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Our long national nightmare is over: Nearly one year after filing a blistering, $70 million lawsuit against Current TV, Keith Olbermann and his former employer have reportedly reached a settlement. Specifics of the deal are confidential — and Current TV has declined to comment, while Olbermann has not yet responded to EW’s requests for comment — but according to Deadline, the ousted host was awarded “a significant payout.” READ FULL STORY »
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A television consultant claims that former Vice President Al Gore and others at Current TV stole his idea to sell the struggling network to Al Jazeera.
Los Angeles resident John Terenzio is demanding more than $5 million in a lawsuit quietly filed in San Francisco Superior Court Tuesday.
Al Jazerra announced Jan. 3 that it would pay $500 million for San Francisco-based Current TV.
Terenzio alleges he first brought the idea of the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera’s purchase of Current TV to board member Richard Blum in July, and he expected to be paid if his plan was used. The lawsuit claims Blum was open to the plan, which Terenzio laid out with a detailed PowerPoint presentation but feared Gore would find such a deal with the oil-rich government of Qatar “politically unappealing.” READ FULL STORY »
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Another American Idol contestant is in the news, and this time, it’s season 2′s Corey Clark. Clark filed a lawsuit Friday against Fox, E! Entertainment, and others for allegedly defaming him in comments made about his exit from the show as well as his alleged relationship with Paula Abdul. (EW reached out to reps for Fox, E!, and Paula Abdul; A rep for Fox declined to comment, E! says they have not yet been served with the lawsuit so have no comment, and Abdul has yet to respond).
The suit, filed in Tennessee, sues for defamation and false light invasion of privacy, among other similar charges, according to the 44-page court document obtained by EW.
In 2002, Clark auditioned for American Idol and was a finalist contestant before he was disqualified. Idol says he was booted because he failed to disclose a previous arrest. According to the lawsuit, the charges were dropped, and Clark claims he did disclose the original arrest to Idol producers. Clark alleges he was cast in the “villain” role of a “scripted” television program without his knowledge. Concurrently, he began a brief “love affair” with Abdul. While Clark didn’t talk publicly about the affair, he says in the lawsuit that senior producers knew, and that was ultimately the reason he was kicked off the show. READ FULL STORY »
A federal judge heard arguments on whether Utah can prohibit plural marriage but issued no immediate ruling in a lawsuit by the stars of the reality show Sister Wives.
Kody Brown and his four wives claim the law is unconstitutional. The family fled Utah for Las Vegas last year under the threat of prosecution. They did not attend Thursday’s hearing in Salt Lake City, leaving arguments to a constitutional law professor. READ FULL STORY »
Our long national nightmare is finally over: AMC has settled its legal battle with Dish Networks, thus ensuring that Dish subscribers will once again be able to spend their Sunday nights watching the cast of The Walking Dead concoct exciting new ways to stab zombies in the face.
The lawsuit — an arcane dispute rooted in the defunct Voom service — ended this weekend when AMC and Cablevision agreed to a settlement with Dish. According to a press release, Dish agreed to pay AMC and Cablevision $700 million, and also entered into a new multi-year agreement to air the channels comprising AMC Networks — which includes AMC, IFC, the Sundance Channel, and WE tv.
The Dish settlement comes at an auspicious time: Last week’s Dead season premiere earned monstrous, better-than-broadcast ratings, confirming AMC’s status as one of the pre-eminent basic cable networks. The show might add some viewers this week: EW has confirmed that AMC (and its sister networks) will begin airing on Dish in time for subscribers to watch tonight’s Dead.
Follow Darren on Twitter: @DarrenFranich
Read more:
DISH CEO doesn’t know when you’ll get AMC back, hopes you don’t lose CBS
How Dish Became Network Enemy No. 1
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CBS still wants to evict The Glass House from the airwaves. The network moved ahead with its lawsuit against ABC this week by amending its filing that alleges ABC copied elements of Big Brother for its new reality TV competition series The Glass House.
CBS attorneys added several more objections to the show now that ABC has aired several episodes, arguing that “Glass House employs the same plot, themes, mood, setting, pace, characters, dialogue, sequence of events and other concrete elements making up Big Brother.”
CBS originally sought to stop Glass House from premiering in June, but a federal judge refused. U.S. District Judge Gary Feess agreed with ABC attorneys who argued that many of the filming techniques employed on Glass House are not unique to Big Brother and are used in other reality TV shows. READ FULL STORY »
Less than two months after Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson filed a discrimination suit against The Bachelor producers Warner Horizon Television and Bachelor network ABC, both parties have struck back. EW has obtained papers confirming that judges in the U.S. District Court Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville have agreed to stay the trial in consideration of a change of venue, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. READ FULL STORY »
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No one makes a monkey out of HBO. The pay cable network successfully defeated a lawsuit brought by Real World: Key West star John “Johnny Bananas” Devenanzio, that alleged the cartoon character “Johnny Bananas” from Entourage‘s final season caused Devenanzio emotional distress and defamed him.
