Random House, Inc. is suing Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, alleging that he never paid back a $300,000 advance for a memoir he never completed.
“He signed an agreement with our Ballantine imprint in 1998 to write his autobiography, which he agreed to complete and deliver to us in 1999,” said the publisher in a statement. “We now have waited for over five years and have received neither the manuscript nor the return of the money we advanced Mr. Combs.”
According to court papers, Combs signed with Random House, then arranged on his own to collaborate with author Mikal Gilmore to complete a manuscript by Dec. 15, 1999. In 2001, Combs sued Gilmore for allegedly ditching him after accepting $325,000 to work on the book, but the case was suspended, then dismissed, after Gilmore filed for bankruptcy.
Combs’ publicist says, “We anticipate that this will be resolved quickly.”