Category: Lawsuits

Hobbit Hostilities Escalate
Los Angeles (E! Online) – One ring might rule them all, but one lawsuit’s threatening the future of one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.
New Line Cinema cohead Bob Shaye has lashed out at The Lord of the Rings ringmaster Peter Jackson, calling the Oscar winner greedy for suing the studio over disputed profits from the first film in the trilogy. He also left little doubt that New Line considers the director persona non grata when it comes to future projects, including the highly anticipated big-screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
“I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me,” the studio chief told Sci Fi Wire while making the publicity rounds for his own directing effort, the family-friendly fantasy film The Last Mimzy. “It will never happen during my watch.”
Shaye, who made the gutsy decision to greenlight simultaneous production on all three Lord of the Rings films, took particular offense at what he said was the New Zealander’s “arrogance” and ungrateful attitude in the wake of his success.
“Not that I don’t think Peter is a good filmmaker and that he hasn’t contributed significantly to filmography and made three very good movies. And I don’t even expect him to say ‘thank you’ for having me make it happen and having New Line make it happen,” continued Shaye, who was an executive producer on the trilogy. “But to think that I, as a functionary in a company that has been around for a long time, but is now owned by a very big conglomerate, would care one bit about trying to cheat the guy…he’s either had very poor counsel or is completely misinformed.”
The executive was also irked when many of the LOTR stars declined to participate in a video celebrating New Line’s 40th anniversaryómainly, he believed, because of their affection for Jackson.
“I don’t care about Peter Jackson anymore,” Shaye said. “He wants to have another $100 million or $50 million, whatever he’s suing us for. He doesn’t want to sit down and talk about it. He thinks that we owe him something after we’ve paid him over a quarter of a billion dollars…Cheers, Peter.”
Such remarks would seem to put the kibosh on Frodo fanatics’ dreams of Jackson returning to Middle Earth and helming The Hobbit and possibly another prequel.
Of course, it’s possible both sides are simply engaged in high-stakes brinksmanship to get what they want.
In Shaye’s case, by cutting Jackson out of the franchise that made his career and won him a trio of Oscars, the executive might be able to leverage a settlement to his liking. On the other hand, he could simply be reacting to Jackson, who, in a preemptive move, tried to force New Line’s hand in late November by sending an open letter to theonering.net, voicing his issues with New Line.
In it, Jackson informed Tolkien devotees that the studio planned to move forward on The Hobbit without him, because New Line wanted to get the prequel in production before resolving his lawsuit.
The news prompted peeved fans to launch a letter-writing campaign urging the studio not to cut ties with the 45-year-old filmmaker or else face a boycott. In one hopeful sign, MGMówhich owns the distribution rights to The Hobbitótold E! Online the “game is not over” and Jackson was still a possibility to direct.
Meanwhile, in response to Shaye’s remarks this week, Jackson’s company fired back with a statement Thursday, calling his former boss’ comments “regrettable” and restating his case.
“Fundamentally, our legal action is about holding New Line to its contractual obligations and promises,” the filmmaker said. “It is regrettable that Bob has chosen to make it personal. I have always had the highest respect and affection for Bob and other senior management at New Line and continue to do so.
“But the studio was and continues to be completely uncooperative [regarding an open audit of the films’ books],” Jackson continued. “This has compelled us to file a lawsuit to pursue our contractual rights under the law. Nobody likes legal action, but the studio left us with no alternative.”
Jackson also balked at Shaye’s assertion that LOTR actors dissed the studio because of the bad blood between the filmmaker and the suits.
“I have never discussed this video with any of the cast of the LOTR. The issues that Bob Shaye has with the cast predate this lawsuit by many years,” Jackson said.
An unnamed person Jackson’s camp was quoted in Variety saying Shaye’s disparaging remarks were an attempt to put the focus on the millions of dollars Jackson made instead of any book-cooking on the studio’s part. The trade paper also reported that both parties appear to far from a settlement in the lawsuit.
Until that happens, Jackson has plenty to keep him busy. His next directorial effort, Alice Sebold’s ghost story The Lovely Bones, is due out later this year. He has also optioned Temeraire, a set of fantasy novels about dragons in the Napoleonic Wars, and is producing Dambusters, an effects-heavy remake of the World War II aerial battle drama.
One movie that’s temporarily off the drawing board is the Jackson-produced Halo. The videogame adaptation project was indefinitely shelved after Universal and 20th Century Fox pulled their financing, citing rising production costs and Jackson’s unwillingness to take a pay cut.

