• Somali-American model Halima Aden has announced that she is taking a step back from the fashion industry, saying the pandemic slowdown has allowed her to see instances when her desire to maintain a hijab was not properly respected. In a detailed Instagram story, Aden wrote this week that she was "not rushing back to the fashion industry" and that she had finally heard her mother's pleas "to open my eyes." "My mom asked me to quit modeling a LONG time ago. I wish I wasn't so defensive," the 23-year-old model wrote. "Thanks to COVID and the breakaway from the industry I have finally realized where I went wrong on my hijab journey." Aden became the first hijab-wearing model on the runways of Milan and New York, and has appeared on numerous magazine covers and in print campaigns. In her Instagram posts, Aden detailed where she felt the religious covering hijab had been respected -- for example in a campaign for Rihanna's Fenty beauty line -- and where it had gone astray, showing an instance when her head had been wrapped in jeans. "I was just so desperate back then for any 'representation,' that I lost touch with who I was," she wrote on one post. "What I blame the industry for is the lack of MUSLIM stylists," she wrote.
• A judge has refused Johnny Depp permission to appeal against a British court's ruling that he assaulted ex-wife Amber Heard. Earlier this month a High Court judge rejected Depp's claim that a newspaper had committed libel when it called him a "wife-beater." Judge Andrew Nicol said the article in The Sun was "substantially true." Depp is seeking to overturn the judgment. But in a setback for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star, Nicol denied permission to appeal, saying "I do not consider that the proposed grounds of appeal have a reasonable prospect of success." In a ruling made public on Wednesday, the judge also ordered Depp to make an initial payment of almost $840,000 to News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, to cover its legal fees. Depp can still apply directly to the Court of Appeal, and has until Dec. 7 to do so. The judge's main ruling came after a three-week trial in which Depp and Heard gave conflicting accounts of their brief, tempestuous marriage. In the wake of the decision, Depp said he was leaving the "Fantastic Beasts" film franchise after studio Warner Bros. requested his resignation.
