lawsuit (71 posts)

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Moms can be embarrassing. Even—or maybe especially—if you're Oprah Winfrey.

Luckily, the big O's mama is once again leaving the headline-grabbing to her daughter, thanks to the recent settlement of the lawsuit filed against her for failing to make good on a $155,547 debt at a Wisconsin clothing boutique.

Valentina Inc. filed suit against Vernita Lee in July 2008 after the Oprah-birther failed to make good on her minimum monthly payments. Attorneys for Lee played the blame game in their defense, saying the store was at fault for extending her a line of credit in the first place, what with her history of less than stellar repayment practices.

Still, the suit has now been settled and will remain sealed, giving some credence to the report that it was Oprah herself who stepped in to bail out her mother. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the store will receive a partial payment of what was owed.

"We're happy with what transpired," Valentina co-owner Tony Chirchirillo told the paper. "We can get on with our lives; they can get on with theirs."

A judge still needs to sign off on the secret settlement, and a hearing to do just that has been scheduled for Dec. 7.

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Did you hear? Oprah's gonna be out of a job soon. And by soon, we mean in 22 months.

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Well, that's one less Howard K. Stern legal headache has to worry about.

With a criminal trial looming on the question of whether he conspired to drug Anna Nicole Smith, the lawyer has settled a $60 million defamation suit he filed against former MSNBC anchor Rita Cosby over a tawdry tome she wrote.

A petition for dismissal was filed on Friday, Stern attorney Steve Sadow confirms to E! News, but he would not comment further "pursuant to the terms of the settlement."

That sound you're hearing is the husky-voiced journo clearing her throat in relief.

Stern was seeking big bucks for several blockbluster allegations in Cosby's Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death that he insisted were outright lies.

Cosby falsely claimed Stern engaged in sexual romps with Smith's baby-daddy Larry Birkhead and also suggested the former paternity foes hatched a secret deal in which Stern agreed to support Birkhead's eventually successful bid to gain custody over Dannielynn in exchange for the celebrity photographer backing Stern to remain as executor of the late Playmate's estate.

Earlier this year, Stern dropped similar defamation claims against former Smith bodyguard Mark Speer, whom Stern claimed was Cosby's main source. Stern is still seeking punitive damages against defendant Elizabeth "Jackie" Hatten, a sister of one of Smith's ex-beaus.

After all, he's got his own legal bills to pay.

—Additional reporting by Lindsay Miller

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Elisabeth Hasselbeck may be a lot of things, but a rip-off artiste isn't one of them.

A plagiarism lawsuit brought against The View's token conservative was dismissed last week after her accuser's attorney declined to pursue the case.

The woman behind the initial court action was Susan Hassett, a self-published author who claims that Hasselbeck's recently released bestseller, The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide, lifted significant passages from Hassett's own book on celiac disease.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro dismissed the case last Thursday after Hasset's attorney failed to turn in paperwork related to the case in a timely enough manner. He later said that while portions of Hassett's dietary prose were definitely lifted for Hasselbeck's book, the passages weren't significant enough to warrant damages.

Which is apparently all the lawyer needed to hear to get packing.

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In between fake breaking up with his girlfriend, posing with fellow infamous pop-culture trainwrecks, befriending rabbis and showing a modicum of self-awareness by promoting mocking himself in viral videos, Jon Gosselin has found time to fight back against TLC.

The former reality TV dad is countersuing the Jon and Kate Plus 8 cable net, answering their widening breach-of-contract suit against him by claiming TLC not only violated child labor laws while filming his octobrood at their Pennsylvania compound, but made him sign a totally unfair contract that severely restricted him from pimping Ed Hardy, making the entertainment news show rounds and doing whatever else it is he does to earn money these days.

Aside from alleging that the network caused him to lose business opportunities and harmed his reputation (we weren't aware he needed help on that last one), Gosselin claims in his $5 million suit that the network has also failed to make good on the promise of some cold, hard cash.

TLC has yet to comment on Gosselin's salvo, presumably because the complaint has yet to be filed in Maryland's Montgomery County Circuit Court.

But according to documents leaked to Radar Online, Gosselin reveals that he pocketed $22,500 per half-hour episode and $45,000 for the hourlong, Very Special Episodes—and says he is still owed $175,000.

As for his contract-violating money-making ventures, well, if it's flimsy excuses you're looking for, Gosselin's got you covered.

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Jenny's sexcapades are off the block...for now.

A Los Angeles judge has shut down Jennifer Lopez's publicity-hungry first hubby from releasing a so-called "mockumentary" featuring depctions of the ex-couple's short-lived love life and an exposé of her allegedly cheating ways.

Ojani Noa, who has been trying to milk his role as J.Lo husband No. 1 ever since their marriage crapped out more than a decade ago, has been pitching How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The J.Lo and Ojani Noa Story for a couple of weeks. Lopez filed a $10 million lawsuit on Friday and requested an injunction preventing the release of any footage featuring her.

Today, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant agreed to keep the movie on lockdown until a further hearing Tuesday on whether to make the injunction permanent.

But first, hizzoner might be getting an eyeful...

