Country Star Sued Over Pay for Technicians on Box Office Dud
LAW
by Amanda Bronstad
Four members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union have sued Dwight Yoakam, seeking $25,000 in salary and benefits they claim the country & western singer-cum-director failed to pay them for their work on his 2001 film “South of Heaven, West of Hell.”
The sound technicians, members of IATSE’s Local 695 in L.A., worked on the Arizona set of Yoakam’s film between April and June 1999, according to their lawyer, Helena Wise. The union is not a party to the suit.
In the suit, filed Aug. 22 in L.A. County Superior Court, the IATSE workers claim Yoakam had a written agreement to pay them after the production company that arranged the collective bargaining agreement with the union, A Cast Astrays, filed for bankruptcy protection in October 1999.
“We have some anxious employees who can’t understand, given Mr. Yoakam’s current standing and credits as an actor, a recording star and as an entrepreneur, why these debts have not been taken care of,” Wise said.
The union members claim they lost wages, contributions to their health insurance and pension funds and other costs, such as equipment rentals and lost and damaged equipment.
Yoakam’s attorney, Robbin Itkin of Kirkland & Ellis, said, “This is a totally baseless lawsuit and obviously brought because of Mr. Yoakam’s celebrity status.”
“South of Heaven, West of Hell,” released in June 2001, was Yoakam’s directorial debut. He also starred in the picture, along with Vince Vaughn, Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Reubens, Bridget Fonda and Peter Fonda.
The movie was both a critical and financial flop, bringing in only $16,609 on nine screens during its limited theatrical run, according to ReelSource Inc., a box office tracking firm.
Lunch Money
PLC Commercial Inc., a Newport Beach real estate development firm, and three of its principals successfully defended against a $17.5 million lawsuit that originated during a conversation over dinner at Spago in August 1999.
Wilson/JMO’Q Ltd., a Texas partnership, claimed PLC Commercial reneged on an agreement to form a partnership to buy four L.A. office properties.
“They were basically saying that, over a Spago dinner and a handshake, they created a partnership (with PLC),” said Charles Kenworthy, an attorney at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory LLP, who represented PLC.
Wilson/JMO’Q claimed PLC was supposed to acquire and sell properties valued at $41 million. But on Sept. 17, 1999, PLC’s executives dissolved the joint partnership for “their own personal financial advantage.”
The Texas partnership sued PLC Commercial, its chairman, Ziyad Abduljawad, its president and chief executive, Michael Lutton, and Mohammed Abduljawad, owner of an affiliated company, for breach of fiduciary duty and fraud, seeking $17.5 million in lost profits.
On Aug. 15, a Los Angeles jury issued a verdict in favor of PLC, dismissing all claims brought by Wilson/JMO’Q.
Daniel Rozansky at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, representing Wilson/JMO’Q, could not be reached for comment.
Moves at Milbank
Kenneth Baronsky, head of the global corporate group at the L.A. office of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP, was named managing partner of the L.A. office.
He replaces Edwin Feo, managing partner of the L.A. office for more than six years, who was named to the three-person executive committee of the New York-based law firm on June 30. Feo is the first partner outside Milbank’s New York office to be named to the executive committee.
“When I became managing partner, we were in pretty dire straits,” Feo said. “The market was shrinking, and we had shrunk. But our partners pulled together and the economy improved, and we were able to achieve profitability.”
Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 225, or at
[email protected].
