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Garth Brooks wasted no time making his next move once the “We Shall Be Free” singer had the rape case from a former make-up artist and stylist for himself and Trisha Yearwood shifted from California state court to federal court.

In a 17-page motion to dismiss filed late today in the U.S. District Court Central District of California, Brooks and his O’Melveny & Myers lawyers now want Jane Roe’s West Coast case shuttered Asap. They’ve requested a hearing in front of Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald in downtown Los Angeles for the morning of December 9.

Read Garth Brooks’ motion to have the California rape case against him tossed out & shifted to Mississippi here

Identified by name by Brooks in an October 8 document in federal court in Mississippi, the ex-employee alleged in her graphic and $75,000 in unspecified damages-seeking October 3 filing in LA Superior Court that she was the victim...

Unless there is a shift in the legal Force or a big-bucks settlement, the Disney and Gina Carano will go head-to-head at trial next year over the former mixed martial artist’s 2021 firing from The Mandalorian.

That trial will start September 29, 2025, to be specific.

After having beaten the Mouse House and its Daniel Petrocelli-led legal team’s move earlier this year to get her Elon Musk-backed sex-discrimination and wrongful-dismissal suit tossed, Carano this week scored another winner, with a federal judge denying Disney’s desire for a stay of proceedings and interlocutory appeal.

“Having considered the parties’ submissions, the relevant law, and the record in this case, the Court Denies the Motion,” U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett wrote earlier this week. In refusing to give the green light to Disney’s hopes of taking the matter to another court and overturning her July 24 decision rejecting their motion for dismissal,...

Less than a week after Garth Brooks was accused of rape in California, the country singer was back in federal court in Mississippi today to kneecap his own attempts to keep real names in the matter out of the public eye.

Having been revealed in the extremely graphic October 3 filing in LA Superior Court by a “Jane Roe,” Brooks in an amended complaint Tuesday published the identity of the former make-up artist and stylist to himself and his spouse, the country music icon Trisha Yearwood.

With talk of his “stellar public image and selfless philanthropic work” being in jeopardy, Brooks today described being “the victim of a shakedown” and a “blackmail” move by said Jane Roe to get him to pay out “millions of dollars” to her.

Denying everything, as he did last week, Brooks blames the “malicious scheme” all on Roe’s anger at having “her request for salaried employment and medical benefits” rejected.

Eagles singer Don Henley is seeking the return of his handwritten notes and song lyrics from the band’s iconic Hotel California album, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in New York.

The federal court civil complaint is the second attempt to claim the documents. In March, prosecutors dropped criminal charges midway through a trial against three collectibles experts accused of trying to sell the items.

Henley claims the pages were stolen. He said he would pursue a civil remedy when the criminal case was dropped against rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi, and rock memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski.

Hotel California was released by the Eagles in 1977 and is the third-biggest selling album of all time in the U.S.

“These 100 pages of personal lyric sheets belong to Mr. Henley and his family, and he has never authorized defendants or anyone else to peddle them for profit,...

Don Henley has filed a lawsuit seeking the return of the personal Eagles lyric sheets that were recently the subject of a separate criminal trial.

While the charges against former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia dealer Edward Kosinski were abruptly dropped during the trial in March, the Eagles singer filed a lawsuit Thursday to regain ownership of the seized lyric sheets, including handwritten lyrics from the Hotel California era.

“Don Henley has filed suit today in a New York federal court for return of...

A federal judge has signaled that Gina Carano’s lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm over her termination from The Mandalorian will be allowed to proceed as the court considers whether the First Amendment allows private companies to sever ties with employees who publicly clash with their values.

U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett on Wednesday pushed back on arguments from Disney lawyer Daniel Petrocelli, who argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the company has the “right not to associate with a high-profile performer on a high-profile show who’s imbuing” the Star Wars series with “views it disagrees with” that could turn fans away from the show.

Petrocelli urged the court to find in favor of Disney on its First Amendment defense on dismissal rather than at a later stage of litigation after discovery takes place in which it’s determined whether the case should be allowed to proceed to trial.

When it comes to reputation in the footwear industry, it doesn’t get much higher than that of Italian shoes.

Renowned for their impeccable craftsmanship and timeless elegance, Italian shoes, especially Bruno Magli, are among the most popular dress shoe brands for men.

Bruno Magli, founded in 1936, is a prestigious Italian brand known for its luxury footwear and clothing (Credit: Tupungato / Shutterstock)

In a world obsessed with novelty, Bruno Magli proves that sometimes it’s best to stick to what you know. The brand has maintained its luxury status since 1936 by upholding time-honored traditions and choosing classic designs.

