Prosecutor says Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, 3 kids were home when woman charged with attempted murder fired
LOS ANGELES — Rihanna, her partner A$AP Rocky, their three children and her mother were all at home when a woman now charged with attempted murder and many other felony counts is alleged to have fired at the property, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 35, of Orlando, Fla., was charged with attempting to kill Rihanna, along with 10 counts of assault on a person with a semiautomatic firearm and three counts of shooting at an inhabited vehicle or dwelling, authorities said. No one was injured.
The singing superstar and her rap star partner were together in a trailer on the property at the time of the Sunday afternoon shooting, while other family members and staffers were in the Beverly Hills-area home, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside a court hearing.
Inside court, Deputy Public Defender Jamarcus Bradford, Ortiz’s attorney, at first entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf, but then withdrew it in favor of postponing arraignment until March 25. She was ordered held on $1.8 million bail. Ortiz wore blue jail clothes with her blond hair in braids and spoke to the lawyer through a glass divider.
Bradford didn’t talk to reporters outside court.
The LA County Public Defender’s Office said in a statement that it could not comment on the pending case against Ortiz.
“As in every case, we will work to ensure that our client receives the full protections guaranteed under the Constitution,” the statement said.
Ortiz could get life in prison if convicted on all charges. All 14 counts against her are felonies. The three counts of firing at a dwelling were for Rihanna’s house, her trailer and a neighbor’s house, prosecutors said. The 10 assault counts were for Rihanna and family, two staffers and two people in the neighboring house.
“LA-based celebrities should not be additionally worried because of this,” Hochman said, “in large part because of the response of the police.” He praised officers for arresting Ortiz soon after the shooting, several miles to the north in the suburb of Sherman Oaks.
Judge Theresa McGonigle issued a protective order for Ortiz to stay away from Robin Fenty and Rakim Mayers — the legal names of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky — and their home. McGonigle also said Ortiz is not allowed to possess any firearms or ammunition along with several other conditions.
The hearing was held in a courtroom a few floors from where Rocky went through a trial where he was acquitted just over a year ago. Rihanna was often in attendance, sometimes with their sons.
And the lead prosecutor in the new case is Alexander Bott, the deputy district attorney who successfully prosecuted rapper Tory Lanez in a trial where he was convicted of shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet.
Hochman would not say where any of the bullets landed, would not say how long Ortiz had been in California, or discuss her motivation or any connection to Rihanna, saying all were under investigation.
Public records show her most recent address was in Orlando and that she has been a licensed speech pathologist for more than a decade.
The Associated Press also sent emails seeking comment from Rihanna’s publicist and manager.
In 2018, a man was accused of breaking into another home belonging to Rihanna in the Hollywood Hills and spending 12 hours there. The man pleaded no contest to felony counts of stalking and vandalism and a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest in 2019. He was sentenced to probation.
A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.” She founded the makeup brand Fenty Beauty in 2017.
She and A$AP Rocky announced the birth of their third child, a girl named Rocki Irish Mayers, in September.
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NEW YORK — Famed conductor Gustavo Dudamel said Timothée Chalamet showed ignorance when the Oscar-nominated actor claimed “no one cares” about opera and ballet.
“Sadly sometimes it’s a little bit of ignorance but, look, that is why we have to open more spaces for people to connect with classical music,” Dudamel said Tuesday night at an event to announce the programming of his first season as the New York Philharmonic's music director.
Dudamel spoke from the stage of Lincoln Center’s David Geffen to an audience that included donors, musicians, the orchestra board, community leaders and composers in addition to journalists. Dudamel’s remarks sparked loud applause.
During a conversation with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey at a CNN and Variety town hall at the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication in February, the 30-year-old Chalamet was asked by McConaughey about whether shortened audience attention spans have impacted studio decisions about the content of theatrical films, forcing more early action.
“I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, to go on a talk show and go: Hey, we’ve got to keep movie theaters alive. We got to keep this genre alive,’” Chalamet said. “And another part of me feels like if people want to see it, like ‘Barbie,’ like ‘Oppenheimer,’ they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it. And I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera or things where it’s like where it’s like, ‘Hey! Keep this thing alive,’ even though no one cares about this anymore. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership.”
Chalamet received his third Academy Award nomination for “Marty Supreme.” His comments sparked an online backlash from arts organizations.
“Everybody has the right to say, but you have to do things with knowledge, with facts. I think we have to say to the young generation, the opposite,” Dudamel said. “It’s very funny. Cinema is a result of opera, of music, of all of these kind of things.”
Matías Tarnopolsky, the New York Philharmonic CEO, was seated next to Dudamel and issued a public offer to Chalamet.
