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By Steve Gorman Jan 13 (Reuters) – Actor-director Timothy Busfield surrendered to authorities in New Mexico on Tuesday to face child sexual abuse charges, accused of inappropriately touching two young cast members on the set of a television show he was directing and producing. According to a criminal complaint and arrest warrant affidavit, the case involves 11-year-old twin boys who reported the alleged contact occurred over a two-year period, when they were aged seven and eight, during production of the Fox crime drama "The Cleaning Lady." Busfield was an executive producer of the show, which was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city, and began directing episodes around the end of the second season, in 2022. The arrest warrant was issued on Monday. Busfield, 68, turned himself in to the Albuquerque Police Department on Tuesday and was booked into the Bernalillo County jail without bond, said Nancy Laflin, a spokesperson for the district attorney's office. In a video posted online shortly before his surrender, Busfield professed his innocence, called the allegations against him "lies" and said, "I'm going to be exonerated. I know I am." "I did not do anything to those little boys," he said during the 45-second clip. Busfield is best known for his prime-time television roles as a White House reporter on the NBC political drama "The West Wing," which ran on NBC from 1999 to 2006, and as an ad agency executive on the 1980s ABC ensemble series "Thirtysomething." He is married to actress Melissa Gilbert, a former president of the Screen Actors Guild who gained fame in the 1970s as a child actress on the hit Western family drama "Little House on the Prairie." Busfield is charged in the complaint with child abuse and two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor. According to the affidavit, one of the boys reported multiple instances of Busfield touching his "private areas" over his clothes during pauses in production. His brother also reported being touched by Busfield but was less specific, the affidavit said. In his own interview for the investigation in November, Busfield acknowledged he probably had physical contact with the boys on occasion, like tickling or picking them up, but in a playful manner with others present, the affidavit said. Busfield also suggested a possible motive for false allegations against him, according to the affidavit. Citing information he said he gleaned from the show's star, Elodie Yung, Busfield told police that the boys' mother was upset with him to the point of wanting "revenge" after producers decided to replace her sons in the final season of the series. Yung declined to be interviewed for the police investigation, the affidavit said, but had related a similar account of the mother vowing revenge against Busfield when the actress was questioned by a private investigator for the show's producer, Warner Bros. Television. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Michael Perry)

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(Fixes formatting, no changes to text) By Hanna Rantala LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Makers of the new Netflix series "Agatha Christie's Seven Dials" hope to introduce a new generation to the queen of crime, the iconic author of more than 60 mystery novels. The three-part show debuting Thursday is based on Christie's 1929 novel "The Seven Dials Mystery" and stars "How to Have Sex" actor Mia McKenna-Bruce as a bright young aristocrat, Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent. When a guest dies in suspicious circumstances during a glitzy gathering at her country mansion, Bundle takes it upon herself to find out what happened. Her wits, determination and seven clocks left on the scene lead Bundle to a shadowy scheme. "The fact that Bundle's kind of leading the charge, this young, fearless, feisty girl, something that we haven't seen very much of, I think that really gives it a new, exciting feel," said McKenna-Bruce at a London premiere on Tuesday, the day after the 50th anniversary of Christie’s death. The whodunit also stars Helena Bonham Carter as Bundle's mother and Martin Freeman in the role of Scotland Yard's Superintendent Battle. The show has "a lot of energy and it's done with a lot of gusto," said Bonham-Carter. The engine for that energy is Bundle, whom director Chris Sweeney described as a "cannonball of a person". Unlike a typical country house mystery where "there's a lot of sitting and talking, Bundle is always moving," he said.  With writer Chris Chibnall, Sweeney also set out to energize the story with a vivid depiction of the era. "It takes place September 1925, in the shadow of war but also with lots of bright young things who are partying through the '20s," said Chibnall. Famous for characters like Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and amateur sleuth Miss Marple, Christie became the world's best-selling fiction writer with more than 2 billion copies sold. "If this show can be the gateway drug to introduce a whole new generation into Agatha Christie's books and adaptations, that would be a joy. It would be repaying all the joy that she's brought to my life and billions of readers," said Chibnall. (Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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By Hanna Rantala LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Makers of the new Netflix series "Agatha Christie's Seven Dials" hope to introduce a new generation to the queen of crime, the iconic author of more than 60 mystery novels.     The three-part show debuting Thursday is based on Christie's 1929 novel "The Seven Dials Mystery" and stars "How to Have Sex" actor Mia McKenna-Bruce as a bright young aristocrat, Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent.     When a guest dies in suspicious circumstances during a glitzy gathering at her country mansion, Bundle takes it upon herself to find out what happened. Her wits, determination and seven clocks left on the scene lead Bundle to a shadowy scheme.     "The fact that Bundle's kind of leading the charge, this young, fearless, feisty girl, something that we haven't seen very much of, I think that really gives it a new, exciting feel," said McKenna-Bruce at a London premiere on Tuesday, the day after the 50th anniversary of Christie’s death.    The whodunit also stars Helena Bonham Carter as Bundle's mother and Martin Freeman in the role of Scotland Yard's Superintendent Battle.    