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Dan Power, Lifetime Networks

Gossipmongers, consider yourself on notice: Eddie Cibrian is no cheater. At least when it comes to remaining faithful with his mistress.

A rep for the CSI: Miami hunk says Cibrian is suing mad over a Life & Style report painting him as a serial womanizer who is now two-timing LeAnn Rimes by secretly seeing an old girlfriend.

"Unfortunately Life & Style Magazine has chosen to go out with a story filled with inaccuracies and deceitful lies, presumably to titillate sales, but clearly resulting in harm to Eddie Cibrian and others. This is irresponsible and reckless journalism," the actor's manager, Steve Sauer, tells E! News.

"Eddie has met with his attorneys and will be filing a suit for libel and other actionable grounds shortly. It's a shame that Life & Style resorted to a story of this nature and they will regretfully now have to face scrutiny of untruthful reporting in a court proceeding."

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Hailey Glassman and Michael Lohan have never met a camera they didn't like. But right about now they're probably wishing they had just kept their media-whoring mouths shut.

And if they're not, then Jon Gosselin certainly is.

TLC's pitbull law firm has unveiled its wishlist of Gosselin hangers-on to be grilled in the network's breach-of-contract suit against the octodad, and in a surprise to no one, both Glassman and Lohan are tops on their wish list.

In addition to the publicity parasites, the Washington D.C.-based firm of Williams & Connolly wants to depose Thomas Meinelt, the paparazzo turned Gosselin bodyguard who is no doubt harboring extensive dirt on his new boss; Jon's divorce attorneys Michael and Mark Heller; and Matthew Kirschner, the rep for the "talent" that is J.Goss.

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Morgan Freeman's crash suit has come to the end of the road.

The Oscar winner has settled the negligence suit filed against him in the wake of last summer's rollover car crash in the Mississippi Delta.

According to the state's Clarion-Ledger, the short-on-details court records were filed today, though do not disclose the amount or nature of the settlement.

The suit was filed in February, with passenger Demaris Meyers claiming that Freeman's pre-crash drinking was to blame for the accident, which left them both seriously injured.

Earlier this summer, Freeman, 71, roundly denied the allegations, and vowed to prove that Meyers was "comparatively negligent." A trial date to decide the matter had been set for next August.

That's one more to cross off the bucket list.

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Morgan Freeman avoided face time with a judge, but not all stars are so lucky, as evidenced by our Court Appearances gallery.

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Let's be honest—both Carrie Prejean and the Miss California pageant belong in a ballroom rather than a courthouse.

So it stands to reason that the battling beauty peeps managed to settle their differences out of court. Terms of the settement were not disclosed but all parties seemed happy about it.

"Carrie Prejean, [pageant director] Keith Lewis, and K2 productions [the independent pageant producers] have dropped their claim against each other and wish each other the best in their future endeavors," according to the official settlement statement.

In other words, the smackdown that began with a roar, ended with a whimper...

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Kate Winslet has followed up her Oscar-winning role in The Reader with a damages-winning role as the Litigator.

The A-lister has banked more than $40,000 in damages after winning a lawsuit against Britain's Daily Mail for a story that falsely claiming she lied about her workout routine.

The article in question, headlined "Should Kate Winslet Win an Oscar for the World's Most Irritating Actress," was published in January alongside naked pics of Winslet.

The 34-year-old thesp was not in court for the verdict, but her solicitor read a statement on her behalf explaining how the story had offended her and caused her a "great deal of distress" not only because it was "simply not true," but it also left people the wrong impression about her views on the female body.

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So it's settled then.

Desmond and Penny are television's best couple. The sexual harassment suit against Lost star Henry Ian Cusick is finished.

The 42-year-old Scottish actor was accused of groping Chelsea Stone, a former production employee, and making suggestive sounds and gestures in her direction on the Lost set back in 2007.

She complained and, 12 days later, she was fired, according to the lawsuit filed in April against the star, ABC and production company Grass Skirt Entertainment.

Stone was seeking unspecified damages to cover hostile work environment harassment, failure to remedy and prevent harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination in violation of public policy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and sexual battery.

Her lawyer says she has reached a confidential settlement with Cusick and the other involved parties, according to TMZ.com. No comment from Team Lost.

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It's difficult to think of Cusick without considering Desmond and Penny, one of the TV Couples We Love!

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This is a case of he said, they said and the district attorney said, "Whatever."

Joe Francis claims Brody Jenner's girlfriend, Jayde Nicole, attacked him outside L.A. nightclub Guys & Dolls early in the morning on Aug. 28.

Nicole, however, claims the Girls Gone Wild guru came after her, and she's since filed a $1 million lawsuit against him. Francis in turn countersued last week, claiming he thought Playboy model was going to "kill" him.

They don't have any major injuries to speak of, so it's a good thing they have those civil suits to help them figure out what happened that night. Prosecutors are wiping their hands of the drama.

"The interests of justice do not support the filing of criminal charges against any of the three suspects," states the Los Angeles County District Attorney's charge evaluation worksheet.

Of course, the authorities don't completely give up on pointing fingers at the instigator of all the hair-pulling drama.

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