People
“Squid Game” star Oh Yeong-su has been charged in South Korea in connection with an alleged 2017 incident of sexual misconduct.
The 78-year-old Emmy nominee was charged Thursday. He was accused of touching a woman inappropriately, according to Yonhap news.
“I just held her hand to guide the way around the lake,” the actor told South Korean broadcaster JTBC. “I apologized because [the person] said she wouldn’t make a fuss about it but it doesn’t mean that I admit the charges.”
The alleged victim’s complaint was filed last December but the case was closed in the spring, Yonhap reported.
The alleged victim asked authorities to look into it once again, according to the outlet.
Local media reporting is “not factually correct,” a Korean prosecutor’s office official said.
Oh obtained global success with Netflix’s “Squid Game.”
In the Netflix survival drama — which hit the streamer in September 2021 and quickly smashed viewership records — Oh portrayed Oh Il-nam, the eldest contestant in the show’s deadly competition. In addition to scoring an Emmy nomination, Oh took home a Golden Globe.
———
Bennifer 2.0 doesn’t just come with wedding bells.
Jennifer Lopez announced a new album inspired by husband Ben Affleck on Friday — exactly 20 years after releasing her first album dedicated to the actor.
“This is Me… Now” will be released next year, she said on Instagram.
Lopez’s announcement promises a musical journey through her reconciliation with the Oscar-winning Affleck, whom she married in July in Las Vegas after getting back together last year.
The 13 tracks on the new album include a title song and others called “Dear Ben pt. II” — presumably a continuation of 2002′s “Dear Ben” — “Midnight Trip to Vegas” and “Greatest Love Story Never Told.”
Lopez’s Instagram announcement came days after she wiped out all of her previous posts and made her other social channels dark.
The couple, dubbed Bennifer by fans, were engaged in the early 2000s but went their separate ways, with Lopez starting a family with singer Marc Anthony and Affleck marrying and having three kids with actress Jennifer Garner.
They got back together shortly after Lopez called off her engagement to former Yankee Alex Rodriguez last year.
———
Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor is ready to fly the Twitter coop, and it seems to be affecting Elon Musk.
The singer told the Hollywood Reporter over the weekend that he was about to join the handful of celebrities and stars who are leaving the social media platform since Musk took over in October.
"We don't need the arrogance of the billionaire class to feel like they can just come in and solve everything," Reznor said. "Even without him involved, I just find that it has become such a toxic environment."
Reznor added that he does not "feel good" being on the platform anymore. Even though he did not explicitly name the Tesla owner, Musk seemed to take it personally.
On Monday, the Musk tweeted, "[I]t turns out Trent 'nine inch nails' Reznor is actually a crybaby.“
Replying to Musk, another Twitter user called the tech billionaire a "stupid idiot" and praised Reznor as "one of the best musicians ever." Musk then took another dig at Reznor — who had no part in the Twitter back-and-forth.
"I like his music tbh, but maybe Etsy is more his style," he tweeted, referring to the online crafts marketplace.
Musk took shots at Reznor less than a week after he poked fun at late-night host Jimmy Fallon's concerns over the trending hashtag "#RIPJimmyFallon."
Last Tuesday, misinformation about the comedian's fake death spread on Twitter via memes. Concerned, Fallon called on Musk for help.
In response, Musk offered up jokes instead of direct solutions.
"Wait a second, how do we know you're not an alien body snatcher pretending to be Jimmy!?“ he wrote. ”Say something that only the real Jimmy would say …"
Fallon used the death hoax as "Tonight Show" material, but other celebrities aren't finding the humor in Musk's antics. Among those who said they're leaving Twitter are Shonda Rhimes, Toni Braxton and Sara Bareilles.
A fellow musician joining Reznor in exiting Twitter is White Stripes rocker Jack White. On Sunday, he condemned Musk for reinstating Trump's account.
"This is straight up you trying to help a fascist have a platform so you can eventually get your tax breaks," White wrote on Instagram. "I mean, how many more billions do you need that you have to risk democracy itself to obtain it?"
———
“Frasier” is definitely coming back — but without one of its major players.
The Kelsey Grammer-fronted hit series is set for a revival, but co-star David Hyde Pierce won’t be involved.
The five-time Emmy-winning actor and producer Grammer, who starred as the Seattle-based psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the hit “Cheers” spinoff for eleven years, confirmed the reboot is fully underway without a couple of beloved characters.
The long-gestating project intended to bring back the original “Frasier” cast members — including Pierce, Peri Gilpin, Jane Leeves and John Mahoney — but that idea didn’t pan out.
John Mahoney, who portrayed the cantankerous patriarch Martin Crane, passed away in 2018.
And Pierce, who starred as Frasier’s psychiatrist brother Dr. Niles Crane, opted out.
“David basically decided he wasn’t really interested in repeating the performance of Niles,” Grammer said.
“In a very funny way, it just took us to a new place, which was what we originally wanted to do anyway, which was a ‘Frasier’ third act,” Grammer said. “It’s an entirely new life for him.”
From combined wire services