Was this the Fyre Festival of books?Books
Category: BUSINESS
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Jennifer Aniston: Her life and career in photosCelebrities
Jennifer Aniston: Her life and career in photosCelebrities
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Fredrik Backman talks new book ‘My Friends,’ writing struggles
When I call Fredrik Backman from halfway across the world – he in his Stockholm apartment, me in my New York one – he says something I don’t expect.
The “Anxious People” author is soft-spoken, even giving me a preemptive apology in case he needs to argue in Swedish with his barking dog, whose real name is kept secret but whom fans know as “The Donkey.” Backman is notoriously private, especially about his family, averse to the fame that comes with having several international bestsellers, including one that was made into a Tom Hanks movie (“A Man Called Otto”). Interviews and public appearances make him anxious. He expressed as much in a viral video from Simon & Schuster’s Centennial last year.
“Maybe this is the last thing I’ll ever publish,” he tells me when I ask about his inspiration for his latest novel, “My Friends,” out now from Simon & Schuster. If that ends up being the case, he says, he wants to say something that leaves a mark and inspires young people.
I think about objecting, placating, trying to convince him that the world needs more Backman books, now more than ever. But I stop, because Backman isn’t saying this in search of any sort of praise or compliment. He’s saying it because it’s real – human – which is exactly how his books read anyway.
Fredrik Backman struggles with ‘the machine of the industry’
When he showed the first draft of “My Friends” to his close circle, the reaction was lukewarm. The story was dark, too dark, his wife told him. It reflected two years of confidence and writing troubles.
“I had a really long period where I thought ‘I’m going to retire from writing,’” Backman says. “But I’m not going to retire from writing. I’m going to retire from publishing books, because I just felt that this is taking a little bit too much out of me. I’m not handling the pressure of it.”
I ask him if he still feels that way, now that “My Friends” has turned into something deeper (and more hopeful) than he originally wrote. He says he grapples with it every day, struggles with being caught in “the machine of the industry.”
Backman isn’t the only author who feels this way. After the worldwide success of “Fourth Wing,” romantasy author Rebecca Yarros told Elle Magazine she was taking a break because writing, publishing and marketing the series “drove (her) body to a place that was untenable.” Colleen Hoover, the author behind the BookTok bestseller “It Ends With Us,” had to cancel her book tour because of stress-related health issues.
In 2021, Backman inked a four-book deal with Simon & Schuster UK for his English-language books: his Beartown series closer “The Winners” and three standalone novels, one of which presumably is “My Friends.”
“I’ve always struggled with this part of it, the being interviewed, going on tour, being somewhat – in the smallest form of the word – a celebrity,” he says. “I’ve always struggled with being a public figure and people having expectations of you and having preconceived notions of you. I’ve always struggled with that. I am not good with crowds; I’m not good with strangers. I don’t give a good first impression to people. I’m comfortable with maybe seven people.”
Backman knows he’s privileged to write fulltime, telling me about “proper jobs” he’s had operating forklifts for 10-12 hours a day, waking up so sore he couldn’t extend his fingers. He’s telling me this, he says, not to garner sympathy but because he wants the industry to be careful with how they treat young writers. Writers are highly sensitive by nature.
“You’re not supposed to be a balanced, high-functioning individual because that’s not what makes you a great writer,” Backman says. “People expect you to be able to shut that off and say ‘Yeah, but now we need you to think about marketing, meeting about marketing, thinking about your brand.’
“It’s fine when you put that pressure on someone like me, who is 44 years old and I have kids, and I have a life and I have a good support system around me and I’ve been doing this for 15 years. But when that pressure starts mounting up on someone in their 20s, I think that’s a lot to ask of someone who makes their living off of talking to imaginary friends.”
To some degree, intense marketing is a necessary evil under capitalism. Books need to sell to keep publishers and authors afloat, and a good campaign can be the difference between putting food on the table or not. The landscape is also shifting. As social media, namely BookTok, continues to drive sales, there’s an increasing push for authors themselves to be a brand, rather than their work alone. We have access to authors’ personal lives in a way we never have before.
Some authors thrive through marketing, touring, speaking and signing. But not all.