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As reported yesterday, Nashville natives Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson followed through with their threat to file a class action lawsuit against ABC and the producers of The Bachelor franchise for purposeful discrimination against people of color (African-Americans, Latinos, and Asian-Americans). The two African-American men and their lawyers discussed their hopes for what they think will be a “landmark civil rights case that will move social justice and economic equality forward.” Said attorney Cyrus Mehri, ”They’re doing their small part in the Unites States’ journey to be a more inclusive country, to be a more diverse country, and to be a country that is far more tolerant than this series would suggest.” READ FULL STORY »
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Nicollette Sheridan will have yet another day in court: The same judge who declared a mistrial in her wrongful termination lawsuit against ABC and ABC Studios last month said today that a retrial of her case will begin in Los Angeles on Sept. 10. The trial is expected to take 12 days.
The original trial ended March 19 with the jury split eight-to-four in favor of the actress, who claimed that her Desperate Housewives character Edie Britt was killed off the show in 2009 after she complained about an incident where she claims to have been hit on the head by executive producer and show creator Marc Cherry. (Cases like this require nine jury members to agree on a decision.) The suit originally included Cherry as a defendant on a charge of battery, but that was dropped when the judge said it didn’t meet the workman’s compensation benchmark that applies to such matters.
The original trial saw testimony from Sheridan and Cherry, of course, as well as folks like star James Denton, Cherry’s producing partner Sabrina Wind, former ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson, and former ABC Studios honcho Mark Pedowitz. The retrial will likely see several of the same people — including Cherry, even though he isn’t a defendant any longer — take the stand yet again.
The two-hour series finale of Desperate Housewives airs May 13, but the trial ensures that the drama from Wisteria Lane will continue to unfold well into the fall.
Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky
Read more:
Mistrial declared in Nicollette Sheridan trial
Nicollette Sheridan’s ‘Desperate Housewives’ trial: A round-up of essential takeaways so far
‘Desperate Housewives’ trial: Creator says Nicollette Sheridan let go because of ‘unprofessional behavior’
Nicollette Sheridan at ‘Desperate Housewives’ trial: Creator Marc Cherry ‘hit me upside the head’
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News broke Tuesday that Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson, two African-American football players from Nashville, are holding a press conference Wednesday to discuss their decision to file a class action lawsuit against ABC’s The Bachelor on behalf of “all persons of color who have applied for the role of The Bachelor or Bachelorette but been denied the equal opportunity for selection on the basis of race.” The players say they plan to target ABC, Bachelor executive producer Mike Fleiss, and the show’s production companies (which include Warner Horizon Television, Next Entertainment, and NZK Productions).
The release announcing the conference noted that, “Over a combined total of 23 seasons, neither show has ever had a Bachelor or Bachelorette of color.”
EW reached out to entertainment lawyers who specialize in discrimination cases and are based in California (where The Bachelor is filmed) to provide some insight. The lawyers admitted this was an unprecedented case in many ways. “I’ve watched that [area of law] like a hawk, and I haven’t seen a case like this before,” said Jeffrey S. Kravitz of Fox Rothschild LLP. Though facts on the potential case are still uncertain (Claybrooks and Johnson plan to formally file their suit on Wednesday), this kind of case could be a game-changer. READ FULL STORY »
Keith Olbermann blasted his former employer Current TV in a lawsuit demanding about $70 million in compensation for terminating the anchor before his contract expired.
“After being enticed to leave MSNBC and come to Current with the promise of editorial control, freedom from corporate influence, and the professional support to produce high-caliber political commentary show of the type his viewers have come to expect, Keith Olbermann was disheartened to discover [Current TV founders] Al Gore, Joel Hyatt, and the management of Current are no more than dilettantes portraying entertainment executives.”
The outspoken pundit was fired from the modest-sized cable network last week. He alleges in a lengthy complaint that Hyatt “created an environment in which major business errors and technical failures became commonplace and acceptable.” READ FULL STORY »
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The deliberation was apparently too much to bear for the jury in Nicollette Sheridan’s wrongful termination lawsuit against the makers of Desperate Housewives. A Superior Court judge on Monday declared a mistrial after the jury was split 8 to 4 in favor of the actress — one short of the nine needed to make a decision.
Juror Beverly Crosby told reporters Monday that she believed Sheridan was hit by Executive Producer/Creator Marc Cherry, which the actress believed precipitated her firing. During the civil trial, ABC argued that it had approved the death of Sheridan’s Edie Britt character in May 2008 — four months before Cherry had struck the actress at the beginning of season 5 in September 2008. Sheridan was killed off later that season after, her attorneys allege, Cherry was cleared of wrongdoing by ABC.
“The evidence showed she was struck, so we didn’t get bogged down with the terminology,” Crosby said. “I looked at the fact that she was touched without permission.”
The jury went into the weekend deadlocked but Judge Elizabeth Allen White urged them to try to resolve Sheridan’s $6 million suit against ABC.
Both sides will reportedly seek a new trial.
Read more:
Nicollette Sheridan’s ‘Desperate Housewives’ trial: A round-up of essential takeaways so far
‘Desperate Housewives’ trial: Creator says Nicollette Sheridan let go because of ‘unprofessional behavior’
Nicollette Sheridan at ‘Desperate Housewives’ trial: Creator Marc Cherry ‘hit me upside the head’
James Hibberd
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Lynette Rice
@EWLynette
