White Privilege: 'Grey's Anatomy' star Isaiah Washington says Ellen Pompeo was secretly paid $5M 'to keep quiet about Patrick Dempsey's toxicity

Pompeo, Dempsey & Washington. Jon Kopaloff & Vera Anderson/WireImage

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Isaiah Washington said the "Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo accepted "$5 million dollars under the table" to keep quiet and "not tell the world how toxic and nasty Patrick Dempsey really was" on set.

During an interview on Tavis Smiley's radio show on October 21, Washington said Dempsey "was not a nice guy from day one." He also referred to Dempsey as "a total tyrant" who had a reputation for being "pilot poison," meaning an actor who represents a liability to getting a show picked up for a series.

Washington said Pompeo took "hush money" from unnamed parties around the time that the #MeToo movement was first making headlines before she signed a $20 million contract to continue on "Grey's Anatomy" and become the highest-paid woman on television.

The #MeToo hashtag went viral in 2017, largely inspired by reports about the now convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein from The New York Times and The New Yorker. Many women in Hollywood made sexual-abuse allegations and described gender-specific disparities.

Pompeo signed her $20 million contract with ABC "in late 2017," according to her January 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"And you want to run around here like you are the keeper of all feminine women and the feminist movement," Washington said, referring to Pompeo.

The "P-Valley" actor said he never felt supported on the set of the medical drama because he "was never wanted there."

"Every single day, I was a problem that was being reminded, 'You're No. 4 on the call sheet,'" he said.

Washington said that around the time he exited "Grey's Anatomy," his own behavior on set was being used to cover up Dempsey's. 

Washington was at the center of one of the first controversies on the set of ABC's long-running medical drama when multiple witnesses said he used a homophobic slur to refer to his costar T.R. Knight during a fight with Dempsey. Washington issued an apology for his actions to People in 2006 and was fired from the show the following year.

Reps for Pompeo and Dempsey didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

In "How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy," a recently released tell-all book about the medical drama by Entertainment Weekly Editor at Large Lynette Rice, the former "Grey's" executive producer James D. Parriott makes similar comments about Dempsey's behavior, saying the actor was often "terrorizing the set." 

"Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him," Parriott adds. "He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people."

Dempsey has never directly commented about any allegations regarding his behavior on set. In his 2015 "Grey's Anatomy" exit interview with Rice, he said leaving the show "unfolded in a very organic way" but added that "it happened very quickly." 

In November 2014, Dempsey went on a "hiatus" from the show for six episodes for reasons he didn't explain to Rice.

"They tried to keep it secret as best they could," he said. 

Dempsey did say his erratic hours were hard on his family.

"It's 10 months, 15 hours a day. You never know your schedule, so your kid asks you, 'What are you doing on Monday?' and you go, 'I don't know,' because I don't know my schedule,'" he said. "Doing that for 11 years is challenging."

He added: "What I would like to do is focus on not being spread so thin."

The next episode of "Grey's Anatomy" airs November 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Read the original piece by Esme Mazzeo on Insider

Executive Overreach: Justice Mary Odili who is second most senior member of the Supreme Court declared missing after illegal raid on her home

Muhammadu Buhari's autocratic and dictatorial proclivities fully on display again

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Justice Mary Odili of Supreme Court is reportedly missing after security operatives invaded her residence in Abuja.

According to reports, the illegal raid was signed off on by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami as well as the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba. Justice Mary Odili is the second most senior justice at the apex court and this action by the EFCC, in conjunction with the police is seen by many as being politically motivated and a sinister move by President Muhammadu Buhari to remove her from the court and replace her with another Fulani and Sharia indoctrinated Supreme Court Justice, ahead of the 2023 elections. 

The residence of the Supreme Court Judge in the Maitama area of Abuja (the Nigerian capital) was said to have been raided by fully armed plain-clothed security men for undisclosed reasons at about 5 pm local time on Friday. 

The security operatives were said to consist of soldiers and officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) who identified themselves as members of a joint task force.

