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Sean “Diddy” Combs on Friday (May 10) asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that he and two co-defendants raped a 17-year-old girl in a New York recording studio in 2003, saying it was a “false and hideous claim” that was filed too late under the law.
The legal move is the latest piece of pushback from the 54-year-old hip-hop mogul and his legal team after he was subjected to several similar lawsuits and a subsequent criminal sex-trafficking investigation.
“Mr. Combs and his companies categorically deny Plaintiff’s decades-old tale against them, which has caused incalculable damage to their reputations and business standing before any evidence has been presented,” says the filing, which also names Combs-owned corporations as defendants. “Plaintiff cannot allege what day or time of year the alleged incident occurred, but miraculously remembers other salacious details, despite her alleged incapacitated condition.”
The lawsuit was filed in December and amended in March by the woman who now lives in Canada whose name wasn’t disclosed in the court filing. She said she was in 11th grade at a high school in a Detroit suburb in 2003, when Harve Pierre, then the president of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment record label, flew her to New York on a private jet and took her to a recording studio, where she was given drugs and alcohol until she was incapable of consenting to sex. Then, the lawsuit said, Pierre, Combs and a man she didn’t know took turns raping her.
The lawsuit included photographs of the woman sitting on Combs’ lap that she said were taken on the night in question.
The defense filing asks that the case be “dismissed now, with prejudice” — meaning it cannot be refiled — “to protect the Combs Defendants from further reputational injury and before more party and judicial resources are squandered.”
At this early stage in the lawsuit, the arguments are procedural rather than on the facts of the case.
Some of the lawsuits filed against Combs involve decades-old allegations and are among the more than 3,700 legal claims filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily suspended certain legal deadlines to give sexual assault victims a last opportunity to sue over abuse that happened years or even decades ago.
The new deadlines established by that law expired, but the suit Combs filed the motion against Friday was brought under a different law, New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. That city law also allows accusers to file civil complaints involving sexual assault claims after the statute of limitations has run out.
But Combs’ motion argues that suit was filed too late, because the city law is preempted by the state law, whose provisions mean the lawsuit needed to be filed by August of 2021 to be timely.
“New York state law trumps New York City law, without exception,” the filing says.
The amended version of the lawsuit filed in March sought to address some of these issues, but Combs’ attorneys argue that it didn’t go far enough. The judge has ruled the woman will need to reveal her name if the lawsuit moves forward after this challenge.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused, unless they come forward publicly, as some of Combs’ accusers have done.
Friday’s defense filing also criticizes the suit for including “a bolded, legally irrelevant ‘trigger warning’ calculated to focus attention on its salacious and depraved allegations.”
The public airing of allegations against Combs began with a November lawsuit by the singer Cassie, his former protege and girlfriend, containing allegations of beatings, rape and other abuse between 2005 and 2018. The suit, filed by Douglas Wigdor, the same attorney who filed the suit being challenged Friday, was settled the day after it was filed. Combs denied the allegations through his lawyer before the settlement.
More lawsuits against Combs were filed in the following months. Then on March 25, Homeland Security Investigations served search warrants on his homes in Los Angeles and Miami in a sex-trafficking investigation. His lawyer called it “a gross use of military-level force.” The investigation is continuing. Combs has not been charged.
Last month, Combs filed a motion to dismiss a suit filed by Joi Dickerson, who said she was a 19-year-old college student when Combs drugged her and sexually assaulted her.
Wigdor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new filing. He said in a statement in December that the “depravity of these abhorrent acts has, not surprisingly, scarred our client for life.”
By his own admission, rapper/songwriter/producer Mike Posner had a “midlife crisis at 22.” He had signed a major label deal and experienced his first big brush with success with his 2010 top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Cooler Than Me.”
A few years later, by the time an EDM remix of his stripped-down “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” earned him a 2017 Grammy nomination for song of the year, Posner was well on his way to feeling disillusioned and depleted by fame.
Posner kept making music, but also took a serious look at the decisions he was making and how they were affecting his physical and mental health. At the closing session for the second annual Hollywood & Mind summit held at UTA in Beverly Hills on Thursday (May 9), moderated by Hollywood & Mind founder Cathy Applefeld Olson, Posner, 36, shared some of the wisdom he’s gained through his career and from that arduous work he’s done on himself, including climbing Mount Everest, walking across America and tangling with a rattlesnake.
The daylong event focused on the intersection of entertainment and mental health, and featured close to 50 speakers, including leading mental health professionals, actors, comedians, athletes and entertainment executives, all of whom have an investment in wellness. Panelists included Couples Therapy star Dr. Orna Guralnik, actor and singer Chyler Leigh, music producer Aaron Pearce, Angel Carter Conrad, actress/producer Soleil Moon Frye, comedians Kevin Fredericks and Carmen Esposito, professional basketball player Imani McGee-Stafford, Indianapolis Colts vice chair/owner Kalen Jackson, Bel Air creator and showrunner Morgan Stevenson Cooper, model Emma Brooks, The NAACP’s Kyle Bowser and actor/singer Kevin Quinn.
Here are six takeaways from Olson’s panel with Posner.
She’s got the eye of the tiger, and that’s why Katy Perry‘s “Roar” music video has skyrocketed to 4 billion YouTube views, marking the most of any female artist on the platform.