It’s been a celebrity favorite since its rise to fame in the 50s and is still well-loved by the most stylish people on the planet. Find out all about the quintessential Italian shoe label below!

The History of Bruno Magli

Bruno Magli started as a small family business in Bologna, Italy.

“Disney had enough.”

In a filing Tuesday night to dismiss Gina Carano’s wrongful-discharge and sex-discrimination lawsuit over being fired from The Mandalorian, the Mouse House states that the former Mma fighter lost her Star Wars series job in 2021 because her decision “to publicly trivialize the Holocaust by comparing criticism of political conservatives to the annihilation of millions of Jewish people—notably, not ‘thousands’—was the final straw for Disney.”

Read Disney’s motion to dismiss Gina Carano’s lawsuit over her Mandalorian firing here.

Seeking a June 12 hearing in federal court in downtown Los Angelese before Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, the Daniel Petrocelli-represented Disney insists the Elon Musk-backed action should be tossed out “on the grounds that Disney has a constitutional right not to associate its artistic expression with Carano’s speech, such that the First Amendment provides a complete defense to Carano’s claims.”

Claiming her...

The nearly two-year old dogfight between Paramount and the family of the writer of the 1983 article that inspired the franchise is over, at least for now.

In an order released late on April 5, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson grounded the copyright infringement, breach of contract, and declaratory relief action by the Israeli-based widow and son of Ehud Yonay

“Defendant is entitled to summary judgment on plaintiffs Shosh Yonay and Yuval Yonay’s claims for breach of contract, declaratory relief, and copyright infringement,” he wrote in a the one-page judgment in favor of Paramount Pictures (read it here). “Plaintiffs shall take nothing and Defendant shall have its costs of suit.”

“Plaintiffs contend that the Article and Sequel are substantially similar because they have similar plots, sequences of events, pacing, themes, moods, dialogue, characters, and settings,” the judge said in a separate 14-page minutes in chambers...

Travis Scott has requested to be dismissed from the ongoing lawsuits tied to the deadly Astroworld crowd rush, according to a motion filed in Houston on Monday, with Scott’s attorneys arguing that he wasn’t in charge of event safety and that “performers are not expected to render special protection to the audience, nor to safeguard them from the rest of the crowd.”

The motion comes over two years after 10 people died and hundreds of others were injured during Scott’s performance in November 2021. Drake, who came out as...

The lines at Disney World may be long, but the Mouse House isn’t standing around to let Ron DeSantis savor his win yesterday in the company’s First Amendment lawsuit against the failed presidential candidate.

Less than 24 hours after a federal judge agreed with the Florida Governor and deep-sixed Disney’s nearly year long legal action, the Bob Iger-run entertainment giant and Sunshine State mega-employer gave official notice they plan to challenge Wednesday’s dismissal.

“Notice is given that Plaintiff Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, U.S., Inc. (“Disney”) hereby appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from the Order Granting Motions to Dismiss and the final judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on January 31, 2024,” said outside Disney counsel Daniel Petrocelli and a small legion of lawyers in a filing this morning.

No word yet...

Disney and 20th Century Studios have settled a breach of contract lawsuit from film financier Tsg Entertainment, which accused them of withholding profits and self-dealing to boost subscriber numbers for their streaming platforms.

Lawyers for both sides notified the court on Jan. 5 of a deal to resolve the dueling suits. Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

The case centered on an independent audit of three films Tsg invested in, including best picture winner The Shape of Water, that revealed it’s owed at least $40 million. This shortfall, the company alleged, caused it to take a worse position in its investment of Avatar: The Way of Water and deprived it of the cash necessary to exercise options to invest in other movies.

Tsg last year sued 20th Century for breach of contract and Disney for inducing that breach. Disney, in turn, filed its own suit seeking a court order that...

Updated, 8:15 Am: Amid all the turmoil in the MCU of late, Disney now has one less battle to fight.

After more than two years, Disney and subsidiary Marvel have reached a settlement with the estate of acclaimed comic book artist Steve Ditko. Lawyers for the Mouse House and the Ditko estate filed court papers on December 6 that effectively ended the pricey dispute. A final affirmation of the settlement is expected in the coming weeks.

Represented by pugilistic copyright attorney Marc Toberoff, the Ditko estate in 2021 had sought termination notices on the rights to such luminaries as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Iron Man. Other artists’ families and heirs also challenged the rights to characters created by their family members. Those disputes were resolved earlier this year.

As in previous settlements and resolutions that Disney/Marvel have reached with the likes of the Jack Kirby estate and others, the settlement with the Ditko estate is confidential.

Disney is doubling down on litigation involving Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that may decide whether it retains the power to control development around its sprawling theme park.

