O.J. Simpson's lawyers have filed a brief appealing his 2008 armed robbery conviction, requesting a new trial. The 19,993 word brief exceeds the 14,000 word limit but requests an exception due to the complex case. Simpson is currently incarcerated for the 2007 robbery of sports memorabilia dealers and is not eligible for parole until 2017. His lawyers argue he received inadequate legal representation during his trial. The Nevada Supreme Court will decide whether to accept the overlength brief.

1. 18 • LIFESTYLE SATURDAY POST, May 24, 2014
LAWYERS for O.J.
Simpson submitted a
bulky document request-
ing a new trial for the former
NFL star in an attempt to have his
2008 armed-robbery conviction
overturned, court officials said on
Thursday.
The attorneys for Simpson,
who is not eligible for parole
until 2017, filed the opening brief
in his December 2013 appeal
before a midnight-Wednesday
deadline, said Nevada Supreme
Court spokesman Michael
Sommermeyer.
The document came in at
19,993 words, well over the
14,000 word limit, along with a
request to exceed the word count
because of the complexity of the
case.
Before the brief can be made
public, the court will have to
accept Simpson’s request to go
over the limit, Sommermeyer
said.
In 2008, Simpson, 66, was
convicted on charges of burglary,
robbery, kidnapping and assault
while in possession of a deadly
weapon related to a 2007 robbery
of two sports memorabilia deal-
ers at a Las Vegas hotel.
Simpson testified at the time
that he was trying to retrieve
items that he believed had been
stolen from him.
He was sentenced to up to 33
years by the district court and has
been incarcerated at Lovelock
Correctional Center since.
He asked for a new trial in
May 2013, arguing that he was
inadequately represented, but
district court judge Linda Bell
denied his request. Simpson
appealed that ruling to the
Nevada Supreme Court in
December.
Simpson’s attorney Patricia
Palm argued in a motion filed
with the brief that his extremely
complicated case required more
than the 14,000 words allowed by
the court. Palm said the court
record in his case exceeded 7,000
pages of material, including the
100-page decision Simpson is
appealing. - Reuters
S
H A R O N
S t o n e
showed up
in a daring dress, John
Travolta flew in on
his plane, and
e v e n
Hollywood royalty step
up for amfAR AIDS gala
Eurovision winner Conchita
Wurst made an appearance
to support the Cannes film
festival’s largest charity ball
to raise money for AIDS
research.
At the 21st annual event
organized by amfAR, the
Foundation for AIDS
Research, the film world’s
glitterati assembled on
Thursday night to raise $38
million for charity,
Hollywood mogul
Harvey Weinstein
announced.
The amfAR
gala, held at the
luxurious five-
star Hotel du
Cap-Eden-Roc,
perched over the blue
water of the French
Riviera not far from Cannes,
is the biggest fundraising
event at the world’s largest
and most prestigious film
festival. The benefit was
first hosted by Elizabeth
Taylor.
With celebrities like
Leonardo DiCaprio, Kylie
Minogue, Dita Von Teese,
Adrien Brody, Paris Hilton
and even Catherine
Deneuve in attendance, the
event was the place to be as
the prestigious film festival
began to wind down, with
top prizes to be awarded
on May 25.
AmfAR has raised
some USD 120 million
in the 20 years it has
thrown the gala dur-
ing the Cannes film
festival. The go-to
event relies on
celebrity power
and high-pro-
f i l e
donations,
and the
900-per-
s o n
g u e s t
list on
Thursday included models,
actors and the who’s-who of
the film world.
Champagne, a Pablo
Picasso sketch, a motorcy-
cle and a trip on a yacht
were auctioned at the high-
profile event, as DiCaprio
puffed on an electronic
cigarette, surrounded by two
bodyguards, and Lana Del
Rey and Robin Thicke per-
formed to the crowd.
Raising the most money,
$15 million, was the auction
of a gilded skeleton of a
woolly mammoth in a steel
and glass box, by artist
Damien Hirst.
