US country music star Garth Brooks stands accused of raping a makeup artist in her hotel room in a lawsuit filed in California on Thursday, in the latest claim of sexual wrongdoing to rock the entertainment world.
The woman, identified in the filing as Jane Roe, says the singer also repeatedly subjected her to unwanted sexual advances, including exposing himself and groping her when they were working together in 2019.
The lawsuit is the latest to be leveled against a high-profile man in the entertainment industry after a slew of claims rocked television and film over the past decade, in a reckoning that came to be known as the #MeToo movement.
Photo: Reuters
It also comes days after more than 100 people filed suits against rapper and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging he subjected them to sexual abuse, on top of the federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges he is already facing.
“The complaint filed today demonstrates that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood and in the rap and rock and roll industries, but also in the world of country music,” the accuser’s attorneys Douglas Wigdor, Jeanne Christensen and Hayley Baker said in a statement. “We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions.”
The suit, filed in Los Angeles, says Brooks filed a pre-emptive lawsuit last month in Mississippi.
In that action, which he filed under an alias, he sought an injunction blocking “extortionate conduct” and alleging the woman was seeking a multimillion-dollar payout.
“[Brooks’] efforts to silence our client through the filing of a pre-emptive complaint in Mississippi was nothing other than an act of desperation and attempted intimidation,” the California suit says.
Jane Roe’s suit says she worked initially for Brooks’ wife, country singer Trisha Yearwood, doing her hair and makeup in 1999.
She began to work for Brooks in 2017 and took on more work in 2019.
The papers claim the woman was at Brooks’ home when he walked into the room with an erection, which he forced her to touch as he spoke lasciviously to her.
They also say that in May 2019, the two traveled together to Las Vegas, where she was shocked to discover they were sharing a hotel suite with only one bedroom.
“Suddenly Brooks appeared in the doorway to the bedroom, completely naked. He stood there and flexed his muscles. Ms Roe immediately had a sick feeling in her stomach, knowing she was trapped in the room alone with Brooks, with no one to help and far away from Nashville,” the lawsuit says. “Tragically, her worst fears came true when seconds later he was towering over her, his 6-foot and almost 300-pound frame ready to pounce on Ms Roe, who is less than 5 feet and 100 pounds. As she began to panic, he grabbed her hands and pulled her into the next room and onto the bed where she could not escape his physical domination.”
The lawsuit, which demands unspecified damages, says Roe was so traumatized by the attack that she later considered suicide.
Brooks, 62, surged to national fame in the 1990s, with hits such as Friends in Low Places and The Dance.
In 2015, he topped Elvis Presley for the highest number of albums sold by a male artist.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly