Rapper Travis Scott has been accused of assaulting a sound engineer and causing US$12,000 (nearly $16,350) in damages to AV equipment in a New York nightclub early Wednesday morning.
The New York Police Department is currently investigating the allegations against Scott, 31. There are no official charges as of yet, and he has not been named a formal suspect.
An unnamed sound engineer at Club Nebula in mid-town Manhattan alleges Scott punched him in the face following a verbal argument shortly before 3:30 a.m. He claims the rapper also damaged a speaker and video screen in the nightclub.
Scott’s lawyer, Mitchell Schuster, did not deny the allegations, but called the incident a “misunderstanding” in a statement.
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“While this is clearly a misunderstanding being blown out of proportion by clickbait and misinformation, we are actively working with the venue and law enforcement to resolve and set the record straight,” he said. “We are confident our client will be cleared of any wrongdoing.”
Scott was at Club Nebula to perform a DJ set at an afterparty following a concert by labelmate Don Toliver.
A spokesperson for Club Nebula, Ritchie Romero, backed Schuster’s statement and said the alleged incident between Scott and the sound engineer was exaggerated in media reports.
“This is blown completely out of proportion,” Romero told CNN. “It was a great night.”
Scott has kept mostly quiet since 10 people were killed in a crowd crush at his Astroworld concert in November 2021. There are several lawsuits against Scott in relation to the Astroworld festival, though Scott has historically denied any legal responsibility.
Astroworld concert crush: Lawsuits representing over 200 injured victims filed, attorneys say
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On Saturday, Scott will headline the Rolling Loud festival in Los Angeles, his first concert in the U.S. since the Astroworld tragedy.
2016 was T-Pain’s Twitch channel’s inaugural year, and it’s also the first time Pain remembers getting trolled. “At the time, my music career was kind of on a downward spiral,” he says during our Zoom call this Monday. “People were coming into my chat and telling me stuff like, ‘You’re only streaming because you don’t have any more music money.’ It wasn’t true, but it kind of hit home because I was thinking that same shit.”
T-Pain is now the CEO of Nappy Boy Gaming, a passionate piece of his 2006-founded media empire Nappy Boy Entertainment. He runs and selects the members of its stream team, which includes BigCheese and Granny. When NBG started, he wasn’t used to getting trolled. But he does have experience with backlash—you might remember some of it from when you knew him best, when he was the guy on the radio singing with Auto-Tune.
Born Faheem Najm in Tallahassee, Florida (his artist name means “Tallahassee Pain,” because he struggled while living there), T-Pain started making music as soon as his 10-year-old hands would let him. He was only 20 when his debut single “I’m Sprung,” certified platinum in 2006, came out. That song makes Pain’s voice glossy with extreme pitch-correction, and later hits like 2007’s “Bartender” and “Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” feature the same Auto-Tuned vocal cascades.
He was always committed to the art of it. He used to sample games like Streets of Rage 2 and GoldenEye007 (he reminisces about working with the former back in “oh my God, 1998, this was way back,” he says, laughing). In using Auto-Tune, he never sounds robotic (“Kids today wouldn’t understand what it’s like to sing into a fan and try to sound like T-Pain,” says a YouTube comment with over 20 thousand upvotes), he sounds like T-Pain, pleasantly metallic, the sound you get from clinking together a couple of $400,000 diamond necklaces. It became a covetable sound, reproduced by other 2000’s club rulers like the Black Eyed Peasand Kesha, and even still by huge rappers and alt-pop stars, like Travis Scott, Lil Yachty, and Charli XCX.
But, in the beginning, Pain’s peers were unwilling to give him credit. Usher, at one point, told him that he fucked music up, and Jay-Z bitterly called for “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” with his 2009 song (“this shit violent / This is death of Auto-Tune, moment of silence”). The collective backlash led to a depressive period “that left [T-Pain] unmotivated to make any more music,” a New Yorker profile from 2014 says, but the fog lifted around that time, which happens to coincide with when Pain was first exposed to Twitch streaming at a PlayStation event in 2013.
He became attached to “this feeling that I wasn’t alone,” and realized streaming was a social, gratifying alternative to gaming alone in his room, or being stuck on a plane or stage without another human being to connect with.
He tells me he “took the reins into [his] hands” in 2016, starting his own channel and eventually forming his own stream team because he felt like it.
