\n
Paula Abdul filed a lawsuit on Friday in Los Angeles that is garnering national attention.<\/p>\n
For understandable and very troubling reasons.<\/p>\n
The legal papers allege that former American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance producer Nigel Lythgoe of allegedly sexually assaulted the veteran singer on multiple occasions, with the initial incident allegedly taking place amid \u201cone of Idol\u2019s early seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abdul claims it took place while the crew was traveling for auditions.<\/p>\n<\/noscript>Paula Abdul attends \u201cHow To Dance In Ohio\u201d Broadway Opening Night at Belasco Theatre on December 10, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAbdul then says a similar incident took place in 2014 when both she and Lythgoe were judges on So You Think You Can Dance.<\/p>\n
The documents also state that Lythgoe \u201cverbally insulated and belittled\u201d Abdul during their many years working together.<\/p>\n
As for the details surrounding this allegation?<\/p>\n
Abdul claims she and Lythgoe got into an elevator at their hotel prior to the first supposed assault\u2026 and after the doors closed, the latter shoved her against the wall, grabbed her genitals and breasts and tried to tongue-kiss her.<\/p>\nPaula Abdul attends the 91st anniversary of the Hollywood Christmas Parade, supporting Marine Toys For Tots on November 26, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi\/Getty Images for Associated Television International)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAbdul says she pushed Lythgoe away and ran to her room.<\/p>\n
She adds that she immediately called one of her reps to tell him what had transpired, but decided to keep it quiet at the time out of fear of retailiation.<\/p>\n
Regarding the second alleged assault\u2026 Abdul claims she went over to Lythgoe\u2019s house after signing on to judge So You Think You Can Dance because she figured the executive wanted to talk about her role on the show.<\/p>\n
At some point, she says Lythgoe forced himself on top of her and tried to convince her they\u2019d made a great \u201cpower couple.\u201d<\/p>\nNigel Lythgoe attends the American Ballet Theatre\u2019s Holiday Benefit at The Beverly Hilton on December 11, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone\/Getty Images for American Ballet Theatre)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAbdul is suing Lythgoe, 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia North America for sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence and negligence.<\/p>\n
Lythgoe produced American Idol during the peak of the show\u2019s popularity in the 2000s and was last listed as a producer for the talent-based singing program in 2014.<\/p>\n
From 2005 to 2014, he was listed as the producer and co-creator of So You Think You Can Dance.<\/p>\n
Aside from her impressive singing career, Abdul was one of the original judges on American Idol from 2002 to 2009.<\/p>\n
She has since appeared as a panelist on The X Factor, Live to Dance, So You Think You Can Dance and The Masked Dancer.<\/p>\n
Neither Abdul nor Lythgoe has commented directly on the lawsuit or any of these accusations.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paula Abdul filed a lawsuit on Friday in Los Angeles that is garnering national attention. For understandable and very troubling reasons. The legal papers allege that former American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance producer Nigel Lythgoe of allegedly sexually assaulted the veteran singer on multiple occasions, with the initial incident allegedly taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-65487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hollywood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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