Alanis Morissette Sues Former Tour Manager, Alleging Blackmail Over a Seized Bag of Drugs

Alanis Morissette has filed a federal lawsuit accusing her former tour manager of running a "calculated blackmail campaign" built around a bag of drugs seized by British customs officers in the summer of 2025. The complaint, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, names Keren Urinov, an Israeli live-events executive who managed the singer's 2025 World Tour, as the defendant.

According to the complaint, British Border Force agents stopped Urinov at Farnborough Airport on July 12, 2025, as she traveled from the United Kingdom toward Spain, and found marijuana and xylazine, a non-opioid veterinary tranquilizer, in her luggage. Morissette's lawyers say that after the tour wrapped, Urinov's representatives sent a series of what the filing calls "increasingly extortionate letters," warning that Urinov would tell British authorities the drugs belonged to Morissette unless the singer signed her to a 15-year contract as full-time tour director, with steep raises, bonuses and, according to the complaint, access to a U.S. immigration attorney attached.

What the lawsuit claims

Morissette's suit, brought by entertainment attorney Howard King of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, asserts claims of civil extortion, fraud and negligent misrepresentation. It was filed in federal court on diversity grounds, seeking a jury trial and damages exceeding the $75,000 threshold required for that jurisdiction, plus punitive damages. The complaint faults Urinov's handling of tour logistics as well, alleging a hotel-booking mistake that "no competent tour manager would have made" cost the production roughly $70,000, though it does not specify which city or dates were involved.

The negligent-misrepresentation claim turns on what Morissette's team says Urinov did not disclose when she was hired. According to the complaint, Urinov told the singer's team during her interview for the job that nothing in her background would complicate visas or international travel. The filing alleges she separately told members of the touring party, after the fact, that she had "been arrested once before," saying she was detained in Latin America years earlier over drugs concealed inside a surfboard, was released on bail and then left the country without authorization. Morissette's lawyers argue that history, left undisclosed at hiring, is exactly what surfaced at the Farnborough checkpoint.

"Morissette is the victim of a calculated blackmail campaign orchestrated by a disgruntled former tour manager," the complaint states.

The filing is blunt about why Morissette is suing rather than negotiating. It states that she "brings this lawsuit reluctantly" and "has no choice but to sue," adding that she "will not agree to work with an incompetent blackmailer for the next fifteen years or pay her a ransom under the gun." As of publication, neither Urinov nor an attorney representing her had issued a public response to the allegations.

How we got here

Urinov spent roughly nine years as head of operations for Live Nation's Israeli division before Morissette's team brought her on as tour manager for the 2025 run, according to the complaint and Urinov's own professional profile. The engagement covered a 2025 World Tour promoted through Live Nation's official listing, spanning roughly 22 dates across 17 countries in Europe and South America, timed to the 30th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill, the 1995 album that sold roughly 33 million copies worldwide and was certified 17-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The tour concluded in the U.K. in late July 2025, weeks after the airport search.

Morissette's complaint frames the airport incident as the origin of a dispute that escalated once the tour ended and Urinov's position was not renewed on the terms she sought. Rather than pursue the matter through ordinary employment or severance negotiations, the suit alleges, Urinov's camp used the threat of a drug-trafficking accusation as leverage for a long-term, highly compensated role that Morissette's team says she was not qualified to hold.

Who is affected, and what comes next

The dispute is not confined to the Los Angeles courtroom. According to reporting on the case, Urinov has separately sued Morissette in a British court, though the specific claims in that filing were not public as of this writing. That means the two sides are now litigating on opposite sides of the Atlantic over the same underlying events, a dynamic that could complicate scheduling and discovery in both cases.

Disputes in which a since-departed employee is accused of leveraging private information for a long-term contract or a payout are not unique to Morissette's camp. Mariah Carey sued a former personal assistant in 2018, alleging in a complaint covered by Courthouse News Service that the aide threatened to release secretly recorded footage unless paid $8 million; that case was resolved through a confidential settlement the following year. Such disputes can diverge sharply from an initial complaint's framing once discovery begins.

For Morissette, the litigation arrives as she continues to tour behind the Jagged Little Pill anniversary, following an October-through-November 2025 residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Coverage of the filing has spread quickly through music-industry outlets, with CBC News, Rolling Stone and other outlets noting the unusual specificity of the extortion allegations, including the 15-year term Urinov is said to have demanded.

What happens next

Urinov has not yet filed a formal response to the California complaint, and no hearing date had been set as of Wednesday. Federal civil defendants typically have 21 days to respond once served, meaning a substantive answer, a motion to dismiss, or a settlement could surface within the next several weeks. The parallel London proceeding adds a jurisdictional wrinkle that could shape how, or where, the underlying dispute is ultimately resolved, and attorneys on both sides will likely have to address whether either case should be stayed pending the other.