LONDON — Jurassic World actor Bryce Dallas Howard takes on London’s criminal underworld in action comedy Deep Cover, playing an improv teacher who goes undercover.

The American stars as Kat, who along with her two students Marlon and Hugh, played by Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed, respectively, are recruited by a police cop to infiltrate a criminal gang.

Never breaking character and sticking to their “yes and…” improv comedy rule, the trio soon find themselves inside London’s threatening gangland.

“The script was so tight, so fun and of course I related to it, being an actor myself,” Ms. Howard told Reuters at the film’s world premiere at the SXSW London festival on Wednesday.

“There was lots of giggling and lots of laughing,” she added about making the movie.

Released on Prime Video on June 12, Deep Cover sees Mr. Bloom, who shot to fame in The Lord of the Rings movies, play a committed method actor. Ted Lasso actor Mr. Mohammed portrays a lonely worker drawn to Kat’s classes to gain confidence.

“There are quite a lot of scenes… that were just done in one take… because you just need to have all of that energy… pinging around between them (Howard, Bloom) and Mohammed,” director Tom Kingsley said. “And they’re all playing different characters to what you would normally expect.”

Asked if he tried to make Ms. Howard and Mr. Bloom laugh on set given his comedy background, Mr. Mohammed said: “I would play around a little bit… changing some of the lines every so often. But… they were just up for it.”

Apple TV+ has announced a fourth season of Emmy-winning comedy series Ted Lasso, in which Jason Sudeikis played the American coach of upstart British football team AFC Richmond and Mr. Mohammed portrayed kitman-turned-coach Nate Shelley.

Asked what he could say about season four, in which Lasso will coach a women’s football team, Mr. Mohammed said: “I only know what’s in the press at the moment… I can’t wait to see it. Who knows if Nate’s in it… we will see.”

The inaugural SXSW London, the European edition of the annual Austin, Texas, South by Southwest music, technology and film festival, runs June 2-7. — Reuters

NEW YORK — Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs held a friend of his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura on the ledge of a balcony of a 17th floor apartment in September 2016, the friend testified on Wednesday at Mr. Combs’ sex trafficking trial.

Bryana Bongolan, Ms. Ventura’s friend, told jurors in Manhattan federal court that Mr. Combs then came up to her from behind on the balcony of Ms. Ventura’s Los Angeles apartment, lifted her up, and placed her on top of the balcony’s rail.

Mr. Combs then told her several times, “You know what the fuck you did,” Ms. Bongolan testified.

“For a split second I was thinking about if I was going to fall, but for the most part he was yelling at me, so I was trying to answer him,” Ms. Bongolan, 33, told the jury.

Ms. Bongolan testified that she told Mr. Combs she did not know what she had done. To this day, she does not know what Mr. Combs believed she did, Ms. Bongolan said.

Mr. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to five counts including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say Mr. Combs over two decades coerced women, including Ms. Ventura, to take part in drug-fueled sexual performances with male sex workers known as “Freak Offs.”

The trial is in its fourth week.

Ms. Ventura, a rhythm and blues singer known as Cassie, told jurors last month she took part in Mr. Combs’ Freak Offs for about a decade, at first to please him and later because he blackmailed her with videos of the encounters.

She said Mr. Combs frequently beat her.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan US attorney’s office say Mr. Combs and his associates used force and the threat of force to coerce women to take part in the Freak Offs and to make sure witnesses to his abuse remained quiet.

Mr. Combs’ lawyers have acknowledged he was at times abusive in domestic relationships, but argue that women who took part in Freak Offs did so consensually.

Ms. Bongolan said Mr. Combs and Ms. Ventura often had a volatile relationship. Ms. Bongolan said she saw Ms. Ventura with a black eye or bruises on multiple occasions. Once, Ms. Bongolan said she saw Mr. Combs throw a knife in Ms. Ventura’s direction in Ms. Ventura’s apartment.

Another time, on the beach in Malibu, California, Mr. Combs approached Ms. Bongolan and said, “I’m the devil and I could kill you,” Ms. Bongolan testified. She said she did not know why Mr. Combs told her that.

