{"id":378990,"date":"2025-12-31T02:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/378990\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T02:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:39:08","slug":"tyler-perrys-legal-troubles-may-just-be-starting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/378990\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler Perry’s Legal Troubles May Just Be Starting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe first lawsuit<\/a> against Tyler Perry<\/a> accusing him of leveraging his power in Hollywood to sexually assault aspiring male actors in his orbit was filed in June. Another lawsuit<\/a> was filed Dec. 26, with the entertainment mogul characterizing claims from both of the accusers as a shakedown. But his legal troubles may just be beginning.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s now two of these lawsuits,\u201d Jonathan Delshad, a lawyer for both Perry accusers, tells\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cThere may be more coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Perry, denied the allegations. \u201cI said it before and I will say it again,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is nothing but a $77 million money grab scam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor years, Perry has been viewed as a Hollywood success story. He runs Tyler Perry Studios, a 330-acre lot on a former Confederate army base that employs more than 500 people. It\u2019s been championed as a crowning achievement for Black creativity and ownership in the entertainment industry, though there have been indirect criticisms within some corners of Hollywood, including by Donald Glover\u2019s Atlanta and Aaron McGruder\u2019s The Boondocks.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome of the references in those shows mirrored allegations advanced by Derek Dixon, who said Perry groped him while alluding to the filmmaker engaging in a pattern of exploiting male actors in his productions. For years, Perry has \u201cbeen using his power and influence to molest, abuse, and sexually assault impressionable and vulnerable employees and actors who look to him for guidance and mentorship while pursuing their dreams,\u201d Dixon, an actor on Perry\u2019s The Oval, alleged. That was followed by the filing of a second lawsuit, this time by Mario Rodriguez, an actor who appeared in Boo! A Madea Halloween and accused the mogul of multiple instances of assault across several years at his Los Angeles home.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the wake of the complaint, friendly communications between Perry and Rodriguez after the alleged assaults have surfaced. The messages show the two communicating as recently as August, with Rodriguez asking the mogul for help amid financial distress. \u201cFeel sick most days. Never told anybody this but my mom and everybody is starting to notice my broke ass,\u201d he wrote in the Aug. 31 note, per messages that TMZ and Page Six published. \u201cDon\u2019t have insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn another alleged text sent last year, Rodriguez thanked Perry \u201cfor everything\u201d the mogul had done for him. \u201cI just wanna tell you that your boy right here appreciates you more than anything,\u201d he wrote. Perry responded, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to give me a thing or pay me a thing. I\u2019m just glad you\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Associated Press reported that the communications show that they \u201cremained in contact years after Rodriguez alleges their interactions ended.\u201d And The Los Angeles Times, pointing to claims from Rodriguez that he cut off contact with Perry in 2019, wrote<\/a> that the messages \u201cseem to show otherwise.\u201d But Delshad views the messages as showing a lopsided power dynamic in which Perry felt compelled to pay back Rodriguez for the alleged assaults.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhy is he holding himself out as available for favors?\u201d Delshad says. \u201cThat\u2019s the larger context to this. This isn\u2019t normal behavior from a billionaire producer toward an inconsequential actor who had a tiny role in one of his movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the complaint, Rodriguez agreed to meet Perry multiple times across several years, even after he claimed to have been assaulted. The actor was given money on some occasions, including after an alleged assault in which Perry tried to unbuckle the actor\u2019s pants, the lawsuit said. In total, Perry, unprompted, gave Rodriguez $10,000, per the complaint.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey may say that Tyler Perry is just a philanthropic guy and that he does this for everyone and, maybe he does, but it seems unlikely,\u201d Delshad says. \u201cI would imagine his phone would be blowing up from hundreds of thousands of actors who played small roles in his movies.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds, \u201cWhy did Mario feel comfortable enough to ask him for money and why did [Perry] respond four years after they made a movie together?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first lawsuit against Tyler Perry accusing him of leveraging his power in Hollywood to sexually assault aspiring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,2814],"class_list":{"0":"post-378990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tyler-perry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}