Lawsuits cloud Chet Hanks' much-hyped 'White Boy Summer' - Los Angeles Times
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While Chet Hanks celebrates ‘White Boy Summer,’ his ex is suing, alleging domestic abuse

Chet Hanks and Rita Wilson.
Chet Hanks and his mom, Rita Wilson, arrive at a Golden Globes after-party in January 2020.
(Richard Shotwell / Associated Press)
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Oh, Chet Hanks. What to do with you?

The eldest son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson released his hardly anticipated “White Boy Summer” video Wednesday amid an escalating legal battle with his ex-girlfriend, Kiana Parker, who alleged domestic abuse in a $1-million civil lawsuit filed this week.

Credited to Chet Hanx, the profane video for the song features the 30-year-old rapping about women, strip clubs, money and online adult entertainment. Sample lyrics:

I met a bad little shawty at a party dance
Gettin’ to the bag like it was her only chance
Rich b—, known rollin’ up them bands
Said “f— it,” then she went and made an OnlyFans

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In the video, which was approaching 300,000 YouTube views Thursday afternoon, the tatted Hanks flips off the camera while frolicking at the beach with a host of women of color in butt-baring swimwear and micro-shorts. Several of them twerk on their hands and knees in the sand, while in two shots Hanks lets two women’s twerking buttocks bounce off his face. Twice.

Chet Hanks, the eldest son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, has floored the internet once again by declaring a “white boy summer” on Instagram.

March 29, 2021

Hanks, who has gone to rehab and who discussed his cocaine and crack abuse in 2015, parades around with a half-empty bottle of malt liquor and wraps himself in the Jamaican flag, then shows off a massive pile of weed.

“Put respect on my name the next time you see me,” Hanks raps, a few seconds before a woman in a red, white and blue bikini top uses both hands to jiggle her breasts.

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There’s even a website hawking merchandise emblazoned with the phrases “Black Queen Summer,” “White Boy Summer,” “Stop Hate” and “All Praise” in a Gothic-style fonts, for those who want to emulate Chet. The items, marketed by a guy who once used “hip-hop culture” to defend his use of the N-word, have been called racist by some social media users.

The phrase “White Boy Summer” echoes two well-worn 2019 internet obsessions: Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl Summer” meme and, well, “White Claw Summer.”

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And that’s enough about that, except to note that the video comes after social media roasted Hanks in late March for an Instagram post where he said he felt a “white boy summer” coming on.

“Take it how you want. I’m not talking about Trump, NASCAR-type white,” he said in that video. “I’m talking about me, Jon B., Jack Harlow-type white boys, you know what I mean? Let me know if you guys can vibe with that, and get ready. ‘Cause I am.”

One journalist tweeted in response, “You will never convince me that Chet Hanks is anything but an elaborate prank designed by Hollywood execs to test the limits of Tom Hanks’ marketability.”

On a far more serious note, Hanks and ex-girlfriend Kiana Parker have been suing, countersuing and taking other legal action against each other for the last couple months, since he broke off the relationship after she allegedly had stolen from him.

First, Parker filed for and obtained a restraining order against Hanks after a Jan. 8 dispute at his home in Sugar Land, Texas, citing abuse that allegedly started in October. That dispute apparently happened the day after Hanks ended the relationship, which began in 2019.

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In early March, Hanks filed a civil suit in L.A. County, alleging that Parker had stolen almost $20,000 worth of goods and credit from him and assaulted him with a pot and a knife. It was unclear whether Hanks reported anything to law enforcement.

According to the lawsuit, reviewed by The Times, he had ended their relationship the day before the fight after discovering she’d allegedly used his debit card to pay for almost $6,000 in travel expenses and rent.

A day after confronting Parker about the alleged theft, Hanks was packing to return to Los Angeles, the suit said, when Parker brought three “menacing large men” to the house. One of them allegedly revealed a gun. It was then that the alleged assault occurred, according to the suit. Hanks also accused Parker of taking a couch, a king-size bed, a TV and miscellaneous items worth $13,700.

Video taken after their alleged fight went public at the end of March, and while Hanks appeared in it with a bloody forehead, no menacing men were to be seen.

Then on Tuesday, Parker filed a $1-million suit against Hanks in Fort Bend County, Texas, with her attorney alleging that the Hollywood scion had shown “an ever-escalating pattern of domestic abuse” that targeted Parker “mentally, physically and psychologically,” according to the New York Post.

Regarding the knife and pot that Hanks mentioned, Parker told a different story in a Jan. 12 affidavit included in her application for a restraining order, also reviewed by The Times. She said he put his hands on a knife that was on the kitchen counter and came toward her, with her female assistant there as a witness. Parker said she then grabbed a pot, swung it in the air, dropped it and ran outside.

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She also alleged that Hanks called her demeaning, race-based names and made bodily threats.

In addition to their hip-hop-ish offspring, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are parents to son Truman, 25, and grandparents to Michaiah, Chet’s daughter with Tiffany Miles. Actor Colin Hanks and actor-producer Elizabeth Hanks are Tom’s kids from his first marriage, to actor Samantha Lewes.

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