In an inauguration-related dispute that’s turning uglier by the day, local promoter and event planner Freddie Wyatt served legendary disco artist and pop producer Nile Rodgers with a lawsuit late last week.
“We served him on his doorstep in Connecticut,” said Wyatt, a principal with Georgetown-based Jamestown Entertainment, which helped to organized the Citizens Helping Heroes inaugural gala in January.
Wyatt says he helped to build the idea for the gala, centered around wounded veterans, and then Rodgers & Co. “took over the executive producer position and they took over the talent. Then they didn’t produce the talent.”
Specifically, he said Rodgers took $85,000 for his band to play and another $100,000 to produce the event, but “did neither. … They took $200,000 and they escaped to New York City, but there are people who worked that night who are owed $200.” (Ultimately, the show did go on, with Ben Vereen, George Clinton and others playing for free.)
But Mark A. Barondess, an attorney for Rodgers, said the event “was an absolute nightmare for Nile Rodgers Productions.” On the day before the event, he said, the charity advised Rodgers that they “didn’t have accommodations secured and hadn’t paid for any number of things.”
Wyatt says Rodgers asked for additional hotel rooms at the last minute, which were impossible to provide.
As for the merits of the suit, Barondess said there is “no factual basis for the allegations. There is no legal merit. The word that first comes to mind is ‘pathetic’ — or maybe ‘impotent.'” He said he expects a judge to dismiss the suit.
