Defiant Justin Bieber Dodges Selena Gomez Questions in Deposition

Twenty-year-old pop singer Justin Bieber – whose predilection for bad behavior is the subject of Rolling Stone’s current cover story – sat obstinately through a deposition last Thursday, when he gave curt, flippant answers to a lawyer representing a paparazzo who claimed one of Bieber’s bodyguards attacked him last June.

Throughout the four-and-a-half hour legal proceeding, which Bieber likened to a 60 Minutes interview at one point, he cursed out a woman, stormed out over a Selena Gomez question and claimed he does not know the R&B singer Usher who helped his career early on. (To Bieber’s credit, the singer told the lawyer he did not know a man named “Raymond Usher,” which is true considering the singer’s name is Usher Raymond.) TMZ furnished highlights from the deposition.

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“I don’t have to listen to anything you say,” Bieber told the lawyer for photographer Jeffrey Binion in one of the clips. In the same clip, he also said he does not know whether or not he has been to Australia and asked his own lawyer whether he had. And, at his most refractory, he argued with the photographer’s lawyer over whether cell phone camera footage was a “film” by definition. At other times, he shrugged and smirked and said he does not recall. He even winked at the camera.

When the subject of his ex-girlfriend, actress Selena Gomez, came up Bieber shook his head no and sniffed. “This isn’t journalism?” he asked. Then he put his head in his hand and later began waving his finger and repeatedly said, “Don’t ask me about her again.”

In another he compared the questioning attorney to Katie Couric. “Is this a news interview for you, because it’s not, it’s your deposition,” the lawyer said. “Do you understand that?” Bieber replied, “Yes, but I see what you’re doing.”

And in a final clip, which TMZ titled “Disrespectful/ Dumb Bieber,” the singer said that Usher’s name “sounds familiar.” And when the lawyer asked whether or not Usher was a confidant, Bieber furled his brow and said, “Yes?”

In related news, Bieber’s trial for his DUI began on March 3rd. The charges stem from an incident in January when he was spotted drag-racing and swore at police officers during his arrest. A video of Bieber administering a urine test was released in association with that trial.

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Meanwhile, Bieber recently made an impromptu appearance at South by Southwest. In a video posted on YouTube, he sang an acoustic version of “As Long as You Love Me” to an elated audience.