Entertainment Briefs

No new cases of HIV in porn stars

LOS ANGELES (AP):

No new cases of HIV have been found at the Los Angeles clinic where an adult film actor tested HIV-positive last month.

The Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation said Friday it had ruled out the illness in any partners of the infected actor after two rounds of testing.

News of the HIV-infected actor last month spread fresh fears of sexually transmitted disease through the California adult-film industry. Several major pornographers shut down film production until the clinic could complete testing on all parties that may have been affected

The identity and gender of the HIV-positive actor have not been released.

County health officials say at least eight adult film performers have tested positive since a 2004 outbreak of HIV in the adult entertainment industry.

Music festival producer arrested on rape charge

NEW ORLEANS (AP):

A man who produces two of New Orleans' largest music festivals was arrested Friday on a rape charge, but his lawyer says he has been falsely accused.

Stephen Rehage, founder and producer of Voodoo Fest and producer of the Essence Music Festival, was freed on $10,000 bond after he surrendered to police.

Rehage is accused of raping a woman he went on a date with in June, according to a police report.

His attorney, Pat Fanning, called the allegation false.

"Stephen Rehage has been a prominent member of the New Orleans business community for many years. His reputation has been unblemished and he has been involved in numerous charitable activities," Fanning said in a statement.

"It is his intention to vigorously defend himself against these unfounded allegations, and he is confident that when this matter is concluded he will be vindicated."

This year's instalment of Voodoo Fest wrapped up last Sunday, after featuring performances by Ozzy Osbourne, Muse and My Morning Jacket. Rehage, who turns 47 on Saturday, launched the festival in 1999. His company also took over production of the Essence Music Festival in 2008.

Rehage's accuser told police she met him for drinks at a New Orleans restaurant on June 21, then went to a party at a different restaurant, where she continued drinking cocktails. The woman said she apparently "blacked out" during the party.

"Her next recollection was being awakened in a bed naked and disoriented," with Rehage on top of her, choking her, the police report says.

The woman said Rehage let go of her neck after she gasped for air and whispered for him to stop, but she told police she blacked out again. When she awoke, she called several friends and relatives for help.

Police were summoned to Rehage's residence and took her home, but the woman didn't immediately report the alleged assault, according to the police report. Police started investigating on July 26, when a detective interviewed her at a hospital.

Fanning said Rehage and his accuser had consensual sex. The woman had a boyfriend who called police after she told him about the encounter, Fanning said.

Fanning also said his client's version of events is supported by text messages he and the woman exchanged three days after the alleged assault.

"I was just thinking about you, hoping that ur OK (and that our vodka drinking didn't cause you too much grief)," Rehage wrote, according to Fanning.

"Ha, ha. No I'm fine! Thanks for checking on me," she responded, according to the lawyer.

NY jury convicts man of stalking TV actress

NEW YORK (AP):

A fan of NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent has been convicted in New York on one of two counts charging him with stalking star Kathryn Erbe.

Jurors deliberated less than a day before reaching the split verdict Friday against Charles Nagel in federal court in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors say the 36-year-old Philadelphia man began stalking Erbe in 2008 by trying to hug her while she was filming on location in Manhattan.

Authorities say once he was rebuffed, he began composing creepy missives about her on a social network.

The 44-year-old Erbe testified that she was scared because she thought Nagel was obsessed with her.

Nagel took the stand to say it was all a misunderstanding.

Film about suicide wins top award at Rome festival

ROME (AP):

A Belgian movie that uses black humour to explore the topics of suicide and euthanasia won the top award at the Rome Film Festival on Friday.

Olias Barco's Kill Me Please took the Marc'Aurelio prize for best film.

The movie is about a doctor who wants to turn suicide into a medically assisted act and not a tragedy. In a statement, the organisers praised it as "an irresistible, grotesque black comedy, shot in black and white, and very politically incorrect."

The Grand Jury Prize went to In a Better World, chosen last month by Denmark as its entry in the foreign-language film category at the next Academy Awards. Susanne Bier's movie is about a doctor who returns to a small Danish town after working in a camp for refugees in Sudan.

Best actor honours went to Italy's Toni Servillo, of Gomorrah fame, for Una Vita Tranquilla.

The entire female cast of the Mexican film Las Buenas Hierbas won the best actress honours.

Actor Michael Pitt arrives on the red carpet to present the movie 'Boardwalk Empire' during the Rome Film Festival at Rome's Auditorium, last Wednesday.