Cardi B’s latest court proceedings: Plus more times celebs went viral for ridiculous trials

The lawsuit against Cardi B, brought forth by security guard Emani Ellis, recently went to trial and social media has been having a ball.

Accused of physically injuring the guard, the rapper not only has been made to answer some hard hitting questions, but was also targeted by rhetoric which was seen as being at least partially racist.

According to the BBC, “The case revolves around Cardi B’s arrival for an obstetrics appointment, when she was four months pregnant with her first child.”

While the hospital employee has claimed that she was merely excited to spot a celebrity at her workplace and ended up being assaulted for that, the music A-lister has claimed that the guard had invaded her personal space and made her feel concerned in her vulnerable state.

“Why were you concerned?” asked the petitioner’s attorney Ron Rosen at one point during the court hearings.

To which Cardi replied with an eyeroll, “Because I’m pregnant! And this girl is about to f****** beat my a**. Hello?”

In another moment, the lawyer questioned, “Yesterday you had black hair, short hair. Today it’s blonde and long. Which one is your real hair? Or are they both real?”

Users online believed that the question was “trying to enforce a racist stereotype of a black woman” pertaining to the Grammy winning artist’s appearance.

However, Cardi’s looks won people’s hearts anyway, as the Bodak Yellow hitmaker’s composure under pressure, sassy responses, and the absurdity of the whole thing went viral on the internet.

Commenting on the current situation of unbridled fascination with celebrities on trials, media lawyer Jonathan Coad said, “Now, everything is played out in real time on social media. In America, they have cameras in courts, so you can actually watch it all happening.”

Here’s a couple of other times A-listers have made a splash for some utterly ridiculous days in the court:

Gwyneth Paltrow ski lawsuit (2023)

Gwyneth Paltrow was dragged to the court by Terry Sanderson, who had claimed that the Goop founder greatly injured him when the pair collided into each other while skiing in Utah.

The case went viral due to the court directly live streaming the trial, as well as days of memorable witness testimonies and amusing facial expressions from the actress, who found the situation preposterous as she claimed that she was the one who was crashed into by the retired doctor from the back.

Finally, Gwyneth won the lawsuit brought against her for a symbolic $1, while stating, “I am pleased with the outcome and I appreciate all of the hard work of Judge Holmberg and the jury, and thank them for their thoughtfulness in handling this case.”

Ed Sheeran copyright lawsuit (2022)

Ed Sheeran was sued by Sam Chokri, a grime artist who goes by the stage name Sami Switch, for alleged similarities between the “Oh I” hook in the Grammy winner’s hit track Shape of You and the plaintiff’s own song called Oh Why.

Not only was the trial considered a ridiculous one as the musician argued that “There‘s only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music”, but he was also forced to sing Nina Simone’s Feeling Good and Blackstreet’s No Diggity while taking the stand, to prove that similar notes can be found everywhere.

Eventually, Ed triumphed in his case as Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled in favour of “compelling evidence that the ‘Oh I’ phrase originated from sources other than ‘Oh Why’.”

Katy Perry vs catholic nuns (2018)

Katy Perry sued Sister Catherine Rose and Sister Rita Callanan while she was trying to buy a convent in LA and the nuns refused the initially agreed deal — which the singer had struck with Archbishop Jose Gomez — due to their objections against the provocative nature of Katy’s music.

“I found her videos. I wasn’t happy with any of it,” Sister Rita told the LA Times.

Subsequently, the trial descended into chaos when Sister Catherine collapsed and died during the court hearing, and lost the case anyway because the court ruled in favour of Katy as the nuns were not authorised to sell the property in the first place — they needed the Vatican’s permission to sell the property themselves — while following this whole comedy of errors, the singer-songwriter did not go through with her own purchase after all.

Sofia Vergara vs Nick Loeb (2021)

Sofia Vergara’s ex-fiancé Nick Loeb filed separate lawsuits against her, in 2014 and 2017, for the custody of the embryos which the couple had frozen for future use.

The businessman and actor wanted to gain full control of the frozen embryos to use them for a potential surrogacy, effectively promising to release the actress of her parental obligations.

While Nick turned up a few notches on the scale of his case’s irrationality when he named the yet-to-be conceived embryos Emma and Isabella in his 2017 refiling, making them plaintiffs in the case, and Sofia was subsequently being sued by her own eggs.

In 2021 however, the Modern Family alum won the ridiculous case and it was ruled that Nick Loeb was not permitted to use the embryos without her consent.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s vaginal egg trial (2018)

Finally, the list shall be concluded by returning to another one of Ms. Paltrow’s infamously ridiculous brush with the law.

This time, we are recounting the time Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness brand Goop was sued by ten prosecutors from the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device (FDMD) for promoting Jade Egg — a vaginal detox tool — as the department countered the company’s claims, which propogated that their product helped “balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent uterine prolapse, and increase bladder control” by declaring that they were not founded in science, per Business Insider.

Other outrageous products sold by the company, like the Rose Quartz Egg and Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend (an oil which promised to cure depression), were also targeted in the suit.

Goop eventually had to pay a civil penalty worth $145,000 while the court ruling prohibited the company from making further claims about “the efficacy or effects of any of its products without possessing competent and reliable scientific evidence that substantiates the claims” — though it is hard to deduce if Gwyneth learned her lesson as she later released a vaginal candle called “This Smells Like My Vagina” and was sued once again by a customer who claimed that the product exploded in her care.