In the case initiated by the board of supervisors picked by DeSantis to oversee Walt Disney World’s special tax district, the entertainment giant on Thursday filed a series of counterclaims, including for breach of contract and violations of the Florida constitution over its due process and free speech rights. It moved for damages and an order forcing the district to comply with the terms of the development agreements.

The counterclaims were filed as part of Disney’s defenses to the suit by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (Cftod) accusing the company of illegally stripping the board of its authority. Disney is also suing DeSantis in federal court, accusing him of illegally voiding an agreement that purported to transfer certain powers of...

Ron DeSantis’s attorneys say that The Walt Disney Co. lacks standing to sue him in the company’s federal lawsuit over the Florida governor’s moves to strip the company of control of a special district that covers its Orlando theme parks.

DeSantis’s legal team also contends that the governor has sovereign and legislative immunity from the litigation, in which the company claims that its First Amendment and other constitutional rights were violated by the governor’s actions. Disney claims that the DeSantis-led effort to install his own appointees to the special district was in retaliation for the company’s opposition last year to a parental rights law, which detractors call the “don’t say gay” bill.

DeSantis is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed. In the governor’s latest brief, (read Disney DeSantis reply brief), his attorneys argue that the governor and another state official, the secretary...

Disney has lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the validity of a development agreement that transferred the powers of its now-dissolved special district back to the company before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis assumed control of the board.

In an order issued on Friday, a Florida judge rejected Disney’s arguments that the suit was made moot by a state law and that it shouldn’t be allowed to move forward until another case dealing with the legality of the agreement in federal court is resolved.

“Because this case is not moot and a stay is not proper, the Court hereby denies Disney’s Motion to Dismiss or, in the Alternative, to Stay this Action,” wrote 9th Judicial Circuit judge Margaret Schreiber in an order issued on Friday.

The suit, filed in May in the state court covering Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District,...

Ron DeSantis has been having a hard time out on the campaign trail lately convincing Republican voters that he should be their presidential nominee, and the Walt Disney Company isn’t about to make things any easier for the Florida governor.

As dictated by federal court schedules, the Bob Iger-run media conglomerate filed its response today to DeSantis’ June 26 motion to toss out the Mouse House’s retaliation and free speech suit against the ambitious so-called anti-woke politician.

And Disney didn’t mince words.

“This case presents the fundamental question whether the Governor and the State can escape accountability for their open defiance of our Nation’s most cherished liberties,” Disney said Wednesday in its opposition to state defendants’ motion to dismiss (read it here).

“The Governor seeks to evade responsibility for his actions on a narrower ground, asserting that a governor cannot be held officially liable for implementing,...

Kesha Sebert and her former producer Dr. Luke (Lukasz Gottwald) have been in a contentious bicoastal legal battle for nearly a decade — but they’ve reached an agreement less than a month before it was set for trial.

The settlement ends a legal fight that began in October 2014 with dueling lawsuits; Sebert alleged she was drugged and sexually assaulted and wanted out of her recording agreement, while Gottwald maintained the accusation was false and sued for defamation and breach of contract.

Kesha on Thursday posted both of their statements on her verified Instagram account. Hers reads: “Only God knows what happened that night. As I have always said, I cannot recount everything that happened. I am looking forward to closing the door on this chapter of my life and beginning a new one. I wish nothing but peace to all parties involved.”

Dr. Luke’s statement says: “While I appreciate...

Update, 5:20 Pm: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis today won a victory in his legal skirmishes with the Walt Disney Company — but not for the reasons he wanted to.

The 2024 GOP White House contender had sought to have the federal judge in Disney “retaliation” lawsuit against DeSantis disqualified for bias. And today, U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker did disqualify himself from the matter. However, Walker’s self-disqualification, so to speak, had nothing to do with allegations that he could have discriminated against DeSantis’ attacks on Disney being a so-called “woke” company.

The judge, who has ruled on other DeSantis-related matters in the past, recused himself because a family member owns a mere 30 shares in the Mouse House. Judge Walker said that regardless of “the amount of the investment,” this financial turn of events could leave the impression of a lack of objectivity on his part that could affect “the...

In September 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic, ESPN anchor Sage Steele appeared on the podcast “Uncut with Jay Cutler” on her day off. During the interview, Cutler asked Steele why she had a bandage on her arm, and she explained that she had just received the jab in compliance with Disney policy, which required salaried and non-union workers to be fully vaccinated. The 16-year veteran of ESPN went on to slam the corporate mandate as “sick” and “scary” and noted that she “didn’t want to” get the vaccine but still complied in order to keep her job and support her family.

During the 71-minute podcast, Steele also expressed other views that deviated from prevailing discourse in most of the mainstream media, namely that as a self-identified biracial woman, she didn’t understand why Barack Obama only identified as Black. “You do you. I’m gonna do me,...

