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PEOPLE & ARTS A29
                                                                                                                                                                      Saturday 19 March 2016

Taylor Swift makes surprise appearance at Nashville hospital 

KRISTIN M. HALL                own radio show or whether       Television personality and producer Ryan Seacrest, foreground left, and singer Taylor Swift, center,
Associated Press               you want to record,” Swift      join young patients at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Seacrest Studio, Friday, March 18,
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) —        said. “It was so exciting to    2016, at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. The fully function-
Pop star Taylor Swift made     see the excitement that it      ing studio allows patients to record, do interviews, play songs and broadcast to the rooms in the
a surprise appearance at       brought to this one hospi-      hospital
a Nashville, Tennessee,        tal.”
children’s hospital to help    It wasn’t the first time that                                                                                                                       Associated Press
“American Idol” host Ryan      Swift made a surprise visit
Seacrest open a broad-         to a children’s hospital: She   “I get the coolest letters   engineer or they want to                                said. “And this gives them
cast studio for patients.      previously visited others, in-  and emails from parents      be a deejay or they re-                                 a chance to technically
Swift on Friday met with       cluding Hasbro Children’s       and kids talking about how   ally want to be in music in                             learn how to do all of it
children at Monroe Carell      Hospital in Providence,         they want to be a tech       some capacity,” Seacrest                                too.”q
Jr. Children’s Hospital at     Rhode Island. She said she
Vanderbilt University Medi-    has visited the children at
cal Center following the       the Nashville facility be-
ribbon cutting on the new      fore and the studio gives
Seacrest Studio built at the   the city’s many singers
hospital.                      and songwriters a place
She told the crowd that        to reach all the children at
she visited one of the now     the hospital.
10 studios that Seacrest’s     “Can you imagine the art-
foundation had built at        ists and the songwriters and
children’s hospitals across    the  entertainers  who are
the country and wanted         going to be stopping by
to be involved when he         the hospital?” she said.
opened the latest one in       The fully functioning stu-
Music City.                    dio lets children learn how
“What I saw when I went        to record, do interviews,
there was an opportunity       broadcast to the rooms
for the kids to find excite-   in the hospital and play
ment and to express their      songs.
creativity and to learn        Seacrest said he hears
about what it is to cre-       back from patients all over
ate content, whether you       the country who have felt
would like to make your        inspired by the studios.

Jury awards Hulk Hogan $115 million in Gawker sex tape suit 

TAMARA LUSH                    They said Hogan didn’t          Jury Hulk Hogan sits in court before the start of his trial Thursday,                acter does that on set, but
Associated Press               consent to the video, that      March 17, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla.                                              when they go on a talk
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)      Gawker didn’t follow usual                                                                                           show, they’re themselves,”
— A jury sided with ex-pro     journalism procedures be-                                                                          Associated Press  Sullivan said.
wrestler Hulk Hogan on         fore posting it and that the                                                                                         Sullivan called into ques-
Friday and awarded him         video wasn’t newsworthy.        right, every right, to keep  websites: TMZ and The                                   tion whether the tape was
$115 million in his sex tape   Gawker did not try to con-      whatever precious private    Dirty. Hogan went on TMZ’s                              all a celebrity stunt to drum
lawsuit against Gawker         tact Bollea or the woman        moments in his life, which   TV program to talk about                                up publicity for Hogan’s
Media.                         in the video, and nor did       for this gentlemen are very  it, and later, appeared on                              career.
The jurors reached the de-     the website contact the         few.”                        the Howard Stern show.                                  Meanwhile, in a related
cision Friday evening, less    woman’s husband, DJ Bub-        Gawker’s attorneys told      “He has consistently cho-                               development, sealed doc-
than six hours after they be-  ba The Love Sponge Clem,        the jury that the video is   sen to put his private life                             uments in the case were
gan deliberations. The trial   who recorded the video.         “not like a real celebrity   out there, for public con-                              unsealed late Friday.
lasted two weeks.              It was never conclusively       sex tape” and urged them     sumption,” said attorney                                Attorneys for media com-
Earlier Friday, in spirited    determined during trial         to watch the video, which    Michael Sullivan.                                       panies including The As-
closing arguments, lawyers     who leaked the video to         contains nine seconds of     He also criticized Hogan’s                              sociated Press sought to
for Hogan and Gawker dis-      the media.                      sexual content.              claim that he was in Hulk                               have the files unsealed
cussed themes of personal      Hogan didn’t ask for any        They pointed out that        Hogan persona when he                                   and an appeals court
life versus celebrity, and     of this to happen, lawyer       news of the sex tape first   was doing interviews.                                   agreed Thursday.
freedom of speech versus       Kenneth Turkel said, add-       appeared on at least two     “An actor playing a char-                               The documents outline al-
the right to privacy.          ing that Bollea, the private                                                                                         legations, facts and con-
Hogan, whose given name        man, expected privacy                                                                                                flicting testimony that
is Terry Bollea, sued Gawker   during an intimate mo-                                                                                               might have colored jurors’
for $100 million for posting   ment. Much was made                                                                                                  views of the case. Among
a video of him having sex      during the trial of Hogan’s                                                                                          them: assertions that Ho-
with his former best friend’s  celebrity persona versus                                                                                             gan filed the lawsuit to hide
wife. Hogan contended          Bollea’s privacy.                                                                                                    racist comments made on
the 2012 post violated his     “I want you to imagine the                                                                                           video, that the woman
privacy.                       fact that for 35 plus years                                                                                          who Hogan had sex with
Hogan’s attorneys told ju-     he is essentially an actor,                                                                                          knew it was being filmed,
rors this is the core of the   an entertainer, who has                                                                                              that Hogan participated
case: “Gawker took a se-       played the same role,” said                                                                                          in an FBI investigation and
cretly recorded sex tape       Turkel.                                                                                                              sting because he was be-
and put it on the Internet.”   He said Hogan “has every                                                                                             ing extorted.q
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