“These people that you’re dealing with are very sensitive creatures, and you can break them if you push them too hard,” Backman says.
Fredrik Backman wrote ‘My Friends’ for the young dreamers
If “My Friends” was his last book, Backman tells me, what would he want to say?
The story is told in two alternating timelines. The past perspective is about four childhood friends and one transformative summer. Their bond inspires a painting that eventually becomes, decades later, the most famous painting in the world. In the present, a teenager clings tightly to a postcard of the painting. It’s her most cherished possession in the world. Then she finds herself in unexpected ownership of the original. Her cross-country journey to learn how the artwork came to be connects surprising roads in her own life and the painting’s subjects.
If our discussion about publishing is a critique of the capitalistic churn of people as commodities, “My Friends” says the same thing about art. Backman, whose wife is an art buff, frequents museums with his family. He loathes that art is hidden away and sold as capital. He wants to teach young people that it belongs to them.
Young people are a driving force in Backman’s work. In “A Man Called Ove,” a grieving, depressed elderly man finds reason to live after he encounters a young family next door. The heart of “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry” is a lovable 7-year-old. Even the books with adult characters show that we’re all just big kids on the inside, figuring it out as we go.
I ask him if hope is something he wants to share with his readers. That’s how I always feel when I close a Backman book. He looks for a different feeling instead.
“At the end of the night (when) you’re just exhausted and someone in your life who loves you and cares about you just turns around and looks at you and says, ‘You did good. You did good. I can see that you struggled, and I can see that you did your best,’” Backman says. “That’s what I’m looking for in my books, and maybe that’s interpreted by some people as hope, and maybe it’s redemption and maybe it’s something else. But I’m looking for that. I’m looking for you to close the book at the final page and feel like it’s OK.”
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at [email protected].
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Rob Thomas announces new album ‘All Night Days’, tour: Ticket info
2025 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductees announced
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced its 2025 inductees, which include hip-hop pioneers Outkast and the vibrant Cyndi Lauper.
unbranded – Entertainment
Rob Thomas might be a member of the “slacker generation,” but he’s better defined as a workaholic.
As the frontman for Matchbox Twenty, which has sold more than 40 million albums in a nearly 30-year span, and the architect of a triumphant solo career that moved about 18 million more with earworms including “Lonely No More” and “Her Diamonds,” Thomas has rarely deviated from the cycle of write-record-release-tour.
In 2023, Matchbox Twenty released “Where the Light Goes,” its first album in more than a decade that was paired with the lengthy Slow Dream Tour. Next year, the band will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its Diamond-certified debut, “Yourself or Someone Like You,” which spawned the ubiquitous “Real World,” “3AM” and “Push.”
But before he returns to ringmaster duties, Thomas, 53, will release his sixth solo album, “All Night Days,” this summer and follow it with a 25-date tour from Aug. 1 in Atlanta through Sept. 6 in Los Angeles, hitting cities including Nashville, Boston, Indianapolis, Detroit, Houston and Las Vegas.
Presale tickets for the run, which also features The Lucky and A Great Big World on certain dates, are available from 10 a.m. May 7 through 10 p.m. May 8 with the general on sale at 10 a.m. May 9 at robthomasmusic.com (all are local time).
Chatting from his home of 20 years in idyllic Bedford, New York, Thomas shared the story behind the name of his new album, his excitement about his son playing guitar on tour and his commitment to rescuing animals.
Question: We spoke almost exactly two years ago when Matchbox Twenty was preparing for a summer tour. Did that go so well that you couldn’t wait to get out there again?
Answer: It’s funny, with Matchbox Twenty, every year we get closer and better at what we do. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of Matchbox Twenty so I thought, if I don’t get out there now and play solo, I’ll miss that window.
What do you remember from that time when “ … Something to Be” came out? The band had huge success with “More Than You Think You Are” (in 2002) and you were about six years past the huge solo breakout with “Smooth” (with Carlos Santana).