The music industry is the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” for the rest of entertainment, and issues around monetizing content in the streaming era and the complicated questions posed by the emergence of artificial intelligence are ones Hollywood can benefit from watching, according to veteran music lawyer Don Passman.

The attorney spoke during a keynote conversation as part of The Hollywood Reporter‘s breakfast honoring the industry’s Power Lawyers, an annual event that had gone virtual amid the pandemic and returned to Spago in Beverly Hills this year.

The event on Wednesday morning began with remarks from THR editorial director Nekesa Mumbi Moody, who welcomed the group. “Congratulations to this year’s Power Lawyers for their exceptional achievements,” she said. “We’re so thrilled we’re finally back together celebrating in person for the first time since 2019. … And it my privilege to be congratulate the new inductees of...

Former reality star Holly Madison won’t be called to testify during Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape trial, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

The defense wanted Madison to take the stand in order to undermine testimony from actress Ashley Matthau, one of the uncharged supporting witnesses. Matthau, who’s accusing Weinstein of sexual battery, claims the former mogul masturbated on her at his hotel in 2003 in Puerto Rico, where they were shooting Miramax’s “Dirty Dancing” sequel, “Havana Nights.”

Madison, who dated and lived with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner from 2001 to 2008, is close friends with Matthau. The defense intended on questioning her about the two partying together at the Playboy Mansion to prove that Matthau wasn’t a “young, sexually inexperienced naif” who was unfamiliar with “the ways of Hollywood.”

“They want to portray her as this innocent girl but they don’t want me to ask about all...

“It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot,” they say in the Tom Cruise-starring blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, and that’s kind of what Paramount thinks about a copyright lawsuit they’ve been slapped with over the fighter jet film.

“When the Court reviews the article and Maverick, as opposed to Plaintiffs’ irrelevant and misleading purported comparison of the works, it is clear as a matter of law that Maverick does not borrow any of the article’s protected expression,” says Paramount in a motion to dismiss response filed Friday in federal court in California.

“Plaintiffs do not have a monopoly over works about Top Gun.”

The dispute is between Paramount Pictures and the Israeli-based widow and son of the author of a 1983 article that inspired the original 1986 movie.

In a copyright suit filed earlier this summer in California federal court, Shosh Yonay and Yuval Yonay want unspecified...

Click here to read the full article.

Bestselling author Stephen King gingerly stepped up to the witness stand Tuesday in a federal antitrust trial. Tracing his own history, he laid out a portrait of a publishing industry that has become increasingly concentrated over the years, while richly rewarding his creative endeavors.

“My name is Stephen King. I’m a freelance writer,” King said as he began his testimony as a witness for the U.S. Justice Department. The government is bidding to convince a federal judge that the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and rival Simon & Schuster, two of the world’s biggest publishers, would thwart competition and damage the careers of some of the most popular authors.

King has been published for years by Simon & Schuster. Some of his former publishers were acquired by larger ones. The 2.2 billion merger of Penguin Random House, the biggest U.S.

Click here to read the full article.

As the Justice Department bids to convince a federal judge that the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster would damage the careers of some of the most popular authors, it is leaning in part on the testimony of a writer who has thrived like few others: Stephen King.

The author of Carrie, The Shining and many other favorites, King has willingly — even eagerly — placed himself in opposition to Simon & Schuster, his longtime publisher. He was not chosen by the government just for his fame, but for his public criticism of the 2.2 billion deal announced in late 2021, joining two of the world’s biggest publishers into what rival CEO Michael Pietsch of Hachette Book Group has called a “gigantically prominent” entity.

“The more the publishers consolidate, the harder it is for indie publishers to survive,” King tweeted last year.

One...

Exclusive: After months of legal anticipation following his December 2021 firing by Jeff Zucker, Chris Cuomo has just launched the official opening salvo in what looks to be protracted battle with CNN for not only $125 million in cash, but his character and family drama as well.

“As a result of Turner’s indefensible choice to unceremoniously fire him, Cuomo has been damaged in countless ways,” states a demand for arbitration filed Wednesday from Cuomo’s Freedman + Taitelman Llp and Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder Llp attorneys.

“Cuomo has had his journalistic integrity unjustifiably smeared, making it difficult if not impossible for Cuomo to find similar work in the future and damaging him in amounts exceeding $125 million, which includes not only the remaining salary owed under the Agreement, but future wages lost as a result of CNN’s efforts to destroy his reputation in violation of the Agreement,” the filing adds. “Cuomo now...

Warner Bros. argues in new court filings that it never agreed to an exclusively theatrical release for “The Matrix Resurrections,” and that Village Roadshow still owes $112.5 million in production expenses on the project.