Security operatives guarding the house were said to have resisted the takeover of the house without a court order as they insisted on staying around the residence, waiting for the occupants to surrender so they could take over the house. 

Justice Odili has yet to be seen or to make a public statement since the alleged invasion of her residence.

However, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has denied the reports that its operatives carried out an operation in the Abuja residence of Justice Mary Odili.

The operatives of the anti-graft agency were alleged to have stormed the house of Justice Odili in the Maitama area of Abuja to execute a search warrant as part of investigations into her husband, Peter Odili, who served as Governor of Rivers State from 1999 to 2007.

However, the EFCC, while reacting via a statement on its official Facebook page, noted that its operatives did not carry out “any such operation as claimed by the media”.

Buhari admits to his own security failures as says 12 million Nigerian children afraid to go to school

INSECURITY HAS WORSENED UNDER THE BUHARI ADMINISTRATION 

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ABUJA, NIGERIA — 

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said 12 million children are scared to go to school in the country, where jihadis and heavily armed criminals have kidnapped hundreds of students for ransom.

The first mass school abduction in Africa's most populous nation was in the northeast in 2014, when Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from Chibok, triggering a global campaign called #BringBackOurGirls.

Since then, attacks on schools "have grown in number and spread across the northern part of the country," said Buhari on Tuesday, addressing a conference on safety in education in the capital, Abuja.

Gunmen in northwest and central Nigeria have increasingly targeted schools, kidnapping more than 1,000 students since December.

As a result, Buhari said, "there are more than 12 million children currently traumatized and afraid of going to school." Girls were particularly affected, he added.

Young girls who leave school early are at risk of being married off, experts warn.

Save the Children said earlier this month that an "estimated 44% of girls in Nigeria are married before their 18th birthday, one of the highest rates of child marriage globally."

Most kidnapped students are released after negotiations with their captors.

But "even when the abducted students are released," Buhari said, "the trauma of the incidences remain long in their minds."

The retired general, first elected in 2015, said the government was "highly committed to prioritizing safety in schools."

"We have identified and put mechanisms in place … to ensure the safety and security of schools in Nigeria," he said.

But it "has been tough dealing with these security challenges and their effect," the 78-year-old added.

Military operations are underway across the country, but security forces are often described as overstretched and overwhelmed.

VOA

Long Covid in children 'nowhere near scale feared'

Biden (L) and Trump (R) have politicized and weaponized the pandemic - AP/The Atlantic

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By Nick Triggle

The risk of "long Covid" in children is much lower than many had feared, leading child health experts have said.

After the world's biggest study into the issue, the researchers, led by University College London, said they were "reassured".

They surveyed 11- to 17-year-olds testing positive for coronavirus in England between September and March.

The research suggests somewhere between 2% and 14% still had symptoms caused by Covid 15 weeks later.

The team said it was important those with persistent symptoms, which included headaches, tiredness and breathing difficulties, received support.

But there was little evidence huge numbers had sought NHS help for symptoms that had left them bedridden or unable to attend school.

The study, which has yet to be published in a medical journal, also gathered data from young people who had never tested positive, meaning more than 50,000 were surveyed in total.

And 53% of them had at least one symptom after 15 weeks, simply because they are common in the general population.

Among those who had tested positive, this proportion was 65%.

A more significant difference was seen among those 30% had three or more symptoms, compared with 16% of those who had never tested positive, suggesting 32,000 out of nearly 235,000 who were infected between September and March have developed long Covid.

But the numbers could be even lower.

Only 13% of those asked to respond to the survey did so.

Researchers believe those who are suffering ongoing symptoms would be more likely to complete the survey than those who are not.

If all those with long Covid were to do so among those who did so, that would suggest their actual number was just 4,000 or fewer than 2%.

The research team - including Prof Sir Terence Stephenson, from UCL's Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health infectious disease lead Dr Liz Whittaker, and Public Health England officials - will continue to follow the children in the coming months.

But Sir Terence said he was already "reassured" suggestions, at the height of the pandemic, that half of children could develop long Covid cases were wrong.

"It is nowhere near what people thought in the worst-case scenario".

