A statement released by the family Saturday said that Johansen’s death came “after a decade of profoundly compromised health” and that he “passed away peacefully at home, holding the hands of his wife Mara Hennessey and daughter Leah, in the sunlight surrounded by music and flowers.”

In February, Johansen’s family announced he was suffering from stage four cancer, a brain tumor and a broken back. The tumor was diagnosed in 2020 and was not able to perform for the final years of his life.

The family’s statement added, “David and his family were deeply moved by the outpouring of love and support they’ve experienced recently as the result of having gone public with their challenges. He was thankful that he had a chance to be in touch with so many friends and family before he passed. He knew he was ecstatically loved.” The family also said that “there will be several events celebrating David’s life and artistry; details to follow.”

Even as his health declined, Johansen had had a high profile in the last years of his life, thanks to a Showtime documentary co-directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi. Johansen made public appearances to promote the doc alongside Scorsese when it came out in 2023. The film was based around the filming of what turned out to be Johansen’s final full gigs, at New York’s Cafe Carlyle right before the pandemic lockdown.

The Staten Island native started out singing with a local band, the Vagabond Missionaries, in the 1960s. He joined the nascent New York Dolls in 1971, and their first performance came at a Christmas Eve concert at a homeless shelter. Their first album, titled “New York Dolls” and produced by Todd Rundgren, was released in 1973 and featured the members in drag on the cover, reflecting the gender-bending style of the time of rockers like David Bowie.

The album’s grungy hard rock-meets-glam pop sound on songs like “Personality Crisis” reflected the theme of alienated youth and served as a template for bands like the Ramones. But though their albums were critically acclaimed, they didn’t sell well, and the Dolls became known as much for some members’ drug addiction and wild antics as for their musicianship.

But although Johansen admitted he bought into that perception of the group himself as the years passed and his musical interests changed, he came back around to giving his band its due. “When Morrissey got the Dolls together to do a (2004 reunion) concert in London at the Meltdown Festival,” he said in an MSNBC interview two years ago, “I was kind of hesitant, because over the years I had taken on the journalist (attitude) of ‘They were trashy, they were flashy, they were junkies,’ and that was about as far as I went with it. (Then) I started listening to the records to prepare for the show, and I was quite surprised how good they were. They were very musical — and pretty genius lyrics, if I do say so myself.”

After releasing a second album, 1974’s “Too Much Too Soon,” the New York Dolls broke up in 1976. Johansen went on to perform and release albums as a solo act, often playing New York Dolls songs and performing with fellow Dolls member Sylvain Sylvain. Johansen opened for the Who on an East Coast tour in 1982.

He re-styled himself as lounge singer Buster Poindexter in the late 1980s, as part of a wave of jazzy sounds and retro performers. As Poindexter he performed with the “Saturday Night Live” band and had a hit with the song “Hot Hot Hot.”

Johansen also worked in film and television, playing the Ghost of Christmas Past in 1988’s “Scrooged” opposite Bill Murray. He co-starred in the movie “Car 54, Where Are You?” and appeared in films including “Let it Ride” and “Mr. Nanny.” He also had a part in the HBO series “Oz.”

The New York Dolls reunited in 2004 due to the undying fandom of Morrissey, who had been president of their regional fan club growing up and beseeched them to get back together when he was curating the Meltdown Festival. Johansen and Sylvain were joined at that show by Arthur Kane, who died shortly afterward; the other two members then went on to release three more albums and do multiple tours into the early 2010s.

For several years, Johansen hosted the eclectically programmed “David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun” on SiriusXM Radio. It was that satellite program that first grabbed the attention of Scorsese, who had liked the Dolls back in their early ’70s heyday.

“I became aware of his radio show, ‘Mansion of Fun,’” Scorsese said in an appearance on “Morning Joe.” “I didn’t know it was him curating it, I just would listen to this music and I’d hear different combinations, whether it was American folk, Sicilian folk, South American, Maria Callas singing Puccini or ‘La Boheme,’ all this stuff mixed together. And it became an inspiring foundation of my listening experience – and affected the films I made,” the director added.