The studio is responding to a lawsuit filed last week, in which Village Roadshow alleged that Warner Bros. had breached its co-financing agreement by releasing the film simultaneously on HBO Max. Village Roadshow accused Warner Bros. of deliberately sabotaging the film’s box office in order to drive subscribers to the streaming service.

Scarlett Johansson made a nearly identical argument in her lawsuit against Disney last July over the day-and-date release of “Black Widow” on Disney Plus. In that case, Johansson argued that Disney had sacrificed the film’s box office success — shorting her out of millions in incentive-based compensation — in order to benefit its streaming service. The suit was quickly settled with a significant payment going to Johansson.

Exclusive: Warner Bros is sick and tired of having streaming sand kicked in its face.

As Village Roadshow heads back to the court docket today to further push Asap on the breach of contract lawsuit the longtime financier of tentpole flicks filed last week against the WarnerMedia-own studio over box office disappointment The Matrix Resurrections, WB have made a rare move to pull back the veil themselves.

After the usual dry corporate statement they issued last week, a Warner Bros spokesperson Monday took the white gloves off:

Village’s actions have been duplicitous and this dispute is equally contrived. Village was happy to have their name on the credits of the film, traveled to the world premiere in San Francisco, and held themselves out to the media as producers on the film. But they have now reneged on their contractual obligation to pay their share of the cost of the film.

Netflix has lost an appeal of a 2019 ruling that ordered the streaming service to stop poaching employees from Fox.

The streaming service has been battling Fox since 2016 over the practice of locking midlevel executives into fixed-term contracts. Netflix has argued that Fox’s contracts are illegal under California law, and that they unfairly restrict employee mobility. Netflix’s argument, had it succeeded, could have upended how Hollywood studios do business.

But on Thursday, a three-judge appellate panel upheld the injunction, finding that Fox’s contracts are a legitimate way to provide “stability and predictability” in its employment relationships.

The case began in late 2015, when Netflix hired Marcos Waltenberg, 20th Century Fox’s vice president of promotions, enticing him to leave by doubling his salary. A few months later, Netflix hired Tara Flynn, an executive at Fox21, also doubling her salary. Both were on two-year contracts at the time, and Fox...

Marvel filed five lawsuits on Friday seeking to block comic book creators and their heirs from reclaiming copyrights to such major characters as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

The move comes after heirs of five Marvel authors filed dozens of termination notices with the U.S. Copyright Office. If they were to succeed, the notices would not prevent Marvel from using the disputed characters, which were created by multiple collaborators. They would however require the studio to make payments to the heirs.

In the lawsuits, Marvel argues that the characters were created under “work for hire” arrangements, and that the heirs have no valid claim to the copyrights.

Marvel points to a key case involving Jack Kirby, who co-created “The X-Men,” “Thor” and “Iron Man.” In that case, Kirby’s heirs sought to reclaim copyright to his creations, but the federal courts sided with Marvel, finding that the characters were made under work-for-hire arrangements.

The Walt Disney Company is taking Scarlett Johansson to task over her lawsuit against the Mouse House regarding the day-and-date streaming release of “Black Widow,” which she filed in July — and the studio is claiming the film made $125 million in “streaming and download retail receipts,” a rare admission of non-theatrical grosses. As reported by Deadline, a motion filed in LA Superior Court on Friday from Disney outside lawyers Daniel Petrocelli, Leah Godesky and Tim Heafner of O’Melveny & Myers Llp states, “Periwinkle agreed that all claims ‘arising out of, in connection with, or relating to’ Scarlett Johansson’s acting services for ‘Black Widow’ would be submitted to confidential, binding arbitration in New York.”

Periwinkle Entertainment is the company through which Johansson, who is suing Disney over box-office losses incurred when the film was put on Disney+ and in theaters simultaneously, offered acting services for the film.

Essentially, Disney’s lawyers...

Disney has filed a motion to force Scarlett Johansson into a private arbitration to address whether she is owed millions from the hybrid release of “Black Widow.”

In the motion, attorney Daniel Petrocelli also argues that Disney lived up to its obligation to give the film a “wide theatrical” release, but that nothing in the contract required the release to be exclusive to theaters.

Johansson filed a bombshell lawsuit on July 29, arguing that the decision to simultaneously release “Black Widow” in theaters and on Disney Plus cannibalized the film’s box office revenue and cost her tens of millions of dollars.

In the motion to compel arbitration, Petrocelli argued that “Black Widow” actually performed well, considering the ongoing pandemic. The film opened on July 9 and grossed $80 million domestically in its opening weekend — well below pre-pandemic Marvel standards, but $10 million more than Universal’s “F9” — which was an exclusive theatrical release.

SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris says Disney has been “resorting to tired tactics of gender-shaming and bullying” in how the studio handled Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against it.

