More from Eriq Gardner
N.Y. Times to Stand Trial This Month as Sarah Palin Libel Suit Heads to Jury
The New York Times doesn’t often defend its journalistic practices before a jury. But later this month, the “Gray Lady” will indeed do so, as the influential newspaper has a trial date with Sarah Palin. Very much under the radar, jury selection in the 4-year-old case begins Jan. 24. The former vice presidential candidate alleges being […]
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How the Supreme Court Could Shake Up Disney’s Spider-Man Plans
Just three months ago, Disney’s Marvel unit filed a series of lawsuits aimed at retaining full ownership rights to characters including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Dr. Strange and the Mighty Thor. Given that the wheels of justice often turn slowly, one might not expect a resolution to these cases for years. But guess what? This past […]
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United States v. Facebook: What Hollywood Has at Stake
What will be the first big court decision of the new year? For the entertainment industry, that could be coming, of all places, from the government’s antitrust case against Facebook. The Federal Trade Commission is challenging Facebook’s past acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and alleging the social media giant engaged in an illegal “buy-or-bury” scheme […]
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Fox News’ Legal Jeopardy Is Real, but Not for the Most Cited Reasons
From QAnon to anti-vaxxers, we are living in a golden age of conspiratorial thinking. And now comes a big court ruling that should give any media entity that traffics in questionable nonsense some pause. On Thursday, a judge rejected Fox News’ motion to dismiss in a lawsuit claiming the Sean Hannity network defamed Dominion Voting […]
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‘Survivor’ Attorney Has His Nearly $500K Win Wiped Out
Survivor, on network television longer than Tom Brady has been playing professional football, still has the power to surprise. And we’re not talking about what’s been going down on some isolated island. No, in the show’s 41st season, a financial dispute that’s been haunting the hit since its inception just resulted in a reversal by […]
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‘General Hospital’ Star Sues ABC Over Vaccine Mandate
Ingo Rademacher, a long-running actor on General Hospital, is now suing ABC after being dismissed from the soap for his refusal to be vaccinated for COVID-19. According to a complaint filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the network refused to accommodate his religious objections. ABC is among many employers in the entertainment industry and […]
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Mike Lindell Experiences Rejection in Libel Suit Over Hollywood Romance
Many individuals would love to read about themselves dating a Hollywood star. But not Mike Lindell. The MyPillow CEO filed suit earlier this year when the Daily Mail published a story claiming he once dated 30 Rock actress Jane Krakowski for nine months. Lindell may insist the article is untrue, but even so, a New […]
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Dr. Oz’s Political Bid Will Give Sony and Oprah a Headache
The 2022 elections are still nearly a year away, but as Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz) makes a run for the Senate in Pennsylvania, his old partners in the entertainment space had better be prepared for blowback. Already, Oprah Winfrey is taking fire on social media for helping launch this celebrity. And if Winfrey gets to […]
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Netflix Can’t Recruit Disney’s Fox Executives, Appeals Court Rules
Netflix may see fixed-term contracts for entertainment executives as a form of involuntary servitude, but on Thursday, the streamer experienced a tough legal loss when a California appeals court refused to accept that perspective and overturn an injunction that prevented Netflix from poaching executives at Disney’s Fox unit. Fox sued back in September 2016 upon […]
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Ryan Kavanaugh’s New Mind Bender: When Is a Lawsuit Not a Lawsuit?
In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger famously came up with a thought experiment: Put a cat in a closed steel chamber along with a tiny bit of radioactive substance that will release poison upon possible decay. The Austrian physicist noted that before anyone opens the chamber and makes an observation, that cat exists in an indeterminate state between life and […]
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Miramax Wins Lawsuit Over ‘Pulp Fiction’ Movie Poster
Firooz Zahedi will always have a place in Hollywood history thanks to how he shot the iconic Pulp Fiction movie poster, but a judge has ruled that if the photographer claims ownership, he should have filed a lawsuit much sooner. He didn’t, and so Miramax has been granted summary judgment in a copyright battle over the […]
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Kevin Spacey Must Pay $31M for Breaching ‘House of Cards’ Deal
After a two-year legal battle behind closed doors, an arbitrator has ruled that Kevin Spacey must pay House of Cards producer MRC nearly $31 million for sexual misconduct behind the scenes of the political series. On Monday, MRC filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to confirm the arbitration award. Spacey, who played Frank […]
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