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Madonna asks judge to toss lawsuit over late concert start time: “Fans got just what they paid for”
Madonna’s attorneys on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the pop superstar for starting a concert two hours late, arguing the plaintiffs didn’t demonstrate any clear injuries, court documents show.
Plaintiffs Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden filed the lawsuit earlier this year after attending one of Madonna’s global Celebration Tour shows in Brooklyn in December, alleging they were “misled” by the 8:30 p.m. advertised start time.
They also sued Barclays Center and Live Nation for “wanton exercise in false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices.”
The plaintiffs argued they wouldn’t have purchased tickets if they’d known the concert was going to start at 10:30 p.m. They also claimed the show’s end time of about 1 a.m. possibly inconvenienced or injured concertgoers as a result of limited transportation options and being forced to stay up later than planned.
Madonna’s lawyers argued that concerts rarely start on time, and that hers in particular are well known for their late starts. They also pointed out that Hadden posted on Facebook the day after that concert that he had “never missed a Madonna Tour” and that he later told CNN he had “been to every Madonna tour since 1985,” making it clear the late start time couldn’t have come as a surprise, the motion read.
According to the court documents, Hadden also praised the show on Facebook, calling it “[i]ncredible, as always!”
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation
“Mr. Hadden’s press interviews at best suggest he may be irritated that one of his favorite acts takes the stage later than he would prefer,” the lawyers said, arguing that this was not sufficient grounds for a claim of injury.
Madonna’s lawyers also alleged there was no proof the late start time injured any concertgoers, including the plaintiffs, who they argued stayed to watch the whole show instead of leaving early.
“Fans got just what they paid for: a full-length, high-quality show by the Queen of Pop,” Madonna’s lawyers said.
January’s lawsuit wasn’t the first time fans tried to take action over Madonna’s late start time. In 2019, a Florida fan sued over Madonna’s delayed start in Miami Beach.
“There’s something that you all need to understand,” Madonna told her fans during a Las Vegas concert in 2019. “And that is, that a queen is never late.”
—Aliza Chasan contributed reporting.
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
