Will Fox escape a jury trial in massive 'Squeakquel' case?

By Eriq Gardner

EXCLUSIVE: If this summer proved anything for Hollywood studios, it's never trust a jury to decide a case where a creative type is raising hell over owed profits. Just ask the Walt Disney Co., which was ordered to fork over $270 million from "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," one among several recent lawsuits where studios ended up on the losing end.

Twentieth Century Fox might be on the verge of escaping a jury in a case with hundreds of millions of dollars at issue from last year's megahit "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel."

A California District Court has decided to stay the case, honoring a "forum selection clause" between plaintiff Bagdasarian Prods and Fox. That means the case might be headed to a referee rather than a jury. However, the battle is far from over. Bagdasarian has just petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals with the hope of reversing the order.

Hollywood Docket: BBC loses 'Top Gear' case; Thousands more file-sharers sued; P Diddy age discrimination?

• The BBC has lost a court ruling at the UK High Court in an attempt to keep HarperCollins from revealing the identity of the "Stig" secret on its top-rated "Top Gear." After the ruling, HarperCollins unmasked racing driver Ben Collins and called the ruling "a victory for freedom of speech." [Bloomberg]

• The U.S. Copyright Group has filed a new lawsuit looking to punish anonymous pirates. The latest action targets 2,177 file-sharers of the movie "Cornered!," starring Steve Guttenberg and James Duval. No, we've never heard of it either. [Here's the complaint.] 

• Nic Cage's $20 million lawsuit against business manager Samuel Levin has been settled and dismissed [AP] 

• A New York woman is suing Sean "Diddy" Combs, saying he fired her because of age discrimination. [AP]

• Unionized SAG employees have turned down a contract offer from the guild that featured a 2% annual wage increase over the next three years. Parties are working on a deal in advance of studio negotiations set to begin later this month. [THR]

• Disney won a ruling at the National Arbitration Forum to take back the domain www.disneyoffer.com from a cybersquatter. The owner of the website (who offered to sell the domain to the company) made an amusing argument: 

"Just because [Disney Enterprises] holds onto the name 'disney' it does not have the right to squash and try to control every other holder of the word 'disney' in the English speaking community or every domain name with the word 'disney' in it. They own the market and brand name, but they do not own the word 'disney' across the entire English language as long as those interests pose no threat or try to infringe upon their business."

Italian film mogul wins $14M tentative decision in battle with '300' producer

By Matthew Belloni

Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori has won a tentative award of almost $14 million from a former executive at his company who was accused of usurping resources to benefit his own producing career. Here's the full decision. 

Producer Gianni Nunnari ("Shutter Island," "300") was president and COO of Cecchi Gori Pictures but was allowed to maintain his own company, Los Angeles-based Hollywood Gang Prods., at the same time. Nunnari was accused of spending too much time working on his own projects rather than steering them toward Cecchi Gori. Litigation erupted in May 2008, when Nunnari first sued Cecchi Gori, but the Italian mogul countersued, and both cases were heard in a bench trial earlier this summer before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Any Hogue. 

In a tentative ruling issued last week, Hogue found that Nunnari breached fiduciary duties to Cecchi Gori and engaged in concealment and constructive fraud. The judge ruled that Cecchi Gori lost $8.6 million in revenue from the Nunnari project "300," $3.26 million on another film called "Silence" and $1.35 million on the Robert De Niro drama "Everybody's Fine." The court also tentatively awarded 7% interest on the damages. 

'Survivor' contestants owe $5 million if they spill secrets

By Eriq Gardner

CBS is having trouble keeping a lid on the contract that contestants must sign to appear on "Survivor," and the content of the deal is pretty interesting.

The form contract was published a few months ago as a Scribd document by the Reality Blurred website. According to an update by the site yesterday, a CBS lawyer in New York sent a takedown notice to Scribd in July, claiming that "[s]uch copying and use of this material constitutes clear infringement of the Rights Owner's copyrights under the Copyright Act, including the DMCA, and its counterpart laws around the world."

Scribd initially took down the document but Reality Blurred challenged the copyright claim. Scribd then asked CBS for more information. The network allegedly never responded, so the contract is back online.

So what does the 32-page contract actually say?

Hollywood Docket: Lucasfilm stops Jedi Mind; UMG's lobbying tab; 'Idol' gay exploitation?