Procol Harum organist wins court case
LONDON – A judge awarded a 40 percent share in the copyright of “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” one of the most famous pop songs of all time, to a former organist for Procol Harum.
Lead singer Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid always claimed credit for the hit, which became part of the soundtrack for the hippy “summer of love” of 1967.
But in his ruling, the judge decided that organist Matthew Fisher was entitled to both credit and royalties.
“I have come to the view that Mr. Fisher’s interest in the work should be reflected by according him a 40 percent share of the musical copyright,” the written judgment said. “His contribution to the overall work was on any view substantial but not, in my judgment, as substantial as that of Mr. Brooker.”
The judge said the song’s organ solo “is a distinctive and significant contribution to the overall composition and quite obviously the product of skill and labor on the part of the person who created it.”
The judge said Fisher, 60, was entitled to royalties from May 2005, when he began court proceedings.
“A Whiter Shade of Pale,” famous for its cryptic lyrics ó “We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor” ó topped the British charts for five weeks in 1967 and was a Top 5 hit in the U.S.
Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it 57th in a list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Brooker says he and Reid wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967. It was released in May.
Fisher, now a computer programmer living in south London, left the band in 1969. Brooker, 61, still tours with Procol Harum.
In a statement, Brooker and Reid said Fisher’s court victory created a dangerous precedent because it meant any musician who had played on any recording in the past 40 years could claim joint authorship.
“It is effectively open season on the songwriter,” they said. “It will mean that unless all musicians’ parts are written for them, no publisher or songwriter will be able to risk making a recording for fear of a possible claim of songwriting credit.”
They intend to file an appeal.

Goldman sues O.J. for book-deal bucks
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ó Ronald Goldman’s father sued O.J. Simpson on Tuesday, seeking any money the former NFL star received for a canceled book deal and TV interview that told a hypothetical tale of how he would have killed his ex-wife and Goldman.
The federal lawsuit filed in California by Fred Goldman’s Indianapolis-based attorney accuses Simpson of “fraudulent conveyance” and alleges that he created a shell corporation that received at least $1.1 million as part of the TV interview and book, titled If I Did It.
Attorney Jonathan Polak said Lorraine Brooke Associates was created in March using the middle name of Simpson’s two children. The lawsuit calls it a “sham entity” formed to defraud Ron Goldman’s relatives by preventing them from claiming any of more than $38 million Simpson owes the family from a judgment against him in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Goldman’s lawsuit seeks about $1.1 million plus punitive damages, although Polak said he believed Simpson has already spent the money he received from News Corp., the owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins.
Polak said the lawsuit’s true aim is to determine how the book and TV interview deals were reached.
“The question in this lawsuit is not about what’s in their bank account right now,” he said. “The issue is, can we unwind this series of transactions and hold those we believe truly are responsible accountable financially?”
Polak said he believes Judith Regan ó who was fired last week as a publisher by HarperCollins ó and Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp., need “to come clean” on their knowledge of how Simpson was reimbursed for the deal.
Andrew Butcher, a spokesman for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., said he could not comment on the possibility of Murdoch being deposed.
He said News Corp. has been working with Goldman’s family to answer questions about the book deal.
“From the very start, we’d offered every assistance to the family of Ron Goldman. Any information they have asked for regarding the contracts for the Simpson book, we have given them,” Butcher said.
Polak said he has asked News Corp. to destroy all copies of the book, as well as copies of the interview with Fox that was to have aired. He also wants News Corp. to assign all rights to those books and interviews to the Goldman family.
Butcher said News Corp. has destroyed all copies of If I Did It but objected to the request to assign the rights to the Goldmans.
“You don’t own the rights to someone’s book in perpetuity,” he said. “It doesn’t work that way. It’s more complicated.”
Simpson told The Associated Press last month that he took part in the project solely for personal profit and acknowledged that any financial gain was “blood money.”
Simpson would not say how much he was paid in advance, only that it was less than the $3.5 million reported. He said the money already has been spent, some of it on tax obligations.
Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday with Simpson’s attorney, Yale Galanter.
Simpson was acquitted of criminal charges in the 1994 killings.
In 1997, a civil court jury, using a lesser standard of proof than is required at a criminal trial, found Simpson liable for Nicole Brown Simpson’s and Goldman’s stabbing deaths. The jury ordered him to pay about $19.7 million to Goldman’s family ó an amount Polak said has grown to more than $38 million with interest.
Fred Goldman said in a statement that he was eager to learn who worked with Simpson on the deal.
“We will not stop until we are able to shine the light of truth on those that acted in concert with him,” he said.

