CBS News
How to avoid ticket scams during concert and holiday show season
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Tyler Perry Studios president dies when plane he was piloting crashes in Florida
The president of Atlanta-based Tyler Perry Studios died Friday night when the small plane he was piloting crashed on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The studio confirmed on Saturday that Steve Mensch, its 62-year-old president and general manager, had died.
“We are incredibly saddened by the passing of our dear friend Steve Mensch,” the studio said in a statement. “Steve was a cherished member of our team for more than eight years and well-beloved in the community of Atlanta. It’s hard to imagine not seeing him smiling throughout the halls. We will miss him dearly. Our heart goes out to his family as we all send them our prayers.”
The crash happened in Homosassa, about 60 miles north of Tampa. Photos from the scene show the plane having come to rest upside down on a road. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
The single-engine Vans RV-12IS was registered to Mensch at his home address in the Atlanta suburb of Fayetteville, according to FAA records.
Mensch helped advocate for and maintain Georgia’s film tax credit of more than $1 billion a year. Those lavish subsidies have made Georgia one of the most active places in the United States for film and television production.
Mensch got into the movie business when he started working for Feature Systems, which provides equipment for the movie industry. He was hired by Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting to run its studio operations, later becoming director of strategic production partnerships. It was there that he began to lobby state government for more aid to movie and television production.
Ric Reitz, an actor who also helped create the tax credits, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Mensch helped market the state before the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and helped launch the Georgia Production Partnership, an entertainment industry lobbying group.
“He was trying to formulate the vision for the marketplace before the Olympics and wanted a think tank of people in the community to make Georgia competitive,” Reitz said. “He was an important figure in the our growth to become a strong film and TV market.”
After a year helping plan and build a giant studio in China and brief stint helping to open Third Rail Studios in suburban Atlanta. Perry hired Mensch to help create and run his namesake studio in 2016. The studio sprawls across 330 acres of a former Army base in southern Atlanta that Perry acquired in 2015.
Mensch died on the same day that Perry released “The Six Triple Eight,” a war drama about a mostly Black and all-female World War II battalion. The film was shot at the Atlanta studio.
Mensch is survived by his wife, Danila, and three children.
CBS News
WWE sexual abuse lawsuit naming Trump education secretary pick Linda McMahon is paused
A lawsuit accusing former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, President-elect Trump’s pick for secretary of education, of turning a blind eye to child sexual abuse by a former ringside announcer at the wrestling company has been paused, according to court documents filed this week in the U.S. District Court in Maryland.
The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of five unnamed men, targets the McMahons and the WWE under a new change in Maryland law that eliminates the state’s statute of limitations for claims of child sex abuse. Vince McMahon left the company in January following allegations of sexual misconduct. Linda McMahon left the company in 2009 to run for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut.
The lawsuit alleges Melvin Phillips for years hired — and later assaulted — “ring boys” as young as 13. A fixture in the WWE, Phillips assaulted boys in arena facilities, such as dressing and locker rooms, as well as hotels, the lawsuit alleges.
Phillips died in 2012.
An attorney for Linda McMahon told CBS News in late November that the Cabinet nominee would “vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit and without doubt ultimately succeed.”
The motion filed by their attorney states that because the incidents happened in the 1980s and were filed under the law’s recent change, the case couldn’t move forward until the question of whether the law was constitutional was resolved.
Court documents said the case was stayed pending a ruling by the Supreme Court of Maryland on consolidated appeals on the constitutionality of the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023.
The parties needed to file a status report every 60 days from the date of the order and within 15 days of any opinion issued by the Supreme Court of Maryland in the consolidated appeal, court documents said.
Linda McMahon and Vince McMahon co-founded the WWE and led it for decades. The couple have been friends of Trump for over 20 years and are among his most prolific donors.
Linda McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, stepping down in 2019 to help with his 2020 reelection campaign. She is currently a co-chair of Trump’s transition team.
contributed to this report.
CBS News
12/7: Saturday Morning – CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.