Prince has a message for a lawsuit-happy fan: kiss off.
His Purpleness has launched a countersuit against a college student who accused Prince's bodyguard of roughing him up for snapping a picture of the entertainer in a Minnesota airport.
Prince's complaint, filed in Hennepin County District Court, claims Anthony Fitzgerald intruded on the singer's privacy and violated trademark and copyright law. For these trangressions, the "Let's Go Crazy" singer is looking for $50,000 in damages, the same amount Fitzgerald asked for in his suit
Apparently, the iconoclastic funkster has little sympathy when fans cry.
Fitzgerald filed his suit back in April, accusing Prince and a member of the singer's security detail of assault and battery and emotional distress stemming from a Dec. 29 encounter at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
In court papers, Fitzgerald alleged that the bodyguard--identified only as "Trevor"--knocked the student backward "in an aggressive, threatening and violent manner" and confiscated his digital camera after he took a photo of the 45-year-old singer deplaning.
Fitzgerald's suit said the confrontation left him "stunned and humiliated," and as a result he hasn't been able to get a good night sleep due to "anxiety and humiliation."
Calls to Prince's publicist were not returned; his lawyer, Kristen Naros, was out of the office until Monday.
However, she told Minneapolis' Star-Tribune that Fitzgerald's camera was handed over to airport security but he declined to claim it. She also says that Prince didn't do anything wrong.
"[Fitzgerald's] claim has no legal basis and we will be fighting this in court," Naros said.
Fitzgerald's attorney, Kari Berman, could not be reached for comment. But, speaking to the Star-Tribune, said that Prince's countersuit wouldn't hold up. "He is a public figure walking through a public airport. There's no expectation of privacy, and he knows it," Berman said.
While his lawyer deals with the lawsuits, Prince remains on the road with the New Power Generation in what is his first big arena jaunt in nearly six years. The tour is in support of Musicology, his first major-label release in nearly a decade. The album ranks fifth on this week's Billboard album chart.
Prince and his NPG crew are scheduled to kick off a three-night stand Wednesday night at the Xcel Energy Center in his hometown of Minneapolis, which will be followed by after-show parties at his Paisley Park studios.