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tv   Nightline  ABC  July 30, 2022 12:37am-1:06am PDT

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♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, the apology. will smith speaking out for the first time since the infamous slap seen around the world. >> chris, i apologize to you. my behavior was unacceptable. >> and the inner battle he says he's fought his entire life. plus erika jayne. ♪ the reality star and expensive singer embroiled in a new legal nightmare. >> everything is entertaining to watch until you learn where that mney's alleged to have come from. and then it turns. >> the real housewife now facing a $50 million lawsuit. >> we are very confident in our
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case. and selena.le dreaming ♪ >> nearly 30 years after the "dreaming of you" singer's tragic and shocking murder, her family releasing new music. ♪ it tlyee like went into thehe s queen of tejano ing a new generation. >> i was watching her, one of her music videos. now i'll listen. ♪
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♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. it's been four months since that shocking encounter between will smith and chris rock at the oscars. today will smith finally spoke out, apologizing for that slap and reflecting on his own inner struggles. here's abc's matt gutman. >> reporter: four months after that infamous slap seen around the world on oscar night, actor will smith going before cameras for the first time to apologize to comedian chris rock. >> chris, i apologize to you. my behavior was unacceptable. and i'm here whenever you're ready to talk. >> reporter: in a new video,
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smith also reaching out to rock's family, including mom rose, who said at the time, "when will slapped chris, he slapped all of us, he really slapped me." >> i wasn't thinking about how many people got hurt in that moment. so i want to apologize to chris' mother. >> jada, i love you. "g.i. jane 2," can't wait to see it, all right? >> reporter: smith going on to answer preselected questions. >> i made a choice on my own, from my own experiences, from my history with chris. jada had nothing to do with it. >> oh, wow! wow! >> reporter: a friend of rock's said the comedian did not know at the time that pinkett suffered from the hair loss conditional peesh sha.
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>> i was fogged out at that point. it's all fudsy. i've reached out to chris. and the message that came back is that he's not ready to talk. >> reporter: smith saying the central trauma of his life is disappointing people. >> i am deeply remorseful, and i'm trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself. all right? i'm human. >> our thanks to matt. on "the real housewives of beverly hills," erika jayne always brings the drama. and the drama seems to find her offscreen as well. she's facing a new set of legal problems and fans are wondering how much longer she can hold on to her diamonds on and off the show. here's abc's deborah roberts. >> reporter: a real housewife in trouble again. erika jayne, star of the "beverly hills" franchise, served with a $50 million
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lawsuit at the airport, just back from a luxury vacation. >> erika being served on film i think brought a lot more interest to this lawsuit than there had been previously. and like other housewives who have had legal trouble, wearing designer, carrying designer bags, going on big vacations, is always something that doesn't sit well with the public. >> reporter: it's the latest fallout for the reality star in an ongoing legal scandal involving her estranged husband the erin brockovich case. >> she was very involved in tom's business. she was used and allowed herself to be used as a frontwoman. she continues to do that. >> reporter: tom girardi standing accused of embezzlement and fraud, allegedly stealing millions from his clients to fund the company's lavish lifestyle. >> i'm an enigma wrapped in a riddle and cash.
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>> reporter: which was snow cased on the show. >> everything about her was about wealth and excess and being flashy and money. ♪ it's expensive to be me ♪ >> reporter: erika jayne didn't just flaunt that wealthy lifestyle. she boasted about it in her music with club hits like "expensive." the new lawsuit does not include erika jayne's husband, but targets her and the people around him with allegations of racketeering, conspiracy, aiding and abetting, and more. >> tom girardi stole their money, we are 100% sure of that. >> reporter: chicago attorney jay edelson filed the complaint. break down how this $50 million lawsuit is actually going to work. >> we're suing under federal racketeering laws, rico, which was passed really to try to have some actual weapons against the mob. we think it's really applicable
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here, because tom ran his firm like a mafia crime boss. >> reporter: the suit alleges that girardi's law firm was little more than a criminal enterprise disguised as a law firm and that over the years, girardi stole more than $100 million from the firm's clients, co-counsel sell, vendors, and many others. that money allegedly went to pay for the firm's expenses and things like the american express bill on which erika and tom debited more than $14 million. the girardis' very public fall from grace the subject of an abc news studios documentary, "the housewife and the hustler," currently streaming on hulu. >> tom girardi was l.a. law. he is mr. lawyer. >> a superstar. >> icon. >> bad-ass trial lawyer. >> we're talking about the money we're really going to get and that's $15 million.
