Deborah Dugan, former head of the Recording Academy (Photo credit: Amanda Friedman / Recording Academy)
By Melissa Roberto, Fox News | Deborah Dugan is fighting back after being fired by the Recording Academy with a new court filing alleging a higher-up attempted to influence Grammy nominations.
Attorneys for the former Grammys CEO, who was officially canned on Monday after being placed on administrative leave in January, filed court papers citing new allegations, some of which involve former Grammy Awards executive producer Ken Ehrlich.
According to the papers obtained by Variety, Dugan’s filing makes mention of an email written by Ehrlich on Oct. 24, 2019, where he and a “Mr. Mason” attempted to use their positions to influence nomination votes.
“Specifically, Mr. Ehrlich attempted to press the Academy into nominating a song by a particular superstar in order to increase his ability to convince the superstar to perform at the Grammys,” the filing states.
According to the outlet, Ehrlich wrote in the email: “looking at the [American Music Awards] nominations this morning, it’s more about who’s NOT there than who is…and [superstar] is definitely not gonna be happy. minor representation at best…sooo.”
It continues (via Variety): “I think there’s a case to be made to [superstar] that a performance of [song] from
Mason allegedly responded, “Gotcha. Thanks Ken,” according to Variety.
Dugan also alleges in her complaint that the academy has “subjected her to repeated, ongoing and egregious retaliation” including a lawsuit filed by Proskauer Rose who made “outrageous, false and frivolous allegations.”
Another email contained in Dugan’s new complaint involves a board member of the academy asking for a change to the “Nomination Review.” The member appears to claim that artists are still a part of the selecting committee even if they are up for their own awards.
“At the moment they can basically pick their nominees. I don’t feel comfortable with how they are being used,” the email states, according to the outlet.
In another email, a person at the academy claims (via Variety): “In the Best Jazz Vocal category I know for a fact that artists who have recordings up for awards in a given year, are still a part of the selecting committee for that year. I understand these folks must excuse themselves and leave the room when their recordings are up for voting, but minutes later they are back in the room with the same folks.”
Dugan’s firing came after she claimed she was sexually harassed by the organization’s top attorney. She also called into question the integrity of the Grammy nominations and accused former Neil Portnow of raping a female artist. Portnow previously claimed he was exonerated after a third-party investigation.
Read the whole article here:
https://nypost.com/2020/03/04/fired-grammys-ceo-deborah-dugan-files-complaint-alleging-nomination-tampering/
Fox News’ Nate Day contributed to this report.