By Sharmil McKee on June 13, 2010
Two brothers are claiming that Warner Bros stole their screen play to develop and produce “The Last Samurai”. The basis of the Benay brothers’ claim is that Warner Bros breached an implied contract to pay if they used the script. Of course the brothers filed their lawsuit in California, so California law will determine the [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity |
By Sharmil McKee on March 19, 2010
Last month, Dr. Dre (a/k/a Andre Young) sued WIDEawake Death Row Records for unpaid royalties and copyright infringement. Dr. Dre claims that WIDEawake is a holding company for Death Row Records, after Death Row Records filed bankruptcy. Dre also claims that WIDEawake began re-producing and releasing copies of his album, Chronic. According to the complaint, [...]
Posted in Intellectual Property, Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity, copyright |
By Sharmil McKee on February 19, 2010
Will and Jada Smith have responded aggressively to legal threats that they fraudulently induced someone to invest in their film project. In 2007, Jada wrote a film, the “Human Contract”; Will produced it. They convinced David Grasso to invest in the film. He did with $5 million dollars. The film went straight to DVD. In [...]
Posted in Litigation, Understanding Contracts | Tagged celebrity, Litigation |
By Sharmil McKee on February 4, 2010
Jill Scott is facing a possible multi-million dollar judgment. Her record label, Hidden Beach, is suing her for breach of contract. They claim that she promised to produce 6 albums, but she has only produced 3 so far. They are seeking to recover the money they would have earned had she produced the final 3 [...]
Posted in Litigation, Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity, Litigation |
By Sharmil McKee on January 27, 2010
This is an update on the Conan O’Brian contract dispute. NBC has decided to pick up a show that is produced by Conan O’Brian’s production company, Conaco. The show is called JUSTICE. It is about a Supreme Court judge who quits to start his own legal practice. Fascinating development.
Posted in Headlines | Tagged celebrity |
By Sharmil McKee on January 19, 2010
A week ago, Conan O’Brian lost his job, as the host of the Tonight Show. Actually, it appears the Conan quit when the network (NBC) decided to move the show from 11:30 pm to 12:05 am. http://tinyurl.com/yz5xt7u The network’s decision was made after examining Jay Leno’s rating of his 10 pm show. The poor ratings [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity |
By Sharmil McKee on January 10, 2010
Marvel is suing the Jack Kirby estate to keep its copyright licenses. Jack Kirby is best known for creating, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, and co-creating Spider-Man. The Kirby estate sent notices to Marvel that its rights to use Kirby’s characters terminate in 2014. Basically, in 2014, the rights to use and [...]
Posted in Headlines, Intellectual Property, Litigation | Tagged celebrity, copyright |
By Sharmil McKee on December 27, 2009
Nicholas Cage is being sued for fraud. Red Curb Investments alleges that Nicholas Cage failed to repay a $5 million loan. A loan is a contract where Party A agrees to lend money to Party B. In exchange, Party B agrees to repay the money on a certain day. When Party B fails to repay [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged breach of contract, celebrity, Litigation |
By Paralegal on August 15, 2009
We are remembering the times of Michael Jackson when he dazzled us with the moonwalk, when he sang Billy Jean and performed the monster walk in Thriller. Now the thrill of a genius comes to the forefront as his financial empire is questioned. For years we had heard that Michael Jackson was broke. That he [...]
Posted in Estate Planning | Tagged business, celebrity, Estate Planning, Michael Jackson, trust |
By Paralegal on August 13, 2009
An irrevocable trust (different from an irrevocable life insurance trust) which is an arrangement in which the grantor (for exampe, Michael Jackson) departs with ownership and control of property. Usually this involves a gift of the property to the trust. The trust then stands as a separate taxable entity and pays tax on its accumulated [...]
Posted in Estate Planning | Tagged celebrity, Michael Jackson, trus |