It was the perfect time. “Smooth” happened before the second record (“Mad Season”) came out in 2000 and the whole video for “Bent” was the rest of the band beating me up. That was the joke. We wanted to have them beating me up in an alley with a Grammy and you can’t do that with a Grammy. We had someone call to check! We were really feeling so creative to do “More Than You Think You Are” when we really felt we hit our stride. But we had been going since 1996 and (after that album) the band purposely took a break and then it was like, if I’m going to do something solo, this is the time.
You’ve really had a prolific career.
It’s not lost on me how lucky I am that I’ve been able to go back and forth and have fans be generous and come to both shows. The band, I won’t say they love (my solo career), but (Matchbox Twenty drummer) Paul (Doucette) said, “I can’t tell my best friend not to do something that makes him happy because it’s inconvenient to me.”
With the new album and tour, where did the title “All Night Days” come from?
It stemmed from a conversation I was having about when we used to stay out all night and I said, “I thought my all night days were over.” I Googled the title because with most great things there’s probably another song or book with that title and there wasn’t. It felt fortuitous that I stumbled on (a phrase) and made it unique.
The first single “Hard to Be Happy” is this jaunty tune, but lyrically, there’s a lot of rumination going on.
It’s a good thing that we’re in a time where it’s OK to talk about not being OK. You know those commercials for mood inhibitors and people are out there with that fake smiley mask? The music is the fake mask and inside is what people are feeling. No matter where we are with having a mental health conversation, we feel this need to be performative in some way, to try not to burden other people with all of the things distressing you … But it was very intentional to musically have this kind of Harry Nilsson, “Coconut” kind of vibe.
For the tour, what are you planning production-wise?
We’re getting the staging designs together now, but at the end of the day it’s about me and the players. Most of the guys in my (eight-piece) solo band have been with me 20 years and on this tour, my lead guitarist is my son Mason.
That has to be a proud moment for you. Has he played with you before?
We’ve done some charity and private gigs so he’s gotten the songs down and he’s really ready for the tour. He came to Australia for the Matchbox Twenty tour last year and that was fun because he was just hanging with me and the band.
When we last spoke, I asked how you stay fit on tour and you joked that I should ask you that at the end of it. So now several months since the end of it, how are you feeling?
My left knee and back, I don’t notice anything in the moment, but I do in the aftermath. From a practical standpoint, I miss being on the road because within a week you are in super shape because I’m working out every day and doing a two-hour show every night. You can regiment your meals better. The hard thing now is when you get off the road.
How have things been going with your Sidewalk Angels Foundation?
When my wife (Marisol Maldonado) and I started it, it was important for us to realize we had this vehicle that we could use this platform to help no-kill animals shelters … We just lost our dog, Ollie, last week after 16 years. He was the first mass rescue from The Sato Project and it was us and a few organizations getting dogs from this area called Dead Dog Beach in Puerto Rico. It was putting the dogs on a plane to America and finding no-kill shelters and homes they could go to and we continued to be part of those rescues and other organizations’ mission statement. It’s been 20 years and millions of dollars raised and we barely let it sit on the shelves, ever.
Do you have any other pets?
Ollie was our last one for a while, but I know one day we’re going to be driving down the road and be like, yep, we’ve got a dog now.
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Doechii, Damson Idris make Met Gala arrivals into sport
Met Gala: Sabrina Carpenter wears bodysuit
Sabrina Carpenter is giving “espresso” as she wears a stunning pinstripe bodysuit to the Met Gala red carpet.
If making an entrance is a form of art, then last night’s Met Gala had its fair share of virtuosos.
As stars scaled the velveted blue steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, clad in highly tailored gowns and suit combos to honor the history of Black dandyism, a few arrivals stood out, adding an air of pomp to accessorize their already bespoke looks.
From a surprise baby bump to a sleek race-car entrance, these celebrities joined a small but mighty club of stars who have opted to make the famous Met steps not just a runway but a stage.
Damson Idris channels F1
Damson Idris, a British actor who will star in the upcoming summer blockbuster “F1,” channeled his character by pulling up in a Tommy Hilfiger-branded race car.
In a sleek racing suit and blinged-out helmet, Idris then joined the rich tradition of mid-Met Gala outfit changes, standing as two aides ripped off his racing fit to reveal a deep red three-piece suit.
