Roman Polanski 's agent Jeff Berg poses in his office in Los Angeles on September 28, 2009. The controversial 76-year-old director was arrested on September 26, 2009 after he arrived to receive a prize at the Zurich film festival. France and Poland are to ask the United States to drop the charges and consider a presidential pardon over the case, though Polanski has already acknowledged he had sex with the 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles in 1977. Several Swiss newspapers drew a link between the detention and Switzerland's dispute with the United States over banking secrecy, and called the arrest of Polanski at Zurich airport a stain on the country's image.
Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty ImagesJeff Berg‘s Resolution talent agency has launched a legal attack on his former company ICM Partners.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Resolution claims ICM has sent letters to agents who left to join Resolution, seeking “commissions Resolution earns for some deals Resolution either has negotiated or will negotiate through the agents who used to be ICM Partners employees,” the suit contends.
Berg, who once ran ICM, left last year to launch Resolution, bringing with him some ICM agents. Sources say those agents, many of whom were under contract to ICM, were still negotiating the terms of their exit when the suit was filed Wednesday.
The suit alleges that a “nuisance campaign” has gone on “for months” wherein ICM has sent “a number of claim letters to Resolution gravely ‘reserving rights’ against Resolution regarding these agents and commissions.”
The suit asks for a court declaration that Resolution can continue to do business without ICM seeking commissions “so that Resolution can continue to serve its clients’ interests without attracting claim letters from ICM Partners.”
THR has reached out to ICM for comment.
The suit seeking declaratory relief was filed by Joseph Taylor and Tiffany Caterina at Liner Grode.
E-mail: Matthew.Belloni@thr.com
Twitter: @THRMattBelloni
