Drama in the UK: It may be hard to believe, but alongside the incessant drama of the royal family, the kingdom is now preoccupied with a new scandal centered on a lawsuit by "Britain's Got Talent" judge David Walliams, who accuses FremantleMedia, the production company behind the reality show, of violating the privacy protection clause in the law and illegally leaking information that led to his retirement from the show after a decade as a judge and winning the Best Judge award four times.
Walliams, 52, a British comedian, screenwriter, writer and actor (who, along with his former partner Matt Lucas, is behind the hit British series "The Little Kingdom," in which he also starred), found himself at the center of a high-profile storm last year after transcripts of conversations recorded during the filming of the musical reality show in 2020 were published on the British website The Guardian, revealing, among other things, the use of harsh and blunt language by Walliams aimed at several contestants while filming auditions for the show.
Walliams was accused, among other things, of calling one of the contestants, a retired adult, "Cunt" after failing to audition and having cynical discussions with the judges during the audition.
Simon Cowell, Photo: IETV
In another blatant incident that was leaked, Walliams used objectifying language about a contestant walking off stage, describing her as "the slightly boring girl you meet in a pub and think you want to her and then realize you don't", adding: "I had a little erection, but now it's gone, it's literally shrunk back into my body."
In response to the publication, Walliams' lawyers and the show's producers argued that these were private conversations that were never intended to be broadcast, with Walliams also issuing an apology for the offensive comments he made, stressing that these were private conversations with his fellow judges who should not have been leaked and published. The production company said at the time that it regarded Walliams' comments as private, but stressed that the language he used was inappropriate.
Simon Cowell, Photo by GettyImages
Despite the repentance on his part, after a decade of judgment and two weeks after the apology, Eliams Speck retired and was pushed out/fired from the reality show, and now he chooses to sue his insult in court in a lawsuit he filed last Thursday for an undisclosed but reportedly significant amount of damages. British media also reported that although Walliams is not suing format creator Simon Cowell personally, their relationship is very strained.
As of this moment, no official response has been received from the production.
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