People News Summary

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 afterwards 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.

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.

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."

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.