The outfit was a fitting choice for a gala co-chaired by real-life racing and style icon Lewis Hamilton.
Doecchi thinks outside the box
Musically, Doechii thinks outside the box − defying the limits of genre and remaking the boundaries of female rap.
But, for Met Gala Monday, a box fit just right, as the Florida-born singer attempted to avoid the rain and conceal her outfit before arriving.
Once at the steps, the white box fell and Doechii was revealed to be sporting a dapper Louis Vuitton tuxedo top, paired with tailored shorts, a burgundy ascot and an old-money cigar.
Her shoes and calf-length socks matched the silk burgundy higher up in the set, creating a monogrammed, polo-style look.
Rihanna is fashionably late
Rihanna, a Met Gala veteran and one-time chair of the event, arrived late, scaling the steps after Vogue had already cut off its live stream.
The singer surprised fans with a baby bump, cradled by a closely fitted corset, and teased earlier in the night when photographers caught a glimpse of her entering the nearby Mark Hotel.
Rihanna arrived separately from her partner A$AP Rocky, a co-chair of the event.
For Kamala Harris, no entrance is the best entrance
Kamala Harris made her Met Gala debut, but skipped the iconic steps, opting for a photo from her hotel room instead.
In a sleek, black and white gown, with an asymmetrical cut at the top, the former presidential candidate made an entrance without making one, using the fashion fundraiser as part of her tepid return to public life, following a recent speech at the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala in San Francisco, where she condemned the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Trump, her former political rival, has not been welcomed to the Met Gala for nearly a decade since Vogue Editor-in-Chief and gala chair Anna Wintour announced in 2017 that he would no longer be invited.
Contributing: Anthony Robledo
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Charley Scalies dies at 84Entertainment
Charley Scalies dies at 84Entertainment
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Man crashes through front gate
Man crashes Jennifer Aniston’s home fence
A man allegedly drove his car through Jennifer Aniston’s Los Angeles home.
Fox – LA
Police have arrested a man who drove through the front gate of Jennifer Aniston’s home, reports say.
The incident happened on May 5 at the “Friends” actress’ home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to KABC Los Angeles and CNN.
The latter reported Aniston was home when police responded to a call at the property, and LAPD said a private security guard pulled the man out of the car and held him until police arrived, per the outlets.
USA TODAY has reached out to Aniston’s reps for comment.
Police took the man, whom CNN reported is a white male in his 70s, into custody. He was set to be booked for felony vandalism for the damage caused, the officials told KABC.
Officials are investigating the cause, and it is unclear whether the incident was accidental or intentional. Police told KABC that the man has a minor criminal history, but it is still unknown whether he was specifically targeting Aniston.
The incident comes months after Aniston was the victim of an alleged swatting prank. KTLA and The Independent reported in September that someone called the LAPD out to the “The Morning Show” star’s address. Swatting is the act of falsely reporting an emergency to police in an attempt to get a SWAT team or public safety officials to respond to a location.
Law enforcement officials told TMZ at the time that the person claimed they were worried about a friend and requested a welfare check, never mentioning Aniston’s name. Police said they spoke with Aniston, who said everything was OK, the outlet reported.
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Man crashes Jennifer Aniston's home fenceEntertainment
Man crashes Jennifer Aniston’s home fenceEntertainment
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Nate Bargatze on ‘Big Dumb Eyes’ book, his plans after standup comedy
HOUSTON ‒ On April Fools’ Day, comedian Nate Bargatze steps to a lectern at a fundraiser for the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation. Before Bargatze, historian and author H. W. Brands, novelist Victoria Christopher Murray and “Frasier” actor and author Kelsey Grammer shared publishing anecdotes and advocated for the power of books at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.
Bargatze – who had the highest-earning comedy tour of 2024 and has been vocal about a disdain for reading “because every book is just the most words” − wasn’t at this high-brow event as a joke. Though he told plenty. Wearing a black tracksuit, unzipped to reveal a casual white T-shirt, and sneakers, he opens with, “I didn’t know y’all wore suits. My business casual’s different than your business casual. It’s the most ties I’ve ever seen in my life.”
