American actress Joy Harmon, best known for her memorable appearance in the classic film Cool Hand Luke, has died at the age of 87.

Harmon passed away at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday after suffering from pneumonia for several weeks, according to U.S. media reports.

She gained lasting recognition for a brief but iconic role in Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman. Although her character had no spoken lines and appeared on screen for only a few minutes, the scene became one of the most talked-about moments in the film.

Credited simply as “The Girl,” Harmon portrayed a woman washing a car in a sequence filled with suggestive undertones, drawing the attention of prisoners working nearby. The character was referred to as “Lucille” by one of the inmates during the scene, which went on to define her career.

Reflecting on the moment years later, Harmon said she had approached the scene innocently, focusing on performing the task naturally without fully grasping its double meanings.

Her acting career spanned several decades, with 32 credited appearances in film and television from the 1950s through the early 1970s. She featured in popular television series including Bewitched, Batman, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Beverly Hillbillies, The Odd Couple and The Monkees.

Before her acting career, Harmon began in entertainment as a child model and pageant contestant, later transitioning into television appearances on comedy and quiz shows.

After stepping away from acting, she worked at Walt Disney Studios and went on to open a bakery in Los Angeles in 2003. Despite leaving Hollywood, she reportedly continued to receive fan mail regularly.

Harmon is survived by three children and nine grandchildren, leaving behind a legacy tied to one of cinema’s most enduring moments.

A court in South Korea has sentenced American livestreamer Johnny Somali, whose real name is Ismael Ramsey Khalid, to six months in prison for public nuisance and other offences.

The 25-year-old sparked widespread outrage in Seoul after posting a video in November 2024 showing himself kissing and performing suggestive acts on a statue commemorating victims of wartime sexual slavery during World War II.

Authorities charged Khalid shortly after the incident and barred him from leaving the country while investigations were ongoing. On Wednesday, the court convicted him on multiple counts, including public nuisance and distributing sexually explicit deepfake content.

In its ruling, the court said the defendant had repeatedly engaged in disruptive and offensive conduct toward the public to generate profit through online platforms, disregarding local laws and cultural sensitivities.

Prosecutors had sought a three-year sentence, but the court imposed a reduced term, citing what it described as the absence of severe harm to victims, according to local media reports.

Khalid has also been prohibited from working with organisations that serve minors and people with disabilities following his release.

The case has drawn renewed attention to the symbolic significance of so-called “comfort women” memorials across South Korea. These statues, often depicting a young seated woman, honour an estimated 200,000 women—many of them Korean—who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese forces during World War II. The issue remains a sensitive and at times contentious subject in relations between South Korea and Japan.

Khalid, who has built a reputation for provocative online content, had previously apologised, claiming he did not understand the meaning of the statue. However, the apology was met with scepticism by many observers.

His legal troubles extend beyond South Korea. He has faced accusations of harassment in Japan and Israel, including being fined for disrupting a restaurant in Japan and briefly detained during a protest in Tel Aviv.

Afrika Bambaataa, one of the foundational figures of hip-hop culture, has died at the age of 68, according to confirmation from the Hip Hop Alliance.

In a statement, the organisation paid tribute to Bambaataa’s influence in shaping a “global movement rooted in peace, unity, love, and having fun,” highlighting his central role in the emergence of hip-hop as both a musical genre and a broader cultural force.

Born Lance Taylor in The Bronx to Jamaican and Barbadian immigrant parents, Bambaataa came of age during the era of the black liberation movement. In 1973, he co-founded the Universal Zulu Nation, an international collective aimed at redirecting youth energy away from violence and toward artistic expression and community building.

As a teenager, he had been a member of the Black Spades, later using his leadership experience to help transform local street culture into a creative movement. His 1982 track Planet Rock brought him global recognition and is widely credited with helping define the sound and direction of hip-hop in the 1980s.

Throughout his career, Bambaataa collaborated with a range of prominent artists, including James Brown and John Lydon, and contributed to socially conscious projects such as the 1985 anti-apartheid song Sun City.

His death, first reported by TMZ, was said to have occurred in Pennsylvania on Thursday due to complications from cancer.

In later years, Bambaataa’s legacy was overshadowed by allegations of child sexual abuse and trafficking dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, which he consistently denied. In 2025, he lost a civil case related to those accusations after failing to appear in court, according to reports.

The Hip Hop Alliance acknowledged that these allegations have complicated his legacy, noting that his life and work have been the subject of “serious conversations within our community,” even as his contributions to the global rise of hip-hop remain significant.