• Daredevil Nik Wallenda plans to cross New York's Times Square -- without his feet touching the ground. ABC announced Thursday that Wallenda and his sister, Lijana, will cross the tourist hot spot during a 1,300-foot simultaneous high-wire walk 25 stories above the ground. ABC will air the attempt during a two-hour prime-time special June 23. It will be Lijana Wallenda's first high-wire walk since a 2017 accident in Florida left her and four other members of the family's troupe seriously injured. The Times Square walk will involve unspecified safety devices, but organizers say it does not eliminate all risks. ABC says the siblings will start from opposite ends of the wire, which will be suspended between two of Times Square's towers, including one that is home to The New York Times. Nik Wallenda said in a statement: "I am beyond excited to be able to walk with my sister, Lijana, as she overcomes near-death injuries and continues the Wallenda tradition of never giving up."
• Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush has been awarded $2 million in damages in a defamation case heard in an Australian court against a newspaper publisher and journalist over reports that he had been accused of inappropriate behavior toward an actress. The 67-year-old Australian had sued Sydney's The Daily Telegraph's publisher and journalist Jonathon Moran in the Federal Court over two stories and a poster published in late 2017. Justice Michael Wigney on Thursday awarded Rush damages for past and future economic loss because of the defamation on top of damages awarded when he ruled in Rush's favor in April. In that ruling, Wigney awarded Rush about $590,000 in damages plus about $30,000 interest for noneconomic losses. The judge said he wanted more time to consider further special damages, including loss of earnings. The publisher, Nationwide News, and Moran are appealing the verdict.
• A federal appeals court has ruled that Joe Giudice, the husband of Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member Teresa Giudice, can stay in the United States as he appeals deportation to his native Italy. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia delayed Joe Giudice's deportation in an order published Wednesday. The Giudices pleaded guilty in 2014 to financial fraud. Teresa Giudice, 47, served 11 months in prison first and was released in December 2015. Her 47-year-old husband then served his three-year term and was released in March. A judge had ruled in October that Joe Giudice would be deported upon completion of his sentence. Giudice, who has been held at an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania since his release from prison, has said through his attorneys that he came to the United States as an infant and was unaware he wasn't an American citizen.
A Section on 05/24/2019