florida mansion. But after a while, there is only so much money one man can need. Appearing in Cash In – sorry, Cash Out – is not going to make any existential difference. In 1978, after his first flurry of success with Grease and Saturday Night Live, Rolling Stone was sufficiently confident in the future career of the young Travolta to declare that 'He will be revered forever, in the manner of Elvis, James Dean, [and] Marilyn Monroe.' Had Travolta retired from cinema in, say, 1999, this reputation would still be intact. But he made the catastrophic decision to celebrate his Scientology faith with the all-time-disaster Battlefield Earth in 2000, which did nothing for his credibility and turned him into a laughing stock. In retrospect, it seems incredible that he was still able to play leading roles in mainstream pictures like Tony Scott's remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 and Hairspray. The unlovely legacy of Battlefield Earth – recently voted the worst picture ever made by IMDB users – still hangs over him to this day. It is also true that the actor has suffered some significant personal losses; his son Jett died in 2009 and his wife, the actress Kelly Preston, died of breast cancer in 2020. Most would feel sympathy for him if he chose either to step away from film altogether or to concentrate on taking small, interesting roles with talented directors. It is easy to imagine Paul Thomas Anderson or Christopher Nolan offering Travolta a career-resurrecting role, albeit one in which his considerable vanity might be stripped away from him. Instead, his next part in a film anyone might have any interest in seeing is in the musical romantic comedy That's Amore, in which Travolta stars opposite Katherine Heigl – 25 years his junior – as a lifelong bachelor who meets and falls in love with a troubled woman. It has been described as 'a present-day Marty', and has some potential, especially if Travolta and Heigl make for a convincing on-screen duo. Yet even here there are difficulties. The film, which is written and directed by the Oscar-winning Green Book screenwriter Nick Vallelonga, was shot in late 2022, and is still awaiting a release date. It was not helped by 2023 legal shenanigans that saw dozens of crew members sue for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. Until such things are settled, Travolta's potential chance of a comeback is sitting on a shelf somewhere. At least there's always the possibility of self-parody. In December 2023, he appeared in a Capital One advert that managed to imagine what Saturday Night Fever's Tony Manero would be doing if he turned into Santa, and it had more wit and charm in its brief span than in any film he's made that runs a hundred times the length. The actor seldom gives interviews these days – less out of unreachability and more because he has little noteworthy to promote – and his Instagram account is mainly devoted to pictures of his family, including his daughter, the actress and singer Ella Bleu. There have been occasional complaints of unsavoury behaviour, but any court cases brought against him have been consistently dismissed. Although his public eccentricities – referring to singer Idina Menzel as ' Adele Dazeem ' during the Oscars, for instance, and planting an enthusiastic kiss on a stone-faced Scarlett Johansson – are well known, they are the stuff of hilarity, rather than cancellation. Still, he keeps himself busy, after a fashion, when he isn't spending a few weeks at a time making appalling films. He was seen at the Paris Olympics with Ella last year, where – naturally – he flew himself in on his private jet, and later uploaded a brief 'what I did on my holidays' montage to his Instagram account. He has befriended the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for reasons best known to himself. In his first wilderness period in the Eighties, Travolta famously danced with Princess Diana at the White House in 1985, so there is at least precedent of sorts for this association. (Although it remains to be seen whether Harry and Meghan ever find themselves taking up the Scientology that Travolta is said still to practice.) Celebrity gossip has linked him with Sex and the City actress Kristin Davis. Some may not care what Travolta does next, and certainly, he has exhausted the patience of all but his most loyal admirers. But Hollywood loves a comeback, and the actor's return in 1994 with Pulp Fiction was one of the most spectacular in Hollywood. Tarantino remains consistent in his admiration for Travolta as an actor, praising his performance in Brian de Palma's Hitchcockian thriller Blow Out a matter of a couple of months ago, and there have been rumours that the filmmaker is keen to cast his former Vincent Vega in whatever his final film turns out to be. Whether he can manage to rise from direct-to-streaming death for a second time, courtesy of Tarantino or another A-lister, or whether he's stuck in the Randall Emmett closet for all eternity remains to be seen.
