Page two News canYon newS SePtemBer 02, 2018

mac miller charged with duiHOLLYWOOD HILLS—Rap-per Mac Miller was chargedwith two counts of DUI onTuesday, August 21, follow-ing his car crash in May.On May 17, Miller was

out driving with two pas-sengers in the HollywoodHills area when he crashedhis 2016 G-Wagon into autility pole at around 1 a.m.,TMZ was first to break thestory. Following the crash,Miller and his friends fled onfoot to the rapper’s home.Authorities were able to runthe plates of the damagedvehicle and arrested Millerat his home, following aconfession from the musi-cian.He was taken into custody

for hit-and-run and drivingunder the influence. He washeld on a $15,000 bail andwas released a couple hourslater. The hit-and-runcharges were dropped, butthe rapper was charged bythe Los Angeles City Attor-ney’s Office with two countsof DUI for driving underthe influence and driving

with a BAC over 0.08.This is not Miller’s first

run-in with the law, back in2011 he was arrested inNew York for possession ofmarijuana. The case waslater settled in court. If

Miller is convicted, he couldface a jail sentence of up to6 months and a fine of$1,000.Miller, 26, whose real

name is Malcolm Mc-Cormick, started rapping

when he was 14 years old.He released his first album“But My Mackin Aint Easy”in 2007. On August 3, 2018,the rapper released his fifthstudio album titled “Swim-ming.”

By Nina GarzaSimon cowell receiveS Star

HOLLYWOOD HILLS—Si-mon Cowell received hisstar on the Hollywood Walkof Fame on Wednesday, Au-gust 22.Cowell’s friends and fam-

ily members gathered to cel-ebrate the TV personalityknown for producing andjudging on talent shows in-cluding Fox’s “AmericanIdol” and “The X-Factor,”which have thrust the ca-reers of artists like KellyClarkson, One Direction andCarrie Underwood. He gothis start across the pond asone of the children of musicindustry executive and realestate agent Philip Cowelland ballet dancer Julie Brett.Born on October 7, 1959,Cowell was raised in Elstreeand attended a boardingschool in Dover.After dropping out of

school at the age of 16, Cow-ell took his first steps inwhat would be a lucrative ca-reer in the entertainment in-dustry. He worked as a run-ner at Elstree stuidios andworked in the mailroom forEMI Music Publishing,where his father worked.He was later promoted as atalent scout for the pub-lishing company.After the short-lived suc-

cess of his very own record-

ing company, Fanfarerecords, Cowell climbed theranks of BMG records. WithSimon Fuller, Cowell pro-duced the 2001 show “PopIdol” and a year later in2002, its American coun-terpart “American Idol.” In2011, he brought the BritishVariety show “The X Factor”to America, which broughtgirl group Fifth Harmony tofame.At the Hollywood cere-

mony, “American Idol” sea-son one winner singer Kel-ly Clarkson spoke briefly

about working with Cowelland his strengths as a pro-ducer.“I think his thing that

he’s so talented at is justfinding authentic peoplethat have a raw talent andare really themselves andthat’s all they know how tobe. That’s something thatshould be applauded andpraised in this industry es-pecially,” Clarkson said. “Lit-erally we [were] right here16 years ago when this manhelped change my life.”Cowell took to the podium

and thanked those in hislife who helped him in hiscareer, including spouseLauren Silverman. Thoughboth his parents passed awaybefore the unveiling, Cowellsaid he believes they arelooking down on him. Henoted he was thankful forthe business connectionsthat have turned into cher-ished friendships.“It’s been a blast the past

18 years,” said Cowell. “Ifanyone says fame is a badthing I don’t know whatyou’re talking about.”