“I saw Markiplier watching BigCheese,” T-Pain says, “and I immediately got this feeling that I need to create something where I can use my name and my platform to get this guy seen. I need to get more eyes on this guy. I was like, ‘I need to create a gaming organization.’”
“It was kind of on a whim,” he admits, but he sticks with it partially because he likes being on his stream team, too, and protecting the sense of wonder that video games give him.
It was difficult initially. It turned out that internet commenters inherited Jay-Z’s objections to T-Pain’s career.
“The negativity sticks out so much,” he says about receiving his first round of hate comments. “I was screaming in my house, and I was getting mad at my wife for nothing because these fucking assholes on Twitter talking shit. Telling everybody, ‘don’t talk to me today, this one guy on Twitch said I was a fucking has-been.’”
But he learned, as everyone online must learn, that the anonymous losers in your comments section can’t be trusted.
“This is when I was getting 200 viewers, like, that was my top, that was big for me. When a lot of those viewers were saying ‘you’re on the stream because you don’t have money anymore,’ […] I started feeling like that. […] But I realized that those were just terrible people.”
Once he came to conclusion that “fuck those guys. Nevermind. Back to our regularly scheduled program,” like he says, he committed to streaming and nourishing that wonder. He cites TimTheTatman, Moistcritikal (“that’s the fucking homie”), and virtual YouTuber CodeMiko (“there’s a whole $10,000 system sitting in my game room doing nothing because I found out [motion capture] was more instructions than I thought it was”) as streamers he’s a fan of. It’s obvious that he loves streaming as a discipline.
You can also tell from decades of interviews, podcast appearances, and music—I noticed it, too, during our call—that T-Pain loves laughing. He slips into booming ha ha ha!’s as cheerily as you wiggle off a sweater when you’re warm, which could be why he found so much success on Twitch, where he now has close to 900 thousand followers. He is palpably nice.
Tabloids and DeuxMoi have mostly trained us out of believing celebrities can be so nice, no strings attached, but T-Pain exudes undeniable charisma. He has so many interesting stories to tell, and I’m happy to sit and let time pass as I listen.
Like, in 2021, he told his viewers about meeting Prince’s bass player. He called him on the phone so that T-Pain and Prince could introduce themselves, but Prince instead shouted “where the fuck you been at, man, we’ve been trying to jam for an hour!” as soon as he picked up.
The bass player “said ‘hey man, I’m sorry about that, but, man, I got T-Pain right here.’ Prince said, ‘I don’t want to talk to no motherfucking T-Pain,’” T-Pain recalls, cackling so hard he needs to rip his headphones off for a second. It starts a chain reaction—everyone in the room is cracking up, and so is everyone watching at home. “I was like, ‘bro, it’s fine!’”
He talks to viewers like we’re all at the bar together; he doesn’t operate with the untouchability of someone who influenced two decades of popular music, though he’s willing to demystify that world for everyone. He does it a lot—he just streamed for six hours the other day, scrolling through YouTube and analyzing his music while chat asked him innocent questions, children talking to their teacher. “What’s your favorite music video?”
He’s willing to entertain in infinite ways, giving subscriber insider looks at how he makes music, playing Battlefield 1, Fortnite, racing games with a steering wheel controller, Call of Duty…whatever he can get his hands on, really. The NBG team is similarly eclectic, playing Red Dead Redemptionin full grandma drag or, like Cardboard Cowboy, showing viewers hours of custom animations before finally deciding to play The Last of Us.
That impulse T-Pain had once, to support and amplify creators he admires, has proven to be long lasting. It continues to guide Nappy Boy Gaming. When it comes to adding new streamers to NBG’s roster, “I still look for people who would otherwise not be seen,” he says.
T-Pain likes streamers who seem like pure fun. Good people. “I scour Twitch, and I watch people, and if I stumble upon you and see you may need some help, or you got low views, and I feel like you deserve more…there you go. That’s how you get signed to Nappy Boy Gaming.”
“You don’t have to be really good at games [to get signed to NBG],” he continues. “You just got to be a good person that likes to make people laugh and lift people up. Just don’t be a dick.”
T-Pain has a genuine joy for streaming, but there are materials to be gained from it, too. He told famous jackassSteve-O on his podcast last year that he makes a lot of money on Twitch, and actually, “I’m making more money off of video games than I’ve made in the last four years,” he said. But he’s not sticking to Nappy Boy Gaming—continuously adding streamers to his roster, chatting for hours with subscribers—solely because he needs the money. Not to brag, but he’s good.
