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Cameo Clips
Management Contracts/
Talent Agencies Act
The Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, Division One, reversed a grant of summary judgment for actress Rosi Blasi that had voided her agreement with her personal manager for violating the California Talent Agencies Act, Labor Code Sec. 1700, et seq. Marathon Entertainment Inc. v. Blasi, B179819. Blasi had sought to avoid paying management commissions to Marathon Entertainment from the TV series 'Strong Medicine.' She claimed that other employment that Marathon procured for her without a talent license voided her entire Marathon-management agreement. But Blasi had obtained the TV-series role through her licensed talent agent, rather than Marathon. The court of appeal noted: '[U]nder the doctrine of severability of contracts, Marathon might be permitted to recover the Strong Medicine commission because not only did the complaint allege that Marathon provided lawful personal manager services neither prohibited nor regulated by the Act, but Blasi produced no evidence in the trial court linking the procurement of her Strong Medicine employment contract to any illegal activity by Marathon.'
The court of appeal distinguished Marathon Entertainment from Waisbren v. Peppercorn Productions Inc., 41 Cal. App. 4th 246 (1996), which held that a manager's incidental procurement of employment for a client required the manager to meet the requirements of the California Talent Agencies Act. In Marathon Entertainment, the court of appeal explained: 'The parties believe that our decision in Waisbren completely precludes severance if the personal manager commits even a single violation of the Act and contend that the [California Labor] Commissioner has also adopted that view. ' Although Waisbren held that the personal manager's contract was unenforceable as a matter of law because of the manager's illegal acts of procurement, Waisbren did not expressly discuss the doctrine of severability of contracts.'
Right of Publicity/
Predominate-Use Test
The Court of Appeals of Missouri, Eastern District, Division Five, affirmed a jury verdict that the use of the name of the professional hockey player Tony Twist as a character in the 'Spawn' comic books violated the hockey player's right of publicity. Doe v. McFarlane, ED85283.
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