Lawsuit Reveals Belinda Carlisle Is One Fickle Go-Go (UPDATED)

Update: Go-Go's Fire Back at Ousted Bassist Kathy Valentine's Lawsuit (June 25, 2013)

And you thought the Eagles were drama queens.

In an explosive new lawsuit, Belinda Carlisle has been revealed as the driving force behind the ouster of Go-Go's bassist Kathy Valentine -- if not the instigator -- something I reported first back in March. (Told you so, anonymous-es.) Valentine is suing for a cool million bucks (plus) alleging her bandmates of over 30 years -- Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin and Gina Schock -- colluded to form a new company that could "license" the name, brand and trademark of the Go-Go's, of which Valentine is a 20 percent partner, and go on as a band without her. By sidestepping the band's longstanding arrangement, the suit alleges they sought to increase their earnings by only having to split things four ways. The legal mumbo jumbo is detailed in legalese for you HERE, but the real story -- no surprise -- is the fact that Queen Belinda is exposed as the conniving mean girl that you always knew she was in real life. To think she told Joan Rivers she refused to do a Go-Go's reality show because she was afraid the producers would edit(!) things to make her look like a diva. Get a load of this.

Before Belinda set her sights on kicking Kathy to the curb -- something that Jane and Gina (you're a dyke? what a) Schock orchestrated by getting Belinda's son to point out portions of Kathy's brilliant Twitter memoir that they knew would incense his mother -- Carlisle had decided she would rather end the band completely than work with Jane anymore. (It doesn't say why, but these two have had issues in the past, issues that led to the original end of the band.) Jane, it should be noted, reacted to Belinda's decision by trying to convince the other members that they should go on with a new lead singer(!), an idea Valentine objected to.

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No sooner did Belinda call off the end of the band, she decided she wanted to "get rid of" Charlotte Caffey, saying "it's her or me. She is selfish, destructive and a liar." She also claimed Jane and Gina felt the same way. This apparently was a result of Charlotte's refusal to split royalties related to a proposed musical about the band.

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Most recently, Jane and Gina got angry about Kathy's Twitter memoir -- in particular things about drug use -- and, from what I gather, Kathy's desire for the band to try new things instead of rehashing the same 30-year-old set list. Rather than confronting Kathy directly, Jane and Gina got Belinda to do their dirty work, an obvious admission of the fact that what Belinda says goes. As detailed in the lawsuit, Kathy was apologetic and immediately removed all tweets others found objectionable and when that wasn't enough, Valentine deleted the entire account. (It's worth noting that these were tweets that said nothing about drug use that each of the band members had not already discussed at length in various "Behind the Music" and other interviews.) After being repeatedly assured that everything was OK, Kathy eventually received the following e-mail from Belinda, in which she not only fires her, she threatens her with a lawsuit, even though it was the Go-Go's who were conspiring to illegally push her out of the band.

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Again, Valentine was apologetic and tried to work things out -- like an adult might -- asking for a face-to-face meeting with the entire band, but was told that Belinda was "too busy to listen" to whatever Kathy had to say and that "nothing she can say or do can change my mind." Can change "her" mind? And you thought the Go-Go's were a band.

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So according to my scorecard, Belinda has tried to fire Charlotte, Kathy and herself -- to get out of working with Jane. The only person she doesn't seem to have a bone to pick with is Gina, who rather ironically was the first Go-Go to drive a major legal wedge through the band when she sued Charlotte over royalties 20 years ago  Will be interesting to see how this plays out. The Go-Go's were the rare '80s bands that had all of its original members and now that they don't, it's time for them to call it a day. That the woman they have lined up to play bass this summer is a close friend of Valentine's, whom she hired to fill in for her when she broke her wrist last year, only makes the entire situation more unseemly. 

Four words for the four remaining Go-Go's: Grow the fuck up. 

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UPDATE: And for those who say this is only Kathy's "side" of the story -- like there is more than one side of the story of a band forming a corporation to try to push one member out and rob her of her livelihood -- I give you this "objective" assessment of her Twitter memoir (above). A hundred bucks says Jane Wiedlin wrote it! (Gina will want her cut of that $100, by the way.)

UPDATE 2: An anonymous source writes on a Go-Go's message board:

It Will Soon Be Revealed.... 

Now in this whole messy Go-Go's situation, prepare yourselves for the following developments:

1. We will soon find out the "real" reason that broke the proverbial camel's back, as to why the four women who refer to themselves as the Go-Go's dumped Kathy

2. Prepare to be bummed as hell when the Go-Go's pull out of the tour dates with the B-52's, and cancel altogether the dates where they are the single act on the bill for this summer

3. Prepare to read an equally shocking rebuttal brief from the four women who refer to themselves as the Go-Go's that will detail even more gut-wrenching revelations about the band in recent years

4. Prepare to have your hearts and perceptions shattered of the Go-Go's as mature, fully realized women, who have moved beyond their acrimony of the past 5. Prepare to see Jane begin selling her undergarments once again on-line, since her anticipated summer income is no more