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CASE CAPTION: GST Sterling Swiss Trust 1987 AG and Wesley Snipes v. New Line Cinema Corp., New Line Productions Inc., Avery Pix Inc., David S. Goyer, Linda Harris, Peter Frankfurt and Toby Emmerich, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California #CV 05 2835.
CAUSES OF ACTION: Breach of contract; fraudulent inducement to enter into contractual relations; breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing; violation of right of publicity; and violation of civil rights (harassment and defamation because of race).
COMPLAINT ALLEGATIONS: Actor Snipes claims a series of contract breaches over the film “Blade III.” These include not being allowed to approve the director (Goyer) and the screenplay (by Goyer), not being able to exercise the right to edit fight sequences and not being consulted on stunt doubles. Snipes also claims he hasn't been paid about $3.6 million in fixed compensation due (he has been paid about $10 million), that the defendants made no effort to assemble a multi-racial crew and that Goyer allegedly defamed Snipes by calling him unprofessional and difficult.
RELIEF SOUGHT: At least $5 million.
PLAINTIFFS' COUNSEL: Marc H. Greenberg of San Francisco (415-442-6611) and Barton C. Gernander of Hellmuth & Johnson in Eden Prairie, MN. (952-941-4005).
CASE CAPTION: Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White, Parallel Entertainment Inc. and Image Entertainment Inc. v. Starlight Home Entertainment Inc., L.A. Superior Court # BC332068.
CAUSES OF ACTION: Violation of Calif. Bus. & Prof. Code Sec. 17200 et seq.; breach of oral contract; breach of written contract; interference with prospective economic advantage; and declaratory relief.
COMPLAINT ALLEGATIONS: All three individual plaintiffs are part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour group. In 1999, Foxworthy and Engvall, and their manager, Parallel, granted Southern Maid Entertainment the right to produce and distribute three home videos of classic country comedy clips, one hosted by Foxworthy and two by White. This included the right to film a performance at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas for up to 7.5 minutes of footage. Now the defendants have announced that they intend to release an entirely new program on DVD entitled “Live from Las Vegas” that includes all the Vegas performance footage.
RELIEF SOUGHT: An injunction against distribution of the DVD.
PLAINTIFFS' COUNSEL: Stanton L. Stein, David S. Gubman and Chad R. Fitzgerald of Santa Monica, CA's Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan (310-907-1000).
CASE CAPTION: GST Sterling Swiss Trust 1987 AG and Wesley Snipes v. New Line Cinema Corp., New Line Productions Inc., Avery Pix Inc., David S. Goyer, Linda Harris, Peter Frankfurt and Toby Emmerich, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California #CV 05 2835.
CAUSES OF ACTION: Breach of contract; fraudulent inducement to enter into contractual relations; breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing; violation of right of publicity; and violation of civil rights (harassment and defamation because of race).
COMPLAINT ALLEGATIONS: Actor Snipes claims a series of contract breaches over the film “Blade III.” These include not being allowed to approve the director (Goyer) and the screenplay (by Goyer), not being able to exercise the right to edit fight sequences and not being consulted on stunt doubles. Snipes also claims he hasn't been paid about $3.6 million in fixed compensation due (he has been paid about $10 million), that the defendants made no effort to assemble a multi-racial crew and that Goyer allegedly defamed Snipes by calling him unprofessional and difficult.
RELIEF SOUGHT: At least $5 million.
PLAINTIFFS' COUNSEL: Marc H. Greenberg of San Francisco (415-442-6611) and Barton C. Gernander of Hellmuth & Johnson in Eden Prairie, MN. (952-941-4005).
CASE CAPTION: Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White, Parallel Entertainment Inc. and Image Entertainment Inc. v. Starlight Home Entertainment Inc., L.A. Superior Court # BC332068.
CAUSES OF ACTION: Violation of Calif. Bus. & Prof. Code Sec. 17200 et seq.; breach of oral contract; breach of written contract; interference with prospective economic advantage; and declaratory relief.
COMPLAINT ALLEGATIONS: All three individual plaintiffs are part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour group. In 1999, Foxworthy and Engvall, and their manager, Parallel, granted Southern Maid Entertainment the right to produce and distribute three home videos of classic country comedy clips, one hosted by Foxworthy and two by White. This included the right to film a performance at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas for up to 7.5 minutes of footage. Now the defendants have announced that they intend to release an entirely new program on DVD entitled “Live from Las Vegas” that includes all the Vegas performance footage.
RELIEF SOUGHT: An injunction against distribution of the DVD.
PLAINTIFFS' COUNSEL: Stanton L. Stein, David S. Gubman and Chad R. Fitzgerald of Santa Monica, CA's Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan (310-907-1000).
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