Evel Knievel sues rapper Kanye West over music video
Retired motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has filed a lawsuit against Kanye West over a music video featuring the hit rapper as a character named Evel Kanyevel who attempts to jump over a canyon while riding a rocket-powered motorcycle.
Knievel, 68, filed the lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court in Tampa, Fla., on Monday, alleging the more than five-minute music video for Touch the Sky infringes on his trademark name and likeness.
The daredevil icon, whose real name is Robert Craig Knievel Jr., called the video “vulgar and offensive,” and said the rapper “uses my image to catapult himself on the public.”
The lawsuit seeks damages and a halt to further distribution of the video, which had its debut in February.
In the video, which also stars Canadian actress Pamela Anderson, West is dressed in a star-studded jumpsuit ó reminiscent of the one Knievel wore during his stunt motorcycle jumps ó and attempts a jump across a canyon.
The lawsuit alleges that even the vehicle used in the video is “visually indistinguishable” from the one Knievel used in his Snake River Canyon jump in 1974.
Knievel, who has been in poor health in the last few years, rose to fame in the late 1960s as a touring motorcycle stunt rider. The former salesman and fervent self-promoter was as renowned for his daring jumps as for his spectacular crashes and broken bones.
Famous attempts included the New Year’s Day 1968 jump across the fountains in front of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas ó a stunt that left Knievel in a coma for a month ó and a jump over 13 buses at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1975, when he broke his pelvis.
During the Snake River Canyon jump, Knievel’s parachute deployed before he cleared the launch ramp. Although the chute carried the daredevil into the canyon, he was left with only minor injuries.
West had no comment about the lawsuit, which also names Roc-A-Fella Records, AOL and the video’s director, Chris Milk. Milk’s previous work includes directing West’s videos for Jesus Walks and All Falls Down.
No stranger to attention-getting outbursts himself, West made a scene last month at the MTV Europe Awards when Touch the Sky lost in the best video category.
“Best video should have been mine. I should have won,” West said after storming the stage in protest.
“It cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons.”

Judge rejects injunction against ‘Borat’
LOS ANGELES – A judge rejected a request by two fraternity brothers to halt the DVD release of the hit spoof movie “Borat.” West Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Biderman also refused to order the removal of a scene that includes the two men, who claim they had been duped into misbehaving on camera.
Biderman issued his two-page decision on Friday after hearing arguments the previous day.
The South Carolina fraternity brothers filed a lawsuit Nov. 9 claiming they were tricked into making racist and sexist remarks to British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
In one scene of the mockumentary, Cohen as rowdy Kazakh journalist Borat hangs out with the men in a motor home and watches the Pamela Anderson- Tommy Lee sex tape.
The fraternity brothers claim the filmmakers got them drunk before getting them to sign release forms agreeing to appear in the film. Their names do not appear in the lawsuit.
The film “made plaintiffs the objects of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress,” the lawsuit claims.
A trial date for the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, has not been set.
Louis Petrich, an attorney for 20th Century Fox and One America Productions, said he was pleased about the judge’s decision.
Calls to the plaintiffs’ attorney, Olivier Taillieu, were not immediately returned.

Judge to review ‘Borat’ fraternity suit
LOS ANGELES – A judge weighing whether to halt the DVD release of “Borat” viewed a scene from the hit film in which a group of South Carolina fraternity brothers converse with the raucous Kazakh journalist played by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Biderman, after reviewing the scene Thursday, said he would review the case but did not indicate when he might issue a ruling.
Two fraternity members filed a lawsuit Nov. 9, alleging they were tricked into making racist and sexist remarks in the spoof documentary “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
The men, who were not named in the lawsuit, alleged the film’s producers took them to a bar and, after a bout of heavy drinking, they signed release forms agreeing to appear in what they were told would be a documentary shown outside the United States.
The lawsuit claimed the film brought them “ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community.”
Attorney Olivier Taillieu, who represents the fraternity brothers, said the DVD should not be released because “further dissemination of the film is going to cause some injury to my clients.”
He said one of the plaintiffs was forced to resign from his prominent position at the University of South Carolina chapter of Chi Psi. Along with barring the DVD release, the plaintiffs were seeking unspecified monetary damages.
An attorney representing 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp., questioned the plaintiffs’ claim they were too drunk to understand the release forms.
“We’re confident that we’re going to prevail,” attorney Louis Petrich said following court. “We don’t think the lawsuit has any merit. We don’t even agree with them on the facts.”

Newton-John sues over `Grease’ album
LOS ANGELES – Lawsuit is the word: Olivia Newton-John is suing Universal Music Group Inc. for allegedly failing to pay more than $1 million in royalties on sales of the “Grease” soundtrack album.
Newton-John starred with John Travolta in the 1978 movie version of the Broadway hit.
The breach-of-contract suit was filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior court. It contends that while Universal did pay some royalties on the album, it failed to make a range of other contractual payments, said John Mason, an attorney for Newton-John.
According to the suit, a recent audit showed Universal owes more than $1 million to Newton-John’s company, ON-J Productions, Ltd.
“The lawsuit is without merit and, at the appropriate time, we expect that the court will dismiss it,” Universal said in a statement Tuesday.

‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ now a court case
LONDON – Two former ’60s rock stars appeared before a music-loving judge on Monday for a showdown over authorship of one of the decade’s most iconic songs.
The organ strains of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” sounded through Court 56 of Britain’s High Court as the band’s former organ player, Matthew Fisher, sued an ex-bandmate for a share of copyright in the multimillion-selling song.
Fisher’s lawyer, Iain Purvis, said the song “defined what is sometimes called the Summer of Love in 1967” and had achieved cult status.
He said Fisher had composed the organ melody, and particularly the eight-bar Hammond organ solo, which gives the song its distinctive baroque flavor.
Purvis said the solo “is a brilliant piece of work and it is crucial to the success of the song.”
“Our case, in essence, is that Mr. Fisher wrote the entirety of the organ tune,” he said.
Fisher is suing Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker and publisher Onward Music Ltd. for a co-author credit and a share of the song’s copyright and royalties.
Brooker, who is credited as the song’s author with lyricist Keith Reid, says the pair wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967.
Brooker has said the melody was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air on a G-string” and “Sleepers Awake.”
Defense lawyers said the fact Fisher had waited almost four decades to bring his claim was “bizarre and obviously prejudicial.”
“Mr. Fisher’s claim should fail on that ground alone,” they said in court papers.
The song, renowned for its mystifying lyrics ó beginning “We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels cross the floor” ó topped the British singles chart for five weeks and was a top 10 hit in the United States. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it 57th in a list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Purvis said a Web site compiled by a fan lists 771 recorded cover versions, “most of them, sad to say, disastrous.”
Fisher, now a computer programmer, left the band in 1969. Brooker, 61, still tours with Procol Harum. The two sat facing the judge and did not look at one another on the first day of the five-day hearing.
A Yamaha electric keyboard sat near the witness box, where Fisher is due to appear later in the case.
The case is being heard by judge William Blackburne, who studied both music and law at Cambridge University.
The judge requested access to the keyboard and sheet music of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” so he could run through the song after court hours.
Judges are not always familiar with popular music, and Purvis noted that “one always risks in these cases a ‘what are The Beatles’ moment” ó a reference to a famous but possibly apocryphal story of a judge who purportedly asked that question during a case in the 1960s.
“But I’ll hazard that your lordship is familiar,” with “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” Purvis said.
“I am of an age, yes,” said the judge, 62.

Humiliated frat boys sue ‘Borat’
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Two fraternity boys want to make lawsuit against “Borat” over their drunken appearance in the hit movie.
The legal action filed Thursday on their behalf claims they were duped into appearing in the spoof documentary “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” in which they made racist and sexist comments on camera.
The young men “engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in,” the lawsuit says.
“Borat” follows the adventures of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s Kazakh journalist character in a blend of fiction and improvised comic encounters as he travels across the United States and mocks Americans.
The plaintiffs were not named in the lawsuit “to protect themselves from any additional and unnecessary embarrassment.” They were identified in the movie as fraternity members from a South Carolina university, and appeared drunk as they made insulting comments about women and minorities to Cohen’s character.
The lawsuit claims that in October 2005, a production crew took the students to a bar to drink and “loosen up” before participating in what they were told would be a documentary to be shown outside of the United States.
“They were induced to agree to participate and were told the name of the fraternity and the name of their school wouldn’t be used,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney, Olivier Taillieu. “They were put into an RV and were made to believe they were picking up Borat the hitchhiker.”
After a bout of heavy drinking, the plaintiffs signed a release form they were told “had something to do with reliability issues with being in the RV,” Taillieu said.
The film “made plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community,” the lawsuit said.
It names 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp., and three production companies as defendants.
Studio spokesman Gregg Brilliant said the lawsuit “has no merit.”
The plaintiffs were seeking an injunction to stop the studio from displaying their image and likeness, along with unspecified monetary damages.
“Borat” debuted as the top movie last weekend with $26.5 million.

Quebec investigating lack of French on DVDs
MONTREAL (CP) – The Quebec agency that enforces the province’s language law is investigating whether the packaging on some DVDs violates the Charter of the French Language.
Steve Gagne, a Quebec City resident, filed a complaint with l’Office de la language francaise last week along with a list of more than 900 DVDs he had found in area stores which had a French soundtrack but unilingual English packaging.
He sent a copy of his complaint to Line Beauchamp, the minister responsible for the language law, and the Parti Quebecois spokesman on language issues.
Gerald Paquette, a spokesman for l’Office, said the matter is being investigated and retailers and distributors will be informed of any transgressions.
Paquette said that under the law, a DVD with a French soundtrack should have a portion of the text on the sleeve in French as well.
He also noted that 85 per cent of the DVDs available in Quebec have French soundtracks, indicating that American distributors are increasingly respectful of the requests by the government to supply French-language content for French-speaking consumers in Quebec.
Beauchamp’s department studied the availability of French in films earlier this spring and found that 89 per cent of the 1,071 films shown in Quebec since 2002 and later released on DVD had French-language content.
However, only about half of 37 U.S. TV series released on DVD had a French soundtrack and 16 per cent had French subtitles.
Beauchamp recently wrote to the president of the Canadian association of film distributors asking that the organization’s members offer Quebec consumers more products in French.