CASEY AFFLECK

He will not be attending the Oscars on March 4, ending months of speculation over whether the Academy Award-winning actor would be a disruptive presence at the ceremony during a season dominated by the #metoo campaign.

Affleck, 42, won the Oscar last year for his performance in Manchester By The Sea and, by academy tradition, the best actress statuette is handed out by the previous year's best actor winner.

He triumphed then, despite two women suing him for sexual harassment during the production of the 2010 film, I'm Still Here, which he directed. He reached a settlement with them.

In the current climate, Affleck decided his presence at the Academy Awards would be untenable, according to Deadline Hollywood.

He felt that the focus should be on the women up for best actress and their performances, and not him.

DAVID COPPERFIELD

A former teen model has accused the magician of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1988 after he judged a competition in Japan that she took part in.

Entertainment news website The Wrap reported that Brittney Lewis said he invited her to one of his shows in California after meeting her at the 1988 competition when he was 32 and she was 17.

Copperfield, 61, was also accused in 2007 of sexual assault by former beauty queen Lacey Carroll, but the case was dropped with no official explanation.

RUSSELL SIMMONS

A Los Angeles woman has accused the music mogul of rape in a civil lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

The lawsuit asks for US$5 million (S$6.5 million) in damages from the Def Jam Recordings co-founder who, in the past two months, has been accused of sexual misdeeds by at least 10 other women and has been the focus of a police probe.

Jennifer Jarosik, 37, said she first met Simmons, 60, in New York in 2006, and that they became friends based on a mutual interest in meditation and yoga.

She was interested in interviewing him for a documentary she was making. He said he would help her.

Jarosik said in 2016, she went to Simmons' home in Los Angeles, at his invitation, and he asked her to have sex. She said no. He became aggressive, pushed her onto a bed and raped her, she claimed.

ANNE HECHE

The actress said disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein once exposed himself to her, but she refused to give him oral sex.

The 48-year-old actress made the revelation on the Allegedly With Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss podcast on Tuesday.

Heche did not state when the alleged incident happened or what movie she was eventually fired from.