Plenty to beef about: 2024’s most fired-up celebrity scraps
Kyle Sandilands picked scraps with everyone, Katy Perry called her lawyers, and Adrian the “Lambo Guy” was locked in his own legal stoush. Here are the biggest feuds and court cases of 2024.
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Superstar rappers brought the biggest beefs in 2024. Kendrick and Drake declared lyrical war, and Diddy faces the legal fight of his life. Meanwhile, Kyle Sandilands picked scraps with everyone, Katy Perry called her lawyers, and a pampered pooch went all the way to the Federal Court. Here are the biggest feuds and court cases of 2024.
Adrian “Lambo Guy” Portelli vs SA Consumer and Business Services Department
Lottery boss Adrian Portelli is facing a challenge to the legality of his business.
His company Xclusive Tech, which trades under the LMCT+ brand, is a lottery outfit.
Portelli shot to fame after buying houses on a popular renovation show. He also gives away cash, cars, shopping vouchers and food as part of his LMCT+ schtick.
But the SA Consumer and Business Services Department charged Portelli with nine counts of conducting or assisting in the conduct of an unlawful lottery.
Portelli, known as “Lambo Guy” due to his penchant for expensive cars, has insisted his company is a “membership reward service.”
But critics say the LMCT+ model preys on vulnerable people.
Portelli will face the South Australian Magistrates Court on January 15, 2025.
Grant Denyer vs Tom Gleeson
It wasn’t so much a feud, but more pot shots at prime time.
Quiz show king and Deal Or No Deal host Grant Denyer invited Hard Quiz disrupter on to the Network 10 game show.
And Denyer did his best to fire some Gleeson-level zingers at the snarky master.
“It was nice to welcome him on to a real game show with a real budget where people win real things,” Denyer sniped to Mumbrella. “His show Hard Quiz, there’s no stakes because you win a $20 plastic cup at the end of it, right? So all he does is, he gets nerds on to insult them and then sends them out the door with a cheap plastic cup.”
Whoa. Denyer played ... HARD!
Kyle Sandilands vs Steve Price
Broadcasting foes Kyle Sandilands and Steve Price unleashed an encyclopedia of insults at each other after the popular Sydney radio host entered the Melbourne breakfast market in 2024.
“Kyle’s a grubby buffoon, and I don’t think grubby buffoons work in Melbourne,” Price, a regular contributor on 10’s The Project said. “I probably shouldn’t call him a grubby buffoon. He’s just a grub.”
Kyle’s wrath was immediate. “It’s disappointing that as you’ve gotten older you have turned into a real piece of s--t,” he told Price in a voice message.
Later, Price said Sandilands had the “intellect of cumquat.”
Sandilands replied, and accused Price of being “as fake as a $2 note, a master of “feigned outrage,” and the c-word.
Sammy J vs Kyle S
Another gem from the Kyle file.
Comedian and breakfast radio host Sammy J taunted Kyle S after a ratings win in Melbourne.
“When I retired from Breakfast Radio in 2024, I was rating better than Kyle Sandilands. Sadly for both of us this means he will never beat me and I will forever live in his head as his eternal, uncatchable tormentor,” ABC broadcaster Mr J gloated on social media.
Naturally, a war of words erupted.
Mr S fired back: “I have never even heard of (Sammy J). What a deluded flog. I don’t know who you are, dog. No one knows who you are.”
When Sandilands’ co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson suggested the comedian was joking, Sandilands doubled down: “Jackie, he’s from the ABC. They don’t joke.”
Kyle Sandilands vs Melbourne
Oh dear. After bombasting frenemies Sammy J and Steve Price with abuse, Melbourne’s newest breakfast radio host, Kyle Sandilands, turned on the city he was trying to charm.
Following back-to-back ratings losses, Sandilands condemned Victoria’s largest metropolis.
“I blame everyone in Melbourne,” he said. “It is your fault, you are late to the party, you are pearl clutchers.”
Cyrell Paule vs Ian Thorpe
Cyclone Cyrell built a reputation as a hothead and loudmouth on a Channel 9 dating show.
Accordingly, she took that “brand” to 10’s Amazing Race Celebrity Edition, for her global gallivant with another reality show contestant Eden Dally.
But Paule dog-paddled into deep water when she attacked Olympic legend Ian Thorpe and his travelling companion, Christian Miranda.
After Miranda and the Thorpedo told Cyrell it wasn’t a MAFS episode, and she should chill, the cyclonic one responded angrily: “Yeah, and you ain’t swimming right now either!”
Katy Perry vs Katie Perry
It was a legal victory, and for pop megastar Katy Perry, an almighty roar.
Perry won a trademark feud in the Federal Court against Sydney designer Katie Jane Taylor, who runs the Katie Perry fashion label.
Justices David Yates, Stephen Burley and Helen Rofe said Ms Taylor’s trademark “was not validly registered.”
They added: “This case is an unfortunate one in the sense that two enterprising women in different countries each adopted their name as a trademark at a time that each was unaware of the existence of the other.
“Both women put blood, sweat and tears into developing their businesses. One became an internationally famous entertainer ... the other, a small Australian fashion designer.”
Ouch.
Oscar The Cavoodle vs A Current Affair
Gina Edwards, a Sydney barrister, and owner of a cavoodle named Oscar, won a defamation case against A Current Affair over broadcasts that wrongly depicted her as a dog thief.
Edwards said the Nine Network news show defamed her by making incorrect claims, including she was “a thief who stole Oscar the cavoodle.”
Federal Court judge, Justice Michael Wigney, ruled in Edwards’ favour and awarded her $150,000 in damages.
Meanwhile, Oscar the cavoodle rocked up to the court hearing wearing black robes and a red bandana inscribed with the words: “Justice.”
Kate Neilson vs Wayne Carey
Old wounds flared after AFL legend Wayne Carey’s former fiancee Kate Neilson said the controversial footballer had downgraded their relationship status and changed details of an infamous glassing incident.
Carey told a podcast that reports he glassed Neilson at a Miami restaurant in 2007 were “ludicrous.” He also said Neilson was a “a girl that I was seeing on and off,” adding: “I wouldn’t call her a girlfriend.”
Neilson said Carey’s updated account of the incident was “all lies,” adding: “He was locked up in jail for a reason.”
Neilson also said she dated Carey for four years, and “lived with him” for most of that time. She added: “I was engaged to him.”
Drake vs Kendrick Lamar
The undisputed mothership of feuds in 2024.
Feuding rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar were embroiled in an epic war of words and a volley of tit-for-tat diss tracks that climaxed with Lamar’s victorious rhyme, Not Like Us.
The New York Times described the lyrical jabs as “fullbore acrimony and unverifiable accusations” and “multiple songs littered with attacks regarding race, appropriation, sexual and physical abuse, body image, misogyny, hypocrisy, generational trauma and more.”
Lamar called Drake a “certified pedophile” in one song, while Drake rapped back, “I’ve never been with no one underage.”
Diddy
The biggest celebrity arrest of 2024 was followed by the most explosive charges.
Music mogul and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs is awaiting a trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Combs has been in custody since his arrest in September.
In addition to the criminal case, Combs is facing lawsuits from at least 17 people who have accused the Bad Boy Records boss of sexual assault, rape and sexual exploitation.
Combs has pleaded not guilty in the criminal trial.
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