“Disney should be ashamed of themselves for resorting to tired tactics of gender-shaming and bullying,” she said in a statement. “Actors must be compensated for their work according to their contracts. Scarlett Johansson is shining a white-hot spotlight on the improper shifts in compensation that companies are attempting to slip by talent as distribution models change. Nobody in any field of work should fall victim to surprise reductions in expected compensation. It is unreasonable and unjust. Disney and other content companies are doing very well and can certainly live up to their obligations to compensate the performers whose art and artistry are responsible for the corporation’s profits.”

She added: “Additionally, we are deeply concerned by the gendered tone of Disney’s criticism of Ms.

The temperature in the legal battle between Disney and Scarlett Johansson over her compensation for “Black Widow” has not cooled in the week since Johansson’s lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Longtime Disney attorney Daniel Petrocelli told Variety that the demands in Johansson’s litigation are far out of the bounds of the actor’s contract with the studio. He characterized it as an attempt to force Disney to write a check that backfired.

“It is obvious that this is a highly orchestrated PR campaign to achieve an outcome that is not obtainable in the lawsuit,” Petrocelli said. “No amount of public pressure can change or obscure the explicit contractual commitments. The written contract is clear as a bell.”

Meanwhile, in another sign that the conflict has touched a nerve at a time of uncertainty for the industry, SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris weighed in on Friday with a lengthy statement blasting Disney.

Disney-owned 20th Century and original “Predator” screenwriters John and Jay Thomas are preparing for a legal battle over the rights to the 34-year-old science-fiction horror franchise, which includes four movies and the “Alien vs. Predator” mash-up project. The Thomas brothers wrote the screenplays for 1987’s “Predator,” directed by John McTiernan and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and its 1990 sequel “Predator 2.” The brothers have filed a lawsuit against Disney to recapture the rights to the “Predator” franchise, prompting Disney to file its own lawsuit against the brothers to retain the rights.

According to The Hollywood Reporter: “The Thomas brothers are seeking to exploit copyright law’s termination provision, which allows authors to cancel transfers after waiting a period of time, typically 35 years for newer works…Jim and John Thomas say they served a termination notice all the way back in 2016 — and for four and a half years heard no objection.”

The...

“I ain’t got time to bleed,” Jesse Ventura declares in one of the many quotable lines from Predator. However, the brothers who penned the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring sci-fi action flick are certainly making the time to argue in a lawsuit that Disney needs to get its mitts off the rights to the franchise.

As you can imagine, the House of Mouse ain’t having that, and they’ve moved ahead with their own Predator suit.

“There now exists between the parties an actual and justiciable controversy concerning the validity of Notice One and 20th Century’s and defendants’ respective rights,” says Disney’s own court filing by the sharp-elbowed Daniel Petrocelli and his fellow lawyers at O’Melveny & Myers Llp (read it here).

Put it another way, who is the hunter and who is the hunted here?

As Deadline exclusively reported in November 2020, the now Disney-owned 20th Century Studios...

Producer Joel Silver paid $1.7 million to the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas to cover Ron Meyer’s gambling debt in July 2014, multiple sources confirmed to Variety.

At the time, Meyer was the vice chairman of NBCUniversal and Silver — his close friend — had a distribution deal with the studio. A few months earlier, Silver had received a $4 million advance from NBCUniversal on his cut of the proceeds from “Non-Stop,” an action film starring Liam Neeson.

The casino transaction has come to the attention of NBCUniversal within the last two weeks, prompting the studio to ask attorney Daniel Petrocelli to look into it, according to a source who spoke to Petrocelli about the matter.

The payment from Silver was specifically designated to pay off Meyer’s marker at the casino, according to a source who viewed an email confirming the transaction.

Anthony Pellicano, the former private investigator who has been working for Silver as a negotiator,...

Netflix is the target of yet another employee-poaching lawsuit.

In a suit on Friday, Activision Blizzard accused the streamer of showing “contempt” for state employment law when it poached the company’s chief financial officer two years ago.

Netflix has been sued twice before — by Fox and Viacom — for allegedly luring away employees who are in the middle of fixed-term agreements.

In the latest case, Activision alleges that Netflix hired away CFO Spencer Neumann when he was less than two years into a three-year contract.

“Netflix has demonstrated a pattern of caring only about attracting and employing whoever Netflix wants, regardless of whether it violates the law along the way,” Activision’s lawyers allege. “Netflix’s unlawful conduct is not trailblazing or innovative — it is just reflective of Netflix’s contempt for the law of the State of California.”

The suit notes that Netflix has been making forays into the...

Exclusive: A lawsuit filed Friday by Activision Blizzard against Netflix for snagging one of the video game giant’s top executives surely must be an unwelcome case of deja voodoo for the streamer.