In 2023, Scorsese and David Tedeschi directed “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” a Showtime documentary.During a panel session held to promote the documentary, Johansen recounted his earliest memory of performing in front of an audience, as a youth at a Battle of the Bands event Staten Island. “I closed my eyes and I started singing ‘Oh baby, Boogaloo down Broadway’ and when I was done I thought, Why were they applauding,” he says. “It was a great moment. And I decided to make it my life’s work.”

Looking back on his career in a 2004 interview with Terry Gross for “Fresh Air,” Johansen reminisced on how casual beginnings turned into manifestos for the New York Dolls. “When we started the Dolls… we were really such a gang, and it was like us against the world, and we were really trying to evolve music into something new, and it was, you know, very kind of almost militant to us. And then over the years, you know, in the history books, like the ‘Rolling Stone Complete Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll’ or something, you look in the appendix and see where your name is and see what they say about you…. and (it) would always say, ‘They were trashy. They were flashy. They were drug addicts. They were drag queens.’ And that whole kind of trashy blah, blah, blah thing over the years kind of settled in my mind as, oh, yeah, that’s what it was, you know? And then by going back to it and deconstructing it, and then putting it back together again, I realized that, you know, it really is art.”

He added, “We just wanted to make an explosion of excitement. So that’s what was missing. Rock ‘n’ roll had become very kind of pedantic and meandering, and it was looking for something, but it was like an actor in search of a play or something, you know?”

Johansen’s Poindexter persona came about after he set up shop at Tramp’s in his Gramercy Park neighborhood in New York to do an undercover residency where he could cover the kind of eclectic material he favored beyond rock ‘n’ roll. “I figured I’d use a pseudonym so people wouldn’t be coming in screaming for ‘Funky But Chic.’… I had been listening to a lot of jump blues at the time, but I also did, ‘The Seven Deadly Virtues’ from ‘Camelot’ and whatever — just whatever songs I wanted to sing. And by the end of four weeks… it started out as a three-piece band and wound up as a 15-piece band. So I think by the time it got to the national awareness, it did have this kind of Vegas-y kind of idea to it. But it started off more kind of like the Louis Prima days in the ’50s of Vegas.”

The persona provided a kind of freedom for Johansen he hadn’t felt either as the Dolls’ frontman or performing under his own name.

“I have this friend, Elliott Murphy, who’s a singer…. When I started doing Buster Poindexter, he used to say to me, ‘David, Buster Poindexter is so much more like you than David Johansen is’, you know, if you get what I’m saying.’… In other words, with Buster, I really kind of went on stage and really didn’t edit myself and just kind of said whatever came to my mind and didn’t have many filters. Whereas prior to that… I had the David Johansen group or band or whatever it was called, and we used to open for a lot of bands in hockey rink. At that point, I was going out there and kind of presenting this what I thought was ideal picture of myself… whereas Buster was really kind of more warts and all, you know. And I think by doing that, it helped me to be myself more.”

The song “Hot Hot Hot” became ubiquitous in 1987, with its No. 45 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 hardly reflecting how popular it became as an MTV staple. Johansen ultimately came to have mixed feelings, at best, about the tune. “That was, like, the bane of my existence, that song,” he said in the Scorsese film. “I don’t know how I feel about it now. I haven’t heard it lately. It was ubiquitous… they play it at weddings, bar mitzvahs, Six Flags.” Of how quickly that success came and went, he quipped, “I was a one-hit wonder twice.”

The New York Dolls had not played together for decades when Morrissey convinced the surviving members, who also included guitarist Sylvain Sylvain and bassist Arthur Kane, to reunite for a festival he was curating in the U.K. in 2004. “He called me, and he said, ‘I understand you’re a pretty big Maria Callas fan’,” Johansen said in the Scorsese documentary. “And I said, ‘Yes, I happen to be known for that in certain circles.’ He said, ‘Well, you know that film she made where she did a fantastic concert at the Royal Festival Hall?’ I said, ‘Yes, by heart.’ He said, ‘How would you like to play the Royal Festival Hall?… All you have to do is get the Dolls back together.’ And I thought, ‘Royal Festival Hall, Maria Callas…’ I combed every opium den in Chinatown, and I pulled that band together. We were fantastic.”

