Tiffany Haddish, Aries Spears sued by family over “Through A Pedophile’s Eyes” video
The pair are being accused of "intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor"
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[Note: This article contains descriptions of sexually suggestive material involving a minor.]
Comedians Tiffany Haddish and Aries Spears are the subject of a new lawsuit this week, The Daily Beast reports. The two comics have been accused by “Jane Doe” and “John Doe,” two siblings who are now 22 and 14, respectively, of asking them to perform sexually suggestive acts for a pair of comedy sketches filmed 8 and 7 years ago, including one titled “Through A Pedophile’s Eyes.” The lawsuit was filed pro se (i.e., without legal counsel) on Monday, and accuses Haddish and Spears of “intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of a minor.” Haddish is also accused of “negligent supervision/failure to warn, breach of fiduciary duty, and constructive fraud.”
In the lawsuit, Jane Doe—now the legal guardian of her younger brother—describes both of the sketches, which the siblings were reportedly recruited for due to a friendship between their mother and Haddish. In her own incident, Jane Doe describes (both in the suit, and in an interview with The Daily Beast), being brought to a recording booth and shown a video of two college students suggestively eating a subway sandwich, and was then asked to mimic the sounds and motions. Here’s the DB report, describing the suit:
“Haddish verbally explained what was expected of Plaintiff Jane Doe and then showed Plaintiff Jane Doe how to give fellatio, including movements, noises, moaning, and groaning.” The lawsuit describes Spears allegedly looking on while a ‘physically, emotionally, and mentally uncomfortable’ Jane received this instruction.
Jane says it was eventually made clear to her that she wasn’t giving the desired performance; she was paid $100 and declined, at the time, to describe the incident to her mother.
A year later, Haddish allegedly approached the family again, claiming to want to film a “Nickelodeon sizzle reel” for John. Instead, he ended up filming “Through A Pedophile’s Eyes” with Haddish and Spears, a video—originally posted to Funny Or Die’s user-submitted section, and since deleted from both there, and Spears’ YouTube account—in which the former MadTV actor plays a pedophile leering at the then-7-year-old boy, who reportedly spends most of the video in his underwear. Although Jane says she was present at Spears’ house on the day of the shoot, she said Haddish ordered her to stay downstairs while the sketch was being filmed upstairs.
Here’s a description of the video from Daily Beast, which reviewed a recording of the video as part of its reporting:
During the sketch, the camera zooms in suggestively on the 7-year-old’s buttocks and crotch while he plays. Spears sprays baby oil onto the child’s back and massages it into his shoulders in one scene, and at another point the child plays with a train in a manner that suggests phallic masturbation. In another sequence, Spears smokes a cigarette while observing the child nude in a bathtub and pours water on his feet.
The lawsuit states that, after filming was done, “Mr. Doe called his mother crying, saying he did not want to film anymore.” Jane and John’s mother says she asked Spears to show her the footage that had been shot, but “Spears allegedly kept repeating that it had not yet been edited. Eventually, the lawsuit states that Spears claimed John had been so uncooperative that his footage had been deemed unusable and subsequently deleted.” (It’s not clear, from what we have access to, whether John’s footage was used in the eventually posted/now-deleted video, or whether another young actor ended up filming the scenes.) Meanwhile, Haddish allegedly told the mother “something to the effect of, ‘I don’t think acting is for him.’”
Both Jane and John have reportedly been in therapy since the incidents; the legal complaint includes a statement from John that the “Pedophile” sketch “fucked me up bad,” stating he now has a difficulty trusting adults, and a fear of being recorded.
The pair’s mother negotiated a settlement with Spears in 2019 over the video, but that agreement didn’t directly cover either Haddish—who reportedly declined to participate—or the siblings themselves, who are now pursuing their own legal approach. The lawsuit seeks “general and special damages, as well as ‘any appropriate statutory damages.’”
Spears reportedly hasn’t responded to requests for comments, but a lawyer for Haddish issued a statement this evening, asserting that “the plaintiff’s mother ‘has been trying to assert these bogus claims against Ms. Haddish for several years… Now, [the mother] has her adult daughter representing herself in this lawsuit. The two of them will together face the consequences of pursuing this frivolous action.’”
If you or someone you know is suffering from sexual abuse, contact the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
30 Comments
So the woman who said Will Smith slapping Chris Rock was the most romantic thing she’d ever seen has questionable opinions on what is and isnt okay?
To be fair, that’s a pretty good line.
It’s been quite a while since I last heard Aries Spears name come up. I do sometimes link to MADtv’s “Ain’t No Blacks (On the TV Screen)”, and the last movies I watched were Dolemite ones (which I didn’t realize were real when first seeing him parody the character on MAD). I can’t say I expect this to derail his career, both because it’s not on rails now and because pro se virtually guarantees a loss.
Guess Tuca’s gonna need a new voice actress…
Fat chance. If Zaslav wasn’t going to cancel it before, he’s DEFINITELY going to do it now.