Ms. Bongolan said the 2016 balcony incident took place early one morning after she had spent the night at Ms. Ventura’s apartment. She said she was about 5 feet 1 inch (155 cm) tall and weighed between 100 and 115 pounds (45 to 52 kg) at the time. Mr. Combs, Ms. Bongolan said, was “bigger.”

After holding her on top of the balcony’s rail for between 10 and 15 seconds, Mr. Combs threw her onto the balcony furniture, Ms. Bongolan said. Jurors saw photographs Ms. Bongolan took of bruises she said she suffered as a result of the incident. Ms. Bongolan says she still has night terrors and paranoia.

Mr. Combs could face life in prison if convicted on all counts. Prosecutors have said they may finish presenting their case next week, allowing the defense to put on its case. — Reuters

NEW YORK — A prosecutor on Wednesday told jurors in Harvey Weinstein’s Manhattan retrial that the evidence clearly showed the former movie mogul raped three women, pushing back on a defense lawyer’s efforts to paint the accusers as liars.

Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg picked up where she left off during closing arguments the previous day, seeking to show that Mr. Weinstein forced himself on the women despite their pleading with him to stop.

The Academy Award-winning producer and Miramax studio co-founder is accused of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and assaulting the two other women in 2006 and 2002. Mr. Weinstein, who has denied ever having non-consensual sex or assaulting anyone, has pleaded not guilty. The trial began in April.

“Members of the jury, he raped three women. They all said, ‘no,’” Ms. Blumberg said.

Mr. Weinstein, 73, is on trial for a second time after a New York state appeals court threw out his conviction in April 2024. Experiencing a litany of health problems, Mr. Weinstein was present in court on Wednesday in a wheelchair, wearing a dark suit and tie.

Before Ms. Blumberg’s pitch to jurors Wednesday, defense lawyer Arthur Aidala twice moved for a mistrial based on the prosecutor’s arguments the previous day, but the motions were swiftly denied by state Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber.

The 12 jurors are due to begin deliberations after closing arguments are completed, and Mr. Farber instructs them on the law.

Ms. Blumberg on Tuesday called Mr. Weinstein a serial predator who promised career advancement in Hollywood to women, only to then coax them into private settings where he attacked them. She urged jurors Wednesday to disregard the defense’s claim that Mr. Weinstein was on trial because he was famous and that prosecutors were trying to criminalize consensual sex.

“We heard a lot about ‘policing the bedroom’ yesterday,” Ms. Blumberg said, referring to Mr. Aidala’s closing argument on Tuesday. “We don’t want to police bedrooms either — unless you’re forcibly raping someone inside them.”

Mr. Aidala on Tuesday accused the three alleged victims of lying on the witness stand out of spite after consensual sexual encounters with Mr. Weinstein failed to deliver them Hollywood stardom.

“They are lying about what happened. Not about everything, but about a small slice — just enough to turn their regret, their buyers’ remorse, into criminality,” Mr. Aidala said of the accusers.

The lawyer hoisted a dozen poster-sized placards showing e-mails from the accusers where they seek Mr. Weinstein’s company after the alleged attacks, saying they showed the women were lying.

Mr. Weinstein faces a maximum sentence of up to 29 years in prison if convicted on all charges. He already will likely spend the rest of his life in prison due to a 16-year prison sentence given to him after being found guilty in December 2022 of rape in California.

He was convicted of rape by a jury in the previous trial in Manhattan in February 2020, but the New York Court of Appeals threw out the conviction and ordered a new trial, citing errors by the trial judge. Mr. Weinstein had been serving a 23-year sentence in a prison in upstate Rome, New York, when the conviction was overturned.

That conviction was a milestone for the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful men. More than 100 women, including famous actresses, have accused Mr. Weinstein of misconduct.

Mr. Weinstein has been held at New York City’s Rikers Island jail since his conviction was overturned. He has experienced several health scares while being held at Rikers, and in September was rushed to a hospital for emergency heart surgery. — Reuters