After six years of legal maneuvering, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” creator Celador International gets its day in court with a $270 million lawsuit against Disney, which the production company claims hid millions in profits within a complex accounting scheme.
The trial, beginning Tuesday in Riverside, will be a rare look at the byzantine webs that Hollywood dealmakers can weave. If it goes Celador’s way, the evidence could break the levee of Hollywood accounting methods.
Celador brought “Millionaire,” which originally aired to great success in the U.K. in 1998, to the United States the following year. It now alleges that Walt Disney/ABC, Buena Vista Television and Valleycrest Productions bilked Celador of millions in profits with overly complicated accounting arrangements and deflated payments.
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