All you need to know about U2's Bono, Pope, Tom Selleck and lot more

Following is a summary of current people news briefs.

U2's Bono and Pope discuss Irish sexual abuse crisis

Bono, frontman for Irish rock band U2, met Pope Francis on Wednesday and said afterward he is an extraordinary man who is sincere in his pain over a sexual abuse crisis in Ireland. Bono and the pope spoke for more than 30 minutes at a meeting to team up the rock star's ONE organization, a global campaign, and advocacy organization that aims to end extreme poverty, with a papal group named Scholas Occurrentes, which helps foster cooperation among schools worldwide.

TV actor Tom Selleck quits NRA board of directors

Actor Tom Selleck, star of such TV crime dramas as "Magnum, P.I." and "Blue Bloods" and an ardent gun collector, has resigned from the National Rifle Association's board of directors. “Tom Selleck has stepped down from the board of the NRA due to his work schedule," his publicist, Annett Wolf, said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Wednesday.

Judge bars parade of Cosby accusers at the sentencing hearing

A Pennsylvania judge on Thursday denied a request by prosecutors to allow additional women who have accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct to tell their stories at his sentencing hearing on a sexual assault conviction. Cosby, 81, is due in Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas on Monday to be sentenced by Judge Steven O'Neill in the drugging and sexual assault of his one-time friend Andrea Constand, a former Temple University administrator, in 2004.

Lawyer says director Peter Jackson might testify against Weinstein in Judd's lawsuit

"The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson has spoken with actor Ashley Judd's legal team and could furnish "powerful" testimony supporting her defamation and sexual harassment suit against film producer Harvey Weinstein, her attorney said on Tuesday. Judd's civil suit, filed in April, accused Weinstein of discouraging Jackson in 1998 from casting her in the blockbuster "Lord of the Rings" movie franchise in retaliation for her refusing Weinstein's sexual advances.

Duchess Meghan joined by her mother for the launch of London Grenfell cookbook

Meghan Markle, Britain's Duchess of Sussex, was joined by her mother and husband Prince Harry on Thursday for the launch of a charity recipe book to help a community cooking project set up in the wake of London's Grenfell Tower fire disaster. The duchess's mother Doria Ragland was a surprise visitor for the launch of the cookbook, which will raise funds for the Hubb Community Project created last summer by survivors of the blaze that killed 71 people after engulfing the 24-story social housing block in west London.

Judge allows Ashley Judd defamation lawsuit against Weinstein to proceed

A lawsuit by actress Ashley Judd in which she accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of defaming her in 1998 after she refused what she said were sexual advances from him can proceed in federal court in Los Angeles, a judge ruled on Wednesday. In the civil lawsuit filed in April accused Weinstein of smearing her reputation by discouraging director Peter Jackson from casting her in his blockbuster movie franchise "The Lord of the Rings."

Rap mogul Marion 'Suge' Knight pleads to manslaughter days before the murder trial

Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight pleaded no contest in a Los Angeles court on Thursday to a charge of manslaughter for a 2015 hit-and-run killing, accepting a 28-year prison sentence under a deal with prosecutors days before his murder trial was to begin. In pleading no contest, equivalent to a guilty plea under California law, the 53-year-old co-founder of influential hip-hop label Death Row Records admitted using a "deadly and dangerous weapon" when he ran down two men with his pickup truck.

French court dismisses appeal over topless photos of British Duchess

A French court on Wednesday threw out an appeal by celebrity magazine Closer against a 2017 ruling that it invaded the privacy of Prince William's wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge when it published topless photos of her in 2012. Laurence Pieau, an editor of Closer's French edition, and Ernesto Mauri, the chief executive of Italian publisher Mondadori, the magazine's owner, were each handed maximum fines of 45,000 euros ($52,582) in September last year.