By Alexandra Del Rosario

Mac Miller.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame honored Simon Cowell with his own star.

attemPted Break-in at Bella thorne’S homeHOLLYWOOD—Actress andsinger Bella Thorne, 20, washome alone on Tuesday, Au-gust 21, when a burglar at-tempted to break into herresidence.At around 10 p.m., the

alleged burglar smashed aglass window in an attemptto get inside the home lo-cated in the San FernandoValley region. Upon hear-ing the noise of the shat-tered glass, Thorne wentoutside to investigate whatwas going on, TMZ reported.She re-entered the homeand contacted authorities.Officers from the Los An-

geles Police Department ar-

rived at the home to inves-tigate, but did not find theperson responsible for theattempted break-in. Au-thorities stated to the press

that Thorne might havescared away the burglaraway when she went outsideto check the noise.Thorne’s home is not the

only celebrity home to be re-cently broken into. SingerJohn Mayer’s home was bur-glarized two weeks ago andbetween $100,000 and$200,000 worth of personalitems were stolen from hisBeverly Hills residence.Thorne started her act-

ing career as Cece Jones onDisney Channel’s “Shake ItUp.” She recently appearedin the Netflix thriller “YouGet Me” and in this year’s ro-mantic drama “MidnightSun.” The star recently gaveher first festival perform-ance during this past week-end’s Billboard Hot 100 Fes-tival.

By Nina Garza

Bella Thorne.

'Prince oF PiracY' ScamS hollYwood renterSHOLLYWOOD—The Los An-geles Police Department ar-rested Johnny Ray Gasca onmultiple accounts of grandtheft on July 17. Gasca wasaccused of scammingrenters by pushing backmove-in-dates and refusingto fully refund security de-posits and first month’s rent.Gasca posted an adver-

tisement for a room for renton Craigslist. When inter-ested renters contacted him,he would ask for and collecta security deposit and thefirst month’s rent. Citing adeath in the current tenant’sfamily, Gasca would tellrenters that the room wouldnot be available on the con-tracted date.The LAPD Blog reported

that Gasca would come upwith various excuses untilthe victims demanded theirmoney back. Many of thevictims never received a fullrefund. Detectives have rea-son to believe Mr. Gascacontinued to similarly de-fraud victims in the Holly-wood area.Before his arrest in July,

Gasca was sentenced in 2010to seven years in prison forsneaking camcorders into

movies and selling piratedfilms. According to Variety,he was convicted in June2005 on three accounts ofcopyright infringement. Hecalls himself the “Prince ofPiracy.”The FBI reported on its

website that Gasca has along criminal history in-cluding petit larceny, as-sault with intent to cause se-rious injury with a weaponafter shooting someone inthe face with a handgun,

and spent time in a NewYork prison. When he ar-rived in Hollywood in 2002,he pirated movies by hang-ing around theaters whereadvance screenings werescheduled. He would pose asa movie industry insider and“rig his camera to the armrest for stability…and startfilming when the lights wentdown.”Gasca noted in a diary

that he was able to earnclose to $4,500 a week from

pirating movies including“The Core,” “8 Mile,” and“Anger Management.” Hewas charged in 2003 andbecame the first person everindicted on federal chargesof movie piracy, states theFBI.gov website.LAPD officials are seeking

additional victims of Gasca’srenting scam. Additional vic-tims who may have not re-ported the incident are askedto contact Hollywood De-tective Aluotto at (213) 972-2929 or Detective Childs at(213) 972-2930. During non-business hours or on week-ends, calls should be direct-ed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247).Anyone wishing to remain

anonymous should call theLA Regional Crime Stop-pers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or go directly towww.lacrimestoppers.org.Tipsters may visit ww.lap-donline.org, and click on“Anonymous Web Tips” un-der the “Get Involved-CrimeStoppers” menu to submitan onlinetip. Tipsters mayalso download the “P3 Tips”mobile application and selectthe LA Regional Crime Stop-pers as their local program.

By Alexandra Del Rosario

Johnny Ray Gasca was arrested in July forgrand theft. LAPD officials are looking for addi-tional victims of Gasca's rental scams.

craSh on 101 FreewaY ForceS cloSureWOODLAND HILLS—OnMonday, August 27, a five-car pile up occurred on the101 freeway in WoodlandHills. The California High-way Patrol closed all west-bound lanes for over anhour as a result of thecrash.According to the CHP,

the incident was reported ataround 4:38 a.m., just westof De Soto Avenue. Driverswere directed to use Ven-tura Avenue Boulevard asan alternate route for theircommute. Debris was re-portedly spotted scattered

across the freeway. Trafficwas backed up all the way

down to Tampa Avenue fol-lowing the crash.