Any immediate plans to continue the reunion came to a halt when Kane fell ill and died just 22 days after the 2004 reunion gig, of previously undiagnosed leukemia. But after a pause, Johansen soldiered on with Sylvain in a reconstituted version of the group. The new version of the Dolls released three albums — 2006’s “One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This,” 2009’s “Cause I Sez So” (which reunited the with debut album producer Rundgren) and a swan song, 2011’s “Dancing Backward in High Heels.” The irony was not lost on many that the second incarnation of the group lasted much longer and had more recorded output than the first.

While the Dolls never announced a second breakup, the band went dormant again after a 2011 tour that included Earl Slick in the lineup and had the group opening for Motley Crue and Poison — ironically, two bands whose big, coiffed looks were influenced by the initially androgynous image of the Dolls.

Scorsese had some contact with Johansen before ultimately signing on to do a documentary about the singer. “We worked together on ‘Boardwalk Empire,’” the filmmaker recalled in 2023, and there was also an episode of the series “Vinyl” — edited by Tedeschi, who went on to co-direct the doc — that featured a dramatized portrayal of the Dolls recording “Personality Crisis.”

Later, Scorsese went to see one of Johansen’s shows at Club Carlyle, and “after it was over, we looked at each other and said, ‘We gotta shoot this thing’… We didn’t know it was going to be a film, but we wanted to record it.” He got Brian Grazer and Ron Howard on board as producers, and filmed shows at the New York nightspot around the time he was opening “The Irishman.” “Less than a few weeks later was the shutdown, and we had captured it just in time.”

Johansen told “Morning Joe” that the Cafe Carlyle shows represented the ultimate performing pleasure for him. “It’s a dream because you can sleep there (at the hotel),” he said. “My dream my whole life has been taking an elevator to work. I wish I could press a button and be in the dressing room. It’s the schlep that kills you.”

The singer also had other outlets for his varied musical tastes, including forming the band the Harry Smiths with Levon Helm and Hubert Sumlin, which performed the songs of Howlin’ Wolf. As a visual artist, he recently had an exhibition of his paintings in New York at the Elliot Templeton Fine Arts gallery. 

With Johansen’s death, there are no longer any surviving original members of the Dolls. Sylvain died in January 2021. The group’s very first drummer, Billy Murcia, died in 1972, before the band’s recording career got underway. His successor in the classic lineup of the group, Jerry Nolan, passed away in 1992. Guitarist Johnny Thunders died in 1991, and Kane passed away shortly after the 2004 reunion.

Talking at the time the Dolls were reuniting in the late 2000s, Johansen said: “It’s a tonic for the blues. People can walk around living a life of quiet desperation, but maybe if they started shouting about it, they’d be happy.”

Survivors include his wife, Mara Hennessey, and his daughter, Leah Hennessey.

The post David Johansen, New York Dolls Frontman, Dies at 75 appeared first on Entertainment News Boom.

If at first you don’t succeed — and if, in fact, at first you misfire badly enough that it starts a national conversation — try, try again. After a healthy seven-month interval, in this case.

Since singing what turned out to be a notorious version of the National Anthem at a high-profile ballgame last July, country singer Ingrid Andress has stayed quietly out of sight, offering an apology and then refraining from subsequent statements or appearances. But she made a surprise reappearance Friday night, singing “The Star Spangled Banner” prior to a Colorado Avalanche hockey game — successfully.

“We’re back, baby,” Andress wrote on social media, captioning a video of herself performing the anthem at Denver’s Ball Arena. “Thank you Avalanche.”

Andress was on presumably friendly turf for this unexpected return, making her comeback in her home state of Colorado. Watch her performance at the game, below.

The last time Andress was heard from in public was in a July 16, 2024 tweet offering a literally sobering mea culpa for her performance at the 2024 MLC Home Run Derby in Texas. While some observers believed the singer might have been at least partially thrown off by an audio problem, she took full responsibility for the flub, saying liquid courage had been responsible for the off-key reading.

