Paula Abdul filed her sexual assault and battery go well with towards Nigel Lythgoe late final 12 months looking for a jury trial, and she or he’s going to get one.
The American Idol choose will face off towards her So You Suppose You Can Dance co-star beginning on July 28, 2025, a LA Superior Courtroom choose introduced right this moment.
The date was made public in a Case Administration listening to Tuesday morning in DLTA on Abdul’s explosive lawsuit towards the very long time Idol and SYTYCD producer.
Nevertheless, whereas the much-accused Lythgoe is taking a look at a trial subsequent 12 months, his former fellow defendants are actually off the hook, no less than tentatively. Following up on an April 23 submitting assertion (learn it right here) revealing a settlement between the Johnson & Johnson LLP represented Abdul and FremantleMedia North America and American Idols Productions, the one of many ‘Straight Up’ singer’s legal professionals mentioned it out loud this AM.
“The events went to mediation, and the company defendants settled out,” Douglas Johnson knowledgeable LASC Choose Thomas Lengthy of the deal reached on March 18 with the O’Melveny & Myers LLP represented firms. Further defendants 19 Leisure and Dance Nation Productions additionally reached an undisclosed settlement with the quickly to be touring Abdul, who’s out on the highway with New Children on the Block this summer season.
As regular, no particulars of the settlement have been launched earlier this month or right this moment in court docket, and there are supposedly some finer factors nonetheless to be finalized. Nevertheless, Deadline hears plaintiff Abdul was “happy” with the end result, a well-placed supply says.
Formally, neither reps for Abdul nor Lythgoe had something to say in regards to the settlement(s) and the trial subsequent 12 months. Representatives for the latter Lythgoe didn’t response to request for remark. Abdul’s attorneys had no assertion on the settlement, when contacted by Deadline.
In what proved the primary of a number of comparable sexual assault fits towards the as soon as ubiquitous Lythgoe, Abdul on December 29, 2023 accused the producer and manufacturing firms of sexual assault/battery, sexual harassment, gender violence; and negligence.
Shockingly, Abdul alleges that Lythgoe assaulted her twice.
In accordance with her preliminary grievance, the primary assault occurred “throughout certainly one of American Idol’ s preliminary seasons” within the early 2000s in a lodge elevator whereas the Simon Cowell co-judged present was on the highway. “Lythgoe shoved Abdul towards the wall, then grabbed her genitals and breasts, and started shoving his tongue down her throat,” the doc states, with Abdul finally escaping to her room, locking the door and calling her reps.
‘AMERICAN IDOL Season 6 (L-R) Ryan Seacrest, judges Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, Olivia Newton-John, & Paula Abdul
Michael Becker/twentieth Century Fox Movie Corp./Courtesy: Everett Assortment
The second assault supposedly occurred in 2015 throughout a Season 12 of SYTYCD assembly at Lythgoe’s LA house. “Towards the tip of the night, Lythgoe compelled himself on high of Abdul whereas she was seated on his sofa and tried to kiss her whereas proclaiming that the 2 would make a superb ‘energy couple,’” the vast ranging however unspecified damages looking for grievance says of what Abdul assumed was a “skilled invitation” from her EP and on-air co-star. “Abdul pushed Lythgoe off of her, explaining that she was not interested by his advances and instantly left.” That very same 12 months, Abdul says she additionally witnessed Lythgoe assaulted certainly one of his assistants when SYTYCD was filming in Las Vegas.
Furthering the assault, Abdul claims within the submitting allowed beneath the December thirty first expiring Sexual Abuse and Cowl-Up Accountability Act, that Lythgoe was completely conscious of what he had completed was “inappropriate and even prison” – he even made a joke about it.
“Certainly at one level Lythgoe referred to as Abdul and taunted her that they need to have a good time as a result of it had been ‘seven years and the statute of limitations had run,’” the 16-page submitting said. “Lythgoe clearly knew that his assaults of Abdul weren’t simply unsuitable however that he held the ability to maintain her silent.”
Lythgoe’s first response on December 30 was to go after Abdul’s character.
“Whereas Paula’s historical past of erratic habits is well-known, I can’t fake to know precisely why she would file a lawsuit that she should know is unfaithful,” he mentioned about his former colleague. “However I can promise that I’ll battle this appalling smear with all the things I’ve.”
On March 5, he added in a submitting within the LASC docket: “Lythgoe will proceed to advertise the dissemination of fact – which confirms that Abdul just isn’t a sufferer of sexual assault on the hand of Lythgoe, however it’s Lythgoe who has been a sufferer of Abdul’s appalling lies.” Lythgoe needs Abdul’s go well with “dismissed in its entirety with prejudice” ASAP. “Abdul’s lies are underscored by her conduct and statements throughout and after the time she alleges abuse occurred,” the response submitting from the agency of Elkins Kalt Weintraub Reuben Gartside LLP added
A day later, Abdul kicked again: “Mr. Lythgoe’s reply to Ms. Abdul’s grievance is basic sufferer shaming.”
