In today’s CMU Daily: While wrongful death lawsuits over the Astroworld tragedy were all settled, hundreds of injured festival-goers also sued. They want Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino to give a deposition. Live Nation has been trying hard to stop that from happening, but the Texas Supreme Court has now said it must go ahead

Also today: Plans to build a Sphere venue, like the one in Las Vegas, in London were scuppered when mayor Sadiq Khan blocked the project. Sphere Entertainment said it would instead find “forward-thinking cities” in which to expand its venue network. The first of those cities has been confirmed as Abu Dhabi

Plus: Lawyers working for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs have written to a New York court seeking to identify the people who have accused the musician of sexual assault as part of the criminal case against him. Meanwhile, yet another lawsuit has been filed accusing Combs of violent sexual assault

Rapino must give deposition in Astroworld lawsuit says Texas court

The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that Live Nation boss Michael Rapino can’t avoid giving a deposition in connection with the ongoing Astroworld litigation. 

Live Nation has been working very hard indeed to try to stop a Rapino deposition, in which the CEO will be forced to answer questions under oath about the fatal crowd surge that occurred at the 2021 edition of Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston, which was promoted by Live Nation and its Scoremore subsidiary. 

Ten people died and hundreds more were injured in the crowd surge, resulting in the filing of hundreds of lawsuits that named Live Nation, Scott and an assortment of other companies involved in the event as defendants. The wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of the ten people who died were all ultimately settled, but many lawsuits filed by those who were injured are still working their way through the system. 

The ruling on Rapino’s deposition came on the day jury selection was due to begin for the first batch of Astroworld cases in court. Although that has now been pushed back a week as Scott’s lawyers demand information about settlements that have been reached with other co-defendants.

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Abu Dhabi next city to have a Sphere following Las Vegas - and after London knock-back

After being rejected by London, the company behind Las Vegas’s Sphere venue has announced that the second city to get one of its high-tech spherical venue complexes will be Abu Dhabi. The United Arab Emirates capital was tipped as the next city to get a Sphere last December, after plans for a London venue fell through, and amid reports that proposals in both Saudi Arabia and South Korea had “stalled”. 

“The vision for Sphere has always included a global network of venues and today’s announcement is a significant milestone toward that goal”, says James L Dolan, speaking with his Sphere Entertainment CEO hat on, after Sphere was spun out of his other company, MSG Entertainment, last year.

“Sphere is redefining live entertainment and extending the reach of its transformative impact”, Dolan continues. “We are proud to collaborate with the Department Of Culture And Tourism in Abu Dhabi to develop Sphere in their city”. 

As Dolan notes, the Sphere business plan is ultimately dependent on there being multiple venues with similar specifications around the world.

Diddy lawyers seek to identify his accusers, as yet another sexual assault lawsuit is filed

Another lawsuit was filed against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs yesterday - separate to the flood of lawsuits promised by Texas-based lawyer Tony Buzbee - in which a woman claims she was assaulted and raped by the musician and his associates in retaliation for comments she made on a FaceTime call. 

The latest lawsuit was filed with the courts in California on the same day lawyers working for Combs submitted a letter to the court in New York in relation to the criminal case that has been launched against their client. Combs was charged with sex trafficking and racketeering last month.

His attorneys want to know the names of the people who have made claims against Combs as part of the criminal investigation, insisting that information is required to mount an effective defence. 

They also add that this case is unique because a combination of Combs’ fame, and the conduct of lawyers and law enforcement personnel, have prompted “a torrent of allegations by unidentified complainants, spanning from the false to outright absurd”. 

For Combs’s lawyers, rather than suggesting that their client’s misconduct occurred on a massive scale, that “torrent of allegations” is the result of a “hysterical media circus” in part instigated by lawyers and law enforcement. 

The letter to the court references Combs “celebrity status and wealth” and the publicity around his settlement of the lawsuit filed last year by his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, and repeats allegations that those working on his criminal investigation have leaked documents and made “false inflammatory statements”. These things together have had “a pervasive ripple effect”, the letter claims, which resulted “in a torrent of allegations” from anonymous accusers.