“I’m not gonna bullshit y’all, I was drunk last night,” Andress wrote on social media at the time. “I’m checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need. That was not me last night. I apologize to MLB, all the fans, and this country I love so much for that rendition.” She signed off then by adding, with a touch of gallows humor, “I’ll let y’all know how rehab is, I hear it’s super fun.”

Her candor in facing up to her mistake at the time was applauded by some other singers who weighed in in her comments sections. “I’m sending you love, Ingrid,” wrote Carly Pearce. “Being this open takes a lot. You’ve got this. Hang in there.” Wrote Lucy Hale, “Take care of you & you’re going to come out of this so much stronger.” Said Julia Michaels, ““I’m sorry you’re going through this. And I’m sorry the world can be so cruel. Here for you.”

On Friday night, Andress’ posting of her new version of the anthem on social media — which had not been announced in advance — was starting to draw some favorable responses. “That’s my girl!!!!!!” replied producer-artist Butch Walker.

Some viewers of the game were just surprised to see Andress’ stealth comeback pop up on their screens. “ISNT INGRID ANDRESS THE LADY WHO TOTALLY BOMBED THE NATIONAL ANTHEM AT THAT MLB GAME,” wrote an X user, seeking independent verification of the unexpected sight.

Fans began to weigh in: “Y’all ain’t prepared for the person I’m about to become for an Ingrid Andress comeback,” wrote Virginia country radio DJ Gideon dean. “Going to sleep knowing Ingrid Andress is back and sober and redeemed herself and we can all move on and get a new album.” Wrote another X user: “So proud of your resilience! Missed you. Will be awaiting new music when you’re ready.”

Andress is believed to have been in the studio working on new music during her time out of the public eye, although no announcements have been made. A single that the singer had been teasing last July just prior to the Home Run Derby was put on ice after her apology and vow to hit rehab. Reps for her label, Warner Records, could not be reached for comment Friday night.

If it counted as a victory for Andress, the night also turned out well on the scorecard for her home team, the Avalanche, as the team rallied to beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2.

Andress has been acclaimed as one of the best young artists to come along in country in the 2020s. Her three Grammy nominations out of the gate included a nod for best new artist. Her debut single, “More Hearts Than Mine,” reached No. 3 on the country airplay chart in 2019. A subsequent duet with Sam Hunt, “Wishful Drinking,” hit No. 4.

The post After Blowing the National Anthem and Disappearing, Ingrid Andress Makes a Surprise Return… Singing It Again, and Getting It Right This Time appeared first on Entertainment News Boom.

Sean Combs, long known by rap aliases like Diddy and Puffy, is facing an avalanche of lawsuits and legal trouble. The latest in his ongoing issues includes a new lawsuit filed by a woman who claims she was drugged and assaulted by Combs in 2000 when she was 16 years old.

In the suit, filed on Monday in New York Supreme Court, a Jane Doe claims that she was working as a part-time babysitter at an apartment building around the corner from her home in lower Manhattan. In Aug. or Sept. 2000, she was leaving her babysitting job at the building where Combs’ romantic partner lived, and she came upon Combs who was with two male individuals who apparently worked for him. Combs asked her where she was going so late at night when it wasn’t safe and offered her a ride, despite her saying that she knew the neighborhood and would be fine. She inevitably agreed to the ride and got in his car.

During the ride, she became scared when they would not drop her off at her home and Combs gave her a drink to “calm her down.” She soon became “groggy and unsteady,” and she was driven to a location where Combs raped her. She was then taken home and left in the lobby of her building.

In a statement shared with Variety, representatives for Combs denied the claims in the new suit. “No matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted, or sex trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor. We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason. Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth, and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail in court.”

Below is an overview of the accusations that have been leveled against Combs, as well as the answers to frequently asked questions about his cases.

Why is Combs in jail?