“Netflix unapologetically recruits talent without regard to its ethical and legal obligations,” declares the complaint filed by the home of Call of Duty against Netflix for wooing Activision chief financial officer Spencer Neumann in late 2018 to eventually become the streamer’s top finance guy.

“To shape its workforce to its desires, Netflix not only ruthlessly fires its own employees that it deems ‘adequate,’ but is engaged in a years-long campaign of unlawfully poaching executives from Netflix’s competitors regardless of their contractual obligations,” adds the lean three-claim suit filed this morning in Los Angeles Superior Court (Read it here).

Now, if any of this jury-trial seeking move sounds familiar, that’s because you have heard it before.

What a difference a global pandemic can make.

Almost nine months after coming up short in its long battle with Disney-owned Fox over snatching two executives back in 2016, Netflix is climbing back in the ring to start the whole thing up again with an appeal that kicked off tonight.

“This case is about Fox’s abusive behavior in its quest to curtail its employees’ freedom to seek new and better opportunities,” says the streamer in an opening brief submitted late Wednesday to the 2nd District Court of Appeal (Read It Here).

Citing a number of “key, threshold legal” errors with the December 2019 final ruling by Judge Marc Gross, the now very establishment Netflix is widening its scope to battle the “Hollywood establishment” and its “dim view of employee mobility” in the otherwise free-to-be me Golden State.

This all started back in September 2016, when Fox went after the streamer alleging it...

Updated, 3:29 Pm: Fox won’t be getting its $1 in damages in the long-running executive-poaching battle with Netflix, but the streamer won’t be snagging any more employees of the now Disney-owned studio or maybe anyone else.

Two weeks after Judge Marc Gross issued a tentative ruling that seemed to snap off Netflix’s attempt to challenge industry employment contracts, the Los Angeles Superior Court official made it official Tuesday with a final ruling affirming the tentative.

The court finds Fox is entitled to injunctive relief, as follows: Netflix shall not solicit employees who are subject to valid Fixed-Term Employment Agreements with Fox or induce such employees to breach their valid Fixed-Term Employment Agreements with Fox,” said Gross, as clear as day, in today’s 57-page ruling.

“Today’s ruling by the Court brings to an end years of unlawful practices by Netflix,” said Fox lead lawyer Daniel Petrocelli.

Columbo’s circumstantial way of solving a TV crime now has a real-life judicial aspect too, it seems.

Just over a month after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge awarded $70.3 million in profit participation to the creators of the iconic Peter Falk-led detective series, the same judge today threw his own judgment out and ordered a new trial.

“Needless to say, we are pleased the Court agreed with our position on the pivotal contract issue and look forward to concluding what little remains of the case,” attorney Daniel Petrocelli said on behalf of NBCUniversal after its November 5 motion to have a new trial was granted. That pivotal contract issue was the definition of “photoplays,” which the paperwork did allow distributor Universal to deduct. Due to the multi-phase nature of the case, the definition wasn’t given to the jurors until after they had awarded the big bucks — a fatal...

The dance-off over Leaving Neverland is far far from over. Less than a month after HBO lost an attempt to get the multimillion-dollar lawsuit from the estate of Michael Jackson against the Emmy-winning documentary tossed out, and saw a federal judge shift the whole matter towards arbitration, the AT&T-owned premium cabler kicked back Monday. In a short filing, HBO’s lawyers from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Llp and O’Melveny & Myers Llp notified the court that they intend to take the matter upstairs, so to speak.

“Please take notice that Defendant Home Box Office, Inc. hereby appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from this Court’s order granting Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel Arbitration (the “Order”),” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. and Daniel Petrocelli wrote the court today in a move to dispense of Judge George Wu’s ruling of September 20 against their anti-slapp motion in the highly charged case.

HBO filed a motion Friday to dismiss the Michael Jackson estate’s $100 million lawsuit against its “Leaving Neverland” documentary, citing the First Amendment as protection.

The documentary, released in March, details accusations by Wade Robson and James Safechuck that the late pop singer sexually abused them at his Neverland Ranch when they were minors.

The Jackson estate has angrily opposed the documentary, calling it “the kind of tabloid character assassination Michael Jackson endured in life, and now in death.” Jackson died in 2009.

Also Read: Michael Jackson Accuser Wade Robson Criticizes MTV's 'Unfortunate Choice' to Keep Jackson's Name on Vanguard Award (Exclusive)

“HBO’s distribution of this documentary–which recounts the personal stories of two individuals who describe in detail how, as young boys, they were sexually abused for years by Michael Jackson, arguably one of the world’s most famous public figures–constitutes protected activity under the First Amendment...

