LOOKING FINE, RIRI: Rihanna says hi to fans in London the day after claiming she was too sick to give a deposition. (
)
Rihanna blew off a deposition in a lawsuit she filed against her ex-accountants — because she had a LeBron James hangover.
The pop star’s diva-like disappearing act came after attorneys for the Manhattan-based accounting firm Berdon LLP flew to London to question her, but she claimed she was too ill to talk.
It turns out that the “Diamonds” singer may have actually been up all night watching James and the Miami Heat play game six of the basketball finals, on their way to a second straight NBA title.
The game lasted into the wee hours of June 19, London time. At about 4:15 a.m., Rihanna tweeted “#KINGJAMES.” She also sent out a celebratory retweet saying, “Big up yaself bosh,” in apparent support of James’ teammate Chris Bosh.
Rihanna later had her people inform the attorneys that she was too unwell to answer questions that day.
The lawyers for Berdon were furious at the sudden cancellation and went to court last week to complain that the pop star had sent them on a “wild goose chase.”
In a court filing, the firm’s attorneys wrote to Judge Kevin Castel: “There is ample reason to believe [Rihanna’s] illness was a pretext . . . Internet research reflects that she sent out a ‘tweet’ at approximately 5 a.m. London time.
“The only reasonable conclusion to reach is that (a) [Rihanna] was tired the morning of June 19, having stayed up all night, and did not want to be bothered with a deposition; or (b) this case simply is not enough of a priority for her to comply with the orders.”
They also said Rihanna “does not see herself as being burdened with the same obligations of other, ordinary litigants.”
The London no-show wasn’t the only time Rihanna failed to answer questions, the accounting firm’s attorneys said. She pushed back a deposition originally set for no later than April 19 in Los Angeles to the middle of May — and then nixed that because of a concert at Barclays Center.
Both sides later agreed to the meeting in London, where her lawyers are headquartered, at a time she would be in town for a concert.
When questioned about the June 19 London debacle, the singer’s lawyers repeated her claim of illness.
And when confronted with her basketball tweets, Rihanna’s lawyer Edward Estrada said in court Friday that he “has not looked” at her Twitter account and that she could have been sleeping and woken up to tweet — or perhaps “someone else handles her Twitter account.”
Judge Castel is giving Rihanna another chance to be deposed in the suit — in which she claims Berdon’s shoddy bookkeeping led the IRS to audit her.
He has ordered a deposition in August and said that he will consider dismissing the case if Rihanna is again absent.
He also ordered her to pay $100,000 to compensate travel expenses and hourly billing for lawyers for both sides, according to legal papers.