Jenn An, a former contestant on “America’s Next Top Model,” sued Kanye “Ye” West for an alleged incident of sexual assault and strangulation that took place in 2010 on the set for a music video for La Roux’s “In for the Kill.”
The music video was filmed “on or about Sept. 7, 2010” in a suite at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. An states that West chose her to be one of the female background actors and models, saying, “Give me the Asian girl.” She claims she told the rapper, “I’m not wearing very much,” to which he is said to have replied, “That’s why I chose you.” The suit, as obtained and reviewed by TheWrap, states that she was “only wearing revealing lingerie.”
West is said to have ordered the other background actors and models to leave and
“[began] filming the sexual assault to which he was about to subject Plaintiff.”
An said that West strangled her with both hands, then “rammed several fingers down her throat, continuously moved them in and out, and gagged her (which Plaintiff believed lasted for over a minute) to emulate forced oral sex, and screamed, ‘This is art. This is f–king art. I am like Picasso.’”
Interscope and Universal Music Group are also named in the suit, which was filed in New York Friday, for allegedly enabling West to “gag Plaintiff on a music video set, without consequence.”
The lawsuit goes on to state that West’s “gendered, hateful, and abusive controversies were a brand, which was too profitable for Defendant Universal Music to intervene, despite his unlawful conduct.”
Citing the rapper’s alleged violations of New York’s Gender Motivated Violence Act, the model and actress seeks a trial by jury for punitive damages, attorney costs and “damages for mental, emotional and physical injury, distress, pain and suffering and injury to reputation.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Universal Music Group and its named affiliates “systematically discriminates against women, by continuing to work with artists with well-documented histories of sexual harassment and discrimination” and that both record labels and “other high-profile figures within the industry [tried to] ‘bury’ the incident.”
An, who identifies herself as a “feminist that believes in equal rights for all — including my Black, disabled, trans and immigrant/refugee friends” in her social media bios, has garnered a number of modeling and acting credits since her time on “ANTM” in 2009, notably appearing in standalone episodes of “The Mindy Project,” “Criminal Minds” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
West, who has been hit with a number of lawsuits and workplace allegations in recent months, could not be reached for comment on this story. Representatives for Universal Music Group did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
