Plenty of people were upset that word had spread that Dr. Luke allegedly raped Katy Perry, with many arguing that the revelation shouldn't have come from the never-ending legal war between the super-producer and Kesha. Now, it seems like we have a little more clarity on the controversy that lit up the blogosphere on Wednesday (June 13).
As per a new report from Variety, which obtained a lengthy statement from Team Kesha, the pop star's legal team revealed that it was a major label CEO who told Kesha and Lady Gaga that Perry was raped by Dr. Luke. It was then discussed between the two stars via text message in Feb. 2016, which was never meant to be made public. "With respect to the recent story regarding Katy Perry, the statement that Dr. Luke assaulted her came from the CEO of a major record label, and was told by that executive at the same time to Kesha and Lady Gaga," the statement read. "The startling statement was subsequently discussed in a private, one-on-one text message between Kesha and Lady Gaga. It was neither published nor further distributed. It would have remained completely private, except that Dr. Luke and his team took an email obtained only in discovery and decided to publish it to millions of people in his amended complaint against Kesha, and then claim reputational harm from his own widespread publication."
Team Kesha went on to argue that Dr. Luke shared the private conversation between the pop stars "for no purpose other than to attack, harass, and ultimately bankrupt Kesha." "His claim that Kesha’s private one-on-one text message about a statement from a record label CEO (to someone who had already heard the same statement) caused damages for which Kesha should be held liable is baseless," the statement continued.
Meanwhile, Dr. Luke's team was quick to deny the CEO story, reiterating their claim that Katy Perry denied being assaulted by the producer. It also included a sly excerpt from Sir Walter Scott's 1808 poem "Marmion." "Kesha and her legal team are fully aware that Ms. Perry has unequivocally confirmed that she was not raped by Dr. Luke. Kesha and her attorneys should be ashamed of themselves for not publicly acknowledging this and apologizing," they claim, before ending their statement with: "As the old and true adage goes: Oh what a tangled web you weave when first you practice to deceive."
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