• Jedi Mind, Inc., recently sued by LucasFilms for $5 million over a wireless headset, is changing its name to Mind Technologies in order to avoid a messy court battle. [PR Newswire]

• The FCC heard testimony from several notable economists in its review of Comcast's acquisition of NBCU. [National Journal]

• Universal Music Group's tab for lobbying lawmakers during the second quarter of this year is $840,000. [Digital Music News]

• EMI is taking legal action against a new subscription service called ZapTunes, which offers users up to 2,500 downloads a month, including access to songs by the Beatles and AC/DC, both of whom have refused to license their sound recordings to any digital service. [MusicWeek]

• After rapper and MTV star Too $hort was found legally responsible for the death of a man, the victim's mother attempted to get the Sheriff's office to serve Sony and MTV with notice of the judgment. Later, the woman sued Los Angeles Country for failing to promptly serve Sony and MTV with a writ of execution. An appeals court has just ruled that LA County wasn't negligent because the case shouldn't have gone to trial in the first place. [Here's the decision.]

• A former contestant on "American Idol" is suing producers for $100 million for exploiting his sexual orientation by telling him to "gay it up." [TMZ]

Conan O'Brien picks 'Conan' as new show title (video)

By Eriq Gardner

Conan O'Brien and his team must feel pretty confident that he holds the rights to call his show "Conan."

The late night comedian announced via a video message (seen below) that his new TBS show will simply be called "Conan." 

That's what we speculated it would probably be about a week ago, although we noted that a European company called Conan Properties International owned the "Conan" mark in connection with the Conan the Barbarian films. We hear O'Brien's team did indeed negotiate with CPI to secure rights to the name. 

Not only is the pick "Conan," but in the announcement, Conan O'Brien goes so far as to claim copyright on it. (He should have talked to his lawyers, it's primarily a trademark issue.)

We can always count on him for some good legal humor. On his Twitter feed yesterday, he joked that he was going to call his show "The Return of Nanny McPhee" before his lawyers told him that it was already taken.

Here's the video:

Gavin Polone sues Summit Entertainment claiming he was kicked off a 'Ledge'

By Matthew Belloni

EXCLUSIVE: Manager/producer Gavin Polone has sued Summit Entertainment and a writer of the upcoming drama "Man on a Ledge" claiming he was promised a producer role on the project and was secretly booted when Summit came on board to make the film. 

Polone and his Pariah shingle claim in a lawsuit filed today that in 2001 he began working with writer Pablo Fenjves on the script for "Ledge" with the understanding that Polone would be attached to produce if the project went anywhere. Once finished, however, Fenjves "surreptitiously, and without [Polone's] knowledge, entered into an agreement with [Summit] purportedly granting Summit the right to produce and distribute a motion picture based on the screenplay," according to the lawsuit. "Plaintiffs have not been offered, nor have they received, their rightful position as producer on the movie."

California poised to enact another anti-paparazzi law

By Matthew Belloni

Memo to paparazzi: Drive recklessly, end up in jail.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now has a bill on his desk that will impose strict new penalties on photographers who break traffic laws in pursuit of a photo. Under the legislation approved today by the state legislature, those busted can receive up to a $5,000 fine and a year in prison.

The move is the latest in California to try to fight back against aggressive photographers. Schwarzenegger, himself no stranger to paparazzi, signed another bill into law last year that fines photographers for taking photos that invade a celebrity's right to privacy. That law also targets media outlets that purchase the photos.

BBC trying to muzzle the big 'Top Gear' secret

By Eriq Gardner

The BBC is attempting to stop HarperCollins from publishing a book that will unmask the identity of the costumed stunt driver in the successful series "Top Gear."

"Top Gear" is the biggest BBC hit and an international sensation that features a stunt driver known as The Stig alongside famous guests. For years, many have speculated on the identity of The Stig, with British newspapers guessing it might be former Formula Three driver Ben Collins.

A new autobiography by The Stig himself will settle this once and for all -- but not if the BBC has its way.

Howie Mandel would like to be paid for DVD games

Howie Mandel was stiffed $210,000 for his work on three DVD games, according to this lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The "America's Got Talent" judge and "Deal or No Deal" host is said to have provided video shooting and voice-over work for Imagination's "Would You Rather," "Fact or Crap" and "The Wrong Game."

Alevy Productions, Mandel's loan-out company, says it got two installments of $20,000 from Imagination as per a 2006 contract, but is owed the rest.

No word on whether the banker has made a fair and generous settlement offer that Mandel can contemplate.