I guess Spears is having one of those weeks that will really test the old “no such thing as bad publicity” adage, eh? I hadn’t heard about him in any context for a decade (I never watched MadTV and vaguely remember his Comedy Central half-hour, but that’s it), and suddenly I’ve heard about him both for making profoundly boneheaded comments about Lizzo and now this.Going to go on a limb and say this probably wasn’t the comeback he was hoping for.
In sure he cares a ton what you think
I read this and thought, “huh, Aries Spears is still around?” But it appears the answer is not now, and not in the future, either.
I keep wondering what it is about Haddish that people love so much. I haven’t found her, like, actively unpleasant or anything, but she has never struck me as either funny, insightful, or especially talented (though I concede she has some general charisma). No idea if these allegations are true (if they are, fucking yikes), but still, I just don’t get her popularity. I probably just don’t have the right sense of humor, but I genuinely wonder what it is that has so many people so enamored of her.
I remember a few years ago when the A.V. Club was constantly hailing her as the greatest thing since sliced bread; I’ve seen her in a few things since and just don’t get it. She was okay in Eric Andre’s Bad Trip, but only just.
I thought she was genuinely hilarious in Girls Trip, but in retrospect I’m not sure how much of it was because she was new to me. I haven’t found her to be at all funny in anything else I’ve seen; the other roles just seem to be inferior forms of her vulgarism and charisma that delighted me in said movie.
She’s so terrible in The Card Counter that it almost brings down the whole movie. So the “comedian doing drama” experiment has failed with her as well.
She’s basically perfect in Tuca & Bertie, but that’s about it (in my opinion anyway–obviously plenty of people like her)
Because she made a bunch of jokes about how terrible Trumpers are and how racist white people are.
She’s a black woman.
No, it’s not just you. I have nothing against her, but I don’t really enjoy her work. I guess I’m indifferent… well, until now.
Blimey! The sketch must have had an amazingly funny pay-off to be worth molesting a child for.
That Daily Beast article is pretty damning and specific, and a fucking rough read. Spears and Haddish being so dismissive of things that are clearly recorded on video and can be easily verified is really fucked up of them. Even if it was under the flimsy guise of a ‘comedy video’, I don’t see how anyone can see what was described as not sexually abusive or exploitative.I hope the plaintiffs get some kind of justice in this.
This is just fucked up all around but where the hell where the parents? Two minors filming sketches for grown and well known actors and no supervision? I mean they had a bad experience and then went back? Not of a fan of either of them but this sounds fishy. Spears and Haddissh were the only ones there? No other adults or crew around to corroborate?
Haddish was probably getting them to drink the turpentine to cure what ailed ‘em too!
We know this kind of thing is cool from Cuties, though, right? This very website called the backlash over that film ‘completely misguided, conservative outrage’ and by the sound of it that movie had way worse stuff in it than this sketch, and involving younger kids, too.
Yeeaaaahhhh… if you’re doing skit titled “Through a pedo’s eyes,” use adult actors who look young. See SNL’s skit with Buck Henry as the creepy uncle.ETA: Also, don’t shoot what’s basically a porno, Jesus.
Aries Spears
You named your kid after a war god and his favorite weapon?
Ares Spear = war god + weaponAries Spears = zodiac sign + parent’s last name.
No. Favourite star sign and favourite album by 1980s fusion band Tribal Tech. The same system was used by the parents of my high school chum Sagittarius Face First.
I’m sure their case will work out perfectly, despite not having actual lawyers to file it.
civil suit specs (meritless or not) perfectly paints faux-comic(s), inability pantomime clever or witty persona, determined to counterbalance deficient talent with compulsory, outlandish, stunt (video); in hopes of streamlining meteoric rise in fame, popularity, or success. layman’s: churlish pedo video sounds like something lackin comic/influencer might conjure after seeing McKay/Ferrell’s successfully popular, Funny or Die video submission, The Landlord (2007)
I got a really bad feeling from Haddish during her podcast with Conan. She seemed legitimately damaged and I came away feeling very sad for her. Then drips and drabs of other things came out – her thing with the vaccine on clubhouse, defending Cosby, not just defending Will Smith but actively valorizing him. It went from feeling bad for someone who had likely experienced abuse in the industry to feeling like this was someone who was also an enabler/defender of abusive practices. Not at all saying I expected something like this. But it’s so awful to see the cycle of abuse here. I hope the victims get some recompense.
Sizzle reel for Nickelodeon? If they’re weren’t lying, I wonder who asked them to do that…
Ewwwwwww. That’s gross. When I first heard about this, I was inclined to defend Haddish and Spears, not out of any sense of fandom or loyalty, but because I know most Hollywood productions are VERY careful about keeping the gristlier elements of the plot from the child actors as much as possible, even to the detriment of the scene… But this ain’t that. This is grown people being creepy as fuck to a child, and I don’t care if they were trying to be funny or not.
Tiffany Haddish is an abuse survivor, and that’s a whole ‘nother level of creepiness! Is she reenacting trauma unintentionally?