Ashanti

Ashanti gets bubbly with rapper beau Nelly at a recent Los Angeles dinner party for Napa Valley vintner Etoile’s sparkling wine.

R+B star Ashanti was shocked when she accidentally walked on stage during a New York fashion show and members of the audience mistakenly believed she was a model.

The ALWAYS ON TIME singer was backstage at the Fashion Week shows in New York City when she made a wrong turn and found herself on the catwalk, according to MSNBC’s The Scoop.

A witness explains, “(Ashanti) was waiting in the VIP room, (and) didn’t know the show had begun.”

Designer ALVIN VALLEY was in the middle of showing his collection when Ashanti awkwardly appeared onstage.

The singer happened to be wearing Valley’s clothes, causing some members of the crowd to wonder if she was making a cameo appearance in the show.

The onlooker adds, “She and her enormous bodyguard had to cross the stage to get to her seat.”

Multi-platinum artist Ashanti filed a federal lawsuit Jan. 27 over the unauthorized release of demos recorded more than eight years ago.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in New York, names as defendants Genard Parker, Ellenwood, Ga.-based TEAM Entertainment, German distributor ZYX Music, Australian companies Big Records Australia and Rajon Distribution, Japanese label Farm Records, and U.K. companies Simply Vinyl Recordings and Unique Corp.

In the suit Ashanti claims she recorded demos for Parker and T.E.A.M. to shop for a major-label deal when she was 16 years old. They failed to land a deal; the artist claims she never intended or authorized them to release the demos as an album.

In a separate lawsuit, TEAM and Genard won a $630,000 judgment against Ashanti last July for failing to allow them to produce additional albums for her in breach of a production agreement she signed as a teenager.

The current complaint alleges that last year, various editions of a compilation album called “Can’t Stop” appeared in the market with Ashanti’s name in large print and recent photographs of her on the covers. On two of the tracks she only sings background vocals, while on another she is not performing at all.
(more…)