Visual/FlynetIs Beyoncé a Grinch?
The R&B superstar is on the receiving end of a $100 million mega-lawsuit filed by video-game maker Gate Five LLC accusing her of backing out of a deal she signed in June to lend her to name to a game called Starpower: Beyoncé. And to top it off, she's accused of doing so a week before Christmas, causing the company to go under and forcing it to pink slip 70 employees!
So much for good tidings.
According to a summons filed Tuesday in New York and obtained by E! News, Gate Five alleges that the "Naughty Girl" singer committed a "breach of contract so callous that...she destroyed Gate Five's business, and drove 70 people into unemployment, the week before Christmas."
The company goes on to claim that after the two parties sealed an agreement in June 2010, at a "crucial moment in the project's development," Beyoncé' "made an extortion demand for entirely new compensation terms she suddenly decided she wanted" and then pulled out of the game.
"Her actions were so unscrupulous that her then manager...[her father, Matthew Knowles] renounced them, while a senior executive of the company that had agreed to finance the project condemned her conduct as 'morally reprehensible," the court papers state.
Gate Five is seeking to recoup $6.7 million it had originally invested in the venture plus an additional $100 million in profits it says it would've earned in profits. The company also is asking for an injunction preventing the entertainer from entering into an agreement for another video game.
A lawyer for Beyoncé was unavailable for comment.
By the way, B's latest single, which was just leaked, is titled "Girls (Who Run the World)." Coincidence?
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UPDATE May 9, 2011: A full complaint was filed today against Beyoncé, citing her "bad faith" in negotiations as the reason for Gate Five's loss of financing. Read the full suit here.