The standup comic known for his clean jokes and witty observations, was in front of this crowd talking about his new book, a collection of essays called “Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind” (now available).
Bargatze’s book cover might advertise “a Simpler Mind,” but he certainly isn’t stupid. There’s a genius required for what he does on stage and his burgeoning entertainment empire.
Nate Bargatze says ‘Big Dumb Eyes’ is ‘not a book that’s better than anybody’
The boy who made good from Old Hickory, Tennessee, has standup specials, the Nateland Entertainment production company, a podcast with fellow comics Dusty Slay, Aaron Weber and Brian Bates, and will emcee this year’s Emmy Awards.
On stage, Bargatze flips through his book filled with stories about meeting his wife of nearly 20 years, Laura; falling 62 feet down a cliff; having NBA ambitions with church basketball talent; and the early days of chasing his comedy career in Chicago splitting a basement apartment with a roommate and a rat.
“I kind of jumped around,” he says apologetically to attendants. “Again reading is … just a hard thing. I really do want to do it; I love the idea of it.” And if only he’d known about the Literacy Foundation, “I probably could’ve used some of the help,” he says to howls and applause.
“I never really thought I’d be writing a book,” he says in a separate interview conducted in a room that has “great basketball carpet” that reminds him of the church league he played in. “We’re not a book that’s better than anybody. We’re the one that just sits there, and it’s a fun read. And then after us you go back to the books that you’re actually going to learn something from.”
It’s also how Bargatze’s comedy could be described − a sort of deprecation without derision. Watch any of his specials and witness his strategic pauses, how his Southern drawl artfully wraps around thoughtfully chosen, grammatically jarring phrases creating just enough tension that laughter erupts.
In his 30-minute set on “The Standups,” he remembers a frightful visit to North Carolina’s now-defunct Cape Fear Serpentarium, where a 10-foot crocodile escaped its cage. “It’s like a ‘Godzilla’ movie,” Bargatze quips. “Everybody’s dead behind you, you just assume it. … Some lady was like, ‘My husband …’ I was like, ‘Your husband’s gone, lady!’ He’s gone!”
“The Tennessee Kid,” Bargatze’s first hourlong Netflix special, memorializes a fight he had with his wife about chocolate milk, after which they did not speak for a full day. Laura wasn’t buying a commercial telling people to drink chocolate milk after working out. “She said, ‘That’s just the milk people pushing chocolate milk,’” Bargatze tells the audience. “She went to college, all right, and I did not. But she did not study chocolate milk, when is it good and not good for you.”
A gamble on comedy after flunking college
School proved to be a challenge for Bargatze. After a year of remedial classes at Volunteer State Community College, he received all Fs his first and only semester at Western Kentucky University.
Bargatze, now 46, began hosting at Applebee’s at 20. There he met Laura, a waitress who reminded him of Jennifer Aniston’s character in “Office Space.” He also worked as a water meter reader, managed by a friend who encouraged Bargatze to pursue a career in comedy. Bargatze grew up watching Sinbad and seeing his dad, magician Stephen Bargatze, incorporate jokes into his act.
Nate Bargatze’s revelations about his dad’s upbringing in “Big Dumb Eyes” are the tenderest parts of the book. Stephen’s mom neglected and physically abused her son, he writes. Once she left the toddler unattended at a bowling alley while she played. A bulldog attacked his face, biting off part of his tongue.
“His jokes came from a place of darkness,” Bargatze writes. “He believed we needed to laugh at ourselves − and at each other − otherwise we’d probably cry.”
Stephen’s discovery that God would “love my dad no matter what,” changed everything, Bargatze continues. It’s a faith instilled in his own standup.
“When you’re on stage, it’s a lot,” Bargatze says. “It’s 15,000, 20,000 people and they’re all cheering and they’re going crazy. I just don’t think you can sustain it if you make it, like, ‘It’s about me.’ It’s just about the gift I was given and just doing it and putting it out there and hopefully making people laugh.”
Bargatze also felt inspired by the comedians who appeared on Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold’s syndicated radio program, “The Bob & Tom Show,” which Bargatze listened to between reading meters.