“This isn’t, like, my main thing. I have other ways of making money. It’s fine,” he says, though, if he did dedicate all his time to streaming, it would work out to something like $60,000 per hour, he claims, and that doesn’t hurt. But what might matter more to T-Pain is that NBG is helping him fulfill a long quest for overdue legitimization. He says that the NBG accomplishment he’s most proud of is getting recognized by the games industry at large.
“We just did an activation last night with Ubisoft. Just having Ubisoft not say, ‘We got T-Pain to play our game,’ they said, ‘We got Nappy Boy Gaming to play our game,’ you know, to be recognized as an organization and not just having people be like, ‘We’re cool now, we got a rapper to play our shit,’ […] is the crowning achievement,” he says. “It’s not just somebody that we think is famous. It’s not just a celebrity endorsement. It’s Nappy Boy Gaming. That’s the crowning achievement for me, just having that thing be separate.”
Gaming has helped T-Pain, once spitefully shouldered out by his industry, reach an unconventional, but still triumphant, apex. That, in addition to using the fame he kindled anyway for a good cause, is enough for him.
“When I ultimately leave this earth, I want people to be able to say, ‘That was fun. That was a good goddamn dude, he helped a lot of people,” he says, his comfortable laugh rolling out again like spilled marbles.
“That’s really all I want. I don’t really have any other achievements, or anything like that, that I want. I want the people that I helped to feel the way that I feel.”
At long last, Kylie Jenner has announced her son’s new name, and it’s Aire.
The 25-year-old makeup mogul took to Instagram on Saturday and, for the first time, shared photos of her nearly-one-year-old son’s face. The first photo shows a selfie as she holds her little one with his face in plain view. The caption simply read, “AIRE.”
Khloé Kardashian gave a big thumbs up to the name and dropped the comment, “The king!!! Young king!!!!!,” while mom Kris Jenner wrote, “I love you Aire Webster.”
The announcement comes exactly 10 months after Kylie took to social media to say her and Travis Scott‘s son would no longer be going by the name Wolf.
“FYI our son’s name isn’t wolf anymore,” Kylie shared before adding that the couple didn’t feel like the name was a good fit for the then-one-month-old. “We just really didn’t feel like it was him. Wanted to share because I keep seeing Wolf everywhere.”
Kylie and Travis welcomed their son on Feb. 2. They revealed his name nine days later, but it wouldn’t be long before they decided to nix the name and take some time to come up with a name that’s a better fit.
Back in September, Kylie went on “The Late Show With James Corden” and said she and Travis hadn’t “officially, legally changed the name” while reiterating that Wolf wasn’t going to be his name. And, when pressed to offer more details about the kiddos’ new name, Kylie said, “We’re not ready to share yet.”
The revelation comes just days after a source told ET that the parents of two — Kylie and Travis also share 4-year-old daughter, Stormi — are “on a break” from their romance.
“The two have had an up and down relationship,” the source said, “and although they aren’t together right now, it doesn’t mean it’s over for good.”
As for what led to the break, the source explained, “Kylie and Travis live different lifestyles and that’s been a big issue.”
“With two kids, Kylie doesn’t go out too much. Travis on the other hand lives a life of late nights in the studio and going out with friends,” the source says. “The two love and respect each other and will continue to co-parent.”
It’s over once more for Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott.
On Saturday, Us Weekly reported that the on-again, off-again couple, who got back together in February 2020, have split up after spending the holidays apart.
“Kylie and Travis are off again, they were supposed to spend the holidays together, but she went to Aspen to be with her family and friends up there,” and inside told the outlet.
The continued, “This has happened so many times before, they’re known to be on again off again, but always remain friends and great coparents.”
Jenner and Scott, who share 4-year-old daughter Stormi and a baby son, first began dating in 2017. They broke up in September 2019 before getting back together months later.
“Said what’s on my mind,” SZA professed in the first track at the top of her long-awaited second album, “SOS.” And that’s exactly what she does. The album comes after over five years since her debut album, “Ctrl.” The relatability of SZA’s lyrics, her vocal prowess and her experimental takes on the R&B genre remind us why audiences fell in love with her in the first place.
SZA’s first album “Ctrl” was praised among fans and critics alike, with multiple songs charting in the top 40s, a Grammy nomination in 2018, and it was even The Associated Press’ album of the year in 2017.
