Remy Ma allegedly tampered with witness
NEW YORK, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- New Jersey hip-hop artist Remy Ma has been hit with witness-tampering and gang-assault charges connected to her alleged participation in a recent shooting.
Remy Ma, whose real name is Remy Smith, was already facing up to 25 years in jail on charges she shot a female friend in the stomach during a dispute over some missing cash.
However, Manhattan prosecutors Wednesday told a judge the rapper also tried to silence one of the key witnesses during an altercation at a Bronx nightclub last month, the New York Post reported Thursday.
Prosecutors said that in addition to berating the witness’ boyfriend, Smith sent her own boyfriend and his friends to intimidate him.
When the witness’ boyfriend tried to seek help from security, he was jumped by the posse of Smith’s boyfriend and left with a fractured face.
A friend’s jaw was broken so badly in the melee that his mouth will be wired shut for months, the Post noted.
Prosecutors described the confrontation to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller in hopes she would find the new allegations serious enough to increase Smith’s bail, which is already $250,000.
The judge delayed a bail decision until next Thursday.
Fire leaves 'Crazy Love' couple homeless
NEW YORK, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- A fire forced the married stars of the documentary "Crazy Love" out of their New York apartment, the New York Daily News said Thursday.
Linda Pugach reportedly accidentally started the blaze while using a toaster oven at the couple's Rego Park home on Aug. 30.
The couple made headlines in 1959 when Burt Pugach hired a team of hit men to throw acid in Linda Pugach's face to blind her after she left him for another man.
Burt Pugach spent 15 years in prison, then proposed to Linda on television the day after he got out. Linda Pugach accepted and even stood by him when he allegedly had an affair and that mistress accused him of threatening her.
Their stormy romance was chronicled in "Crazy Love," a film co-directed by Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens and released this year.
The couple has been staying in a Queens hotel since the blaze destroyed their apartment and possessions.
"I just figure I have nine lives -- and I'm running out of all of them," said 70-year-old Linda Pugach.
"We're as OK as OK can be," Burt Pugach told the Daily News. "If we didn't have bad luck we'd have none at all."
'Crank That' tops Billboard Hot 100
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Soulja Boy's new single "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" has begun a second week at the top of the U.S. record charts, Billboard.com reported Thursday.
Making this week’s charts look a lot like last week’s charts, the three subsequent songs on The Billboard Hot 100 also held onto their previous positions.
Kanye West's "Stronger" stayed at No. 2, while Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" remained at No. 3 and Timbaland's "The Way I Are," featuring Keri Hilson, idled at No. 4 for the third week in a row.
T-Pain's "Bartender," featuring Akon came in at No. 5, while Nickelback's "Rockstar" settled into the No. 6 spot, Plain White T’s "Hey There Delilah" took the No. 7 space and Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls" dropped to No. 8.
Rounding out the Top 10 are Plies' "Shawty," featuring T-Pain, at No. 9 and Keyshia Cole’s "Let It Go," featuring Missy Elliott & Lil Kim, at No. 10.
Townsend says he and Theron are 'married'
TORONTO, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Irish actor Stuart Townsend said he and Charlize Theron consider themselves married even though they have never made it official, People.com said Thursday.
Townsend, who has appeared in the films "Queen of the Damned" and "About Adam," made the remarks while he and Theron were at the Toronto International Film Festival to promote "Battle in Seattle," Townsend's directorial debut.
Theron plays a role in the movie and stars in another festival highlight, "In the Valley of Elah."
The couple started dating seven years ago after they met on the set of the movie, "Trapped."
"I'm married," Townsend told People.
"I didn't do a church wedding or anything but we're married. We're husband and wife. We love each other and we want to spend our lives together," the actor said of Theron, whom he calls "the greatest woman I've ever met."
"There's no big official story on a wedding, but we are married. ... I consider her my wife and she considers me her husband," he said.