Although, he said, the numbers were still "not trivial" and the issue needed to be taken seriously.

Most likely to report persistent symptoms were older girls who already had poorer physical and mental health.

Those struggling emotionally and mentally could be more attuned to even minor physical illnesses, the researchers said, and a positive coronavirus test could help trigger that.

Of all the children in the study, 40% reported feeling sad, worried or unhappy.

And the researchers said it was clear the pandemic had had a damaging effect on young people because of:

• the closure of schools
• not seeing their friends
• concern about the risk from the virus

This showed how important it was to get "back to normal" and have schools open, Dr. Whittaker added.

BBC NEWS

Texas governor Greg Abbott signs Texas bill restricting transgender participation in school sports

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Jason Owens

A Texas bill seeking to limit transgender students' access to school sports is now law. 

Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill on Monday that prohibits students in public schools from competing in sports that don't align with their gender listed at birth. The bill was passed by the State's Republican-led legislature earlier in October and sent to Abbott's desk for his signature. 

The bill passed via a 76-61 margin in the House of Representatives and a 19-12 vote in the Senate. Abbott didn't publicly comment on the law upon signing it. It will take effect in January. 

The bill overrides a previous provision to state law that allowed students to obtain a court order to permit them to compete as the gender with which they identify. Republican state Rep. Valoree Swanson, a vocal advocate of the bill, argued that the new law's intent is to protect girls in sports. 

"We need a statewide level playing field," Swanson said while advocating for the bill on the House floor earlier in October. "It’s very important that we, who got elected to be here, protect our girls.”

LGBTQ advocates argue that the law's intent is to discriminate and further stigmatize transgender lifestyles with which its supporters don't agree. Ricardo Martinez, chief executive officer of Equality Texas, argued against the the bill while speaking with the Associated Press last week.

“This cruel and grotesque ban puts a target on the backs of transgender children and adults, erases intersex people and sends a clear message that transgender and intersex people aren’t welcome or safe in Texas,” Martinez said.

Republican-led legislators in more than 20 states have proposed bills limiting transgender participation in public schools. Texas joins Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas and Montana in passing such bills into law.

Critics characterize the bills as solutions without problems and argue that legislators can't point to instances in their states where girls have experienced unfair treatment or even competed against transgender athletes.

An Associated Press survey of legislators supporting such bills found that several couldn't cite an instance of a transgender girl's participation in sports existing or causing a problem in their states. Others pointed to a case in Connecticut that's received widespread attention and is often cited by supporters of bills limiting transgender rights. 

Monday's is the latest controversial measure approved Abbott in recent months. In May, Abbott signed Senate Bill 8 into law prohibiting abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy. Earlier this month, Abbott signed an executive order outlawing COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Texas, including those among private employers. 

Yahoo Sports

Nigeria a failed state pretending to be normal – Moghalu

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Kingsley Moghalu, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and presidential candidate in the 2019 general election, has described Nigeria as a failed state.

Moghalu, who was recently appointed as an Academic Visitor to the University of Oxford, UK said Nigeria is a failed state pretending to be normal.

His reaction came days after terrorists attack the Abuja-Kaduna train.

The ex-presidential candidate lamented that the inaction of security agents who were aware of the attack ahead of time, indicated that Nigeria is a failed state.

In a series of tweets, Moghalu wrote: “After reading reports of the terrorist attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna train, and of how security networks were reportedly aware in advance of the attack but did nothing, we must tell ourselves the truth: Nigeria is a failed state pretending to be a normal country.

“Our state failure can be reversed. Britain suffered from “The Troubles” (terrorism by the Irish Republican Army) decades ago, but today it’s a different story.

“Afghanistan is not our destiny, but we must change our political direction in 2023 to make that outcome a false prophecy.”

Kingsley Moghalu

@MoghaluKingsley

·

Oct 23

After reading reports of the terrorist attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna train, and of how security networks were reportedly aware in advance of the attack but did nothing, we must tell ourselves the truth: Nigeria is a failed state pretending to be a normal country.

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