Sean “Diddy” Combs has filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal, Peacock TV and Ample Entertainment for defamatory statements published in the documentary “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.”
via: Deadline
Specifically, the Bad Boy Records founder is upset about how he was depicted and described in the damning Diddy: Making of a Bad Boy documentary that launched on January 14 on the streamer.
“For nearly a century, NBC has been a trusted name in news, a leader in broadcasting important stories to citizens who depend on reputable media to stay informed,” proclaims the jury trial seeking complaint, filed Wednesday in New York state court. “Grossly exploiting this trust and shamelessly capitalizing on the public’s insatiable appetite for content about Mr. Combs in the lead up to his criminal trial, Defendants made a conscious decision to line their own pockets at the expense of truth, decency, and basic standards of professional journalism.”
Filled with interviews with past employees, collaborators, ex-bodyguards, alleged victims and more, the 90-minute Diddy: Making of a Bad Boy delves into the claims of decades of violence and abuse by Combs, as well as peers into the deaths of Notorious B.I.G. and Kim Porter, long-time Diddy girlfriend and mother of several of his children.
Sidestepping most of the flood of accusations of rape, drug fueled “freak offs” and more that Combs has been accused of in an every growing tsunami of lawsuits over the past year starting with ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, the 17-page complaint filed today over the documentary goes on to say: “The Documentary includes numerous false and defamatory statements that Defendants NBCU and Ample knew were false or published with reckless disregard as to whether they were false or not. Indeed, the entire premise of the Documentary assumes that Mr. Combs has committed numerous heinous crimes, including serial murder, rape of minors, and sex trafficking of minors, and attempts to crudely psychologize him. It maliciously and baselessly jumps to the conclusion that Mr. Combs is a ‘monster’ and ‘an embodiment of Lucifer’ with ‘a lot of similarities’ to Jeffrey Epstein.”
With all that to digest, reps for NBCU did not respond to request for comment when contacted by Deadline this morning. If the media giant does respond, this post will be updated.
Combs’ side, on the other hand, had a lot to say outside of the document they put in the Empire State docket today.
“As described in today’s lawsuit, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, Peacock TV, LLC, and Ample LLC made a conscious decision to line their own pockets at the expense of truth, decency, and basic standards of professional journalism,” attorney Erica Wolff told Deadline after the defamation suit was filed.
“Grossly exploiting the trust of their audience and racing to outdo their competition for the most salacious Diddy exposé, Defendants maliciously and recklessly broadcast outrageous lies in Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,” the lawyer added. “In the purported documentary, Defendants accuse Mr. Combs of horrible crimes, including serial murder and sexual assault of minors – knowing that there is no evidence to support them. In making and broadcasting these falsehoods, among others, Defendants seek only to capitalize on the public’s appetite for scandal without any regard for the truth and at the expense of Mr. Combs’s right to a fair trial. Mr. Combs brings this lawsuit to hold Defendants accountable for the extraordinary damage their reckless statements have caused.”
Oddly, while seeking big bucks for the docu, Diddy and his team did not ask for an injunction to stop Making of a Bad Boy from continuing to be able to be viewed on Peacock or other NBCU properties.
Combs is facing dozens of civil suits over sexual assault, abuse and more, including claims that he raped a 10-year-old boy, that he and Jay-Z and an unnamed female celebrity repeatedly raped a 13-year-old in 2000, and an action filed on February 12 alleging that the rapper “drugged and forcefully raped” a busker musician he met outside a NYC nightclub in 2022. Like many of the civil suits Combs is up against, that most recent one was filed by Houston-based lawyer Tony Buzbee – – a constant thorn in Combs’ paw of late.
As all that plays out and the criminal trial looms, Combs has been behind bars at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his September 16 arrest by the feds. Failing on several occasions to get released on $50 million bail, Diddy is set to go to trial on racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution charges starting May 5.
If found guilty, the 55-year-old one time impresario is looking at life in prison.
*****
If this tame, quickly stitched together doc is what he's mad about, wait until he sees the four-part one HBO did, which in my opinion was a much better depiction of the allegations brought against him.
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