Her hips don’t lie, but her ex-boyfriend is a different story:
Shakira is calling out the former
flame who’s suing her for $250 million — lambasting his claim that he’s
responsible for her success and asking a judge to throw his case out.
Antonio de la Rua has been waging
an international war against his ex, saying he shaped the “Shakira
brand,” was responsible for two of her biggest hits — “Hips Don’t Lie”
and “Waka Waka” — and that she still owes him big time.
In papers filed in Manhattan
Supreme Court, the sexy judge from “The Voice” says she’s a self-made
woman, and that he should get over himself — and her.
Shakira, 36, says in an affidavit
when she first met de la Rua at a concert in Argentina in 2000, “I was
already a well-known and recognized artist, and my international career
was established and solid.”
And the Colombian singer shrugged
off claims that he was her business partner and strategist, saying she
just hired him out of pity.
The dashing de la Rua was just “one of my numerous advisers,” she said in the court filing.
Even “though he lacked experience
or knowledge of the music industry,” Shakira said, “in 2005, at his
request, I decided to involve (de la Rua) in some matters relating to
the business” because he “was unemployed.”
The pair had been dating for a year when de la Rua first fell on hard times and moved in with her.
When de la Rua’s father “was
forced to resign as president of Argentina at the end of 2001,
plaintiff, for his own safety, became self-exiled from Argentina and he
became unemployed,” Shakira said.
De la Rua maintains he was the
one doing her a favor. He says he had been advising her throughout their
relationship and offered to use his background in law, “marketing,
brand-building and political campaign management” in a more active way
after her successful 2004 tour somehow lost money.
He said he talked her into
recording “Hips Don’t Lie,” which she initially “hated,” and
orchestrated her $300 million deal with Live Nation in 2008.
He also says he “inspired” her to
write the song “Waka Waka” with a recording he had made of
African-inspired Colombian music, and was the one who successfully
campaigned for it to be the anthem of the 2010 World Cup.
He says he continued to manage
her business even after they broke up in 2010, until she gave him the
heave-ho a year later. He suspects she only did so because their
partnership was creating problems with her new man, Barcelona soccer
star Gerard Piqué.
The spurned ex has since filed
actions against her in New York, California, Switzerland and the Cayman
Islands, charging that she still owes him his share of her profits.
Shakira — who had a baby with
Piqué earlier this year — filed suit against de la Rua in the Bahamas
last year, charging that he had “misappropriated” $3 million of her
money.
Her lawyers contend that de la
Rua doesn’t have a case because they don’t have any business or
partnership agreements in writing. Their filings also say the case
shouldn’t be fought in New York — it should be heard in the Bahamas,
where they lived together, or in Colombia, where Shakira is from and
where de la Rua has been spending time with his soon-to-be baby mama,
former Miss Mundo Colombia, Daniela Ramos.
“We just want to have our day in court and it’s apparent that they don’t,” said de la Rua’s lawyer, Bill Reid.
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