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Disney Hit With Antitrust Suit Over Live-Streaming TV Prices
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Business
‘Narcos’ Revenue Split Battle Between Executive Producers Settles
Director and producer José Padilha accused series showrunner Eric Newman of shorting him out of his share of revenue with the help of Gaumont Television.
BY Winston Cho -
Business
Paramount Scraps Simon & Schuster Sale to Penguin Random House, Will Get $200M Kill Fee
The decision comes after a federal judge blocked the proposed merger on antitrust grounds.
BY Winston Cho -
Business
Fear for Your Megamergers: The Justice Dept. Is (Finally) Taking Action
Paramount’s blocked sale of Simon & Schuster marks an early win for an emboldened DOJ’s antitrust enforcement while a reported renewed look at Live Nation could be a worrying sign for media chiefs playing a scale game.
BY Erik Hayden
THR, Esq's Latest News
Disney Hit With Antitrust Suit Over Live-Streaming TV Prices
An antitrust lawsuit has been brought against The Walt Disney Company in a case that targets the entertainment monolith’s dual role as a content supplier and distributor in business dealings. Disney operates Hulu, the country’s second-largest live-streaming pay TV provider, while also controlling ESPN. The proposed class action accuses Disney of managing the businesses as […]
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‘Narcos’ Revenue Split Battle Between Executive Producers Settles
Narcos director José Padilha has settled a lawsuit against his production partner Eric Newman alleging the series showrunner cheated him out of millions in profits by concealing revenue. The two sides reached an agreement to resolve the suit, according to a court document filed on Monday. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Newman, through his […]
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Paramount Scraps Simon & Schuster Sale to Penguin Random House, Will Get $200M Kill Fee
Paramount Global is abandoning plans to sell book Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House, putting the book-publishing giant back on the market for another suitor, according to a securities filing. The $2.175 billion deal was blocked on Oct. 31 when a federal judge found that combining two of the world’s largest book publishers violates […]
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Fear for Your Megamergers: The Justice Dept. Is (Finally) Taking Action
On Oct. 31, the Department of Justice antitrust division landed a major victory when a federal judge blocked Penguin Random House’s $2.175 billion bid to buy rival Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global. After legal wrangling in a trial closely monitored by Hollywood, U.S. District Judge Florence Pan found that combining two of the world’s largest […]
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Danny Masterson Rape Trial Jury Says It’s Deadlocked
The jury in Danny Masterson’s rape trial said on Friday that it’s at an impasse on all of the charges. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo directed them to resume deliberations on Nov. 28 after Thanksgiving week despite being “hopelessly deadlocked,” since it hasn’t been long enough to declare a mistrial. Jurors have been […]
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FTX Investors Sue Celebrity Endorsers
Investors have sued FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and a host of celebrities who promoted the crypto platform, including Larry David, Tom Brady and Stephen Curry. The proposed class action alleges that FTX was a “Ponzi scheme” that fraudulently shuffled customer funds between its affiliated entities. It accuses the company and its endorsers of promoting unregistered […]
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Danny Masterson’s Rape Trial Ends With Clashes Over Consent
Danny Masterson’s rape trial culminated Tuesday with prosecutors portraying the That ’70s Show star as a serial rapist who abused his celebrity status to violently sexually assault women in his orbit and the defense suggesting that the district attorney’s office is stubbornly pursuing a losing case despite inconsistencies in the accusers’ testimony. After weeks of […]
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Jennifer Siebel Newsom Takes Stand at Harvey Weinstein Trial Over Sexual Assault Claim
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and actress married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, took the stand on Monday as the fourth accuser to testify against Harvey Weinstein in his sexual assault trial, bursting into tears when asked to identify the disgraced movie mogul. Siebel Newsom described herself as a relatively unknown actress when she […]
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‘Top Gun’ Copyright Lawsuit Against Paramount Survives Dismissal
A judge has refused to dismiss a copyright lawsuit from the heirs to the author of a 1983 magazine story that the original Top Gun was based on that accused Paramount of illegally shutting them out of the sequel. U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson found on Thursday that the suit pointed to enough similarities between […]
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Judge Bars Drake and 21 Savage From Using Phony Vogue Cover
A judge has blocked Drake and 21 Savage from using a fake Vogue cover to promote their new album Her Loss. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff issued a restraining order on Wednesday barring the artists from further distributing the phony cover and forcing them to take down references to it on their social media accounts […]
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Warren Beatty Sued for Allegedly Coercing Sex With a Minor in 1973
A woman has sued Warren Beatty, accusing the actor of coercing her into sex in 1973 when she was a minor — but she filed it against “Defendant Doe” and never refers to him by name. The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday from Kristina Hirsch identifies Beatty by describing a “renowned and […]
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Elon Musk’s Mass Twitter Layoffs Spur Legal Headaches
Elon Musk’s journey as owner of Twitter was fraught from the beginning. But, after seven months of negotiations and a lawsuit, he’s now officially in charge of the microblogging platform and is facing a new wave of headaches. There are legal threats over mass layoffs, advertisers fleeing the platform and widespread backlash after his proclamation […]
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Drake and 21 Savage Sued by Condé Nast Over Fake Vogue Cover
Condé Nast is taking Drake and 21 Savage to court for using a phony Vogue cover to promote their new album Her Loss. The publisher accuses the artists of trademark infringement for rolling out a “deliberately deceptive” campaign “built entirely on the use of the VOGUE marks,” according to a lawsuit filed on Monday in […]
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Fox Will Need to Pay $3.7B If It Keeps Pursuing FanDuel Stake, Arbitrator Rules
Fox has until 2030 to buy into FanDuel at a $20 billion valuation, according to arbitration order issued on Friday. The figure is higher than the valuation proposed by the Rupert Murdoch-owned media corporation of $11.2 billion and closer to the estimate from Flutter, the majority owner of the sports-betting company, which said that Fox […]
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Former ‘911’ Actor’s Suit Against Disney Over Vaccine-Related Firing Whittled Down by Judge
A federal judge has trimmed a lawsuit from Rockmond Dunbar, a former actor on Fox’s 911, over his dismissal from the hit drama series for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Producers Disney and 20th Television will no longer have to face a disparate impact claim, which accused them of advancing a vaccination policy discriminating […]
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Major Music Labels Awarded $47M Over Piracy Suit
A Texas jury has awarded Universal Music Group and several other recording companies more than $46.7 million in their lawsuit against Astound Broadband for failing to stop its users from pirating music. The company formerly known as Grande Communications must pay roughly $33,000 in damages for each of 1,403 works that were infringed upon, the […]
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