This Week in Gossip #8

Lawsuits aplenty and Kevin Spacey’s creepiness help to conclude 2023.

Happy Hogmanay, fellow gossipers. I hope you had a lovely holiday season and are cozied up for the new year (or out partying, if you’re far more extroverted than me!) Let’s get one more TWIG in before 2023 closes its doors. Time stops for no celebrity, although this past week was obviously a little quieter than usual.

1. Woman Who Sued Nicki Minaj and Husband Kenneth Petty Over Attempted Rape Amends Lawsuit; Minaj Still Awful

A woman who sued Nicki Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty over the latter's attempted rape of her is has been suing the couple for a while now. She initially filed against the pair after alleging that Minaj had called her up in 2020 to get her to recant her accusations against Petty (he pleaded guilty to attempted rape after the incident in 1994.) Now, Minaj has been removed as a defendant, but Petty is still being sued and Minaj is mentioned frequently in the amended suit.

Meghann Cuniff has been covering the case on her newsletter, Legal Affairs and Trials, and notes that Petty is currently on house arrest. He’s been on federal probation since pleading guilty in 2021 to failing to register as a sex offender. Petty agreed to serve up to 120 days “for making threatening remarks toward a specific individual while in the company of someone with a criminal record,” according to Fitzgerald order. Said individual is Offset, the rapper and now-estranged husband of Cardi B. Petty was a big enough loser to make these threats on social media.

I must admit that I am not exactly eager to cover anything about Minaj that could inspire the Barbz to get their claws out. Even by the high/low standards of zealous stans, the Minaj obsessives are especially cruel. Fandoms are used to defending their favourites from various accusations, minor or otherwise. It’s practically part of the online stan licencing exam. That often means you see these ardent fans engaging in wild behaviour, like smearing victims of attempted rape because that rapper you like married a total scrub with a long criminal record. The Barbz are not unique in this regard, alas, but their virulence is, even by the standards of out-there social media madness.

They often seem proud of the fact that Minaj is so mean, to put it mildly. Sure, they defend her with the usual lines – oh, the victim is lying, why don’t you look into [other celebrity] instead, you’re jealous of her sales, etc – but then you see people who just don’t care about stuff like this. It’s part of Nicki’s appeal to them, a more petulant version of a ‘90s rap beef, albeit with lazier samples. They either don’t care when Minaj harasses her husband’s victim or when she aligns herself with 6ix9nine or when she offers financial support to her sex offender brother, or they think it’s badass.

The Barbz came out for her newest album too. Pink Friday 2 debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, although it was knocked off after one week thanks to the endless juggernaut of Taylor Swift re-releases. Reviews were overall pretty good. I’ve heard her stuff a lot on Instagram and TikTok videos, which is a thing music has to do now, apparently. Like, she doesn’t need to be this kind of person! She doesn’t need to endlessly sh*t on every female rapper who doesn’t kiss the ring or, you know, marry a registered sex offender who can’t even leave the house right now!

And, of course, when she did the bare minimum to promote this album, like a Vogue profile (which we discussed in a previous This Week in Gossip), nobody asked her about any of this. They dare not risk losing precious access to their celebrity, even to question her on active lawsuits or matters of sexual abuse. Because, again, cancel culture isn’t real. Speaking of…

2. Accused Serial Sex Offender Kevin Spacey Teams Up With Tucker Carlson For Last Gasp of Relevance

Is there a recent holiday tradition more sinister than surprise Kevin Spacey videos? He’s like the Elf on the Shelf for those with more allegations against them than fans. Following the public revelation of multiple accusations of sexual misconduct made against the actor, Spacey left the public eye for a while but keeps emerging like grabby crabgrass. Almost every Christmas over the past five years or so has seen him drop a festive (?) video that feels like a public threat. Usually, he’s in character as Frank Underwood from House of Cards, doing that Foghorn Leghorn accent and making thinly veiled threats about his comeback and dealing with his enemies. Somehow, the 2023 video is even creepier because he tapped in Tucker Carlson to turn it into a faux-interview. No, I’m not going to link to it. No, I don’t think you should waste your time watching it. It’s still the holiday season. Be nice to yourself.