Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears accused of making minors perform inappropriate sexual acts on camera
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Leon Bennett/Getty; Bobby Bank/Getty Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears
Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears are being sued by a woman who alleges that the two comedians forced her and her brother separately to perform inappropriate, sexually suggestive acts on camera for sketches when the siblings were underage.
In a Jane Doe lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by EW, a 22-year-old woman accuses Haddish (Girls Trip) and Spears (Mad TV) of intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor. Haddish is also accused of negligent supervision/failure to warn, breach of fiduciary duty, and constructive fraud.
The complaint, which was first reported by the Daily Beast, centers on two alleged incidents: one when the plaintiff, identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, was 14, and one when her brother, identified by the pseudonym John Doe, was 7. John is now 14, and Jane is his legal guardian.
Representatives for Haddish and Spears denied the allegations in separate statements to EW on Thursday.
Andrew Brettler, Haddish's attorney, said in a statement that the plaintiff's mother "has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years. Every attorney who has initially taken on her case — and there were several — ultimately dropped the matter once it became clear that the claims were meritless and Ms. Haddish would not be shaken down. Now, [the plaintiff's mother] has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action."
Debra Opri, Spears' attorney, said in a statement that her client "isn't going to fall for any shakedown."
The complaint describes an alleged incident in which Jane filmed a sketch in the summer of 2013 and an alleged incident in which John filmed a sketch in the summer of 2014. Jane and John met Haddish when they were younger, after their mother befriended Haddish through the comedy circuit, according to the complaint. The siblings claim that they used to call Haddish "Auntie Tiff," and that she called them her "niece" and "nephew." Jane maintains that Haddish recruited her to film a video when she attended a comedy camp where Haddish was a guest speaker.
According to the complaint, Haddish and Spears had Jane watch a video in which an older man and a college-age woman shared a sandwich in "a manner that simulated the act of fellatio" while "moaning and making sexual noises." Spears then allegedly told Jane "to mimic what she had seen on the screen, including the noises precisely like what she heard throughout the video." Jane was "nervous and disgusted," the complaint says, and then "Haddish verbally explained what was expected of Plaintiff Jane Doe and then showed Plaintiff Jane Doe how to give fellatio, including movements, noises, moaning, and groaning." Jane says she did as Haddish and Spears asked, was paid $100, and did not disclose to her mother what had happened at the time.
The lawsuit goes on to claim that Haddish recruited John a year later for another video, which was eventually posted on the website Funny or Die under the title "Through a Pedophile's Eyes." The complaint alleges that the shoot took place in Spears' home and both siblings attended, though Jane was told to stay downstairs while John was filmed upstairs.
According to the complaint, Spears played a pedophile in the video, which included scenes of him massaging baby oil onto John's back and smoking a cigarette while watching the boy nude in the bathtub, among other sexually suggestive acts. The lawsuit claims that after the shoot ended, "Mr. Doe called his mother crying, saying he did not want to film anymore."
A representative for Funny or Die told the Daily Beast in a statement, "Funny Or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content. We were not involved with the conceptualization, development, funding, or production of this video. It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence."
According to the lawsuit, both siblings continue to suffer from the trauma of the video shoots, and Jane "feels constant remorse knowing that she was only a few feet away when Spears was molesting her 7-year-old little brother in the other room." John says he places band-aids over any cameras on all of his electronics due to an ongoing fear of being watched and recorded.
The complaint also alleges that in 2018, the siblings' mother attempted to engage in a settlement with Spears, but Haddish "wanted no part" of the agreement. In addition, the complaint asserts that the settlement is not legally binding for Jane and John because they had no court-appointed representative acting in their best interests as minors.
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