After The Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin filed a lawsuit against Nicole Scherzinger accusing her of refusing to participate in a tour with the group after signing an agreement, the Masked Singer judge is responding in a new court document, calling Antin’s claims “meritless.”
“This case is a meritless effort to enforce an expired 2019 agreement to perform a concert tour in 2019 and 2020,” the response — filed by Scherzinger’s attorneys Howard King and Stephen Rothschild — reads, before adding, “Had Antin participated in the negotiation in good faith instead of stubbornly trying to revive the old agreement, the likelihood is that the parties would have reached an agreement for a new tour.”
In the documents, first obtained by Page Six, Scherzinger claims that the planned tour was canceled due to the pandemic and not rescheduled, as the band had originally announced on its Instagram.
Along with her filed legal response, both of Scherzinger’s attorneys accused Antin of “mismanagement” and of attempting to defame the group’s lead singer to “shift blame.”
“Nicole Scherzinger asked to negotiate terms for a new tour in 2021, instead of agreeing to Antin’s demand that the old agreement govern the new tour,” King and Rothschild said in the document.
The attorneys added: “Had Antin participated in the negotiation in good faith instead of stubbornly trying to revive the old agreement, the likelihood is that the parties would have reached an agreement for the new tour.”
Meanwhile, Antin’s attorneys wrote in their lawsuit that Scherzinger had informed them early last year that she “would not participate in the reunion tour” after demanding new terms that were “materially different than those already agreed to” in 2019. Per Antin’s filing, she asked to own 75% of the PCD Worldwide company instead of the 49% originally agreed to in 2019, “complete creative control” over the group and final decision-making authority.
Neither attorneys for Antin and Scherzinger immediately responded to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
The legal back-and-forth between Scherzinger and the PCD founder comes after the singer announced on Instagram that the girl group’s tour was canceled due to the “ever-evolving circumstances surrounding the pandemic.” Several of the band’s members — including Jessica Sutta and Carmit Bachar — expressed their disappointment, stating that they were never told of the tour’s cancelation and learned of it from Scherzinger’s post.
“Either way, it seems as though it’s the end of a chapter to an incredible, life-altering experience filled with some awesome memories that we will forever be grateful for,” Bachar and Sutta wrote over the weekend.
The group — last comprising Scherzinger, Bachar, Sutta, Ashley Roberts, Kimberly Wyatt and Melody Thornton — had originally announced a reunion tour in 2019. It was later postponed due to the pandemic. After reuniting, they also released single “React” in 2020.