People News Roundup: Anti-Polanksi protesters clash with French police; Kobe Bryant handprints among Beverly Hills and more

Following is a summary of current people news briefs.

Anti-Polanski protesters clash with French police outside award ceremony

French police clashed briefly on Friday with protesters over an awards ceremony in which a film by veteran director Roman Polanski, who is facing rape accusations, has won a dozen nominations. Polanski, 86, who fled the United States for France in the late 1970s after admitting raping a 13-year-old girl and faces more recent allegations of sexual assault, has already said he would not attend Friday's ceremony, fearing a "public lynching".

Kobe Bryant handprints among Beverly Hills auction items

A copy of Kobe Bryant's handprints, cast in cement outside Hollywood's famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre, is going up for auction in April along with other memorabilia of the basketball legend who died in January. Julien's Auctions said on Thursday that the handprints are tests that were made by Bryant in 2011 when he became the first athlete to leave his mark alongside some of the movie industry's biggest stars in the forecourt of the theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

Weinstein's acquittal on some charges may hamper appeal of sex crimes conviction

Harvey Weinstein will seek to overturn his sex crimes conviction by arguing that the jury was prejudiced by testimony from women unconnected to prosecutors' underlying case, his lawyers have said. But, according to experts, he faces a legal hurdle: his acquittal on some of the most serious charges. Weinstein, 67, faces up to 29 years in prison for sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping Jessica Mann, a former aspiring actress, in 2013.

Actor Johnny Depp takes Sun newspaper to court in 'wife beater' libel case

Hollywood star Johnny Depp appeared in a London court on Wednesday to hear his lawyer argue that Depp's ex-wife had lied when she accused him of beating her in comments quoted by the tabloid newspaper the Sun. Depp, the 55-year-old star of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, is suing the tabloid's publisher, News Group Newspapers, and its executive editor Dan Wootton for libel over an article Wootton wrote in 2018 calling Depp a "wife beater".

(With inputs from agencies.)