Publisher sues Sean Combs for not delivering book

NEW YORK - Random House is suing rap impresario Sean Combs, also known as P. Diddy, for $300,000 to recover an advance payment for an autobiography that was never delivered, the publisher said on Tuesday.

"Random House has seldom resorted to a legal course of action with its prospective authors who don't write the books we have contracted for, but Mr. Sean Combs has left us no choice," spokesman Tom Perry said in a statement.

Representatives of Combs did not return calls asking for comment on the suit filed against Combs and Bad Boy Books Inc. on Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

"He signed an agreement with our Ballantine imprint in 1998 to write his autobiography, which he agreed to complete and deliver to us in 1999," Perry said.

"We now have waited for over five years and have received neither the manuscript nor the return of the money we advanced Mr. Combs, the latter of which we have been seeking since 2001. We hope the court will help Mr. Combs do what is right," he said.

- REUTERS