Tag: Lawsuits (1-10 of 27)

Apr 10 2013 11:31 AM ET

Julie Taymor settles 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' litigation

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Tags: , , , , Movies
Turn-Off-the-Dark.jpg

Image Credit: Jacob Cohl

The very long, very involved legal battle between Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark creative teams past and present finally has been resolved: Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and 8 Legged Productions LLC have settled all their pending claims against each other, they announced today.

“We’re happy to put all this behind us,” 8 Legged’s Michael Cohl and Jeremiah Harris said in a statement. “We are now looking forward to spreading Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark in new and exciting ways around the world.”

According to the statement, “The parties’ settlement agreement resolves Ms. Taymor’s claims against 8 Legged in connection with her work on the book of the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, with respect to both the current New York production and subsequent productions.” READ FULL STORY »

Feb 15 2013 10:54 AM ET

Chubby Checker sues over 'Chubby Checker' app that sizes up manhoods

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Tags: , , , , , , Music
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Image Credit: Bill McCay/Getty Images

In the late 1950s, a young singer called Ernest Evans began going by the name of Chubby Checker, a handle bestowed in part by Dick Clark’s wife (seriously!). Because it was a less vulgar time, nobody thought to warn young Chubby that his new moniker was just begging to be used as a lame double entendre (example: “Chubby Checker? I barely know ‘er!”).

But 60-odd years later, times have most definitely changed. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 10 2013 06:33 PM ET

Warner Bros. wins latest court battle with heirs of Superman creator

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Tags: , , , Books, Movies
Action-Comics

Back in October, Warner Bros. defeated the heirs of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster in a lawsuit regarding the ownership of the character. Today, the studio was handed a victory in their legal tussle with the heirs of Superman’s other co-creator, Jerry Siegel. As reported by the New York Times, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Calif. overturned a 2008 court case that granted the Siegel estate half-ownership over the character. (Deadline has a full copy of the six-page ruling, which also briefly mentions the ownership of the comic book character The Spectre, like anyone cares.) READ FULL STORY »

May 17 2012 10:00 AM ET

Skechers Shape-ups won't make you look like Kim Kardashian after all

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If you really want to keep up with Kim and co., wearing Skechers Shape-ups won’t give you an extra boost. The Los Angeles Times reports that Skechers has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit brought against the company by the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of 44 states. The plaintiffs’ complaint: Skechers’ Shape-ups don’t live up to the company’s hype. The shoe giant said their rocker-bottom sneakers deliver greater fitness benefits than other workout shoes. This suit follows a similar case brought against Reebok last year.

Both Kardashian and ex-quarterback Joe Montana appeared in ads for Skechers’ toning trainers. In his commercial, Montana claimed that Shape-ups improved his shape and posture; in hers, Kardashian flirtily cooed that they did more for her than her personal trainer. And this isn’t the first time the reality star has been connected to a shady product — in 2010, the State of Connecticut led an investigation of the Kardashian Kard, a debit system that apparently charged its users with numerous, excessive fees. Maybe this is why that guy on IMDB is so mad at her.

READ FULL STORY »

Feb 16 2012 04:43 PM ET

'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' producers reach settlement with Julie Taymor's directors' union

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Image Credit: Joan Marcus

8 Legged Productions LLC, the producers of the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, has reached a settlement with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), the union representing the show’s creator Julie Taymor.

According to a press release sent to EW by Spider-Man production spokesperson Rick Miramontez, the producers of the show have agreed to pay Taymor full royalties for her services as director and, once the show recoups, as a collaborator. They also withdrew litigation in which the producers challenged the SDC’s jurisdiction and the SDC arbitrated against the producers.

However, this settlement is strictly between the producers and the directors’ union, not Taymor herself; the lawsuits between Taymor and Spider-Man’s producers regarding authorship are still ongoing.

Taymor filed a suit against the producers in November after being fired from the production, alleging that she had not been properly compensated for her work on the musical and that her ousting violated her creative rights. In January, the show’s producers fired back with a countersuit that accused Taymor of failing to fulfill her contractual obligations when she refused to work with collaborators to improve Spider-Man after the show’s much-admonished debut in previews.

Feb 3 2012 04:23 PM ET

'Triple Town' creator David Edery talks copycat apps, Zynga, and the future of original gaming

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L: 'Triple Town'; R: 'Yeti Town'

All is not well in Triple Town. The much buzzed-about puzzle game, which successfully launched on Facebook and Google+ in October and on iOS and Android in January, is engaged in a fierce legal battle with a rival company accused of ripping it off.

