TONI BRAXTON - BRAXTON SUES FORMER PERSONAL MANAGER

Grammy Award winner TONI BRAXTON is taking her former personal manager to court, claiming he owes her at least $10 million (GBP5.2 million) for deceptively convincing her to switch record labels. Braxton filed suit in US District Court in Manhattan yesterday (12JAN07) accusing BARRY HANKERSON of profitting from her jump from Arista Records to his own label in 2003. She had been with the company since 1991. The suit reads, "Hankerson actively sought to destroy Braxton's relationship with Arista through underhanded 'double-talk,' telling Braxton that Arista was not interested in working with her anymore, while telling Arista that Braxton no longer wanted to record for Arista." Hankerson was employed by the singer in 1997. She claims she has since tried to fire Hankerson as her personal manager but he refused to relinquish control of her career or communicate with any of several other personal managers she hoped to employ.