Rapper Courts Paris?and a Cast of Dozens
E! Online, Aug 24, 2007 12:33 pm PDTWhat with Paris Hilton, Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart and many, many more on the guest list, it could be the biggest collection of stars since Diddy's last birthday party.
And, yes, Diddy's also invited.
The occasion is not a bash, but a court battle being waged by a Detroit-based rapper against the Great White North.
On Tuesday, Jerome Almon subpoenaed dozens of notables—from Paris to Oprah, from Mick Jagger to Snoop Dogg—as part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging racial profiling at the Canadian border.
"I'm 100 percent serious," Almon tells E! Online.
Head of the Detroit label, Murdercap Records, Almon says that he wants black celebrities, i.e., Oprah, to testify of being hassled at the U.S.-Canadian border, while he wants previously jailed white celebrities, i.e., Hilton and Stewart, to testify of being treated to the "red carpet" at the same border.
Almon, who is black, and claims to belong to the category of the racially profiled, filed a $900 million federal lawsuit in January.
Canadian officials, he insists, "think my music is too gangsta. They call it audio porn." He claims the country's immigration and customs agency has a "personal vendetta" against him.
Indeed, the 42-year-old, whose rap handle is Slikkfordays, is no stranger to showdowns north of the border.
A 2004 press release issued by Almon noted that he'd been called before the Canadian Human Rights Commission to address his discrimination allegations. Then as now, Almon prepared an A-list witness list that included DMX, Jay Z, 50 Cent, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and late soul legend Wilson Pickett.
The parade of stars never materialized. And, as a law professor told the Detroit News, it probably won't happen this time, either.
While a litigant can subpoena whoever he wants, the paper said, citing an observation by University of Detroit Mercy School of Law professor Lawrence A. Dubin, he can't necessarily get whoever he wants, because the subpoena recipient can ask the court to void the request.
"I think that autograph-seekers should not start lining up for the event," Dubin told the Detroit News.
But Almon disagrees.
"I might not be well known by the public, but [the celebrities] know who I am," he says. He's also confident that he will emerge triumphant in his legal war.
"Come hell or high water Canada better get ready, 'cause I'm coming."
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