Gossip

Jessica Biel was widely criticized after she lobbied against a California bill last week that would tighten vaccination requirements amid a nationwide measles outbreak. The actress, 37, met with state legislators in Sacramento to oppose the legislation, and posed with anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called her stance “courageous.” State legislators say the bill would stop the practice of parents pressuring their doctors to give their kids bogus medical exemptions from vaccinations, by requiring the exemptions to be granted by state health officials. Biel said she was “not against vaccinations” but wanted parents to have “the right to make educated medical decisions for their children alongside physicians.” In 2015, it was reported that Biel and her husband, Justin Timberlake, planned to not vaccinate their son. Democratic State Sen. Richard Pan of California, a pediatrician who introduced the bill, said privileged parents like Biel “put all of us, our children, and our communities, at risk.”

Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was arrested last week on charges of groping a woman at a Manhattan nightclub. Gooding, 51, pleaded not guilty to one count of forcible touching and was released following six hours in custody. Surveillance video from the club appears to show Gooding putting his hand on a woman’s leg and breast as they sit on a couch. The alleged victim, 30, called 911 later that night. The actor’s attorney said Gooding was “outgoing” and “jovial,” adding, “He’s frisky, but he’s not inappropriate.”

Prince Harry received a warning from his grandfather, Prince Philip, not to propose to American TV star Meghan Markle, The Times (U.K.) reported this week. “One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them,” Philip, the 98-year-old husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, cautioned Harry. Harry’s older brother, William, is also said to have expressed concern that the relationship was moving too quickly; Harry, in turn, supposedly resented how William and his wife, Kate Middleton, looked down on his American-born girlfriend. As the courtship intensified, William reportedly asked his brother, “Are you sure?” Harry proposed to Markle in 2017, and their marriage has sparked continuing rumors of turmoil within the royal family. ■