Back in October, a woman named Kaya Jones spoke with The Daily Mail after posting a series of tweets alleging her former group, The Pussycat Dolls, was more of a "prostitution ring" than a musical entity, claiming during her time in the group she was drugged, blacklisted and walked away from a $134 million record deal.

Now, The Pussycat Dolls, Inc., along with the group's manager Robin Antin, are filing a defamation lawsuit against the UK outlet on the basis that Jones is an unreliable source and the story's publication was  "intentional, reckless and malicious."

The Pussycat Dolls were founded in 1995 was a modern dance troupe and has had a rotating cast of members throughout the years, though the six core recording artists are  Nicole Scherzinger, Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, Melody Thornton and Kimberly Wyatt.

According to the complaint, "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."

Though Jones considered herself a "leader" of the group, its current members beg to differ. The complaint continues, "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 plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages. Antin says her reputation as a business person has suffered as a result of the stories.

"The publication of Ms. Jones’ defamatory claims has also had an immeasurably negative impact on the business reputation of The Pussycat Dolls," states the complaint. "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."

 

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