Madonna has been sued three times for starting three different concerts on her Celebration Tour two or more hours late. The first of this trifecta of lawsuits was filed by two fans who had attended her Brooklyn show in December. Madonna’s team issued a broad statement that that particular show was derailed due to technical reasons, which I took to mean the fact that it is technically impossible for Madonna to start a show on time. Nobody’s perfect, but most people aren’t charging an arm and a leg for the privilege of seeing a beautiful stranger perform, either. Just a few days ago we had an update that Madonna’s lawyers were crying “harassment!” over the plaintiffs’ lawyers saying they had reached a settlement. They had not. And they still have not reached a settlement, which Madonna’s lawyers emphasized when news broke that the case has officially been dismissed by the plaintiffs with prejudice, which means they can never ever bring the suit again. I did not see this one coming.
The lawsuit against Madonna pertaining to the late start time of her Celebration World Tour has been dismissed without settlement.
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE on Wednesday, June 19, the lawsuit, which was filed by plaintiffs Michael Fellows and Jason Alvarez against the singer, sent a notice of a “voluntary dismissal with prejudice.”
The Grammy winner, 65, was sued on January 17 over a delayed start time during the December 13 show of her Celebration World Tour in Brooklyn. The plaintiffs accused her of “false advertising” and filed the suit.
Due to their recent dismissal with prejudice, Fellows and Alvarez cannot re-file their claims. The singer and Live Nation’s attorney, Jeff Warshafsky, wrote a letter on June 19, noting that the dismissal “was not the result of any settlement” between the parties.
The letter stated that Madonna and Live Nation “do not agree with plaintiffs’ position that each party should bear its own fees and costs.”
“Defendants believe that this action was a frivolous strike suit designed to force them to incur legal expenses,” read Warshafsky’s letter. “Plaintiffs have now abandoned this lawsuit when it became clear that this approach would not result in a settlement payment and that they would need to oppose defendants’ motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint.”
Additionally, Warshafsky noted that the “defendants reserve the right to move for sanctions, attorneys’ fees, and costs” due to the plaintiffs’ false “Notice of Settlement” that the Court struck on June 10.
The plaintiffs claim that the popstar’s Dec. 13 concert started at 10:30 p.m., despite the tickets advertising that it would start at 8:30 p.m. The two fans accused the delay of being a “wanton exercise in false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices.”
The original filing stated that the two fans “would not have paid for tickets” had they known about the start time. The filing also noted that the plaintiffs argued that concert attendees were “confronted with limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs at that late hour” when they left the venue after 1 a.m.
I am gobsmacked by this development! So it’s lose-lose for the plaintiffs — no settlement and no adjudication of the case. What happened behind the scenes? Because the fact that Madonna started more than two hours late is undisputed. Since her lawyers are calling it a “frivolous” suit, I’m wondering if the language from the original filing came back to bite the plaintiffs, the parts about their having to be up and at work the next morning. This tactic never seemed like a good strategy to me; they were saying too much that the defense could use against them — which it seems they did — when the facts alone were strong enough. So again I ask: what happened behind the scenes, here? Also, it seems especially pernicious that Madonna and Live Nation’s lawyers are talking about going after the plaintiffs to pay her legal fees. Come on, I know Madge is an unapologetic bitch, but the Material Girl just made $225 million from this tour alone, and Live Nation is the touring world’s biggest monopoly. Don’t make two poor fans who have to get up for work in the morning foot the bill for everyone’s fees!
There’s at least one more chance for the justice system to get it right, as two lawsuits still stand: one for a Washington, DC concert that Madonna began by saying “I am sorry I am late… no, I am not sorry, it’s who I am… I’m always late,” and one in California where the plaintiff added charges related to the AC being off (Madonna’s preference), leaving the packed arena to steadily roast while waiting hours for the show to start. If these cases also get dismissed, I fear the only repercussion that will get through to Miss Madge is if her ticket-buying fans show her the power of good-bye.
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