An individual claiming to have been singer Ricky Martin’s manager sued the performer in Los Angeles state court this week, alleging she is owed millions of dollars in unpaid commissions. The gigs supposedly generating these commissions include a recent 26-city North American tour through Live Nation and a Sony recording contract. Honestly, I had no idea Mr. Martin was still a hot item, but apparently he is.
Now, the description of a contract claim like this in a plaintiff’s complaint is usually pretty straightforward: The plaintiff alleges that the parties formed a contract; she performed her part; but the other side did not; and now she wants relief—usually monetary compensation.
But hey, this is the entertainment industry, so we can’t just leave it at that. The plaintiff’s complaint drops the following gratuitous bomb:
[Plaintiff] Rebecca not only acted to advance Martin’s career but also rendered services to protect it. In one example among many, in or around September 2020, Martin received a letter from a highly-respected litigation attorney in Los Angeles, California. Rebecca stood next to Martin as they read the legal letter for the first time. In that letter, the attorney threatened to publicly file a legal complaint against Martin if he did not pay money to resolve a claim against him alleged by this attorney’s client. After reading the legal letter, Martin collapsed. He expressed his extreme fear to Rebecca that if this threat were carried out, the consequences to Martin would be catastrophic.
That should get the rumor mill going.