“You get influenced by that and you just kind of fall in love with it,” Bargatze says. “I didn’t really know how to start, and my buddy wanted to go to Chicago to go to Second City. I think I needed someone with direction, and then I was like, alright, ‘I’ll just follow you and go from there.’”
A life-altering move to New York: ‘You’ve got to see people make it’
In Chicago, Bargatze took three eight-week courses before being convinced by Jerry Seinfeld’s 2002 documentary “Comedian” that he needed to be in New York City. There he witnessed other standups breaking through.
“That’s a giant thing,” he says. “You’ve got to see people make it. Because if you can see people … become big, then you at least can see that there’s a path. Otherwise, it’s very daunting.”
Bargatze attributes his success to “being around, not stopping, not giving up.” And where he is today eclipses the biggest dream: playing Bridgestone Arena on Nashville’s famed, honky-tonk lined Broadway Street.
“When I started in New York, I would stand on the corner handing out flyers and I would get stage time if you could bring people into the show,” Bargatze says. “So I would always daydream about that, but it was a safe daydream. It wasn’t like I thought it was going to happen.”
Bargatze has not only performed in the arena, on April 15, 2023, he set a record for most people in attendance, with 19,365 in the crowd. There will be three Bridgestone performances on the Big Dumb Eyes World Tour.
“I didn’t imagine it to be the level that it has gotten,” Bargatze says. “It’s kind of weird because you hit a moment of, this thing has been driving me for 20 years. And so now you’ve got to think about what is the next thing that’s going to drive you. And that’s where the Nateland company and all the other stuff came in.”
The next chapter: Nateland and his final standup bow
With his production company Nateland, Bargatze aims to create family friendly content across film, TV, podcasts and more that can be enjoyed by everyone. “Good, clean, funny!” as the tagline says. It has produced comedy specials released on its YouTube channel and curates a weekly lineup of comics at Zanies comedy club in Nashville.
As a newer comic, Bargatze had doubts about his future as a clean standup.
“There (were) times you would feel like, ‘All right, if I went another route, maybe I would get to jump up,’” he says. “But fortunately I always just would (tell) myself, ‘No, just stay the course,’ and just trust that it’s going to work out.” And creating entertainment that you can experience with the entire family isn’t a bad strategy when it comes to ticket sales.
Bargatze is also using Nateland as a platform to promote new acts as he prepares for his retirement from touring.
“I could see five more years of standup,” he says. “I want to build all this other stuff.”
Coming up in entertainment, he says, “you get stuck behind people that don’t really get out of the way. I think your job as an older showman … is to be able to step somewhat out of the way and really try to get the new, next wave coming in.”
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Jurors questioned in sweeping sex crimes trial
The many names of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Music mogul Sean Combs, who’s on trial for sexual abuse and trafficking, has had a series of name changes while also maintaining his given name.
After a busy kickoff of proceedings, the Sean “Diddy” Combs criminal trial continues with its jury selection.
Day two of the selection process begins May 6 after several dozen potential jurors were brought into a courtroom the previous day and questioned one by one by Judge Arun Subramanian, the prosecution and defense to determine whether they’re qualified to serve on Combs’ jury.
In a May 1 pretrial conference, lawyers said they planned to question as many as 150 potential jurors, with each questionnaire lasting 20-30 minutes. On May 5, Judge Subramanian deemed 19 qualified to serve, including two who said they were fans of 1990s hip-hop, while the rest were dismissed.
Federal prosecutors indicated they’d be able to find the 45 qualified jurors needed in three days, and it’s possible they won’t need to speak to all 150 people.
The embattled hip-hop mogul, who at one time was among the most powerful figures in the music industry, has experienced a sharp fall from grace after facing a bevy of lawsuits and criminal charges accusing him of rape and sexual assault.
During his final pretrial hearing on May 2, Combs confirmed he turned down a potential plea deal. A judge previously rejected a request from the rapper’s legal team to delay the start of the trial.
Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
As jury selection got underway, prospective jurors said they had heard news about allegations against the hip-hop star, seen a video of him allegedly assaulting a woman and even heard a comedian joke about the baby oil authorities say they found at his residences.