(Updated with Jackson estate statement) With five nominations going into next month’s Emmy Awards, Leaving Neverland is hoping to score a final win in court too.

Under legal fire from the extremely litigious estate of Michael Jackson, the HBO documentary examining allegations that the Thriller star sexually abused children has now moved to have the case against it tossed out of court once and for all.

“Plaintiffs’ claims fail because they violate the First Amendment, Due Process Clause and public policy, and in any event, the contract on which they are based is inapplicable and expired,” states the special motion to strike by HBO’s powerhouse lawyers Theodore Boutrous Jr. and Daniel Petrocelli (read it here).

“California’s Anti-slapp law empowers—indeed requires—this Court to put an end to this litigation now,” the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Llp and O’Melveny & Myers Llp attorneys add in the August 15 paperwork submitted to federal court.

Updated, 8:28 Am: Disney has settled a long-running profit-sharing lawsuit filed by producers of the 1990s ABC sitcom Home Improvement. The case had been headed toward trial in the coming weeks.

Producers Matt Williams, Carmen Finestra, David McFadzean and their respective production companies first claimed in court in 2013 that Disney owed them money from syndication and other sources for the 1991-99 series that has made more than $1.5 billion for the company. Read details of the case below.

Previously, March 2017: Like a home improvement that you mistakenly thought was completed years ago, Disney saw some legal walls fall today after a California appeals court gave a Home Improvement profit-sharing lawsuit a brand new hammer.

“The trial court accordingly erred in granting summary adjudication in favor of Disney,” 2nd District Appeals Court Justice Laurie Zelon wrote with the agreement of two other judges, setting the stage for a new round of...

Less than two months after a California judge eviscerated the unprecedented $179 million award that Bones executive producers and stars won in their long running profits participation legal clash with 21st Century Fox, Barry Josephson today added fraud to his claims against the now Disney-owned entity.

“Tcftv’s promise to Plaintiff that his Magr (Modified Adjusted Gross Receipts) participation on the Series would be 12.5% of Magr reducible to a ‘floor’ of 7.5% of Magr was false when made, as Tcftv had no intention of honoring that floor and, on information and belief, always intended to reduce Plaintiff below that floor,” proclaimed the Ep’s Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert Llp attorneys on Wednesday, shaking up a expected to be staid status conference hearing in Dtla on the nearly four-year old suit with an amended complaint in the astringent matter.

Distinct from a direct appeal on Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard...

(Updated With Tentative Ruling Being Made Final) Turns out that Netflix’s invoking Olivia de Havilland in its long legal tussle with Fox and now Disney over snagging executives a few years back and pushing back against employment contracts did the streamer about as much good as the two-time Oscar winner’s unsuccessful feud with FX over Feud.

“This court does not believe the overall legislative intent behind Labor Code §2855(a) would be served by the blanket ruling Netflix seeks, one that would prohibit all employees under contract in any business or context from engaging in continuous employment with the same employer for more than seven years,” a tentative decision from a Los Angeles Superior Court judge wrote Wednesday.

Coming just before a hearing in Santa Monica this morning, the left hook by Judge Marc Gross slams the always wide-swinging argument by the Reed Hastings-run company that the agreements...

Updated, 9:55 Am: A federal judge in the lawsuit against HBO over its documentary Leaving Neverland has denied the Michael Jackson estate’s motion for immediate arbitration. The family had been trying to have the case be decided by the American Arbitration Association and to have it sent back to state court, but U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu denied both motions, giving the premium cable net an early win in the legal battle. Read details of the case below.

Previosuly, May 2: The controversial Leaving Neverland made its debut on March 3, but the estate of Michael Jackson and HBO are still fighting over the sex abuse documentary in a $100 million lawsuit. Today, the premium cabler made a move to shut down a shift to arbitration by the deceased performer’s lawyers

“Optimum Productions and John Branca and John McClain, in their capacities as co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson,...

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has overturned $128 million in punitive damages that was awarded to “Bones” stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz and producers Kathy Reichs and Barry Josephson in arbitration, ruling in favor of studio 20th Century Fox Television in the profit participation case.

Judge Richard Rico issued a minute order Thursday denying the decision made by arbitrator Peter Lichtman back in February and striking punitive damages from Fox’s award to Deschanel, Boreanaz, Josephson and Reichs. This still leaves in place the remaining $50 million portion of the $178.7 million award Lichtman granted the “Bones” stars and producers in arbitration.

However, lawyers for Deschanel, Boreanaz and Reichs say they plan to appeal the ruling against punitive damages to a higher court.

“Today’s decision in no way impacts the arbitrator’s findings that our clients are owed more than $50 million for Fox’s fraudulent and deceitful accounting,” Daniel A.