A shocking new lawsuit alleges that comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears recruited a woman identified as ‘Jane Doe’ and her younger brother into performing inappropriate, sexually suggestive acts in sketches when they were minors.

via The Daily Beast

Jane Doe, now 22, and her younger brother John, now 14, have adopted pseudonyms due to their respective ages at the time of the allegations. (Jane, who is also John’s legal guardian, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit both individually and on her minor brother’s behalf.) The siblings’ complaint, which names Haddish and Mad TV alum Spears as defendants, centers on two alleged incidents in which Haddish and Spears allegedly encouraged one of the siblings to perform sexually suggestive acts on camera while underage. 

Jane was 14 years old when her alleged video shoot took place, and John was 7. Their mother alleges that she and Haddish met through comedy and bonded over a shared source of strife: “We were both going through a divorce,” the mother told The Daily Beast. “Messy, messy, messy, messy divorces… We just got really, really super, super close.” According to the lawsuit, Haddish called the family for “every birthday and every Christmas.” The siblings’ mother noted that for years, Haddish reliably checked in—whether that be from a movie set or overseas.

In the summer of 2013, when Jane was 14 years old, the lawsuit states that she attended a comedy camp where Haddish appeared as a guest speaker. Around that time, Haddish allegedly told the child that she’d found “a perfect role for her”—her very own commercial. Neither Jane nor her mother knew what the shoot would entail, according to the lawsuit. Only Haddish and Spears, who was also on hand to produce the video, are said to have known the plot.
The clip Spears and Haddish asked Jane to watch in the recording booth allegedly seemed innocuous at first, if a little strange: a group of coeds were arguing over a subway sandwich. But then the coeds began eating the sandwich in a suggestive manner from opposite ends, “moaning and making sexual noises as they both ate the sandwich in a manner that simulated the act of fellatio,” per the lawsuit.

The complaint claims that Spears told Jane “to mimic what she had seen on the screen, including the noises precisely like what she heard throughout the video.” The 14-year-old, who was allegedly “nervous and disgusted,” fell silent until Haddish returned to the room, the lawsuit claims.

“Haddish verbally explained what was expected of Plaintiff Jane Doe and then showed Plaintiff Jane Doe how to give fellatio, including movements, noises, moaning, and groaning,” the lawsuit states. “At that point,” Jane told The Daily Beast, “I knew a hundred percent what they wanted out of me.” The lawsuit describes Spears allegedly looking on while a “physically, emotionally, and mentally uncomfortable” Jane received this instruction.

“I tried to mimic what they wanted me to mimic, but it still came out just super uncomfortable,” Jane told the Daily Beast. “I knew when I left the booth that I didn’t complete what they wanted me to do.” Haddish paid Jane $100, the lawsuit claims, before sending her home.

At the time, Jane said, she tried to shrug off what had happened. “I didn’t confide to my mom—I didn’t confide to nobody else about how weird I felt at that moment,” she said. A year later, Haddish allegedly approached the children’s mother with a similar pitch, recruiting Jane’s little brother, John, for another video. Although the comedian allegedly told the family John would be filming a sizzle reel for Nickelodeon, the suit alleges the 7-year-old wound up starring in a video posted on Funny or Die and other online platforms, titled “Through a Pedophile’s Eyes.”

A representative for Funny or Die told The Daily Beast in a statement, “Funny Or Die found this video absolutely disgusting and would never produce such content. We were not involved with the conceptualization, development, funding, or production of this video. It was uploaded to the site as user-generated content and was removed in 2018 immediately after becoming aware of its existence.”

Both siblings allegedly attended the shoot, which the lawsuit claims took place in Spears’ home. Jane said Haddish’s behaviour changed once the children arrived at the home, no longer in the company of their mother. “It was like a whole 180 almost,” she told The Daily Beast. “Tiffany had never been mean to me—never raised her voice to me—until this point.”

We don’t know what to make of all this — but Jane Doe’s account sure is detailed.

 

(SOURCE: B.SCOTT)