Woody Allen sues American Apparel

Veteran filmmaker Woody Allen has filed legal papers accusing clothing company American Apparel of using his image in its advertising without his permission. The comedian claims he was never contacted by an American Apparel representative about the billboard and online advertisements, which featured an image - taken from the Oscar-winning 1977 movie Annie Hall - of Allen dressed as a Hasidic Jew. In legal documents filed in U.S. District Court in New York on Monday, Allen says he doesn't endorse commercial products in the U.S. and that American Apparel hasn't compensated him for the use of his likeness. Allen is seeking damages of more than $10 million.

Lawsuit over Crowe's Cinderella Man injury

An insurance company is suing to prevent the production company behind 2005 film Cinderella Man claiming compensation for Renee Zellweger after Russell Crowe's shoulder injury delayed filming. Crowe hurt his shoulder during training for the role of boxer James J. Braddock and subsequently delayed the seven-week shoot by another seven weeks. Clarendon National Insurance Company has now filed a lawsuit against Omnikrom in Los Angeles Superior Court in a bid to prevent them from asking for $3.4 million compensation for Zellweger's loss of earnings during that time. However, the firm insists it has already paid out almost $6 million in claims to cover Crowe's surgery and rehabilitation and other production delays. It also claims in the lawsuit that the production company did not file the claim until July 2005, at least five months after the balance of the insurance claims were paid, and thus they should not be required to cover the cost of Zellweger's extra fee.

"Borat" driver's ed teacher sues Fox

A driving instructor has sued the makers of the movie "Borat," accusing them of lying to him about the nature of the crass comedy by telling him he'd be in a documentary about the integration of immigrants into U.S. life. The lawsuit was brought Tuesday by lawyers for Michael Psenicska, a Baltimore high school mathematics teacher who has owned a driving school in Perry Hall, Md., for the last 32 years.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeks $100,000 in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages, saying the hit movie earned hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. It says Psenicska is entitled to damages because defendants, including producer Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and star Sacha Baron Cohen, used images of him extensively in advertising the film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Psenicska's lawsuit says Fox and Cohen fraudulently induced him to sign documents approving his appearance in "Borat" just before he was filmed giving Cohen's Borat Sagdiyev character a driving lesson.

According to the lawsuit, the film's staffers had promised they were producing a documentary about the integration of foreign people into the American way of life, a subject that interested Psenicska because he was in the business of teaching foreigners to drive. Yet, it says, when filming began, Borat did a hugging and kissing routine, struggled with his seat belt like a child, drove on the wrong side of the road, made ethnic slurs, said women had small brains and rolled down a window and offered a female pedestrian $10 for "sexy time."

Twentieth Century Fox spokesman Gregg Brilliant said Psenicska consented to the filming. "He signed a release, and we have an agreement," Brilliant said. "Now, 2 1/2 years after giving his consent and more than one year after the movie was released, Mr. Psenicska has decided to file a lawsuit, citing the financial success of the film, in spite of our agreement."

Haggis, Hatcher in breach of contract suits

"Crash" director Paul Haggis is suing one of his co-producers on the Oscar-winning movie over $4.7 million in unpaid royalties. Haggis claims he is owed the millions in profits from the film and has accused Bob Yari of breach of contract. The filmmaker is disputing an agreement signed in 2002 regarding the distribution of royalties, which depended on the film's financial success. "Crash," which went on to win three Academy Awards, was originally made on a budget of just $6.5 million plus $1 million in financing, but went on to gross over $100 million worldwide - more than 10 times its original cost. However, Yari has argued in court documents that the movie was not as profitable as it seemed, because various additional production costs had not been taken into account. Haggis is not the only person suing Yari over the film's financial issues - legal suits have also been launched by Bobby Moresco, who co-wrote the film, and co-producer Cathy Schulman.

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A beauty company is suing Teri Hatcher for allegedly breaking a contract by promoting rival products. Legal papers, filed by executives at Hydroderm skincare in Los Angeles on Tuesday, claim the Desperate Housewives actress promoted other beauty items, despite the fact she was paid $2.4 million to solely advertise Hydroderm products. The lawsuit reads: "Hatcher's name, image and likeness have been linked to so many competitors' products that it is anyone's guess as to what product keeps her skin and lips youthful." Hydroderm is seeking Hatcher's $2.4 million salary, unspecified damages and its legal costs.

