Chris Brown (Freddie Baez/startraksphoto.com)
They started it!
It was Chris Brown and Drake themselves – and not their posses – that set off a bottle throwing fracas at a Manhattan nightclub, a $16 million lawsuit claims.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. says the two stars started mixing up it at the joint clubs Greenhouse and WiP on June 14, and then ordered their crews to follow suit.
Each man “shared a grudge against the other arising out of their romantic relationships with the same woman,” Brown’s former flame Rihanna, and when they “crossed paths,” they “began to fight violently with each other,” says the filing by the company, which owns the trademark to Greenhouse name, but not the club itself.
The suit says that while the club made sure nobody in their camps were armed, “each arrived with his own small army of bodyguards, ‘security’ personnel, employees, friends and other members of their entourage, consisting of at least 15 heavily built men trained and/or experienced in hand-to-hand and weapons combat.”
After the pair started fighting, “each ordered his security personnel, bodyguards, friends and entourage to join the fight, which erupted into a violent brawl on a massive scale,” the suit says.
Their crews “fashioned deadly weapons out of whatever materials they could find, including glasses, alcohol bottles and furniture, thereby circumventing the nightclubs’ extensive efforts to ensure a safe environment.”
“On defendant Brown and and defendant Drake’s instructions, their two posses had at each other, throwing highball glasses laden with alcohol, shattering the handles of bottles of spirits to use as makeshift knives, and even throwing full bottles at each other. Within seconds, defendants filled an already packed nightclub full of flying glass shrapnel,” the suit says.
“Defendants overran the nughtclub’s extensive security measures and the brawl overtook the entire space.”
“Terrorized patrons ran for cover,” the suit says, “using banquettes and tables as improvised shields. Most were unable to protect themselves,” and “several patrons were severely injured, including at least one celebrity,” basketball player Tony Parker.
Parker is now suing Greenhouse and WiP for $20 million as a result, and the club is facing other lawsuits and legal problems as a result of the fracas.
That’s Entertainment Enterprises problem because it owns the trademark on the Greenhouse name outside of New York – and it had a $4 million deal to license the name in place before bad publicity from the fracas scuttled the deal.
The suit seeks to hold Drake and Brown, neither of whom have been charged criminally, responsible for the scuttled deal.
The pair “should have foreseen that their notoriety and celebrity would ensure that their acts had farreaching and devastating effects,” the suit says.
“Defendants’ conduct was beyond the bounds of reason,” the suit says, and they “intentionally engaged in violent and incredibly dangerous acts that they knew or should known would cause harm.”
It seeks $16 million in damages for their “gross negligence,” “ultrahazardous activity” and “intentional illegal acts.”
Entertainment Enterprises’s lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The company does not include any current owners of Greenhouse and WiP.
Reps for Brown and Drake did not return emails for comment, but has previously said he “did not participate in any wrongdoing” and “was on his way out of the club when the altercation began.”