News & Reviews

WORD: P. Diddy stiffs Random House, publisher sues

Hip hop producer P. Diddy stiffed Random House Inc. on a $300,000 advance for a memoir he never wrote, according to court filings by the publisher and local news reports. Random House said it sent P. Diddy, real name Sean Combs, the nice six-figure advance for a memoir way back in 1998. P. Diddy never wrote his memoir but kept the advance, probably to finance one of his famous yaucht parties.

Random House filed the lawsuit on February 14 in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan, according to the Associated Press. The lawsuit claims P. Diddy and his record label Bad Boy "simply kept the money they never rightfully earned." Random House wants its advance back, plus interest.

P. Diddy was supposed to finish the manuscript -- of course with a ghostwriter’s help -- by Dec. 15, 1999. The deadline passed without a manuscript. Random House then sent a letter in 2000 demanding its money back and stating that P. Diddy was in breach of contract. According to Random House, P. Diddy greeted this with stony silence.

After sending new letters "year after year," the publisher finally decided to sue, more than five years after the memoir’s due date. No word on whether P. Diddy’s ghostwriter, reportedly Shot in the Heart author Mikal Gilmore and the only real writer involved in this mess, received any payment on the aborted work.

 

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