The Pussycat Dolls are suing the Daily Mail over stories it ran claiming the pop group was a prostitution ring.
The group’s founder Robin Antin, filed the suit claiming the Daily Mail neglected to contact Antin, with whom the Daily Mail has interviewed before.
But the initial story was told by former Pussycat Dolls member, Kaya Jones, who had issued a series of tweets over the weekend prior to the exclusive interview with the outlet.
"My truth. I wasn’t in a girl group. I was in a prostitution ring. Oh & we happened to sing & be famous. While everyone who owned us made the $," Jones wrote on Twitter. "How bad was it? people ask - bad enough that I walked away from my dreams, bandmates & a 13 million dollar record deal. We knew we were going to #1," she continued.
When Jones spoke to the Daily Mail in October 2017, she spoke about a specific incident where she claimed to have been assaulted by an industry executive in a car. "As just one example, a record executive asked me to get into his car and I accepted. We were in Las Vegas and we were all racing to get to the airport to take us back to LA after the show," Jones said. "It was just a 10-minute ride. I remember getting in the back seat of the limo with him and within seconds he jumped on me. I literally had to fight him off all the way to the airport."
King & Ballow’s Richard Busch is representing Antin and the Pussycat Dolls. He is the attorney who won Marvin Gaye Estate vs. Robin Thicke trial in 2015 over the hit “Blurred Lines.” The family was awarded $5.3 million and half of the future royalties from the Robin Thicke song.
“It’s clear Ms Jones was an unreliable and biased source simply looking for her 15 minutes of fame, and the Daily Mail could have taken their pick of dozens of sources to contact to see if there was an inkling of truth to the statements but did not do so,” said Busch in a statement. “Instead, for pure sensationalism and to grab salacious headlines to sell their product, and without considering what it meant for The Pussycat Dolls, their business or their reputation, the Daily Mail published these defamatory statements with a reckless disregard for the truth. Daily Mail’s conduct was malicious and it should be held responsible for the enormous damage The Pussycat Dolls and Robin have suffered as a direct result.”