Combs is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. He was arrested on Sept. 16, 2024 in Manhattan by Homeland Security on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. He pleaded not guilty to a grand jury indictment. He was denied bail by two separate judges, and is set to remain behind bars until his May 5, 2025 trial. Combs could face life in prison if found guilty of the racketeering charge.

Evidence of the charges was sought on March 25, when the Department of Homeland Security raided the rapper’s homes in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Electronics including computers were seized due to containing potential evidence.

What are “freak-offs?”

The federal criminal indictment describes Diddy’s wild sex parties filled with illegal activity, known as “freak-offs,” in great detail. They would frequently involve group sex, exhibitionism, sex workers, copious amounts of drugs and baby oil, and could be filmed and last for days.

How did Cassie Ventura’s allegations start a wave of investigation into Combs’ behavior?

Combs’ high-profile ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, filed a lengthy lawsuit against Combs on Nov. 16, 2023, accusing him of physical abuse, rape and sex trafficking. This included Ventura’s accusation that she participated in numerous “freak-offs,” where, as detailed in her lawsuit, Combs “treated the forced encounter as a personal art project, adjusting the candles he used for lighting to frame the videos he took.”

The lawsuit was settled privately the next day with undisclosed terms. On May 17, 2024, CNN released hotel surveillance footage of Combs beating Ventura in Los Angeles in 2016, which led to Combs issuing a public apology — the sole time he acknowledged wrongdoing since this saga began.

What lawsuits and allegations came after Cassie filed?

Ventura’s headline-making lawsuit action was just the beginning of a wave of legal action against Combs from women and men he allegedly assaulted. His attorney, Erica Wolff, issued a statement on Oct. 1 denying his culpability in the upcoming wave of suits. “Mr. Combs emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors,” said Wolff. “He looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation.”

Nov. 23, 2023: Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1991. In a separate lawsuit filed that day, Liza Gardner sued Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall for sexually assaulting her and a friend in 1990.

Dec. 6, 2023: A Jane Doe claimed that Combs, then-Bad Boy Records’ president Harve Pierre and another man raped her in New York City while she was a teenager.

Feb. 26, 2024: Producer Rodney Jones alleges Combs sexually assaulted him while he was an employee from Sept. 2022 to Nov. 2023.

Apr. 4, 2024: Combs is named as a co-defendant in a suit that claims his son Christian “King” Combs sexually assaulted a woman on a yacht. The suit, filed in Los Angeles, alleges that Combs paid to cover up the assault.

May 21, 2024: Crystal McKinney, a model, accused Combs of sexual assault in 2003.

May 24, 2024: April Lampros sued Combs for sexual assault and battery for a series of incidents from 1994 into the 2000s.

June 10, 2024: Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith filed a lawsuit saying he was sexually assaulted by Combs at a 1997 party.

Sept. 10, 2024: “Making the Band” star Dawn Richard sued Combs, alleging sexual battery, sex trafficking, sexual assault and more.

Sept. 24, 2024: Thalia Graves sued Combs, saying he drugged and raped her in 2001.

September 27, 2024: Jane Doe, a Florida model, sued Combs, alleging she was drugged and sexually assaulted.

October 14, 2024: Six lawsuits, two from women and four from men, were filed against Combs in Manhattan. One man claimed that Combs assaulted him when he was 16 years old in 1998.

October 20, 2024: Combs was hit with an additional six lawsuits, with one claiming that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in 2000.

October 28, 2024: A John Doe filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging that the mogul drugged and raped him when he was 10 years old. Another filed a similar suit claiming that he was sexually assaulted when he was 17 years old while auditioning for “Making the Band” in 2008.

November 19, 2024: Five additional suits were filed against Combs by three men and two women who make similar allegations of being drugged and assaulted. One of the women was 17 at the time described in the incident.

December 8, 2024: Jay-Z was added as a defendant in a refiled case, which prompted the rapper to issue a swift, fiery rebuttal claiming that the allegations were untrue.

December 12, 2024: Three men filed suits against Combs, alleging similar accusations of sexual assault. One claimed that he was offered $2,500 after an encounter where he claimed that Combs raped him while others filmed the incident.

December 20, 2024: Two women filed lawsuits stating that they were drugged and sexually assaulted during separate incidents in 1991 and 2006.

January 13, 2024: A Jane Doe claimed that Combs and two of his male employees drugged and raped her when she was 16 years old.

What further lawsuits is Combs expected to face?

On Oct. 1, attorney Tony Buzbee said 120 more lawsuits are expected from alleged victims he is working with, which include assaults that took place in the 2000s and 2010s.

In a statement shared with Variety, Combs’ attorneys said, “The press conference and 1-800 number that preceded today’s barrage of filings were clear attempts to garner publicity. Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman.”

The first batch of six lawsuits, filed on Oct. 14, lays out allegations from several men and women, including a then-16-year-old boy.

What lawsuits has Combs faced in the past?

Prior to Ventura’s allegations, Combs was sued by Cindy Rueda in 2017 for sexual harassment and retaliation. The lawsuit was settled in February 2019.

The post Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Legal Troubles, Explained: From ‘Freak-Offs’ to Sex Trafficking Charges to Million Dollar Lawsuits appeared first on Entertainment News Boom.

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“She’s black and white, all ride or die

More bark than bite

She’s my bitch,” the song begins.

“The star of the pack, no one’s talking smack

Yeah, she’s got my back

She’s my bitch.”

Musgraves performed the song solo, and if the object of the song’s lyrics weren’t already clear, the dog got a name-check in the middle: “So spicy, her name is Pepper.” The audience chanted “Pepper!” as it drew to a close.

“Who would’ve known when I took her home

That I’d fall so in love

Yeah, I’m her bitch.”

The remainder of the show mostly followed Musgraves’ recent tour setlist, (she’d played Nashville’s 20,000-capacity Bridgestone Arena just two months ago), with several songs from her latest album “Deeper Well” — including, of course, the existential “The Architect,” which won a Grammy for best country song earlier this month — and a mixture of hits and deeper cuts from her previous outings. The show was obviously special to her as well, as she bantered with the audience between nearly every song and said that Nashville feels like home, recalling that she’d moved to the city when she was just 19.

She also joked often about her stage set, which was loaded with ferns, moss and sod and basically resembled a giant terrarium — at one point she even reached for a hairbrush hidden somewhere in the ferns at the front of the stage and had to grope around to find it.

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Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with four new lawsuits from plaintiffs alleging sexual assault, all filed under the Gender-Motivated Violence Act with a lookback window closing on March 1.

The suits, filed in New York, all detail similar allegations of sexual assault, with accusers claiming they were drugged and subsequently subjected to sex acts against their will. The GMVA was granted an amendment in 2022 that allowed survivors whose claims were previously time-barred to file a suit against their abuser during the window period of March 1, 2023 and March 1, 2025. With the Act coming to a close, more suits are expected to be filed before week’s end.

The first suit against Combs comes from Aristalia Benitez, who lived in New York City in 1995 at the age of 20. A sophomore at New York University, she was employed by Peppe Jeans, a Tommy Hilfiger sister brand, and was invited by Andy Hilfiger to a party at a restaurant where Combs was present. She was seated next to Combs and was given a non-alcoholic drink, after which Combs allegedly “forcibly groped and fondled [her] breasts, butt, and genital area under her clothes.” She claims to have been rendered unconscious and awoke in the back of a cab hours later with no recollection of how she got there. The fare had been paid, and she noticed her groin area was sore. Upon belief, the suit claims, she was “vaginally penetrated by Defendant Combs” and his associates while unconscious.

Another plaintiff, Justin Gooch, claims that he was 16 years old in 1999 while living with his grandparents in New Jersey. In January, he visited the popular New York City club Tunnel, where he met Combs. Combs allegedly invited Gooch to one of the club bathrooms and once inside a stall, he gave him ketamine, proceeding to anally penetrate him without consent. After the incident, Combs apparently asked, “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Leslie Cockrell filed a third suit regarding an incident that occurred in 1999 when she was 24. She ran a scouting business in the music industry, and during that summer she went to one of Combs’ parties in the Hamptons along with the artist Jay Stone, thinking it was a good networking opportunity. At the party, Combs offered her a drink and touched her as he gave her a tour of the house, which was “packed inside and outside with naked people who were engaging in sexual activities together.” After her second drink, she began to feel lightheaded, and was guided to a lie in a room by herself. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she woke up to Combs vaginally penetrating her without consent. When she came to, she was sore and was told not to tell anyone what happened.