In the time between albums, SZA was still releasing hits, including singles “Good Days,” and “I Hate U,” which are featured on “SOS.” She sang on the Oscar-nominated “Black Panther” track “All the Stars” with Kendrick Lamar, and the Grammy-winning “Kiss Me More” with Doja Cat.
With 23 songs on “SOS,” the overwhelming track list manages to keep audiences captivated from start to finish.
SZA’s vocal range and lyricism is apparent in the album. The artist can go from a ruthless rap track “Smoking on my Ex Pack” to classic R&B ballads, “Gone Girl,” to even acoustic in “Nobody Gets Me.”
In “Special,” it’s a change of pace with an intimate acoustic sound and painful lyrics exploring body image and insecurity. Her relatable lyrics also dive into the sadness and the blind anger that comes with heartbreak. “Kill Bill,” explores fantasies of revenge but was still able to capture the feeling of loneliness. She sings in the last line: “Rather be in Hell than alone.”
Collaborations range from Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott and the late Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard and prove she can nail traditional R&B sounds but isn’t afraid to experiment with indie alternative, pop-punk, lo-fi and more.
“Ghost in the Machine (feat. Bridgers)” is a blend of R&B and indie alternative that was the most unexpected on the record but also one of the best collabs. Both artists are able to channel heartbreak but in different genres, their unique sounds blending together perfectly.
The results of the five-year wait: a long, ambitious album with hardly a single miss. SZA proves in “SOS” she still is a voice of this generation.
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For more reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/music-reviews
Today is Saturday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2022. There are 56 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 5, 2009, a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas left 13 people dead; Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death. (No execution date has been set.)
On this date:
In 1605, the “Gunpowder Plot” failed as Guy Fawkes was seized before he could blow up the English Parliament.
In 1872, suffragist Susan B. Anthony defied the law by attempting to cast a vote for President Ulysses S. Grant. (Anthony was convicted by a judge and fined $100, but she never paid the penalty.)
In 1912, Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt, incumbent Republican William Howard Taft and Socialist Eugene V. Debs.
In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office as he defeated Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie.
In 1964, NASA launched Mariner 3, which was supposed to fly by Mars, but the spacecraft failed to reach its destination.
In 1968, Republican Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Democratic Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace.
In 1974, Democrat Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.
In 1992, Malice Green, a Black motorist, died after he was struck in the head 14 times with a flashlight by a Detroit police officer, Larry Nevers, outside a suspected crack house. (Nevers and his partner, Walter Budzyn, were found guilty of second-degree murder, but the convictions were overturned; they were later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.)
In 1994, former President Ronald Reagan disclosed he had Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2006, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal to hang for crimes against humanity.
In 2007, Hollywood writers began a three-month strike, forcing late-night talk shows to immediately start airing reruns.
In 2011, former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, accused of molesting eight boys, was arrested and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts. (Sandusky was later convicted and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison for the sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period.)
Ten years ago: On the eve of the presidential election, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney held rallies seven miles apart in Columbus, Ohio. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a South Carolina sheriff’s office could be held liable for attorneys’ fees for stopping abortion protesters who wanted to hold up signs showing aborted fetuses.
Five years ago: A gunman armed with an assault rifle opened fire in a small South Texas church, killing more than two dozen people; the shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, was later found dead in a vehicle after he was shot and chased by two men who heard the gunfire. (An autopsy revealed that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.) President Donald Trump arrived in Japan for the start of a 12-day, five-country Asian trip. Shalane Flanagan became the first American woman to win the New York City Marathon since 1977; Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya was the men’s winner.
One year ago: A crush of fans during a performance by rapper Travis Scott at a Houston music festival left ten people dead, as people were squeezed so tightly they couldn’t breathe. The House gave final congressional approval to a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure plan with money for roads, bridges, ports, the power grid, broadband internet and more. Pfizer Inc. said its experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% in high-risk adults.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Harris Yulin is 85. Actor Chris Robinson is 84. Actor Elke Sommer is 82. Singer Art Garfunkel is 81. Singer Peter Noone is 75. TV personality Kris Jenner is 67. Actor Nestor Serrano is 67. Actor-comedian Mo Gaffney is 64. Actor Robert Patrick is 64. Singer Bryan Adams is 63. Actor Tilda Swinton is 62. Actor Michael Gaston is 60. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid is 59. Actor Tatum O’Neal is 59. Actor Andrea McArdle is 59. Rock singer Angelo Moore (Fishbone) is 57. Actor Judy Reyes is 55. Actor Seth Gilliam is 54. Rock musician Mark Hunter (James) is 54. Actor Sam Rockwell is 54. Actor Corin Nemec is 51. Rock musician Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) is 51. Country singer-musician Ryan Adams is 48. Actor Sam Page is 47. Actor Sebastian Arcelus is 46. Actor Luke Hemsworth is 42. Actor Annet Mahendru (MAH’-hehn-droo) is 37. Rock musician Kevin Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 35. Actor Landon Gimenez is 19.