The winning bidder,
Ukrainian businessman
Leonard Blavatnik told
Reuters he was not sure
where he would put the
massive beast.
“I don’t know yet. It was
u n e x p e c t e d , ” s a i d
Blavatnik, who sat next to
Cannes jury president Jane
Campion at the event and
was congratulated by Justin
Bieber after his win.
A Picasso sketch went for
380,000 euros, an Andy
Warhol print of Marilyn
Monroe was sold for
350,000 euros, a cellar of
champagne found its win-
ning bid at 150,000 euros,
and a pair of Chanel
designer Karl Lagerfeld
gloves found a bidder at
10,000 euros.
“Ladies, ladies, ladies,
look at my necklace,” cooed
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, ex-
supermodel and former first
lady of France, introducing
a Bulgari serpentine neck-
lace, which ultimately was
auctioned for 400,000
euros.
A bevy of designers
donated dresses they had
created in red for the event
- from Gucci and Lanvin to
Louis Vuitton and Roberto
Cavalli. The 42 designer
dresses were auctioned for
3.5 million euros.
“It’s not expensive,
believe me,” said the win-
ning bidder in a thick
Russian accent, who did not
want to give his name.
The event drew the
tried and true of
Hollywood, as well as
new faces like
Conchita Wurst,
t h e b e a r d e d
Austrian winner of
Eurovision Song Contest.
“It’s really lovely,” said
Wurst of the event. “This is
the life I always wanted.”
Burlesque star Dita Von
Teese wore a black dress
dotted with pink roses, and
socialite Paris Hilton
walked through the cocktail
party before the event drag-
ging an enormous long pink
train that tripped up many a
tuxedoed guest.
Travolta, in a blue tuxedo
and attending with wife
Kelly Preston, said he had
just arrived by plane.
“I have a Challenger jet. I
fly five times a week,” said
the Pulp Fiction star.
Stone, who at one point
admonished the noisy
crowd to “stop doing deals”
during the auction, never-
theless thanked them for
supporting AIDS research
for the past 20 years.
“I know all of you have
lost someone to AIDS,” she
said. “Now we are at the
beginning of the end of
AIDS.” - Reuters
Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst ar-
rives for amfAR’s Cinema Against AIDS 2014 event
in Antibes during the 67th Cannes Film Festival on
Thursday
Stradivarius violin to
sell for $10 million
A
STRADIVARIUS
violin forgotten in a
closet for decades
and formerly owned by a
reclusive US heiress to a cop-
per fortune could sell for as
much as $10 million in a
sealed bid auction next
month, according to
Christie’s.
If the 1731 violin, known
as “The Kreutzer” after the
French concert violinist
Rodolphe Kreutzer who once
owned it, reaches the top end
of its pre-sale estimate it
would be one of most expen-
sive musical instruments ever
sold.
The violin is one of the
highlights of the sale from
the estate of Huguette Clark,
a reclusive, eccentric heiress
who owned sprawling
Manhattan apartments and
palatial homes but chose to
spend her final decades liv-
ing in a New York hospital
where she died in 2011 at the
age of 104.
After she died, the violin
was found in a closet, where
it had been for 25 years.
The highest price paid for
a Stradivarius violin is $16
million. A rare viola made by
the Italian artisan Antonio
Stradivari in 1719 that will
be sold by Sotheby’s in a
sealed bid auction in June is
valued at $45 million.
“Kreutzer owned and
played his namesake
Stradivari from about 1795
until his death in 1831,”
Christie’s said in a
statement.
The instrument was a pres-
ent from her parents, copper
magnate and politician
William A. Clark and his
wife Anna, to the then-teen-
aged Huguette.
The violin will be sold in a
special auction with bidding
starting on June 6 and will
coincide with the New York
sale of more than 350 lots
from the Clark estate on June
18. - Reuters
Simpson lawyers file for new trial in 2007 robbery