Justin Timberlake, a former animatronic Disney-bot who became a real boy, then a real man, and then a real musical tour de force, is now being sued by Cirque du Soleil. Is this reality?
The kerfuffle stems over a sample the former lover-but-not-sex-lover of Britney Spears (sticking with my OTP from the aughts, yinz guys, ain’t too proud to beg) purportedly used for a song from his 2013 album The 20/20 Experience—specifically the track “Don’t Hold the Wall.”
According to Variety:
“The lawsuit claims that Timberlake borrowed from ‘Steel Dream,’ a song that originally appeared in ‘Quidam,’ Cirque’s ninth stage production, and later on a 1997 album of the same name. The suit, filed Thursday in a New York federal court, is seeking $800,000 in copyright infringement damages.”
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Timberlake isn’t the only one named in the suit: song co-writers and collaborators Timbaland, J-Roc and James Fauntleroy, as well as WB Music Corp and Sony Entertainment, are also listed as defendants.
But lo!, this isn’t the first time Timberlake has been sued: the music group Sly, Slick and Wicked also filed a claim against Timberlake over similarities between “Suit & Tie” and their original number “Sho’ Nuff,” as well as another claim that “alleged...his Will.I.Am collaboration ‘Damn Girl’ samples from Perry Kibble’s ‘A New Day Is Here at Last.’”
Both of these suits were filed and made public earlier this year.
Say it ain’t so, JT, say it ain’t so.
Contact the author at jamie.reich@jezebel.com.
Image via Getty.