Chilis could struggle in "Californication" lawsuit

LA rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers are suing the network behind TV hit Californication, alleging that the title is stolen from their 1999 single and album. But the group may struggle because it failed to protect its brand, according to a legal expert.

Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, John Frusciante, and Michael "Flea" Balzary, doing business as Red Hot Chili Peppers, are suing Showtime Networks and others. They argue that the creation and marketing of the TV series "constitutes a false designation of origin, and has caused and continues to cause a likelihood of confusion, mistake, and deception as to source, sponsorship, affiliation, and/or connection in the minds of the public".

The album Californication sold 14 million copies and was listed among Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Albums of All Time. The group says the US series, starring David Duchovny, dilutes the quality of their brand. They are seeking unspecified damages and a new name for the TV show.

The lawsuit notes that a recurring character in the TV show is called "Dani California". That is also the name of a character who is the subject of or mentioned in three songs by the Chili Peppers, including the song Californication. The band also wrote a hit single called Dani California.

The lawsuit does not mention it, but according to Wikipedia, a character in one episode narrates the line, "It's the edge of the world and all of western civilisation," a lyric from the song Californication.

Further, the lawsuit notes that a search on "Californication" in Apple's iTunes Music Store retrieves the band's works and the TV show's compilation albums. The band says that causes confusion.

However, Showtime Networks is expected to argue that the band did not coin the word, a portmanteau of California and fornication. It first appeared in print in Time Magazine in 1972, in an article called The Great Wild Californicated West.

Time reporter Sandra Burton wrote: "Legislators, scientists and citizens are now openly concerned about the threat of 'Californication' - the haphazard, mindless development that has already gobbled up most of Southern California."

Kim Walker, head of intellectual property at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said the band should have registered Californication as a trademark. Instead, the only trademark application was filed in April in the US, by Showtime Networks. The mark has not yet been registered.

"Successful songs, albums and movies can become brands in themselves. What's really surprising is how few songs and albums are properly protected," said Walker. "The Chili Peppers could almost certainly have registered a trademark for 'Californication', notwithstanding Time's article. They made the word famous, but it doesn't automatically follow that they can stop its use in a TV show.

"If they had registered the title as a trademark covering entertainment services, I very much doubt we'd have seen a lawsuit. The TV show would have been called something else," he said. "As it is, the band faces an uphill struggle."

A quick search on Rolling Stone's Top 10 Greatest Albums of All Time at the trademark registries of the US and UK shows that none of the album titles are protected by the artists or their record companies.

An individual applied to register Highway 61 Revisited, the Bob Dylan album that appears at number four in Rolling Stone's list; but that application was abandoned. Rubber Soul, ranked number five, is registered as a mark, but not to The Beatles. And Sgt Pepper's, the top-ranked album, is registered as a footwear brand by a company in Spain and as a pepper spray brand in the US.

David Bowie appears to be more savvy than most of his counterparts, though: he has registered Ziggy Stardust as a trademark for music and entertainment services. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is ranked at number 35 in Rolling Stone's list.

New Line Cinema sues video company over "The Golden Compass"

Film studio New Line Cinema has filed a multi-million dollar copyright infringement lawsuit against a video company over a documentary about The Golden Compass author Philip Pullman. The movie studio claims the 70-minute DVD film, Beyond The Golden Compass: The Magic of Philip Pullman, is an attempt by company Koch Entertainment to cash in on the publicity surrounding the new $180 million big-screen adaptation of the writer's fantasy novel, which stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. The movie is due to hit cinemas in December - while the DVD was released on November 19, and by Koch's own admission, is to "coincide with the big-budget film adaptation." And New Line Cinema has also called into question the similarity of the DVD's cover sleeve to the film's publicity posters - the documentary cover features an unarmored Polar Bear and a compass-like device; the same as the movie's promotional material, which also depicts Kidman and Craig. But Koch Entertainment has denied the copyright claim. The two parties met for a hearing in a New York court on Monday, but a ruling has yet to be made.

Sony ordered to pay $5M in logo dispute

Sony Music must pay the founder of a small record company $5 million for failing to put his company's logo on reissues of Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" album, a federal appeals court ruled. Steve Popovich, 65, who started Cleveland International Records in 1977 and soon afterward signed the chubby singer named Marvin Lee Aday, persuaded Epic Records to release the wildly successful album. Epic was owned at the time by CBS. Sony, which bought out CBS Records, paid $6.7 million to Popovich and his former partners in 1998 to settle a lawsuit over royalties from the album.