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♪ i'm a man without conviction ♪ >> if you had a case that had the potential to resolve itself or be resolved for millions and millions of dollars, his was the kind of firm that you wanted to go to. he didn't just represent l.a.'s elite, he represented a lot of average folks too. >> reporter: that image came crashing down in late 2020 when girardi admitted he was out of money and had not paid settlements to some clients. >> the idea that you'd have one of the most prominent attorneys in the country stealing money from them is really abysmal. >> reporter: edelson had partnered with girardi to represent families of victims in the lion air crash of 2018. after they won the case, some families weren't getting their money. edelson and his team investigated why. >> we'd stumbled on to 100 plus million dollar ponzi scheme dating back over a decade. >> reporter: the documentary included one of the families named in that lawsuit.
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viaz ramadan's mother died in the lion crash. >> then the lawsuit is also emotionally draining. there's almost no night that anybody like this is not crying. >> reporter: he says girardi pushed him off for months as he asked for his settlement. >> he wait and wait, keep sending email almost every week. >> we have victims here. we are the victims here. not him, not his wife. it's only me and three of my siblings, so four of us, and that's it. we just want to know, can we get our money? and when will we get it? whether a month, two months, i don't even know yet, next year? we don't even know yet. >> these are people who had the biggest tragedies in the world, and they depend on the american judicial system, the legal system, to make them whole.
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>> reporter: the legal nightmare becoming an ongoing art of erika jayne's storyline on "the real housewives of beverly hills." >> we are a long way from finding out what really happened here. i loved my husband. i thought he was great. now he's allegedly defrauding widows, orphans, and burn victims. how the [ bleep ] do you think i feel? >> reporter: in fact, this latest lawsuit points to an episode that aired last month where jayne said this -- >> we're not even sure that there were people that weren't paid. >> no way. >> yeah way. >> you mean that there's a chance they could be lying? >> there's a chance. >> you can allege anything in a lawsuit. >> she's lying. there's no question about it. this is all just part of her act. >> there are people who would say that it's possible that a woman could be married to a guy, heck be stealing, she may not know about it. >> sure, of course. but we're not suing her simply because she was tom's wife. we believe, we'll demonstrate to a jury, that she had a specific
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role in the scheme. >> is there a smoking gun of some sort that you have? >> we have the guns. we have 14 smoking guns. we are very confident in our case. >> reporter: so far, jayne has not responded publicly to this lawsuit. but in a statement to abc news earlier this year, her lawyer said, the truth is that erika had no role in the lion air dealings, actions, or inaction as between the attorneys and their clients, and she never received any of the lion air client settlement funds." tom girardi's attorney had no comment on the new lawsuit. the 83-year-old now under a conservatorship, his team saying he suffers from dementia. >> i'm visually separated so my life has moved on and everything is separate. but i can't get a divorce. there's no much legal [ bleep ] going on. >> i'm very mixed whether or not i'm surprised erika is still on the show.pfrom her perspective, facing a plethora of legal challenges, she has to pay for
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her attorney somehow. and bravo is in an interesting place too, because while there's allegations against her, most of what's been proven is her husband's actions. i could care less that she's a real housewife. in a lot of ways, i think it detracts from the main story. the main story is what matters which is, you've got one of the most prominent plaintiff's attorneys in history who stole hundreds of millions of dollars, and what type of reform really needs to be done, and how do you hold everybody accountable? >> reporter: a federal judge has referred at least the lion air case to a u.s. attorney's office for investigation. but there have been no criminal charges filed to date against girardi, jayne, or any of their associates. >> a year and a half is not long in the legal world. we're in the done with this yet. >> our thanks to deborah. the documentary "the housewife and the hustler" is now streaming on hulu. coming up, selena. new music from the late tejano new music from the late tejano superstar. welcome to m
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new music from selena, the queen of tejano, nearly 30 years after her murder. why she's still delighting fans. abc's john quinones sat down with her brother and sister to discuss the singer's legacy and upcoming album. ♪ >> reporter: in the 27 years since her tragic death, selena's star has only grown. ♪ i could fall in love ♪ >> reporter: now fans are getting a first listen to a song
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transled as "the way i love you ♪ ♪ the first single from the tejano superstar's new album "moon child mixes" produced by older brother abie, who along with sister suzette, sat down with us to talk about the project. >> it truly feels like she went into the studio again and recorded it. and it's pretty incredible. would have thought of this album this. >> she would have loved it. said, "it's a wrap, i need to go to the mall." >> yeah. >> how long did it take you? >> it took me a year. it took me a year. >> over a year. >> a little bit over a year. there was a lot of obstacles to overcome. everything was recorded on vinyl, so we had to kind of fuse the old school ways with the new school ways. >> reporter: i first covered selena's shocking death in 1995. >> on the morning of march 31st, selena came to this motel in
