TLC’s Ex-Manager Sues VH1 for $40 Million

TLC’s former manager Perri “Pebbles” Reid has filed a $40 million defamation lawsuit against executives at U.S. TV network VH1 amid allegations she was falsely portrayed in a recent biopic.

The ex-wife of music mogul Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid was left fuming in October after tuning in to Crazy, Sexy, Cool: The TLC Story, which documented the R&B trio’s rise to fame and its split from Reid, and subsequently issued a statement claiming she had become the victim of an “unprovoked attack”, in which she was depicted onscreen as a manipulative money-grabber.

Her attorney contacted VH1 bosses in a bid to have certain “false and defamatory statements” retracted, but after getting nowhere with the talks, Reid has filed suit, according to the New York Post.

In the legal papers, filed in an Atlanta, Georgia court on Friday, her lawyer claims she was portrayed as “a conniving and dishonest business woman who hoodwinked three innocent girls and exploited their talent for her own personal gain”.

The suit goes on to accuse chiefs at the network’s parent company Viacom of having “ignored fundamental canons of journalistic and literary conduct by publishing false and defamatory accusations with actual malice”.

Viacom bosses have yet to respond to the legal action, and a company spokesperson has declined to discuss the suit, saying, “It’s our policy not to comment on matters in litigation.”

TLC members Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins, Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas and the late Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes parted ways with Reid in the mid-1990s after holding her responsible for their money troubles, which forced them to file for bankruptcy in 1995.