The exact cause of the in-cident is still under inves-tigation. According to theCHP, all lanes on the 101were reopened after 6:00a.m. after the region wascleared.Canyon News spoke with

a representative from theCommunications Center atthe CHP about the colli-sion. “It looks like therewere possible injuries…(although) they declinedparamedics after the firedepartment came out,” saidthe representative.

By Katie Trojano

A five-car pileup on the 101 freeway on Mondaycaused lane closures during the morning com-mute.

nBa Star nick Young arreStedHOLLYWOOD—NBA starand former Golden StateWarriors basketball playerNick Young was arrested onFriday, August 24, after fail-ing to comply with police of-ficers during a routine traf-fic stop in Hollywood.Young, 33, was driving

when he was stopped by of-ficers during at a traffic stopat 11:55 p.m. After refusingto cooperate with officers hewas arrested and chargedwith obstruction of justice.TMZ released a video of thebasketball star yelling at of-ficers “Am I resisting?” whilebeing handcuffed and placedinto a police cruiser.Young was taken into cus-

tody, but later released acouple hours later on a$10,000 bail. The car hewas driving was also im-pounded. Young is sched-uled to appear in court onSeptember 19. This is notthe first time Young hasbeen stopped by police, in

2016, he was pulled overwhile driving in Hollywoodand cited for playing hismusic at a disruptive vol-ume.Young, who goes by the

nickname Swaggy P, is cur-rently a free agent. He wonhis first NBA title with the

Golden State Warriors inJune. He began his basket-ball career in high schooland continued after hesigned with the University ofCalifornia in 2004.After completing his jun-

ior year, Young entered theNBA draft was selected the

16th overall pick by theWashington Wizards. Younghas played 11 seasons inthe NBA, with four differentteams being the WashingtonWizards, Los Angeles Clip-pers, Philadelphia 76ers, LosAngeles Lakers, and GoldenState Warriors.

By Nina Garza

Nick Young.

Producer craig Zadan dead at 69HOLLYWOOD HILLS—Craig Zadan, known for pro-ducing both on-screen filmsand broadway hits died onMonday, August 20. Zadanwas 69.Zadan passed away at his

Hollywood Hills home dueto complications from a re-cent shoulder replacementsurgery. Bob Greenblatt, thechairman of NBC Enter-tainment made the an-nouncement on Tuesday,August 21.“Craig’s distinguished ca-

reer as a passionate and con-summate producer iseclipsed only by his gen-uine love for the thousandsof actors, directors, writers,musicians, designers, andtechnicians he worked withover the years,” said Green-blatt in a statement. “Onbehalf of his life partner,Elwood Hopkins, and hisproducing partner, NeilMeron, we are stunned thatthe man behind so many

incredible film, theatre, andtelevision productions —several of them joyous mu-sicals — was taken away sosuddenly. Craig’s distin-guished career as a passion-ate and consummate pro-ducer is eclipsed only by hisgenuine love for the thou-sands of actors, directors,writers, musicians, design-ers, and technicians heworked with over the years.His absence will be felt in

our hearts and throughoutour business.”Zadan was born in Miami

on April 15, 1949. He at-tended Hofstra Universityand moved to New York topursue his career in enter-tainment in the 1970s. In1984, Zadan produced “Foot-loose,” starring Kevin Baconand Lori Singer.Before passing, he was

one half of the accomplishedproduction company

Zadan/Meron Productions –the other half being NeilMeron. The pair was re-sponsible for the NBC re-makes of musicals that in-cluded “The Sound of Mu-sic,” “Hairspray” and re-cently, the John Legend-led“Jesus Christ Superstar.”Zadan/Meron productions

also produced the AcademyAwards telecast from 2013 to2015. Producing revivalsof “How to Succeed in Busi-ness Without Really Trying”and other shows, the pro-duction duo ventured intoBroadway.The company collected a

total of six Academy Awards,including Best Picture forthe 2002 film “Chicago;”five Golden Globes, 17Emmy Awards, two PeabodyAwards, a Grammy Award,six GLAAD Awards, fourNAACP Image Awards andtwo Tony Awards.

By Alexandra Del Rosario

Stage, TV and film producer, Craig Zadan diedon Monday, August 20 at the age of 69.