‘American Idol’ Exec Hits Back at Paula Abdul’s ‘Intolerable’ Sexual Assault Allegations

Nigel Lythgoe, a former powerhouse producer of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, accused Paula Abdul of being a “well-documented fabulist” in court documents filed Friday, part of his formal response to her accusation that he sexually assaulted her twice in the early aughts.

In late December, Abdul alleged that Lythgoe had assaulted her twice—once during her stint as a judge on Idol, where she worked from 2002 to 2009, and again as she judged So You Think You Can Dance from 2015 to 2016. In her lawsuit, filed under a California law that allows adults to file sexual assault claims past the statute of limitations, Abdul said that Lythgoe cornered her in an elevator early into her Idol tenure, groping her and “shoving his tongue down her throat” before she was able to escape.

Lythgoe, 74, denied Abdul’s claims at the time, saying in a statement that he was “shocked and saddened” by the lawsuit’s filing, which he claimed he’d been blindsided by.

Read more at The Daily Beast.