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Artist News Legal Media
50 Cent tries to dismiss billion dollar lawsuit over his Power series
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 20 August 2021
50 Cent has called for the dismissal of a billion dollar lawsuit filed by a man who claims that ‘Power’ – the TV series which the rapper co-produced and appeared in – ripped off his actual life story.
The plaintiff is Cory ‘Ghost’ Holland, who claims that he is the inspiration for the main character in ‘Power’, that being a drug lord known as Ghost who is trying to give up his criminal activities and run a legit business instead.
The fictional Ghost’s life story is close enough to Holland’s actual life story, he alleges, that people will assume ‘Power’ is basically a biopic.
But, he adds, the fictional Ghost’s life story is actually sufficiently different to his real life story to constitute defamation, because it includes crimes Holland did not commit. But viewers might assume that he did.
To that end, Holland is suing for defamation, invasion of privacy and inflicted emotional distress. A billion dollars of defamation, invasion of privacy and inflicted emotional distress, in fact.
As for how the makers of ‘Power’ might have accessed information about his life, he claims that he participated in an educational programme in 2007 targeting at-risk youth. That involved creating a CD that told his life story. The ‘Power’ producers must then have got a copy of that CD, he alleges.
The litigation was actually instigated back in April, but Holland filed an amended lawsuit earlier this month. And this week 50 Cent – and the other companies who co-produced ‘Power’ who are also defendants on the case – filed a motion to have the whole thing dismissed.
The defendants insist that Holland’s lawsuit is “frivolous and does not allege a single cognisable claim”. They added in their latest legal filing this week: “Plaintiff fails to identify any defamatory statements made about him in connection with the fictional television series ‘Power'”.
“With respect to his statutory right of privacy claim, he fails to allege that his name, portrait or picture was used in connection with ‘Power’, or that any such use was a prohibited advertising use”, the legal filing went on. “Plaintiff’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress is premised on the same allegations underlying his defamation claim, and therefore fails for the same reasons”.
With all that in mind, they ask the court to dismiss Holland’s lawsuit.
For his part, the plaintiff has told Law360 that he is confident the court will knock back the dismissal request from 50 Cent et al, stating: “I’m not a clout chaser, you don’t see me making a bunch of videos trying to go viral, I have the evidence to prove my case, and I will”.
50 Cent is currently working on another crime-based TV drama titled ‘BFM’, which, it was announced earlier this week, will feature an acting performance from Eminem in one episode.
