British director Nigel Lythgow (archive)
Wednesday 3 January 2024 / 16:25
Barely a week had passed since American singer Paula Abdul accused British director Nigel Lithgow of sexually assaulting her, until two other women filed a joint lawsuit accusing him of violence, harassment, and sexual assault as well.
According to the lawsuit papers obtained by the magazine,DeadlineIt turned out that they all occurred 20 years ago, as Abdul reported that he raped her twice during the past 20 years, and the other two women claimed that he assaulted them together in 2003.
The magazine considered that the director, co-author and judge of the American talent show “American Idol” may not be greatly affected by the new joint lawsuit because the two people called “Jane Doe K” and “Jane Doe K.N” did not mention him by his full name. In the lawsuit, they limited themselves to mentioning the name “John Rowe All,” which the magazine concluded was director Lithgow, who was a producer and judge on the all-female program “All American Girls” for one season only.
Facts of the case and claim for damages
According to the case documents, the assault incident occurred after the closing ceremony of the program “All American Girls” in 2003, when Lithgow took the two women “contestants on the program” to a house in Los Angeles instead of the studio to meet with the media and press.
Once the trio got there, the “complaint” alleges that things got very ugly, as the defendant engaged in violent acts in an attempt to carry out his immoral desires with the two women who persisted in refusing to comply with his violent demands, claiming a wide range of damages.
Previous claim rejected
Returning to the lawsuit that Abdul filed on December 29, 2023, against Lithgow, which he vehemently denies according to the case papers, the door to research into the director’s past has been wide open.
In 2015, the family of a girl named Ji Do KG claimed that director Lithgow had sexually assaulted her, but it was later revealed that the plaintiff was a child when the alleged crime occurred, which is legally called a “defect in the case” or “mistake” and was dismissed for this reason.
Deadline revealed that it had contacted Abdul and the two other women’s lawyers to comment on the facts of the three lawsuits, but had not received any response yet.