In the 2013 clip, Perry embarks on an animal-filled frolic through the jungle in which the pop star befriends a monkey, showers with the assistance of an elephant, brushes a crocodile’s teeth and “roars” a tiger into submission. “I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter/ Dancing through the fire/ ‘Cause I am a champion, and you’re gonna hear me roar,” she belts in the chorus of her empowering hit.
Upon its release in 2013, the song has been equally successful on the Billboard charts. Released in 2013 as a single from Prism, “Roar” spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — a feat Perry has accomplished nine times in her career. Prism, which featured additional hits “Dark Horse” and “Unconditionally,” itself also topped the Billboard 200 albums chart for one week in November 2013.
“I was really inspired by this little six-minute thing by Eckhart Tolle where he speaks about loss,” Perry told Billboard in a cover story at the time, referring to a video from the author of the best-selling self-help book, The Power of Now, as Perry was navigating her divorce from ex-husband Russell Brand. “When you lose something, all your foundations crumble-but that also leaves a big hole that’s open for something great to come through.”
In 2014, “Roar” was nominated for song of the year and best pop solo performance at the Grammy Awards. The song became certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2017, making Perry the first artist to have three Diamond-certified singles in the country, following “Firework” and “Dark Horse.”
Revisit Katy Perry’s “Roar” music video below.
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Jon Batiste, Daniel Pemberton and Siddhartha Khosla are among the winners of the 2024 ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards. The kudos were presented as part of the 2024 ASCAP Screen Music Awards at an invitation-only event in Los Angeles on Thursday (May 9).
Here are this year’s recipients of the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards, which are chosen by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community:
Film score of the year: Daniel Pemberton, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Television score of the year: David Fleming, The Last of Us
Television theme of the year: Siddhartha Khosla, Only Murders in the Building
Documentary score of the year: Jon Batiste, American Symphony
Video game score of the year: Gordy Haab, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and American Symphony were both shortlisted for Oscars for best original score, though neither wound up with a nomination. Batiste was Oscar-nominated for co-writing a song from American Symphony – “It Never Went Away,” which he co-wrote with Dan Wilson.
Khosla received two Primetime Emmy nods in 2022 for his work on Only Murders in the Building – outstanding music composition for a series (original dramatic score) and outstanding original main title theme music – but none this past year. Fleming has yet to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy.
In addition, the ASCAP Screen Music Awards recognize top composers of the past year’s hit streaming series and films. The top-rated streaming series winners include Robert Duncan for The Night Agent, Natalie Holt for Loki, Bear McCreary for the streaming remake of book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for the dramedy Unprisoned.
Among the top-rated streaming films winners, Germaine Franco is honored for her score for action-thriller The Mother, Marcus Miller for the holiday comedy Candy Cane Lane, and Lorne Balfe for both historical thriller Tetris and action-romance Ghosted.
In other categories, Pemberton takes home top box office film of the year for his score to the blockbuster animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and David Vanacore is named the top most performed themes and underscore winner for his work on such shows as Survivor, The Kardashians and The Daily Show.
Composers Matthew Hawkins, the late Maurice “m.0.” Jackson and the late Neil Martin (collectively known as Numeriklab) win top network television series for their main theme for NCIS, while John Sereda is recognized with top cable television series for the historical drama When Calls the Heart.
The complete list of winners is available on the ASCAP website: www.ascap.com/screenawards24.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has surpassed 2 million in U.S. album sales after only two weeks in release, according to Luminate. It’s her 11th album to sell at least 2 million copies. (Album sales are purchases of both digital download albums and physical albums, like CDs, cassette tapes and vinyl LPs.)
In the week ending May 2, The Tortured Poets Department sold 107,000 copies, which was down 94% compared to the previous week, its opening frame, when it bowed with 1.914 million sold. Sales of the album loom so large, the 2.021 million it has sold in its first two weeks represents 8.4% of all U.S. album sales year-to-date (24.05 million).
The Tortured Poets Department is the first album to sell at least 2 million copies in its first two weeks since Adele’s 25 sold 4.49 million in its first two frames in 2015 (3.378 million in its first week, and 1.112 million in week two).
On Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart dated May 11, The Tortured Poets Department remains at No. 1 for a second week.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
The rest of the top 10 on the Top Album Sales chart is busy with debuts and re-entries, led by the list’s top debut, Grateful Dead’s Dave’s Picks, Volume 50: The Palladium, New York, NY – 5/3/77 at No. 2. The live archival set sold 20,000 copies in its first week.
Lafey’s Bewitched re-enters the list at No. 2, a new high, with 15,000 sold – her best sales week yet. It jumps back onto the list following a deluxe reissue on April 26, dubbed Bewitched: The Goddess Edition, with four bonus tracks. The new Goddess Edition was released on six vinyl variants, a CD, cassette, digital download and a streaming album.
A trio of debuts round out the top six, as Yung Bleu bows at No. 4 with Jeremy (13,000), Luke Hemmings’ Boy starts at No. 5 (10,000) and St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming enters at No. 6 (nearly 10,000).
Swift’s chart-topping 1989 (Taylor’s Version) falls 4-7 (9,000; down 35%) and Lover drops 3-8 (8,000; down 42%). ILLIT’s Super Real Me debuts at No. 9 with nearly 8,000, while TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s former No. 1 minisode 3: TOMORROW rises 11-10 with 7,000 (down 25%).