The estate of the late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was shot and killed on the set of Rust, … [+] settled last week. (Photo by Mostafa Bassim Adly/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
News of Rust Movie Productions LLC’s and Alec Baldwin’s settlement with the late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ estate broke last week, almost eight months after Attorney Brian Panish filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Defendants. In October 2021, Hutchins was shot and killed by a prop gun on the set of Rust, which will resume production at the start of 2023 with Hutchins’ widow, Matthew, now an Executive Producer. Hutchins’ death was traumatic, and many are still wondering whether actor and producer Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger. “I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin). All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work,” said the surviving Hutchins.
Although unique in its circumstances, Halyna Hutchins’ accidental death is one of several tragic incidents that have spurred wrongful death lawsuits in Tinseltown. Recently, the likes of Kobe Bryant, Travis Scott, Suge Knight, Bill Paxton, Joel Silver, Naya Rivera, and Drakeo The Ruler have been subjects of wrongful death lawsuits. A wrongful death lawsuit is brought when one or many die as the result of negligent—not always criminal or intentional—acts. In California, the time one has (called the “statute of limitations”) to file a wrongful death lawsuit seeking compensation is generally two years (with some exceptions, including bringing a claim against a government entity). The statutes vary from state to state. In California, Code of Civil Procedure 377.60 governs wrongful death.
Let’s examine the circumstances surrounding some of these wrongful death lawsuits, which will demonstrate that we undoubtedly will see more and more of these types of lawsuits in the years to come.
In one of the most high-profile wrongful death lawsuits of the past few years, Vanessa Bryant sued Island Express Helicopters, the company that operated the helicopter that crashed killing Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant, and seven others. The complaint alleged that Island Express and/or the pilot Ara Zobayan “failed to properly monitor and assess the weather prior to takeoff,” “failed to abort the flight when he knew of the cloudy conditions,” and “failed to properly and safely operate the helicopter resulting in a crash.” Further, “Defendant Island Express Helicopters knew or should have known that its employee, Ara George Zobayan, had previously been cited by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for violating the visual flight rules (VFR) minimums by flying into an airspace of reduced visibility from weather conditions.” All of these accusations amount to gross negligence and lack of proper care. Upon last year’s findings, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Robert Sumwalt told CNN that “We feel that if certain recommendations (are) implemented, the likelihood of a crash goes down.” The case was settled under confidential terms last year.
Travis Scott, Live Nation, Apple, Drake, and Epic Records were named in wrongful death lawsuits that … [+] occurred at his Astroworld Festival in 2021 (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images).
Getty Images
The Travis Scott Astroworld tragedy that killed ten (plus one unborn baby) led to several wrongful death lawsuits being filed against Scott, Live Nation, Apple, Drake, and Epic Records among many others. There was no premeditation that led to these deaths, however, several precautions could have been taken to prevent this tragic day. Travis Scott’s reputation for inciting violence at his concerts should have led the concert producers and organizers to better control the crowd and implement enhanced safety measures in the event that things got out of hand. The victims’ loved ones believe that several parties could have done more to prevent the deaths, thus the multiple defendants in the lawsuit. In 2022, concert producers and promoters know that there is great risk in putting on concerts, especially when the performers have reputations for encouraging mosh pits, drinking, and general mayhem. People have been injured and died at concerts as far back as the 1960s at The Who, Guns n’ Roses, Pearl Jam, and Harry Styles concerts, among others, which provide precedent for doing whatever it takes to protect concert attendees. It is presumed that a portion of the cost of the concert ticket goes to security, and it is also presumed that the venue has strategic security plans in place. During the investigation phase of a wrongful death lawsuit, the best wrongful death attorneys will know which experts to hire to reconstruct accident sites, which are crucial when car accidents are involved, and how to interface with insurance companies. It is usually at this time that both sides start thinking about a settlement, particularly when a good plaintiff attorney exposes negligence and fault.