The settlement required Sony to place the Cleveland International logo on future Meat Loaf albums but Sony did not add the logo to "Bat Out of Hell" for more than a year. In a 2-1 decision Wednesday, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a federal jury's decision in 2005 awarding Popovich an extra $5 million in damages.

Sony has claimed that the logo omission was a mistake that later was corrected. In court documents, Sony also accused Popovich of trying to get money out of the company by trumping up the logo agreement.

"Bat Out of Hell" has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, according to court records.

Hopkins takes Merchant Ivory to Court

Sir Anthony Hopkins is taking Merchant Ivory to court in a bid to claim $750,000 he claims the film production company owes him for a new movie. The actor alleges Merchant Ivory has yet to pay him for starring in "City Of Your Final Destination," so has filed court papers to take the firm to an arbitrator. Hopkins claims the company, who he has made four films with, including the Academy Award-winning "Howard's End," was due to pay him his $750,000 salary by January. Earlier this year, Merchant Ivory disputed Hopkins' version of events.

Woman sues Bob Barker, "Price Is Right" producers

A woman has sued Bob Barker and the producers of "The Price is Right," alleging she was forced to quit working on the game show. In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Deborah Curling claimed she was harassed after she testified against Barker in a harassment lawsuit that was brought against him. Curling's lawsuit alleges hostile working environment, wrongful termination based on retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Curling is seeking an unspecified amount in damages from Barker, CBS, and production company FremantleMedia.

It's "Wish Upon a Star" vs. "Family Guy"

NEW YORK (AP) -- In the 67 years since its debut, "When You Wish Upon a Star" has been recorded by more than 100 artists and orchestras. But the song's owner is irate about what it calls an unseemly spoof of the familiar tune, saying the dreamy classic was twisted into an anti-Semitic ballad and widely distributed as part of a comedy television program.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, music publishing house Bourne Co. aims to stop the program's distribution. The suit accuses Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting Co., the Cartoon Network and others of copyright infringement. It seeks unspecified damages.

The lawsuit said that in 2000, the defendants included the parody, "I Need a Jew," in an episode of the Fox television animated series "Family Guy." The episode, titled "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," relied on the premise that the main character could not manage his family's finances and needed to hire a Jewish person to take care of his money, the lawsuit said. During the episode, the main character, Peter Griffin, sings "I Need a Jew," which the lawsuit called a thinly veiled copy of the music from "When You Wish Upon a Star," accompanied by new anti-Semitic lyrics.

According to the lawsuit, Fox initially withheld the episode from distribution because of its content but eventually earned large sums of money by distributing more than 1 million copies of it to the public in various home video formats. It said the Cartoon Network first aired the episode on November 10, 2003.

"When You Wish Upon a Star," written by Ned Washington and Leigh Harline, appeared in 1940 as part of the Walt Disney motion picture "Pinocchio." It won the Academy Award that year for Best Original Song. "With its theme of wholesome hopefulness, the song has gained worldwide status as a classic," the lawsuit said. "By associating Bourne's song with such offensive lyrics and other content in the episode, defendants are harming the value of the song."

Bourne is the sole U.S. copyright owner of "When You Wish Upon a Star."

Judge Fines New Line; "Pooh" Case rejected

Judge Fines New Line $125,000 for Failing to Provide Audits

Seeming to undermine contentions by movie studios that their accounting practices are transparent and that profit participants in their films are free to examine their records, a federal judge has fined New Line Cinema $125,000 for failing to provide sufficient documentation about its revenue for "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring." Director Peter Jackson has sued the Time Warner-owned company, demanding details of the studio's audits for the film. However U.S. Magistrate Steven Hillman ruled that New Line had provided only a fraction of the documents requested by Jackson's attorneys in the discovery phase of the trial.

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Appeals Court Affirms Rejection of Pooh Case

A California appeals court on Tuesday upheld a trial judge's 2004 decision to toss out a lawsuit filed by the heirs of Stephen Slesinger, owners of the Winnie the Pooh rights, against the Walt Disney Co. because they had improperly searched Disney dumpsters looking for evidence and had thereby obtained thousands of pages of Disney documents, many of them marked privileged and confidential. Daniel Petrocelli, the attorney representing Disney in the lawsuit, had called the conduct of the Slesingers "an assault on the legal system." The heirs claim that Disney failed to pay royalties owed under a 1983 contract covering Pooh merchandise. A spokesman for the family said Tuesday that they would appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court.

