Azealia Banks asks public to pay lawsuit
Maybe Azealia Banks needs a way to get her name back into the headlines. The controversial rapper has set up a GoFundMe page to garner $100,000 in donations to sue actor Russell Crowe over a 2016 incident at a Beverly Hills party he hosted.
Or maybe Banks, 27, has a justifiable beef against the “Gladiator” star.
She has long alleged he choked her, spit on her and called her by a racial slur. On her GoFundMe page, she describes Crowe, 54, as a powerful Hollywood male star who schemed to “gaslight” her and who caused irreparable damage to her acting career, her reputation and her emotional stability.
“This isn’t about a big pay day for me,” Banks wrote on her GoFundMe page. “It’s about letting the world know that black women are victims to the same sort of disgusting violence men in Hollywood deal out to women and it’s important to send a message that black women also deserve justice and will get justice in these situations.”
In December 2016, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office ruled that Banks didn’t have a case and sided with Crowe’s assertion that he had no choice but to physically remove her from the party because she was acting unruly, TMZ reported.
According to witnesses, Banks was verbally abusive to others in the room and picked up a glass and threatened to use it against a guest, TMZ said. It looks like some who have checked out her fundraising page agree she doesn’t have a case and is just using her fundraising to get attention or money.
Her legal fund has only garnered $2,000 so far, and her page is filled with negative comments, including from people who have called her “homophobic” and in need of psychiatric help.
Moreover, people don’t seem to be moved by her claim that any monetary settlement she receives from the lawsuit will go to “ocean clean-up charities.” Representatives for Crowe and Banks did not respond to requests for comment from the New York Daily News.
Banks also managed to tick off Sarah Palin, who is no stranger herself to controversial, outrageous statements and behavior. The former vice presidential candidate said she planned to sue Banks after the rapper posted a series of foul tweets, including one about wanting to find the “burliest” of black men to perform a sexual act on Palin, the Daily Mail added.