Latest in Law

Another hey-you-didn’t-pay-me-my-profits lawsuit. This time a Los Angeles jury sided with Don Johnson who was both the star and a producer on the 1990s crime series Nash Bridges. Johnson sued 3 entertainment companies in 2009, claiming he was owed millions in profits from the 1990s crime series by Rysher…

Normally, Deadline doesn’t cover the personal lives of Hollywood types, except under circumstances which affect their professional lives. But the Lindsay Lohan saga is worth mentioning because it gets sadder and sadder since she was a once-promising young actress. Lohan was sentenced today by a judge in Beverly…

UPDATE: In connection with the summary judgment ruling today in its litigation against Google and YouTube, Viacom Inc made the following statement: “We believe that this ruling by the lower court is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the language of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the intent of Congress, and…

The always refreshingly blunt Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter took to his blog this morning to respond to a $5 million lawsuit against FX filed by former Oz actor Chuck Zito, a self-proclaimed former leader of the NY chapter of Hell’s Angels, who claims that Sons Of Anarchy was based on an idea he pitched to the…

UK investors tell me that film distributors not paying sales agents money owed is putting the whole indieprod business at risk. The problem has gotten worse over the last couple of years as the movie market has tightened. All financiers can do is pursue debtors expensively through the courts, with no certainty they…

Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen will plead guilty and serve jail time over misdemeanor charges stemming from his Christmas Day arrest for alleged domestic violence, according to several sites, including People and TMZ. But the 30-day sentence, which is expected to be reduced to 15-17 days for good behavior…

2ND UPDATE WRITE-THRU 1:30 PM: The indictment of financial advisor and accountant Kenneth Starr has the potential to be every bit as serious as the one that gripped Hollywood when Cassanda Group’s Dana Giacchetto fell from grace after defrauding some of Hollywood’s biggest names in the 1990s. Starr was arrested along…

UPDATED WRITE-THRU: The indictment of financial advisor and accountant Kenneth Starr has the potential to be every bit as serious as the one that gripped Hollywood when Cassanda Group’s Dana Giacchetto fell from grace after defrauding some of Hollywood’s biggest names in the 1990s. Starr was arrested along with an…

UPDATE AT 6:15 PM: More details have surfaced in the shocking indictment of Bonnie Hoxie– the administrative assistant to Disney corporate communications head Zenia Mucha—and Hoxie’s boyfriend Yonni Sebbeg for allegedly trying to peddle an early quarterly report to hedge funds for cash payment. In the annals of…

UPDATE 11 AM: The Walt Disney Co. just issued the following statement relating to the complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney on May 26 in New York: The Walt Disney Company has been fully cooperating with this investigation. The reference in the complaint to conversations regarding the ABC Network were and are false. PREV…

The Writer's Guild East has come out on behalf of documentary director Joe Berlinger, who last week was ordered by a Federal Judge to give Chevron more than 600 hours of footage he compiled for the documentary Crude: The Real Price of Oil. Berlinger and his attorneys have prevailed upon Judge Kaplan to stay the order…

Most of the time, Hollywood is complaining about Joel Silver. Now the producer is complaining about Wall Street. Matthew Belloni scooped about the breach of contract and fraud lawsuit filed today in LA Superior Court by Silver against Goldman Sachs. It claims the investment bank stiffed him on more than $30…