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corpus christi. >> reporter: she was shot and did killed at a days inn. selena was only 23 years old. her death sending shock waves around the world. out even though selena was gone, her voice was never silenced. >> i think the beauty of what's going to happen is these songs, these were recorded basically when selena was 13 to 16 years of age. so selena's been gone for 27 years. she did them when she was 13, passed when she was 23. so technically these songs haven't been listened to or touched in 37 years. >> one of the songs, she recorded when she was 16. you managed to change her voice a little bit to make her sound more mature? >> yeah, it's not really change her voice. like a deejay, you go to a club, there's been talk on the internet that's being done by artificial intelligence, being done by robot. and that's just rubbish. >> what did you think of the
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result? >> i loved it. i cried when i first heard everything. ♪ >> reporter: selena first catapulted to success in 1992 with the emotional ballad "cobo la fleur," "like a flower," instant hit on the latin pop charts. three years later, selena's music had crossed over into the mainstream with chart-topping songs released in english like " could fall in love" and "dreaming of you," a song she recorded just weeks before she died. selena also winning a grammy just a year before her passing. >> i'd also like to thank my band, my father, abraham, my brother, who's a producer of my music, also my sister. >> reporter: her story first told in the 1997 film that helped make jennifer lopez a star. and now a new generation entranced by the netflix series
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based on her life. ♪ >> so many of us love selena's music. but what do you tell the critics who say, this is taking advantage of her legacy? >> what critics? we don't care about them. i think as an artist, musicians, people that are in the public eye, you know -- you have to turn that off. we're still going to do what we want with our music, with our sister, with our band. and i hope people understand that everything that we do, we do it with loving care and with beauty. >> it's been 27 years since she passed away. and her music is more popular than ever. how do you explain that lasting legacy? >> she walked into a room -- >> you knew. >> everybody in the room knew. >> you knew. >> selena was in the room. it was -- in a good way. >> she had this good energy. >> she had this good energy, good vibes, sunshine. >> reporter: we visited the selena museum in corpus christi just across town from where she
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died. here today, hordes of fans still feeling her impact. >> she opened the doors for a lot. including jennifer lopez. she opened those doors. so that's a good thing. and the girls, they're all loving her. >> i was watching her, one of her music videos on youtube, and i was crying, like the youtube video. i don't know. now i'm obsessed with her. >> there's a whole new generation that is discovering selena or has discovered her already. it's breathing life back into older songs that have not been heard as much or has not gone -- i guess enough loved, so to speak. >> when do you think of your sister? >> i can be anywhere, i'm serious. going through a gas station, i hear it on the intercom, or a little girl wearing a t-shirt. it's a beautiful thing, to see her that she's remembered and what we're doing is honoring her
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memory. >> she was not just an incredible artist, she was an incredible person. what she means to us as latinos, she means something. and i think all of that has transce transcended and has carried her throughout the years. she is not going away. >> our thanks to john. up next, big news about one of the uvalde survivors. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure.
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- bedtime!! - bedtime. ♪♪ i love bedtime. the thin, sweet bite to end the night. oreo thins. when i make decisions as a leader, it's not about me or the folks that are re it's about the next seven generations coming behind us, making sure that they have the ability to move forward. prop 27 will help small rural tribes like mine get a seat at the table will be transformational for my tribal members. taxing online sports betting gives us an opportunity to really enhance the lives of our tribe
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and strengthen the future of our people. vote yes on prop 27. wanna help kids get their homework done? twell, an internette connection's a good start. but kids also need computers. and sometimes the hardest thing about homework is finding a place to do it. so why not hook community centers up with wifi? for kids like us, and all the amazing things we're gonna learn. through project up, comcast is committing $1 billion dollars so millions more students can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities.
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finally tonight, we end our show with some good news from
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uvalde. a heartwarming scene today at university hospital. the last patient injured during the massacre at robb elementary going home. staff cheering and chanting 10-year-old maya zamora as she hospital staff saying she's a hero and they can't wait to see all that she accomplishes in the future. amen to that. we could all use some good news. that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. have a great and safe weekend. we'll see you right back here on

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