‘Puffy’ Combs Suing Writer Over Book Deal

Hip-hop star Sean “Puffy” Combs on Tuesday sued writer Mikal Gilmore, contending the music critic failed to deliver a promised biography of Combs despite being paid $325,000.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeks the return of the money and alleges that Gilmore breached his contract. The complaint says the book proposal was accepted in 1998 by Random House Inc., a division of Bertelsmann, the world’s fourth-largest media company.

Gilmore, a longtime critic for Rolling Stone and other magazines, was scheduled to begin on the book project full time last March, the complaint says. Instead, Gilmore said last April that he would only serve as a consultant on the book with an unnamed substitute author, the complaint says.

“In the end, [Combs] paid defendant Gilmore $325,000, even though defendant Gilmore failed and refused to produce a draft--let alone a final manuscript of Mr. Combs’ autobiography,” the complaint says.

Combs runs Bad Boy Entertainment and owns restaurants and a fashion line. His book project is being run by Bad Boy Books Inc., according to the complaint.

Combs is on trial in New York, accused of gun possession and bribery in connection with a shooting at Club New York on Dec. 27, 1999. His publicist, Nathalie Moar, said Tuesday that Combs “is simply seeking the return of all monies that have been paid. . . . Despite repeated attempts to obtain his cooperation, Mr. Gilmore failed to honor his contractual commitment.”.

Gilmore’s lawyer, John T. Williams, was not available for comment Tuesday.

The book agreement was hatched after Gilmore wrote a 1997 article about Combs in Rolling Stone.