Former Ramone sues over song downloads

Richard "Richie Ramone" Reinhardt, a drummer who spent four years in one of the greatest punk bands of all time, The Ramones, filed a federal lawsuit Friday claiming he is owed nearly $1 million in royalties on songs sold over the Internet.

Reinhardt, who performed with the Ramones between 1983 and 1987, sued Wal-Mart, Apple, RealNetworks, the band's management and the estate of its lead guitarist, claiming he had never fully signed over the rights to the six songs he wrote for the group.

Specifically, Reinhardt said there was never any written deal authorizing the sale of those songs digitally. He said he is owed at least $900,000 in royalties, and asked the court to issue an injunction preventing further use of his compositions without permission.

Along with the digital music stores, the lawsuit names a pair of production companies associated with the band and the estate of guitarist John Cummings, who performed under the name Johnny Ramone.

Dan Rather files lawsuit against CBS

NEW YORK - Dan Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit Wednesday against CBS, alleging that the network made him a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's National Guard service. The 75-year-old Rather, whose final months were clouded by controversy over the report, says the complaint stems from "CBS' intentional mishandling" of the aftermath of the story.

The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, also names CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves, Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone, and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward. Rather, the former anchorman of the "CBS Evening News," is seeking $20 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages.

Suit against Imus dropped

Broadcaster Don Imus will no longer be sued for slander and defamation by a member of the Rutgers University Women's Basketball Team. Imus was axed from CBS Radio earlier this year after he called the mostly-black team a racist and sexist epithet on his radio show, Imus In The Morning. Kia Vaughn filed a lawsuit in New York last month alleging slander and defamation of character - but has dropped the case in a bid to pursue a career in journalism. A spokeswoman for Vaughn's attorney, Richard Ancowitz, says, "Her strong commitments have influenced her decision to withdraw the lawsuit at this time," the statement said. Imus' lawyer Martin Garbus confirmed his client had paid no money to Vaughn.

"Wardrobe Malfunction" case begins today

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia will hear the case of television's most famous Wardrobe Malfunction, and whether or not that incident - accident or planned - should result in a fine of more than half a million on the CBS Network and a $27,500 fine on each of the network's owned local affiliates. CBS initially appealed the fines, calling them illogical because the incident was an accident, not a staged stunt. The FCC contends the network "knew or surely should have known" what was going to happen during their halftime show.

Potential lawsuits involving Hynde, "Chuck & Larry"

Rocker Chrissie Hynde has threatened to mount a lawsuit against a handbag maker after they used her name to promote a leather bag. Animal rights campaigner Hynde has branded the decision by trendy holdall designer Hogan to name a new ponyskin handbag in their rock chick-inspired collection 'The Chrissie' "outrageous and thoughtless." Hynde says, "I never thought I'd be moved to consider filing a lawsuit, but as soon as I heard my name was being used to promote bags made of dead-animal skin, I started exploring my legal options with my friends at Peta (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals) At first, I thought this must be a joke, it's so outrageous and thoughtless."

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Australian actor Michael Caton says he was only making a "tongue in cheek" remark when he suggested that comedian Rob Schneider may have helped Adam Sandler plagiarize the Australian film "Strange Bedfellows" for Sandler's "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." Both films are about two firefighters who pretend to be homosexuals in order to take advantage of tax benefits for gay couples. Caton, who co-starred in "Bedfellows" with Paul (Crocodile Dundee) Hogan, had told a recent news conference that he had given a copy of the movie to Schneider, who appears as an Asian minister in "Larry." Caton appeared with Schneider in the 2001 film "The Animal." Schneider responded by taking out an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald saying, "I am very flattered that you think that I am the one who chooses the films of Adam Sandler (currently the highest paid actor in the world). ... It is true you gave me a DVD copy of "Strange Bedfellows," but I must confess I've never watched it, as it is not on the same format as I have." Caton responded that he hadn't brought up the matter -- reporters had. In a statement to the Herald, Caton added that he was only kidding when he said that he had emailed Schneider a message saying that if the reports about similarities between the two films are true, "tell Adam Sandler [that he] owes me one." He added that he has not seen "Chuck and Larry." Nevertheless, the Herald reported that Shana Levine, one of the "Bedfellows" producers, is considering filing a copyright-infringement suit against the "Chuck and Larry" producers.