Earlier this year, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of Drakeo The Ruler’s five-year-old son against Live Nation and other promoters of the Once Upon a Time In LA festival, citing a lack of “proper safety measures” after Drakeo was murdered. The lawsuit states that Drakeo was killed “at the hand of a violent mob of purported members of a Los Angeles-based Bloods gang.” The lawsuit goes on to say that his death was a “result of a complete and abject failure of all Defendants to implement proper safety measures in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the artists whom they invited and hired to their music festival.” The lawsuit slams the promoters and organizers for not having a strategic security plan in place since the gangsters had direct access to Drakeo in a restricted area.
Wrongful death lawsuits don’t always emerge from vehicular accidents or concert fiascos. Actor Bill Paxton died in 2017 from surgery complications leading to a stroke. Although the statute of limitations vary a bit when it comes to medical malpractice, Paxton’s wife and children claim that negligence and a lack of adherence to safety procedures killed the Big Love actor. The 2018 wrongful death lawsuit named Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, surgeon Dr. Ali Khoynezhad, General Anesthesia Specialists Partnership, and anesthesiologist Dr. Moody Makar as Defendants. The Defendants, citing business decisions, settled with Paxton’s family this year. It appears that the costs of defending the lawsuit became untenable for the Defendants.
In 2015, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon producer Joel Silver was hit with a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of his former assistant, Carmel Musgrove, who drowned in Bora Bora with Silver, his family, and staff while vacationing and celebrating the honeymoon of actors Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux. Musgrove allegedly was supplied alcohol and cocaine by Silver’s chef, Martin Herold, who allegedly was in a romantic relationship with Musgrove. This year, Second District Court of Appeal panel ruled that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dennis J. Landin was correct in granting Silver’s motion to dismiss last year. In short, Silver was not liable for Musgrave’s death since it occurred on vacation and not during the course of employment. In this case, Silver was not found to be negligent and the lawsuit did not satisfy the elements of the claim.
In another wrongful death lawsuit involving a vehicle, Suge Knight was sued by Terry Carter’s widow, Lillian Carter, and his two daughters, Crystal and Nekaya, for a tragic incident that happened on the set of the 2015 film Straight Outta Compton involving Knight, Carter and Cle “Bone” Sloan. During an argument, Knight struck the two men with his truck, killing Carter. Knight is currently serving 28 years in federal prison after pleading no contest to the voluntary manslaughter of Carter. However, in the wrongful death civil suit, the jury was deadlocked 7-5 (needing 9 in favor of the plaintiff), leading to a mistrial. Universal Studios, and producers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, were also named in the lawsuit because they were allegedly aware of the tension between Knight and Sloan.
In our final case study, involving a government entity (remember from above that the statute of limitations is different in a case against a governmental entity), Ventura County was sued for wrongful death in the Lake Piru drowning of Grammy-winning actress Naya Rivera. The suit was filed by the father of Rivera’s son as well as Rivera’s estate and her business manager. Several accusations of breaches of duty of care and negligence appeared in the complaint. In short, it was alleged that Ventura County, United Water Conservation District, and Lake Piru’s Parks and Recreation Management Company, which rented a pontoon to Rivera and her son Josey, did not equip the pontoon with proper safety devices; there were no warnings of Lake Piru’s “strong currents, low visibility, high winds, changing water depths, underwater caves, ledges, and drop-offs, or the trees, brush, and other debris that congest its waters due to vastly changing water levels and winds.” The lawsuit also stated that 26 people have drowned in Lake Piru since its recreational facilities opened. In short, it was alleged that Ventura County and the other entities did not take the proper care to warn people that Lake Piru poses certain dangers and that the boats they rent are not safe. A settlement was reached earlier this year.
In today’s world, it is hard to imagine that we will see a decrease in the number of wrongful death lawsuits in Hollywood. As long as there is negligence, breach of duty, causation, and quantifiable damages, wrongful death lawsuits and the courts will continue to be the best way for loved ones to seek justice for a death that might have been prevented. Investigation and the right experts are necessary to satisfy the burden of proof, which falls squarely on the people bringing the lawsuit. However, heeding the words of the NTSB’s Sumwalt, and studying the facts of the examples above, one would hope that future potential defendants would learn from the mistakes of others to help prevent unnecessary deaths.
John J. Perlstein is a wrongful death lawyer in Los Angeles. He has been bringing and litigating wrongful death lawsuits for over 25 years. He also handles personal injury claims, including those involving complex car accidents, motorcycle accidents, trips and falls, catastrophic injuries, and premises liability.