A fourth lawsuit was filed against Combs and VH1 by Kendra Haffoney, who worked for a designer showroom in Los Angeles in 2007. She applied to a new VH1 show “I Want to Work for Diddy,” and was selected, moving to New York that year. One night, she was invited to an afterparty where she was led to a backroom where Combs was with other individuals and took a drink that she believes was laced. She sat down next to Combs, who allegedly “guided her head down to have her perform oral sex on him.” She passed out and awoke to Combs sitting at the foot of the bed, knowing she was drugged and that “her vaginal area felt sore.” She claims that she was later invited to Combs’ L.A. mansion where she was subsequently abused.

Representatives for Combs responded in a request for comment to Variety, “No matter how many lawsuits are filed—especially by individuals who refuse to put their own names behind their claims—it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor. This lawsuit is nothing more than a collection of media headlines, stitched together with fragments from other lawsuits and baseless rumors. With the deadline for New York’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act expiring tomorrow, opportunists are scrambling to file last-minute, meritless claims. We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason, but that does not make the claims true. Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail in court.”

The filings come shortly after a male escort sued Combs over accusations of sexual assault that allegedly occurred in 2012. Combs is currently detained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he will remain until his criminal trial, slated for May 5.

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Kevin Liles, the veteran music executive who has played a key role in D’Angelo and Young Thug’s careers, has been sued by a Jane Doe claiming that he sexually assaulted her during her employment at Def Jam in the early 2000s.

In the suit, filed in New York Supreme Court and reviewed by Variety, Doe named Universal Music Group, Def Jam and Liles as defendants. She filed under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which was granted an amendment in 2022 to allow survivors whose claims were previously time-barred to file suit before March 1, 2025.

At the time of the alleged assault, Liles served as President of Def Jam and EVP of Island Def Jam, holding tenure from 1999 to 2004. Doe claims that she started working at Def Jam as an executive assistant to the general manager around 1999 and that Liles began sexually harassing her soon after, making “derogatory and degrading comments based on her gender regarding her body and appearance.” From 2000 to 2002, the sexual harassment escalated, with Liles allegedly pushing his body against her breasts and grabbing her behind.

In 2002, Doe says that she was at the office with Liles when he made sexual advances that she rebuffed. He then allegedly forced himself on top of her and raped her despite continued protests. The suit claims that UMG and Def Jam “not only knew or should have known” of Liles’ “propensity to commit the aforementioned crimes of violence,” but also enabled how he engaged with employees.

In a statement shared with Variety, Doe’s attorney Lucas B. Franken, partner at Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC, said, “We commend our client for her determination to seek justice for the sexual abuse she endured, as well as the sheer bravery it took to come forward against a well-known, celebrity figure. In our lengthy experience defending sexual abuse victims, we have witnessed a common thread and that is that they are often not alone in their abuse. Based on the violent and egregious conduct, we expect that others were also abused, and we hope that they can also come forward to share their experiences and pursue justice.”

Representatives for Liles and UMG, which owns Def Jam, did not respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

In 2023, Liles was named as a defendant in a $25 million sexual assault lawsuit filed against singer Trey Songz, who he manages. The Jane Doe who filed the suit claimed that Liles ignored the growing accusations against Songz over the years. The suit was settled the following year.

A veteran label and management executive, Liles recently left his post as chairman and CEO of Warner Music’s 3000 Elektra Entertainment at the end of 2024. He joined Warner in 2022 after the company acquired 300, which he co-founded with former Warner recorded music chief Lyor Cohen, for $400 million. The company saw significant chart success with Young Thug, Gunna, Megan Thee Stallion and others. His management clients over the years included Mariah Carey and D’Angelo.

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