Film Academy Sues to Stop Sale of Oscars

The Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences is suing to stop the public sale of two Academy Awards given to silent film star Mary Pickford. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the academy claims it has the right to buy the historic statuettes and one owned by her late husband for $10 each. The academy contends an heir to the Oscars demanded $500,000 for one statuette alone in July — an offer the academy refused.

Pickford won the Academy Award for best actress in 1930 and was given an honorary Oscar in 1975. When she died in 1979, they went to her one-time husband, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, the lawsuit said. In 1986, Rogers won the academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and when he died all three awards went to his second wife, Beverly. She died in January, leaving the statuettes to her heirs, who are co-executors of her estate.

The lawsuit names three of the heirs, in their roles as co-executors. It alleges anticipatory breach of contract. The suit claims that academy bylaws dating from 1950 and agreements signed by Oscar winners give the academy the first chance to buy Oscars for $10 each if they ever go on the market.

"If the public believes that any multimillionaire can buy an Oscar, then it becomes cheapened," David W. Quinto, an attorney representing the academy, said Friday. "It becomes an article of commerce rather than a very prestigious award." Quinto said Pickford was a founder of the academy and helped approve the Oscar design. "From the academy's point of view it's just unthinkable that Mary Pickford ... would ever consent to do anything that would ever cheapen it in the eyes of the public," he said.

Comedy writer sues over "Hannah Montana"

Here's a suit featuring all kinds of terms from Contract Law. Prof. Rosen would love this.

LOS ANGELES - A comedy writer is suing The Walt Disney Co., alleging he came up with the idea for the teen television show "Hannah Montana" but was never compensated.

Buddy Sheffield filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday alleging breach of contract, breach of confidence, unfair competition and unjust enrichment.

Disney officials could not be reached at the company's Burbank offices Thursday evening for comment.

Sheffield, who has written for "The Smothers Brothers Show," "The Dolly Parton Show" and "In Living Color," says he pitched an idea for a television series called "Rock and Roland" to the Disney Channel in 2001. The story was about a junior high school student who lived a secret double life as a rock star, according to the lawsuit.

Disney Channel officials at first liked the idea, but ultimately passed on it, the lawsuit alleges.

The Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana" is about high school student Miley Stewart, who lives a secret double life as a famous pop star.

"Hannah Montana," starring Miley Cyrus and her father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, has generated two hit music CDs and helped sell a great deal of merchandise. Sheffield says he deserves a share of the revenue.

'Dirty Dancing' Makers Mount Copyright Infringement Suit

The makers of iconic movie Dirty Dancing have mounted a lawsuit against companies selling merchandise featuring a popular phrase from the 1987 film. Lionsgate Films filed the suit in Los Angeles District Court last Wednesday against 15 companies which they accuse of illegally using the words "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" on a range of goods. The lawsuit states, "The American Film Institute voted 'Nobody puts Baby in a corner' as one of the top 100 most popular quotes from a motion picture. Plaintiff markets and sells merchandise with the movie trademarks through approved licensees as part of the 'Dirty Dancing' line of approved merchandise." The suit accuses the companies named of "creating confusion" by distributing unofficial Dirty Dancing merchandise, and aims to stop the vendors - including Uncommongoods.com in New York - selling objects featuring the phrase. Lionsgate Films is also seeking a court order to make the 15 companies pay restitution costs and damages.

Authorities Probing CBS's 'Kid Nation'

CBS on Tuesday defended itself against mounting criticism that the network may have violated child labor laws and placed children at risk during the production of the forthcoming reality show Kid Nation. Following a complaint by one of the 40 children who participated in the series -- in which kids create their own "society" in a town in New Mexico -- CBS sent a statement to the Los Angeles Times disputing the "course of action being taken by one parent in distorting the true picture of the Kid Nation experience." The statement insisted that CBS and the producers had instituted safety procedures "that arguably rival or surpass any school or camp in the country." The network has argued that child labor laws did not apply to the production because the children, ages 8-15, were not employees of the production company. "The cameras are following people through an experience," a CBS lawyer said, adding that the $5,000 that each of them received (plus additional amounts for competitions) was "not tied to specific output or tasks." Nevertheless, today's New York Times reported that the New Mexico attorney general's office sent a warning to producers while the show was being taped that they might be violating child-labor laws.