Lizzo: More complaints about singer being investigated in wake of lawsuit
More complaints into Lizzo’s behaviour are being investigated by lawyers representing her accusers.
Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez, along with a third dancer, Arianna Davis, have filed a lawsuit against the Grammy-winning musician and her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring (BGBT), which also includes claims of religious harassment, disability discrimination, assault, and false imprisonment.
Speaking to NBC News, Ron Zambrano said his firm is now looking at fresh allegations from six people who say they toured with Lizzo, as well as others who worked on her TV show Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls.
Mr Zambrano said the allegations are of a “sexually charged environment”, and failure to pay staff, adding some of the claims are potentially actionable.
After news of the lawsuit emerged, Lizzo issued a statement on social media saying she was “not the villain”. The singer, who is known for championing body positivity, described the allegations as “unbelievable” and “too outrageous to not be addressed”.
In response, Ms Williams told Sky News: “Her statement is just confirming the pattern of every time somebody speaks up or advocates for themselves, like we’re doing now, we get victim-blamed, we get gaslighted. And she likes to point the finger instead of addressing the issues that are being brought up.”
This is something that happens on an “everyday basis” when working with stars, she said. “Sadly, we’ve already experienced not only dancers that have worked with her directly, but dancers that are just in the entertainment industry in general, they’ve already come out and they’ve shared their stories.
“They feel brave enough to share their experiences… before people were just silent about it, they didn’t feel comfortable enough. They didn’t feel protected enough to call these artists out, to call these management teams out, and let them know, ‘hey, what you’re doing is wrong’.”
Lizzo is a four-time Grammy winner who was named Time’s entertainer of the year in 2019. She is best known for hits including Truth Hurts, Juice, Good As Hell and About Damn Time.
Ms Davis and Ms Williams began dancing with the star after competing on her Amazon reality show Watch Out For The Big Grrrls in 2021, but were both later fired. Ms Rodriguez was hired in the same year after performing in the video for the song Rumours, but resigned earlier this year over the “appalling behaviour”.
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Ms Rodriguez compared working for Lizzo to dancing for the likes of Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, saying elsewhere this week: “I mean, working with Beyoncé, you have to be on your P’s and Q’s. Same thing with someone like Janet [Jackson] or Lady Gaga.
“But what they did differently and what Lizzo’s not understanding as a businesswoman, is that you can still have this expectation, this level of talent and energy that you want around you, but still show appreciation to your workers.
“There’s a really good balance of that, and I just don’t understand, the more you show that appreciation to your workers and that you care for them and everything that they’re doing for you as they are for you as well, the harder they want to work for you.
“I think that’s the biggest difference that she doesn’t quite understand yet.”
In her statement responding to the women’s lawsuit, Lizzo said: “Usually I choose not to respond to false allegations, but these are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed.”
She added: “I am not here to be looked at as a victim, but I also know that I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days.”
Sky News has contacted Lizzo’s representatives for comment.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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