Pussycat Dolls are suing the Daily Mail for publishing a story that alleges the group were “a prostitution ring”.
Originally founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995, the group started out as a dance troupe. Christina Aguilera, Christina Applegate and Carmen Electra were among the revolving stream of dance members.
By 2003, the group had bagged a record deal and released their first album in 2005, ‘PCD’.
The pop group were fronted by Nicole Scherzinger and also included members Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, Melody Thornton, and Kimberly Wyatt.
Back in October, a former member called Kaya Jones tweeted about her experience in the group. “My truth,” she began. “I wasn’t in a girl group. I was in a prostitution ring. Oh & we happened to sing & be famous. While everyone who owned us made the $.”
She added that she was drugged, blacklisted and left the group and their $134million record deal.
Recommended
Daily Mail was one of the publications that published Jones’ accusations, causing the band’s corporate team and founder Robin Antin to sue the Daily Mail Corporation.
According to Billboard, the complaint reads: “This defamation action arises out of the intentional, reckless and malicious publication by the Daily Mail Corporation… of false and defamatory statements made by a disgruntled, unreliable and biased person looking for her fifteen minutes of fame, Kaya Jones, when the Defendants knew through their direct prior dealings with Plaintiffs, or should have known, with even the most basic check, that Ms. Jones was unreliable and her story obviously false.
“Instead, for pure sensationalism, and advertising money, and to grab salacious headlines to sell their product, and without caring what it meant for Plaintiffs, their business, or their reputation, the Defendants published and commented on these defamatory statements with a reckless disregard for the truth.”
“The extent of Ms. Jones’ credits in The Pussycat Dolls is when she auditioned, and served as a backup vocalist on the song ‘Sway’ released in 2004 and the song ‘We Went as Far as We Felt Like Going’ also released in 2004. Had the Daily Mail performed any investigation into this matter, such as reviewing album credits available on the Internet, they would have also seen this information.”
The complaint also details Jones as an “unreliable source,” whose bias should have been evident “due to her failure to be chosen to be a member of the group and reunion.”
“The publication of Ms. Jones’ defamatory claims has also had an immeasurably negative impact on the business reputation of The Pussycat Dolls,” the complaint continues. “Shortly before Ms. Jones’ defamatory statements, The Pussycat Dolls had announced plans to reunite. One of the central themes of the all women group is female empowerment. The Daily Mail’s articles directly impacted the groups reputation in this regard and in turn has caused incalculable damage to any effort to reunite by the group.”
The Daily Mail are yet to comment on the lawsuit.