Triple Town co-creator David Edery confirmed on his blog last Sunday that the development studio filed a copyright infringement suit against competing studio 6waves Lolapps (also known as 6L) in response to Yeti Town, a virtually identical game released two months after Triple Town, which one review called “the exact same game, only this time with snow.” Edery alleged that, among other offenses, 6L entered into a nondisclosure agreement with Spry Fox, only to abruptly end negotiations when Yeti Town was released. Today Rex Ng, the CEO of 6L, fired back, telling Venturebeat, “This accusation is unjustified and plainly not true. We have not broken the NDA signed between 6L and Spry Fox.” 6L also released this statement to EW: READ FULL STORY »

Jan 31 2012 08:30 AM ET

Newt Gingrich sued for using 'Eye of the Tiger'

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Tags: , , , Music
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Image Credit: Somodevilla/Getty Images; Everett Collection

Last week I interviewed the iconic folk singer-songwriter Paul Simon at the Sundance Film Festival, where he was promoting the new documentary Under African Skies. It commemorates the 25th anniversary of his groundbreaking and controversial album Graceland – groundbreaking because it fused American and South African folk pop; controversial because Simon broke the international cultural embargo against the South African apartheid regime to record the album. At Sundance, Simon talked about how he still bristles when politicians attempt to co-opt mainstream music for their own gain without giving any consideration or deference to the musicians who created that music. (You can watch our interview at EW’s Sundance hub.) His point is a compelling one: Politicians are happy to vilify pop music, until they need that music to make themselves seem hip and culturally relevant.

Which brings me to to the news this week that one of the co-writers of “Eye of the Tiger” is suing Newt Gingrich for using the song as part of his presidential campaign.  READ FULL STORY »

Jan 17 2012 05:37 PM ET

'Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark' producers file countersuit against Julie Taymor

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Spider-Man

Image Credit: Jacob Cohl

The producers behind Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have filed a countersuit against ousted director (and the show’s creator) Julie Taymor. The helmer, who was fired from the production last year, had filed suit against them in November, alleging that her termination violated her creative rights and that she had still not been financially compensated her for her work on the musical.

The producers’ counterclaim, filed in New York today, accuses Taymor of failing to fulfill her contractual obligations when she refused to collaborate on their efforts to improve the show after its disastrous first batch of previews. Thus, because of the “delays and the increased expenses due to Taymor’s actions,” they were forced to hire new co-bookwriter Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and new director Philip Wm. McKinley “in order for the show to survive.”

Read more:
‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’ breaks Broadway record
Happy Birthday, ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’!

Dec 20 2011 03:31 PM ET

Someone is suing Snooki for $7 million

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Tags: , , , , Jersey Shore, Reality TV, TV
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Image Credit: MTV

No one succeeds in America without suffering through a few lawsuits. It was true for John D. Rockefeller, it was true for Mark Zuckerberg, and now it’s true for the cast of Jersey Shore. This year, the show’s male mascot and demonic supervillain Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino filed suit against Abercrombie and his own flesh and blood. Now, female mascot and real-life cartoon Tasmanian devil Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is experiencing her own exciting experiment in litigation. In October, Snooki sued licensing company SRG Ventures, arguing that the company didn’t fulfill its obligation to her — or, in legal terms, “they didn’t make her as rich as The Situation” — and attempting to be released from her contract.

Now, as originally reported by the New York Post, SRG has filed a $7 million countersuit against Snooki, claiming that the reality star was negotiating with other companies behind its back. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 16 2011 03:50 PM ET

The Situation is suing Abercrombie & Fitch for $4 million

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Tags: , , Jersey Shore, TV
Jersey-Shore-Mike

Image Credit: MTV

Remember back in August, when Abercrombie & Fitch declared that they would pay The Situation money to not wear its clothing on Jersey Shore? We all had a good laugh about it. Then Abercrombie’s stock dropped 9 percent, a fact which made The Situation giggle with malicious glee. But Sitch is not satisfied with seeing his enemies merely defeated. He will not rest until he crushes Abercrombie, and he sees the board of directors driven before him, and he hears the lamentations of their women. Thus, on behalf of MPS Entertainment — a company founded by The Situation and his brother, Marc — lawyers have filed a Florida lawsuit against Abercrombie & Fitch for $4 million. READ FULL STORY »

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