Nicole Scherzinger says Pussycat Dolls lawsuit over tour cancellation is “meritless”

Nicole Scherzinger has described Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin’s lawsuit over the group’s cancelled tour as “meritless” in a new court document.

Antin filed a lawsuit against Scherzinger in 2021 accusing her of threatening to walk away from the group’s reunion plans unless she was granted a majority share and “complete creative control” and “final decision-making authority”.

“This case is a meritless effort to enforce an expired 2019 agreement to perform a concert tour in 2019 and 2020,” Scherzinger’s new document (via Page Six) reads, before adding: “Had Antin participated in the negotiation in good faith instead of stubbornly trying to revive the old agreement, the likelihood is that the parties would have reached an agreement for a new tour.”

The pop group, which counted Scherzinger as its lead singer, formed in 2003 under the management of choreographer Antin. They released two albums, ‘PCD’ (2005) and ‘Doll Domination’ (2008), before their break-up in 2010. The group announced their reunion in 2019 and were set to head out on a run of UK and Ireland dates, but COVID-19 halted their plans.

The lawsuit claimed that new tour dates were planned, but could not be confirmed due to Scherzinger’s “extortion”. According to Antin’s attorney, Richard S. Busch, Scherzinger’s actions represented a breach of contract and fiduciary duty, among other charges.

At the time, a spokesperson for Scherzinger denied the claims as “ludicrous and false” and alleged they “are a desperate attempt to divert blame for her own failures by trying to impose obligations on Nicole that simply do not exist”.

Scherzinger has now claimed that the planned tour was cancelled due to the pandemic and not rescheduled, as the band had originally announced on its Instagram. “Nicole Scherzinger asked to negotiate terms for a new tour in 2021, instead of agreeing to Antin’s demand that the old agreement govern the new tour,” her attorneys said in the document.

Scherzinger’s attorneys also accused Antin of “mismanagement” and of attempting to defame the group’s lead singer to “shift blame.”

This latest news comes after Scherzinger recently announced on Instagram that the girl group’s tour was cancelled due to the “ever-evolving circumstances surrounding the pandemic”.

However, shortly after the announcement, Pussycat Dolls stars Jessica Sutta and Carmit Bachar shared a statement and claimed they found out their upcoming reunion tour was off through Scherzinger‘s Instagram story.

“We want to say how incredibly disappointed we are to learn of an announcement made on Instagram that the Pussycat Dolls reunion tour is cancelled. As of now, there has been no official notification of that.”