If you’ve been following the whole Lizzo backup dancer lawsuit fiasco, you know that it’s one of the weirder celebrity lawsuit scandals in recent memory. There’s accusations of body shaming, toxic workplaces, and even uncouth happenings with a banana. Now Lizzo is punching back with a lawsuit of her own, and this one includes topless dancers.
TMZ is reporting that Lizzo’s celebrity lawyer Marty Singer told the publication about newly released photos showing the backup dancers that accused her “happily carousing” and “gleefully reveling” at a topless show in Paris.
Singer, by the way, is a legend in show business lawyering. He’s represented clients like Scarlett Johansson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Travolta, Charlie Sheen, and Bill Cosby.
Some other notables: Singer defended Jim Carrey in a wrongful death suit involving his ex, Cathriona White, and that was dismissed. He settled a case between Zooey Deschanel and her managers, and he represented Jonah Hill following allegations he kissed a 16-year-old during a party. He called the accusations against Hill “a complete fabrication.”
Basically, Singer is the baddest lawyer in Hollywood, and these dancers have quite the uphill climb to win this one. They had to know that.
The photos were taken on March 5, Singer said, about a month after the dancers said Lizzo forced them to eat bananas from places you shouldn’t eat bananas from. The accusers, Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez, claim they were forced to go to that show in Paris, but Singer said the photos prove they were “happily cavorting” backstage there.
Davis also sang Lizzo’s praises a month after the Paris show, saying in an audition tape that “It’s been so amazing and such a beautiful journey. I look up to her so much. I just want to follow in her footsteps, and I just want to share that with the Queen Lizzo herself.”
Here’s that video:
Davis tried to say her comments on the video happened before her accusations, but Singer said the that’s “completely contradicted by the facts.” Attorney Neama Rahmani represents the accusers, and she said the Paris pic only shows that “they wanted to keep their jobs. They had bills to pay just like everyone else but they finally had enough of the abuse. We stand by every claim in the lawsuit and look forward to trial.”
Rahmani doubles down even more.
“We’ve been hearing from other former employees sharing similar stories, and as seen in the Los Angeles Times article today about how Lizzo used intimate footage of her dancers without their approval in the 2022 HBO Max Love Lizzo documentary, we’re seeing even more of a pattern of just how much Lizzo thinks of those who work for her. Clearly, not very much.”
Singer said Lizzo plans to sue for malicious prosecution after she wins this lawsuit. We’ll keep you posted.