filings

Former Chargers defensive end and Los Angeles sports radio personality Marcellus Wiley has denied explosive allegations from his wife — including that he raped her and physically abused her and their children — that led to a judge granting her a temporary restraining order against him.

Annemarie Wiley, a nurse anesthetist and former cast member of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” made the accusations in a declaration submitted Monday to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County with her request for a restraining order against her husband of 12 years. She filed for divorce the same day.

The former Pro Bowl player responded Tuesday on X to what he called “baseless claims.”

“I owe it to my children to truthfully document what they and I have endured,” he wrote. “To do that, I must address the lies Annemarie has told about me by telling the truth about her and our marriage.”

According to the temporary restraining order, Marcellus Wiley must have no contact with his wife and their three children, ages 6-10, and must not come within 100 yards of them. Annemarie Wiley now has sole custody of the children and her husband was given no visitation time. The order remains in effect until a hearing scheduled for July 24.

On Saturday, Marcellus Wiley was arrested in Florida after his wife told police he poked her in the face with his finger and threatened to kill her. According to the arrest affidavit, Annemarie Wiley told a deputy that her husband “had an unreported history of violence toward her and she was planning to divorce him when they returned home to California.”

Marcellus Wiley was released the next day on $1,000 bond and faces a possible charge of misdemeanor domestic battery. An arraignment hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 4. He denied all the allegations against him Monday on X.

In her court filing, Annemarie Wiley provided details of an alleged incident that led to her husband’s arrest. She wrote that on Saturday he “warned me to watch how bad he was going to make things for me, which I understood to be a threat that his abuse would become more severe. During this same incident, Marcellus pushed our ten-year-old son, Marcellus, Jr. I called the police.”

Annemarie Wiley also documents numerous alleged incidents that she says demonstrates “a continuing and escalating pattern of physical violence, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse, financial control, and intimidation, much of which our children have witnessed.”

She mentions four instances in which her husband allegedly raped her — once in 2012 and three times in January — as well as alleged physical abuse that includes striking her in the face or head, breaking her right thumb and throwing heavy objects at her.

In his most recent X post, Marcellus Wiley states that he has “videos, photographs, text messages, emails, and other evidence that directly contradicts those baseless claims and provides a factual record of our family and the events leading to this unfortunate divorce.”

“To be frank, many friends, family members, and fans have opined that after she was kicked off The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, she lost her mind!” wrote Marcellus Wiley, a Compton native who also played for the Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars during his 10-year NFL career. “Unfortunately, I must agree.

“I never wanted my family’s issues and struggles to become public for any reason, including divorce leverage. But I unfortunately knew this day was inevitable. I was willing to endure anything —even hell itself — if it meant being with my children every single day. I am their hero, and now I am fighting to make sure the positive and real image they know of me is the one that endures.

“I am prepared to address these allegations and related matters through the legal process and with evidence. My focus remains on my children, my integrity, and the truth.”

Multiple women have accused Wiley in civil lawsuits of sexually assaulting them in the past. Wiley has denied all the allegations against him in court documents and publicly.

Taylor Swift is entering her trademark era.

The global pop star’s company, TAS Rights Management, filed three new trademark applications last week, per the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Two of the applications relate to soundbites of her voice, saying the phrases “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor.” The other is a well-known image of Swift, often representative of her recent Eras tour, featuring the 36-year-old onstage, holding her pink guitar and dressed in a shimmering bodysuit.

The push to lock down her public image comes at a time when many high-profile celebrities have called for regulations against unauthorized AI-generated content. Matthew McConaughey was one of the first Hollywood A-listers to leverage trademark law as an extra layer of protection.

In January, the “Interstellar” actor secured eight trademarks for his likeness, including images of him smiling and the iconic recording of him saying, “Alright, alright, alright,” from the 1993 movie “Dazed and Confused.”

“My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it’s because I approved and signed off on it,” the actor told the Wall Street Journal in January. “We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.”

Registering a trademark for a celebrity’s speaking voice to defend against the prospect of AI-voice generation is a novel legal approach that has not yet been tested in court. Representatives for Swift did not respond to a request for comment on the intent of the recently filed trademarks. But Josh Gerben, one of the first attorneys to report Swift’s latest legal moves, said this is one of the growing gaps in intellectual property protection that AI can exploit.

Before AI infiltrated the internet, musicians, like Swift, would typically rely on copyright law to help prevent the unauthorized use and distribution of their music, while right to publicity laws would protect them from unlawful commercial use of their likeness. But with AI, users can manipulate people’s voices and images to sing or say practically anything.

So if McConaughey has a trademark on his voice saying a phrase, then theoretically any AI-generated voice that sounds similar to it could be considered a violation of that trademark, according to Gerben.

“If they have this trademark protection in place, then the [AI] platforms can’t use that same voice to create new content,” Gerben said. “Every celebrity would essentially have to go and do the same thing, but it’s trying to cut this off at the source as much as possible.”

Variety first reported news of Swift’s trademark filing.

As one of the most popular musicians, Swift has dealt with her share of unauthorized AI-generated content. She was previously one of the many female celebrities whose likeness was among several of Meta’s AI chatbot virtual celebrities. The illicit chatbots allegedly produced pornographic images. Before the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump also shared AI-generated images of Swift falsely suggesting that she had endorsed him, including one of her dressed as Uncle Sam with the words, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”

Because Swift is such a recognizable public figure, Luke Arrigoni, the chief executive of Loti AI, a tech company that focuses on likeness protection, said trademark filings like these aren’t merely defensive but rather a setup for a long-term protective infrastructure.

“By locking down these trademarks now, she’s ensuring that if a brand wants to use a ‘Swift-like’ AI voice in 2027, they’ll have to go through her authorized gates or face federal trademark infringement,” Arrigoni said in a statement. “She’s essentially putting a price tag on her digital self, and that’s exactly where the entire talent industry needs to go to survive.”