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.
Photos via Instagram and credit: AG News/J. King/Dilson Silva/Backgrid and via Instagram
I am gobsmacked as well that Madonna is getting away with no consequences at her chronic lateness to start her concerts. Can you imagine paying $500 for her concert tickets and waiting two hours past the stipulated time? Put the shoe on the other foot now. She would be outraged and furious if she was done the same way. Anyway, perhaps her next concert will be on time, but I doubt it.
I guess I see it more as the rich people could afford to continue disputing and the customers couldn’t afford to keep on with the case. The only way to change this type of abuse by the ticket-sellers and the performers is to boycott.
I get the feeling Madonna’s lawyers decided to continue disputing knowing the plaintiffs couldn’t afford to keep on the case (as you pointed out) because if they don’t, more people would sue Madonna for the same reason and it will cost her tons of money in the end. So it is cheaper to outspend the plaintiffs in this case. All of this could have been avoided if she were on time for her damn concerts.
Yes, it’s the threat of deep pockets.
Possibly also due to the judge? Or the “quality” of the lawyers?
B!TCH! (Madge, not Kismet!)
Her attitude toward others has grown as tired as her fishnets. I am truly sorry that this case didn’t humble her in the slightest. I’ve lost my last shred of Madonna-apologist sensibilities.
At this point, it’s Buyer Beware. Now everyone knows that she has zero respect for her fans, no concept of time management, and DGAF about her concerts starting on time. Having the AC off in an arena isn’t feasible in this hemisphere at this time of year, and the consequences of heat stroke can be deadly. People really should stop buying tickets for this nonsense, no one is worth it.
So she is a bully with more money than her fans and will use it to bury you in court. Yep. Got the message.
Madonna’s going the way of Mrs Ida Lowry. IYKYK
Madonna has always been habitually late for concerts. She treats it like she is at the club, and you don’t go on until before midnight.
While the schlubs die in the boiling heat of an outdoor concert in August 2012. And by schlubs, I mean me.
I’m a bartender and the company I work.for.provides bartenders for festivals and concerts in my town. Right now I’m bartending for music festival and we had the Goo Go Dols on one stage and Sza on another, Kim Kardashian was even here last night to attend the SZA concert and both acts had to go on about an hour and a half late because we had a bad thunderstorm come.through last night so for safety reasons they shut down all The performances but we told everyone if they left during the storm and came back they would be allowed reentrance for free and if anyone left and couldn’t come back they would be refunded because it wasn’t their fault. That’s what Madonna should have done. If.there were some.kind of issue that was no fault of the attendees and decided screw it they should be recompensated but if she didn’t offer that then of.cojrse they should be allowed some sort of compensation as long as the issue rested with Madonna.