Jamie McCarthy/Getty ImagesFollowing her ouster on Monday, former Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan filed a supplemental charge against the organization, claiming it provides “significant additional information and evidence” of alleged attempts to influence the nominations process by the Academy and longtime Grammy Awards executive producer Ken Ehrlich.
The supplemental charge, filed by Dugan’s lawyers on Tuesday, cites an email from Ehrlich that allegedly implies a superstar artist would be more likely to perform on the Grammy Awards telecast if that artist received a nomination.
The email, sent to Dugan and the Recording Academy’s interim CEO and president Harvey Mason, reads in part, “looking at the [American Music Awards] nominations this morning, it’s more about who’s NOT there than who is…..and [superstar] is definitely not gonna be happy. minor representation at best.”
“I think there’s a case to be made to [superstar] that a performance of [song] from [album] on our show, should it be nominated,’” the email continues, “‘and that a blowout performance of that song, which IS a Grammy song, might.”
Erlich, in the email goes on to write there “should there be some discussion in a certain room at your meetings next week for Record, Album and Song, and if it involves making a choice between [one album] vs. [a second album], my thought from knowing [superstar] since [superstar] was a child, is that [superstar] might see the wisdom of a [sic] performance [of a song from the second album]…I’m jus [sic] sayin.”
“Gotcha. Thanks Ken,” Mason replies.
Dugan also claims to have new evidence of the Academy’s efforts to retaliate against her, particularly after her legal complaint of January 21, in which she she “exposed alleged misogyny, sexual harassment, discrimination and corruption, including voting irregularities, at the Academy.”
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