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Taylor Swift is saying that she may not perform at the American Music Awards and may have to put other projects including a forthcoming Netflix documentary on hold because the men who own her old recordings won't allow her to play her songs. "Right now my performance at the AMAs, the Netflix documentary and any other recorded events I am planning to play until November 2020 are a question mark," Swift said Thursday on Twitter and Instagram. Swift said she had planned to play a medley of her hits when she's named Artist of the Decade at the American Music Awards on Nov. 24 but that the men who own the music, Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, are calling the television performance an illegal re-recording. "I've tried to work out this out privately through my team but have not been able to resolve anything," Swift said. But, in a statement Friday, the Big Machine Label Group said that "at no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs or block her Netflix special. In fact, we do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere." The 29-year-old singer-songwriter's old master recordings are owned by Braun, who acquired Borchetta's Big Machine Label Group in June. In the posts, Swift said that Borchetta told her he will allow the projects to go forward if she drops plans to record copycat versions of her older songs next year, which Swift says she has the legal right to, and if she stops publicly trashing the two men. "The message being sent to me is very clear," Swift said. "Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you'll be punished."

Mo'Nique has filed a race and sex discrimination lawsuit against Netflix over its offer for a proposed comedy special, accusing the streaming service of making a low-ball offer that was part of a larger company tendency to underpay black women. The 51-year-old comedian and Oscar-winning actress, whose real name is Monique Angela Hicks, says Netflix officials were effusive in their praise of her work before they offered her $500,000 in early 2018 for a comedy special and refused to negotiate further. The suit says that stands in contrast to deals reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars for comedy specials from Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, Dave Chapelle and Ricky Gervais, and that the streaming service was willing to negotiate with other comics. In a statement, Netflix denied the lawsuit's allegations. "We care deeply about inclusion, equity, and diversity and take any accusations of discrimination very seriously," the statement said. "We believe our opening offer to Mo'Nique was fair -- which is why we will be fighting this lawsuit."

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Invision

Taylor Swift

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Invision

Mo'Nique

A Section on 11/16/2019

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