Paula Abdul accuses American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe of sexual assault

NEW YORK – American pop singer Paula Abdul filed a lawsuit on Dec 29 against Nigel Lythgoe, a former long-time producer of American Idol (2002 to present), accusing him of sexually assaulting her when she was a judge on the reality show in the early 2000s.

In the lawsuit, Abdul, 61, says that during one of the early seasons of American Idol, Lythgoe shoved her against the wall of a hotel lift, grabbed her genitals and breasts and began “shoving his tongue down her throat”.

She said she tried to push him away, and that when the lift doors opened, she ran to her hotel room and called one of her representatives in tears.

The Englishman helped turn American Idol into a phenomenon in the United States in 2002 after developing an earlier iteration of the show in Britain. He was also a creator of US reality show So You Think You Can Dance (2005 to present), on which he appeared as a judge for 16 seasons.

In a statement on Dec 30, Lythgoe, 74, denied the allegations, saying that he would “fight this appalling smear with everything I have”.

“To say that I am shocked and saddened by the allegations made against me by Paula Abdul is a wild understatement,” he said. “For more than two decades, Paula and I have interacted as dear – and entirely platonic – friends and colleagues. Yesterday, however, out of the blue, I learned of these claims in the press and I want to be clear: Not only are they false, they are deeply offensive to me and to everything I stand for.”

He added that he could not “pretend to understand exactly why she would file a lawsuit that she must know is untrue”.

Both Lythgoe and Abdul, who rose to fame as a choreographer and pop star in the late 1980s, became fixtures of American reality TV as judges with the power to turn promising singers and dancers into stars.

Abdul spent eight seasons on American Idol, entertaining viewers with her gushing commentary and playful rivalry with her fellow judge Simon Cowell.

After leaving American Idol, she was a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, working alongside Lythgoe in 2015 and 2016.

She says in the lawsuit that Lythgoe again made advances during this time, while she was at his home to discuss work.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, said Abdul did not speak publicly about the encounters because she feared retaliation from Lythgoe.

Abdul is suing under a California law that allows people making sexual assault accusations to file claims outside the statute of limitations for a limited period of time.

Lythgoe was a largely behind-the-scenes figure with American Idol, leaving as an executive producer of the show about a decade ago. But he has been centre stage on So You Think You Can Dance, turning himself into a performing arts impresario and advocate for dance education. He is scheduled to return as a judge in the spring. NYTIMES