Advertisement

$100M Assault Lawsuit Against Brad Grey & Brian Graden To Be Dismissed – Update

UPDATE, 2:20 PM: The man who sued ex-MTV exec Brian Graden and the late Paramount boss Brad Grey for $100 million in May last year alleging sexual assault has now asked the court to ax the lawsuit. Rovier Carrington petitioned a federal court last week to drop the suit, but Judge Katherine Polk Failla instead ruled Tuesday that the plaintiff must file an official motion to dismiss the case. Read details about the lawsuit below.

PREVIOUSLY, MAY 2, 2018: “We take allegations of this sort seriously, and are reviewing the complaint,” Viacom spokesperson Jeremy Zweig said today in response to a $100 million lawsuit alleging sexual assault and corporate blacklisting by former Paramount boss Brad Grey and other nefarious actions.

Related stories

Viacom Acquires Pluto TV For $340 Million In Cash

CBS Acting CEO & Brass Hit Dull Button In Digital Town Hall; Questioned About Les Moonves, Viacom Merger Talk & More

Viacom Layoffs Hit Mostly Paramount Network Staffers

“The instant case, is yet another example of depravity existing throughout an industry now synonymous with sexual deviancy,” the multi-claim complaint from Rovier Carrington filed today in New York Supreme Court claims. “It however, is not a story of the ‘buxom blond’ or ‘graceful starlet’, but of a young man, who left to the devices of a powerful few,” the 33-page paperwork adds. “Defendant Viacom fosters a corporate culture of systemic deviancy, that its executives, and Chairman were aware of, and in some cases, actively participated in, and encouraged, as a means of manipulation and control,” the suit also proclaims.

Along with the deceased Grey’s estate, the studio itself and ex-MTV President of entertainment Brian Graden, the media giant is named as a defendant in Carrington’s sordid detailed filled complaint. The shock blogger, who has the online tag of “scandals make great introductions” on his site, wants actual and compensatory damages in an amount in excess of $50 million and exemplary and punitive damages in an amount in excess of $50 million, plus whatever else the court decides.

Not that he supposedly needs the money.

Claiming to be wealthy “Hollywood royalty” and “the great-grandson of Moe Howard, one of the 3 Stooges,” Carrington alleges that Grey repeatedly assaulted him starting in late 2010 after the exec and the self-described “celebrity-in-waiting” had dinner at the Polo Lounge. With a cast of extras that include Sumner Redstone, the premiere of The Fighter, Lawrence Fishburne’s daughter, an unsigned Viacom NDA and subsequent supposed blacklisting, and STDs, Carrington additionally says ex-MTV and Logo Network exec Graden assaulted him in 2014 soon after they met on a dating site. As well as continuing a relationship of violence, Graden also ripped off a number of series ideas from Carrington, the suit proclaims.

A point of view harshly refuted by Graden’s attorney

“This sensationalized and meritless lawsuit is particularly egregious as it attacks two respected executives, one of whom is an industry icon whose death prevents him from defending himself, and the other, who has had a long, sterling and unblemished career free of any implication of inappropriate behavior personally or professionally,” Larry Stein told Deadline. “The complaint, which reads more like fiction than fact, seems to be based more upon Mr. Carrington’s entitled belief that he is ‘Hollywood royalty’ with a ‘pedigree of a star’ because he claims his great grandfather was one of the Three Stooges, than on facts,” the Russ August & Kabat lawyer added.

“It is unfortunately too common for wannabes to hold on to their entitlement, but uncommon for such claims to make headlines by use of hyperbole and baseless allegations of rape and conspiratorial extortionist conduct. The complaint ends just as it started, wildly untethered to reality, seeking damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars. We are confident that Mr. Graden will be fully vindicated and Mr. Carrington will be exposed for what and who he truly is.”

Brillstein-Grey Entertainment co-founder and ex-chairman/CEO of Paramount Pictures Grey passed away in May 2017 from cancer.

Carrington is represented in the matter by NYC attorney Kevin Landau of the Landau Group, PC.

Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter