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 January [...]
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 albums. [...]
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 more 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 copy Kirby’s characters [...]
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
By Sharmil McKee on February 8, 2009
The NY Times recently published an article announcing that a husband is suing his ex-wife for her share of their Madoff investment funds. Unfortunately, the account is now worthless, but 4 years ago it was worth $5 million, when Husband withdrew $2.5 million to satisfy the divorcing couple’s settlement agreement. Husband left his share of $2.5 [...]
Posted in Understanding Contracts | Tagged celebrity, Madoff
By Sharmil McKee on January 24, 2009
Business Owners, do not make the same negotiating mistake as PETA and Michael Vick
PETA has withdrawn its TV offer to Michael Vick, the NFL player convicted for promoting dog fighting. The organization apparently withdrew its offer because Vick wanted PETA to support Vick’s return to the NFL. PETA declined and requested that the commission of the [...]
Posted in Marketing | Tagged celebrity, negotiating
