Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Hip-hop producer Metro Boomin
is accused of rape
in lawsuit
LOS ANGELES | A Los Angeles woman has filed a lawsuit alleging that Metro Boomin, a Grammy-nominated producer who has worked with some of the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B, raped her in 2016 and she became pregnant from the attack.
The producer’s attorney calls the accusations false and said the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court is “a pure shakedown.”
Vanessa LeMaistre, 38, says in the lawsuit that she became friends with Metro Boomin, whose legal name is Leland Wayne, after the death of her 9-month-old son. While visiting him in a recording studio months later, she blacked out and woke on a bed to find Wayne raping her, the lawsuit alleges.
She learned she was pregnant from the attack a few weeks later, the suit says.
An attorney for the 31-year-old St. Louis-born producer immediately denied the allegations.
“This is a pure shakedown. These are false accusations,” Lawrence Hinkle II said in a statement Wednesday. “Mr. Wayne refused to pay her months ago, and he refuses to pay her now. Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. He will file a claim for malicious prosecution once he prevails.”
Wayne curated the soundtrack to “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and co-produced most of the songs on the album. His 2022 album “Heroes & Villains,” featuring contributions from John Legend and The Weeknd and Travis Scott, was nominated for a Grammy for best rap album. He has also worked with Future, Kendrick Lamar, Offset, 21 Savage and A$AP Rocky.
LeMaistre said in the suit that she met Wayne in the spring of 2016 at a party in Las Vegas and in the months that followed they met up several times and she “believed that they had bonded over the ability of music to help people in their darkest moments.”
Around September, she visited him at a California recording studio where she was given a shot of alcohol and took half a bar of Xanax.
“The next thing Ms. LeMaistre can recall is waking up on a bed in a different location with Wayne raping her and being completely unable to move or make a sound,” the lawsuit says. “She was in and out of consciousness for an unknown amount of time but awoke again at some point to Wayne performing oral sex on her.”
At no point was she able to consent, the lawsuit says.
She learned she was pregnant a few weeks later, and there was no question that the child was Wayne’s, the suit says. She had an abortion soon after.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as LeMaistre has. She is named in the lawsuit and consented to being publicly identified through her attorneys.
Her lawsuit alleging sexual battery and gender violence seeks damages to be determined at trial.
Shaun White and Nina Dobrev are
now engaged
Former skateboarder and Olympic snowboarder Shaun White and actor Nina Dobrev are getting married.
White’s publicist Jennifer Peros confirmed the engagement Wednesday.
White popped the question last weekend at The Golden Swan, a New York restaurant and presented Dobrev with a five-carat diamond ring.
Peros created a fake invite for a small dinner with Anna Wintour that she sent to Dobrev as a ruse to get her to the location. When Dobrev arrived, White was waiting with a photographer. After the proposal, the pair were joined by friends to celebrate.
White turned pro at skateboarding as a teen. He has competed in and won at the X Games in both skateboarding and snowboarding and is a three-time Olympic gold medalist in half-pipe snowboarding. He retired from snowboarding after the 2022 Olympics and remains the record-holder for most gold medals won by a snowboarder.
Dobrev is best-known for her role as Elena Gilbert on “The Vampire Diaries.”
The couple met at a Tony Robbins event in 2019 and dated for five years. This will be the first marriage for both.
Vogue was first to report the engagement.
The Grammy Awards are headed to ABC starting in 2027
LOS ANGELES | The Grammys will have a new broadcast home on ABC starting in 2027.
The network and the Recording Academy announced Wednesday that they had signed a 10-year deal to broadcast the Grammys beginning in 2027, moving the show from its decadeslong perch at CBS. CBS has aired the Grammys since 1973, taking over the show from ABC after a two-year stint. The first 12 ceremonies were aired on NBC.
ABC is now set to air three major live events — the Super Bowl, Grammys and Oscars — in 2027. The new Grammys deal also calls for the show to be streamed on Hulu and Disney+.
Nominations for the 2025 Grammys will be announced next week. That show will air on CBS on Feb. 2.
—From AP reports