Jurors were given a list of people and places related to the defendant in some way, including Hollywood and music industry celebrities such as Michael B. Jordan, Kid Cudi, Michelle Williams, Mike Myers and others.
The group of jurors who weren’t struck ranged in age from 30 to 75; most were college-educated, with careers spanning scientists, behavioral health associates, professional movers and grocery-store deli clerks.
The 17-page questionnaire given to potential jurors in Combs’ case is fairly standard.
The 31-question form asks if they or a family member or friend has been a victim of sexual assault, sexual harassment or domestic violence and whether they or a family member or friend has been charged or accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment or domestic violence. It also asks if they have read about Combs and if they have formed an opinion of his guilt.
However one question could be interesting for some: Have you communicated to others, posted your opinion on social media or online, or ‘liked’ any social media posts about Mr. Combs. If so, when and were did you post or state your opinion.
Prosecutors also said several of the questions they wanted potential jurors to be asked will have to do with their feelings on law enforcement and experiences with the government.
Combs’ team wants potential jurors to describe the music they like and their opinions about the hip-hop and rap music industry. The defense team’s proposed questionnaire also suggested they want to know if jurors are open-minded to alternative sexual lifestyles.
The most head-turning dismissal on May 5 came when a potential juror noted a possible conflict of interest with his wife, who served as an attorney in the trial of the 1991 City College stampede. The infamous incident occurred when nine people were killed during a fatal crush at a celebrity basketball game in New York that Combs helped organize.
Combs was never criminally charged, although he did face lawsuits for his role in promoting the would-be deadly event.
The potential juror said his wife had a negative opinion of Combs from the court case: “She found his behavior disturbing,” the man said. “In general, she doesn’t like him.” Despite claiming he could still be impartial, Judge Subramanian agreed with Combs’ team, who moved to have him excused from the trial.
Another prospective juror, who is a marketing officer at a large book publishing house, was excluded for cause after saying that the company is publishing a memoir from Al B. Sure! this fall that contains accusations or references to Combs. The prospective juror said she would “be unlikely to read that book,” but the judge said this was “too close to home.”
Combs made his first trial appearance on May 5, arriving shortly after 9 a.m. EDT from the federal lockup in Brooklyn where he is being held. The rapper, sporting a salt-and-pepper goatee, wore dark glasses and a dark sweater over a white shirt. He was also seen smiling and hugging his attorneys upon entering the courtroom.
As jurors continued to be dismissed, Combs asked Judge Subramanian for a short bathroom break, according to multiple reports. He told the judge, “I’m sorry, your honor, I’m a little nervous today.”
During his final pretrial hearing on May 2, Combs confirmed he turned down a potential plea deal. It is unclear what the plea deal consisted of.
Combs’ six-person defense team, led by attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, added one more member on May 2, the last business day before jury selection.
Xavier R. Donaldson, a New York-based criminal defense lawyer, filed a notice of appearance as a retained attorney for Combs in a document reviewed by USA TODAY on May 2.
The last attorney who joined Combs’ team was Brian Steel, the lawyer who represented rapper Young Thug in his lengthy RICO trial.
The trial will not be televised, as cameras are typically not allowed in federal criminal trial proceedings.
USA TODAY will be reporting live from the courtroom.
How long will Diddy’s trial be?
Assuming all parties can agree on 45 jurors by the end of the May 7 session, the prosecution and defense will spend May 8-9 preparing for opening statements, which begin May 12.
Why is Diddy on trial?
Combs is facing federal sex-crimes and trafficking charges in a sprawling suit that has eroded his status as a power player and king-maker in the entertainment industry.
He was arrested in September and has been charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all five counts.
His indictment emerged alongside dozens of separate civil suits suggesting a pattern of abusive behavior and exploitation spanning decades, including accusations of rape, sexual assault and physical violence.
Is Diddy in jail?
Despite repeated attempts at bail, Combs was ordered to remain in custody at the Special Housing Unit in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of trial — a ruling his legal team has challenged in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He’s been jailed since his arrest on Sept. 16, 2024.
Contributing: KiMi Robinson, Aysha Bagchi, Brendan Morrow, Pamela Avila, Anna Kaufman and Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY