SAG responded sharply to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by opponents seeking to derail the SAG/AFTRA merger referendum, blasting the suit as “completely without merit (and a) preposterous . . . attempt at circumventing the will of the membership.”
Over the years, many former models featured on the game show The Price is Right have accused producers of harassment and discrimination. On Tuesday, a California judge tentatively dismissed one of those lawsuits from a woman who claimed she was fired from the show as a result of her pregnancy.
Opponents of SAG/AFTRA merger filed suit in federal court Wednesday against the union and its officers, in an effort to preemptively void the merger referendum set to begin next week and force an actuarial study of the impact of merger on pension and health.
Next month, Disney will release the big-budget sci-fi epic John Carter, based on the early 20th century action adventure stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film tells the story of a former Confederate captain who is transported to Mars and captured by 12-foot tall barbarians before escaping to find a princess in need of a savior. If this sounds like the start of a good plotline for un-Disneyish adult entertainment, well, sure.
The Burroughs estate has just filed a lawsuit against publishers of comic books that allegedly violate the copyright and trademark of Burroughs' work, including his John Carter of Mars series of books and his celebrated Tarzan stories. The new comics in question are purportedly "based on" the old stories, but amp up the sexuality involved. The covers show the princess nude and the comic panels are claimed to "border on (and in some cases are) pornographic."
But the lawsuit is far from a simple case of intellectual property stripping.
Paramount Pictures is demanding that the estate of author Mario Puzo not license any more literary sequels to The Godfather. The studio has filed a lawsuit against Anthony Ruzzo, the son and executor of his late father's estate, and is seeking an injunction precluding any further alleged copyright and trademark infringement.
The last few years of Michael Jackson's life are the subject of dueling lawsuits filed Friday on the part of both the Michael Jackson estate and the late singer's former manager, Tohme Tohme, against each other. Both sides present different pictures about how the "King of Pop" attempted to get his career back on track. At stake is at least 15 percent of the hundreds of millions of dollars earned since Jackson died on June 25, 2009.
A federal judge in Illinois has rejected a $1 billion (yes, $1 billion) class action lawsuit alleging the Travel Channel violated the publicity rights of individuals shown at a popular Chicago hot dog restaurant. The plaintiffs claimed that the the show, Extreme Fast Food, never obtained consent to show the Wiener's Circle customers on the receiving end of insults, but the judge has determined that the plaintiffs' lawsuit wasn't garnished with enough mustard to overcome the taste of the First Amendment.
Federal prosecutors have sharpened their charges against Megaupload's leaders with a new superseding indictment that aims to show how Kim Dotcom and others allegedly aided and abetted massive copyright infringement.
A federal judge has granted bankruptcy trustee Ronald Durkin’s request to waive attorney client-privilege and release 14 emails relating to the involuntary bankruptcy cases of Capitol, Thinkfilm, R2D2 and other companies connected to embattled movie financier David Bergstein.
The estate of author Philip K. Dick has agreed to dismiss its high-profile lawsuit against The Adjustment Bureau producer Media Rights Capital and filmmaker George Nolfi after a judge threw out key parts of the case.
The dismissal papers were filed today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
As we first reported in October, the estate of the late sci-fi author sued MRC and Nolfi claiming they were refusing to pay millions of dollars in roylties from the 2011 film starring Matt Damon because they believed the story that formed the basis for the film was in the public domain. A judge tossed portions of the case on Feb. 8, ruling on a motion to dismiss that it didn't have jurisdiction over several key claims.
This post is about a single tweet, and then a follow-up quote given to a news website. Here it goes...
"I was fucking devestated when Rhonda J Holmes esq of San Diego was bought off." (sic)
"I've been hiring and firing lawyers to help me with this." She goes on to tell of a female attorney who has since stopped taking her calls because "they got to her" after she mentioned something to Page 6 of the New York Post. "She's disappeared."
The tweet was sent by rocker Courtney Love in June 2010. The quote came from Love a month later. Now attorney Rhonda Holmes and her law firm are suing Love for libel. Hold onto your seat for some parsing of language, as only lawyers do best.
Opponents of SAG-AFTRA merger have prepared a lawsuit against the union and its officers, and are prepared to go into federal court by Tuesday in an effort to halt the merger referendum, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Counsel for the opponents, David Casselman of Wasserman, Comden, Casselman & Esensten, told THR he has been negotiating with SAG lawyers seeking additions to the referendum packet to be sent to members – specifically, “an agreement on key facts in dispute for joint presentation to the members.”
The production company behind Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark has reached an agreement with The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the union that represented the show's former director, Julie Taymor, in an arbitration hearing last year.
To settle litigation between the two sides, 8 Legged Productions has agreed that it will pay Taymor's full royalties. In addition, the producers have also reached an agreement on compensation for Taymor on subsequent productions of the show. As a result of the deal. 8 Legged is dismissing with prejudice its lawsuit against the union.
The owners of New York's Comedy Strip nightclub, which has featured such comics as Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy in its 35 years in business, are suing the producers of a documentary entiled Eat, Drink, Laugh for allegedly breaching an agreement to work together during all phases of production.