The show has "a lot of energy and it's done with a lot of gusto," said Bonham-Carter.     The engine for that energy is Bundle, whom director Chris Sweeney described as a "cannonball of a person". Unlike a typical country house mystery where "there's a lot of sitting and talking, Bundle is always moving," he said. With writer Chris Chibnall, Sweeney also set out to energize the story with a vivid depiction of the era.     "It takes place September 1925, in the shadow of war but also with lots of bright young things who are partying through the '20s," said Chibnall.     Famous for characters like Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and amateur sleuth Miss Marple, Christie became the world's best-selling fiction writer with more than 2 billion copies sold.    "If this show can be the gateway drug to introduce a whole new generation into Agatha Christie's books and adaptations, that would be a joy. It would be repaying all the joy that she's brought to my life and billions of readers," said Chibnall. (Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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By Danielle Broadway LOS ANGELES, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Chart-topping K-pop boy band BTS announced on Tuesday it will embark on a concert tour starting in April after the release of its first new album in more than three years. The tour launches in Goyang, South Korea on April 9 and includes 79 shows in Asia, the U.S. and Europe through July, the group's agency said. The band has been on hiatus while its seven members have done South Korea's mandatory military service. BTS' agent said this month that the band will drop a new album on March 20, though the title has not been revealed. The band's last album, "Proof" in 2022, debuted at number one in 18 countries and has amassed about 16.7 billion streams, according to music industry data. Hybe Co is the parent company of BTS' label and management agency. (Reporting by Danielle Broadway; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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By Danielle Broadway LOS ANGELES, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Chart-topping K-pop boy band BTS announced on Tuesday it will embark on a concert tour starting in April after the release of its first new album in more than three years. The tour launches in Goyang, South Korea on April 9 and includes 79 shows in Asia, the U.S. and Europe through July, the group's agency said. The band has been on hiatus while its seven members have done South Korea's mandatory military service. BTS' agent said this month that the band will drop a new album on March 20, though the title has not been revealed. The band's last album, "Proof" in 2022, debuted at number one in 18 countries and has amassed about 16.7 billion streams, according to music industry data. Hybe Co is the parent company of BTS' label and management agency. (Reporting by Danielle Broadway; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Danielle Broadway LOS ANGELES, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Chart-topping K-pop boy band BTS announced on Tuesday it will embark on a concert tour starting in April after the release of its first new album in more than three years. The tour launches in Goyang, South Korea on April 9 and includes 79 shows in Asia, the U.S. and Europe through July, the group's agency said. The band has been on hiatus while its seven members have done South Korea's mandatory military service. BTS' agent said this month that the band will drop a new album on March 20, though the title has not been revealed. The band's last album, "Proof" in 2022, debuted at number one in 18 countries and has amassed about 16.7 billion streams, according to music industry data. Hybe Co is the parent company of BTS' label and management agency. (Reporting by Danielle Broadway; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Jan 13 (Reuters) – Universal Music Group on Tuesday named Hannah Poferl as chief data officer to oversee its global audience development and engagement strategy using data and artificial intelligence. Poferl joins UMG after over a decade-long stint with the New York Times, where she has served as chief data officer since 2021. She will report to UMG's operating chief, Boyd Muir, effective immediately. The move highlights the growing importance of data in the music industry, where streaming figures and social media metrics are increasingly leveraged to help artists and labels connect with fans. "The organization's ambitious and thoughtful approach to innovation, including AI, reflects a clarity of purpose and a respect for creativity that I value deeply," Poferl said in a statement. Her arrival comes as UMG doubles down on tech initiatives to stay competitive in the AI-driven music landscape. Earlier this month, the label partnered with Nvidia to use its AI infrastructure and train models for personalized recommendations. In November, Bloomberg News reported that UMG, Sony Music and Warner Music licensed their catalogs to Klay, a music streaming startup that will let users remake songs using AI. (Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – "Dilbert" comic strip creator Scott Adams, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump whose career flagged after a racist rant, died on Tuesday, his former wife said. He was 68. Shelly Miles announced Adams' passing in an online livestream in which she read a final message from the artist, whose strip lampooned life in the cubicle farms of corporate America, framed around its titular character, an engineer known for his glasses and perennially bent tie. Adams first announced he had metastatic prostate cancer in May 2025 in his "Coffee with Scott Adams" video show and said he only had a few months to live. He continued to document his decline on social media and made a direct appeal to Trump to get his healthcare provider, Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, to schedule treatment with the targeted radiotherapy drug Pluvicto. "On it," Trump responded in a November 2 social media post. A day later Adams wrote on social media that he would begin receiving Pluvicto the next day. On Tuesday, the Republican president noted the cartoonist's passing on Truth Social. "Sadly, the Great Influencer, Scott Adams, has passed away. He was a fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. He bravely fought a long battle against a terrible disease," Trump wrote. The "Dilbert" comic strip was first published in 1989 and ran for decades. At its peak, it was one of the most widely circulated comic strips in the U.S., but many newspapers dropped it in 2023 after a racist rant by Adams appeared on YouTube. Billionaire Elon Musk defended Adams and accused the media of having a bias against whites and Asians. Adams called Black Americans a "hate group" and suggested white Americans "get the hell away from Black people," in response to a conservative organization's poll purporting to show that many African-Americans do not think it is OK to be white. He later said that his comments were intended as hyperbole and that he disavowed racists, and said that media reports had ignored the context of his comments. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Scott Malone, Sharon Singleton and David Gregorio)

