Getty Images
Peri “Pebbles” Reid and Viacom have reached an agreement in a contentious $40 million lawsuit filed shortly after the airing of VH1’s 2013 TLC biopic, CrazySexyCool.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the case was closed on Friday once the judge received word that a deal had been reached, only a few weeks before the September 24 trial date.
Reid served as a former manager for TLC in the early stages of the group’s superstardom when they were signed to her production company, Pebbitone. Reid filed the lawsuit in 2014, citing the movie as portraying her as a “conniving and dishonest business woman who hoodwinked three innocent girls and exploited their talent for her own personal gain.”
Atlanta – DECEMBER Peri “Pebbles” Reid with Tionne “T-BOZ” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas of TLC attend LaFace holiday party for families with kids in Atlanta Georgia December 18, 1992 (Photo By Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
Lawyers for Viacom previously attempted to get the case thrown out, citing that the movie was told from the perspective of the group’s remaining members, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins. The group’s third member, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez, was killed in 2002 during a horrific car accident in Honduras.
Legal reps for the company also argued that the contents of the movie meant no malice towards Reid, but were profiled in the same vein as other films such as Selma, The Social Network and Ray, according to the Reporter.
But Pebbles argued back saying that several accusations in the movie were false and accused Viacom of ignoring “fundamental canons of journalistic and literary conduct by publishing false and defamatory accusations with actual malice,” according to court documents obtained by The Jasmine Brand. A U.S. District judge did find that certain scenes supported a defamation claim and allowed the trial to go forth. Thomas’s and Watkins’s participation in the filmmaking process also gave the judge reason to believe Reid’s argument that there may have been some bias.
Those instances included scenes where she was shown convincing the group to sign a contract without enough time for review, one that detailed how Reid took control over the group’s legal representation, ones that claimed the group was paid $25 a week and another that showed Reid convincing the ladies to remove Chilli from their trio.
Pebbles contends that she never withheld money or the terms of contracts from the group. She also states that she never exercised any power over the group’s legal or accounting teams.
In a Season 2 episode of VH1’s Behind The Music, Lopez detailed the group’s complicated financial troubles.
“The deal that we signed with Pebbles, it wasn’t a good or a bad deal,” she said. “It’s the type of deal that new artists get. The bad thing about the deal was that Pebbles had us signed to so many deals. She just had her fingers in the pot all across the board.”
Details of the agreement have yet to be released.