“He can sit with me anytime,” Tarnopolsky said. “I’ll give him a free ticket and he’s invited to come and hear the New York Philharmonic.”
Dudamel, 45, is among the world’s most famous conductors. He is leaving the Los Angeles Philharmonic this summer after 17 seasons as music director to become the music director of the New York orchestra.
At one point, Dudamel feigned not knowing Chalamet, saying: “Which is the name of that?” before cutting off as the audience laughed.
“That way of thinking has to end,” he said. “Music is reborn all the time and it brings us the values of empathy through the beauty of what it is. So this is the reality of music. This is the real dimension of music and we need that more for our young people.”
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INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Ronda Rousey says her bout with Gina Carano on May 16 is the biggest fight that can be made in mixed martial arts, and they’re both thrilled to end their lengthy retirements for this long-awaited showdown.
Rousey and Carano made their first public appearance on Tuesday to promote their comeback bout at Intuit Dome, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s sparkling new arena.
While Carano expressed gratitude and excitement about her first fight in 17 years, the ever-feisty Rousey sees the bout as the opening strike in an attempt to challenge the UFC “monolith” for dominance in the sport.
“This is the biggest fight in MMA right now,” Rousey said. “There are no two people in this sport with more international name recognition than me and Gina — except Conor (McGregor), but no one is going to sanction that. This isn’t a charity card. This isn’t a throwback, nostalgia card. This is the biggest fight in the sport right now, and it needed to happen now. This is fate between us. We have been on a collision course ever since I sat on a couch watching her on TV, just in complete awe what this woman was doing.”
Both fighters were pioneers in the nascent days of women’s MMA. Carano was the sport’s biggest early television star in the 2000s — and Rousey said she became aware of the sport by watching Carano, eventually picking it up and honing the talent that single-handedly persuaded the UFC to create women's divisions in the 2010s.
But the sport accelerated past the MMA icons, who both moved on to entertainment careers after their star power appeared to exceed their cage abilities. Carano, who turns 44 next month, hasn't fought at all since 2009, while the 39-year-old Rousey last competed in 2016 before having two children.
Both fighters say they had never fully given up on MMA, and this bout was too tantalizing to pass up.
“We only get to live once, and this makes me feel so alive,” said Carano, who also revealed for the first time that she has married her longtime partner, Muay Thai fighter Kevin Ross. “It’s pretty incredible and surreal to be here today. It’s healing. It’s exciting. It’s everything I could have hoped for. I didn’t know I needed this so bad.”
Rousey and Carano have finally decided to return for a fight that’s been anticipated and predicted for many years, despite their long career detours.
Carano said that while she never formally retired, she was persuaded to return after lengthy conversations with Rousey, who was nine months pregnant when she initially proposed the bout in December 2024. Rousey had no interest in fighting for several years while focused on professional wrestling and her family with former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, but she got the itch after helping her coach in judo training.
Rousey said she retired a decade ago not because of back-to-back losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, but because of neurological issues “that I didn’t really have any clarity about, and it just hurt to be around (the sport).”
Carano also said she has been through several years of medical problems before feeling good enough recently to entertain a return to fighting.
“We both need to rewrite our own endings together,” Rousey said. “So I reached out to her, and it’s been such a journey to get here. So many obstacles. So many people tried to get between us. We went from barely knowing each other to being like, ‘You know what? We’re going to fight each other.’”
As to those obstacles, Rousey sharply criticized the UFC for a financial offer that she says was much smaller than what they’ll get from Netflix and Jake Paul’s promotional company.
Rousey initially wanted to make her comeback with MMA’s dominant promotion on its final pay-per-view card, but she sees the UFC’s offer as part of a corporate sickness in the company for which she made untold millions.
Rousey said she still loves UFC President Dana White, but the promotion’s corporate overlords have strangled fighter pay. Rousey even joined the sport-wide criticism of the fights announced for the high-profile UFC show at the White House this summer.
“Now it’s become about changing the entire landscape of the sport and challenging the monolith that the UFC has become,” Rousey said. “Of course, I just wanted to do something fun. I don’t have to change the world, but that’s the way that we do it. I'm so happy that we’re here, and I'm so grateful that Gina trusted me.”
The Netflix show is being promoted by YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, but Rousey made it clear she is heavily involved in the promotional end. Paul hopes to promote many more MMA shows in the future, and Rousey said she hopes to fill MVP’s version of White’s role in the company.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou also will appear on the card, fighting 40-year-old Philipe Lins. The 39-year-old Ngannou left the Professional Fighters League last week, and he said MVP’s initial plan was for him to fight Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven before heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk made a deal to fight Verhoeven in Egypt.
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By Associated Press