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(Corrects that Adams' death was announced by his former wife in paragraph 1) WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – "Dilbert" comic strip creator Scott Adams, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump whose career flagged after a racist rant, died on Tuesday, his former wife said. He was 68. Shelly Miles announced Adams' passing in an online livestream in which she read a final message from the artist, whose strip lampooned life in the cubicle farms of corporate America, framed around its titular character, an engineer known for his glasses and perennially bent tie. Adams had posted on X about his decline from metastatic prostate cancer and made a direct appeal to Trump to get his healthcare provider, Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, to schedule treatment with the targeted radiotherapy drug Pluvicto. "On it," Trump responded in a November 2 social media post.  On Tuesday, the Republican president noted the cartoonist's passing on Truth Social. "Sadly, the Great Influencer, Scott Adams, has passed away. He was a fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. He bravely fought a long battle against a terrible disease," Trump wrote. The "Dilbert" comic strip was first published in 1989 and ran for decades. At its peak, it was one of the most widely circulated comic strips in the U.S., but many newspapers dropped it in 2023 after a racist rant by Adams appeared on YouTube. Adams called Black Americans a "hate group" and suggested white Americans "get the hell away from Black people," in response to a conservative organization's poll purporting to show that many African-Americans do not think it is OK to be white. He later said that his comments were intended as hyperbole and that he disavowed racists, and said that media reports had ignored the context of his comments. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Scott Malone and Sharon Singleton)

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By Amy-Jo Crowley and Hadeel Al Sayegh LONDON/DUBAI, Jan 13 (Reuters) – "Big Brother" franchise owner Banijay Group said it is in talks with All3Media's parent company about a potential tie-up with the producer of hit TV show "The Traitors", the legacy TV industry's latest move to compete with streaming giants. The talks, first reported by Reuters earlier on Tuesday, have centred on Banijay's Entertainment & Live unit, which also owns "MasterChef", and All3Media combining their TV production businesses, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Banijay said on Tuesday it had "entered into discussions with the All3Media owner regarding a potential combination between Banijay and All3Media", adding that no decision had been taken, and that there was no assurance that a transaction would be concluded. A merger would create one of Europe's largest production groups, with a slate of shows including "Survivor", "Peaky Blinders" and "Race Across the World".  All3Media and its owner RedBird IMI declined to comment. TALKS NOW AT AN ADVANCED STAGE, SOURCES SAY Both companies have sought potential tie-ups with other producers in recent years, sources have previously told Reuters, as legacy TV and film production firms build scale against the growing dominance of streaming giants Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.   A potential deal would likely include All3Media and owner RedBird IMI injecting funds into the combined entity, as they represent the smaller of the two sides, one of the sources said.  Talks began towards the end of last year after Amsterdam-listed Banijay dropped its pursuit of Britain's ITV Studios, and are now at an advanced stage, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is private.   The emerging joint entity would have around 5.7 billion euros ($6.65 billion) in revenue based on 2024 numbers published by the companies. Banijay had a market capitalisation of 3.42 billion euros as of Monday's close, according to LSEG. All3Media and Banijay have also discussed combinations with ITV's studio business, according to previous reports. ITV has since started talks to sell its broadcast division to Comcast-owned Sky, a deal that if agreed would leave a standalone ITV Studios unit.  Banijay explored a binding offer to buy All3Media in 2023 from its then joint owners Liberty Global and Warner Bros Discovery, Reuters reported at the time.  RedBird IMI, led by former CNN executive Jeff Zucker and backed by Emirati royal Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, went on to buy All3Media for 1.15 billion pounds ($1.55 billion) in 2024. MEDIA COMPANIES BULKING UP RedBird Capital, RedBird IMI's U.S.-based partner, is backing Paramount Skydance's $108.4 billion bid for Warner Bros Discovery.  In 2024, France's Mediawan merged with Leonine Studios, and last year the TV group controlled by Italy's Berlusconi family, MFE-MediaForEurope, took over rival ProSieben.    Stephane Courbit, Banijay's founder and chairman, is the largest shareholder in the Amsterdam-listed group with a 45% stake, while France's Vivendi holds 19.2%, according to LSEG data. Banijay also has a gaming arm, which acquired Tipico, the leading sports betting and gaming operator in Germany and Austria, at an enterprise value of 4.6 billion euros last year. Its entertainment and live experience unit generated 2 billion euros in revenue for the first nine months of 2025, compared with 1.1 billion euros in revenue from its gaming division, according to its latest results.   ($1 = 0.8569 euros) ($1 = 0.7426 pounds) (Reporting by Amy-Jo Crowley in London and Hadeel Al Sayegh in Dubai, with additional reporting by Paul Sandle and Mathieu Rosemain. Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi, Anousha Sakoui and Jan Harvey)

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