It seems that the heavy behind the scenes within the Sean Combs: The Reckoning saga isn’t Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson however Netflix boss Ted Sarandos, a minimum of in line with Diddy and his legal professionals.
“Netflix selected Mr. Jackson as producer to punish Mr. Combs for refusing to play by its guidelines,” claims the December 1 cease-and-desist letter despatched to the streamer’s high authorized govt David Hyman by the incarcerated Combs’ attorneys over the four-parter docuseries that debuted right now.
“In or about 2023, CEO Ted Sarandos proposed that Netflix produce a documentary about Mr. Combs. Nonetheless, Mr. Combs rejected the proposal when Mr. Sarandos insisted he surrender inventive management,” the dense, four-page letter states of the latter, who attended the previous’s fiftieth celebration again in 2019. “Thus, the selection of Mr. Jackson to provide the Program was Netflix’s vindictive response to that rejection — an try by Netflix and Mr. Sarandos to make sure a one-sided character assassination, fairly than a balanced and correct portrayal.”
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Placing the Reckoning and its damning portrait of Combs and his alleged crimes, rapes, violence towards ladies, disregard for the legislation and extra within the starkest mild, the letter provides of Sarandos and Netflix’s supposed ploy: “It additionally ensured {that a} flagrant act of company retribution towards Mr. Combs could be re-cast as one well-known black man attacking one other.”
From left: Sean Combs, Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant at Combs’ fiftieth celebration in 2019
Kevin Mazur/Getty Pictures
If the swipe towards Sarandos (which Combs’ workforce additionally did in a public assertion Monday), Netflix’s alleged true motivations and 50 Cent (who doesn’t pop up in any method in Reckoning) weren’t crystal-clear from these feedback, maybe this from the letter will set you straight:
Contemplating the quite a few derogatory and, frankly, ludicrous allegations Mr. Jackson has levelled towards Mr. Combs throughout his years-long vengeful campaign to injure him, Mr. Jackson’s unconcealed animus in the direction of Mr. Combs, and our understanding, primarily based on info and perception, that people are being paid to take part—and are subsequently incentivized to forged Mr. Combs in probably the most unfavorable mild—it’s a digital certainty that the Program shall be replete with false and defamatory statements, as nicely intimate particulars, obtained and revealed in violation of Mr. Combs’ privateness rights and in breach of quite a few non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements about which Netflix and Mr. Jackson are (or ought to have been) conscious.
A Combs foe lengthy earlier than the Unhealthy Boy Data founder’s September 2024 arrest and this previous summer time’s trial for racketeering, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution, that fifty Cent has trolled Diddy relentlessly, nobody may argue. In addition to saying simply after Combs’ arrest that he would produce a docu on his rival, Energy franchise EP 50 Cent additionally has gone public in attempting to derail a Donald Trump pardon for the “freak-off” obsessed ‘I’ll Be Lacking You’ performer after Combs’ July 2 conviction on two lesser counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution.
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Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in 2024
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Pictures
Presently, with time served counted on his four-year sentence and an attraction on the felony conviction underway, Diddy is behind bars(ish) on the comfortable, low-security Fort Dix FCI in New Jersey. He’s set to be launched in June 2028. With a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Division probe opened on Combs final month over allegations of a 2020 sexual battery towards a music producer, let’s simply say a Trump pardon seems to be most unlikely at this juncture.
Regardless of accusing Netflix of getting “stolen” (as that press launch Monday mentioned) and “copyrighted” (and fairly damning) pre-arrest footage of a scheming Combs, the Grammy winner’s Sher Tremont workforce clearly didn’t get the Alexandria Stapleton-directed “hit piece” Reckoning pulled Monday earlier than its Tuesday launch. Within the December 1 letter, which cc’s Sarandos and Bela Bajaria and builds on a July 3 C&D letter on the identical topic, Combs’ legal professionals state, “As you’re undoubtedly conscious, Mr. Combs has not hesitated to take authorized motion towards media entities and others who violate his rights, and he is not going to hesitate to take action towards Netflix.”
That was earlier than Sean Combs: The Reckoning hit the streamer within the early hours this morning.
At the moment, Combs’ reps informed Deadline that “after watching the sequence and now understanding what’s in it, Sean’s workforce is reviewing its authorized choices and can determine shortly how greatest to reply.”
Contacted by Deadline, Netflix –because it did Monday — had no touch upon Combs’ authorized threats.
As they did on December 1, the streamer run by Sarandos and Greg Peters, which is bidding to snag a giant piece of Warner Bros Discovery proper now, provided a week-old remark by director Stapleton. Particularly, the filmmaker was commenting on the BTS footage of Combs telling one in every of his legal professionals “to search out somebody that’ll work with us that has dealt within the dirtiest of soiled enterprise” to assist flip the tide on the assorted claims towards him. “It got here to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the required rights,” Stapleton mentioned of the September 2024 footage, which the much-accused Combs apparently needed for his personal documentary mission.
As for Sean Combs: The Reckoning, flip down all of the media and on-line noise and it’s onerous to inform how it’s doing, even with a well-hyped and morning show-promoted launch. There aren’t any viewing figures accessible as of right now for Reckoning, nevertheless whereas it could not do Stranger Issues 5 numbers, the sequence is predicted to indicate up on Netflix’s home Prime 10 chart on Wednesday. The four-parter’s worldwide standing shall be revealed subsequent week.
After all, by subsequent week, this might have all gone method past cease-and-desist letters and CEO slagging and changed into an actual authorized showdown — the newest of many for Combs, who’s dealing with actually dozens and dozens of civil fits on sexual assault, violence, drugging and extra.
