Popsquire

Not much is likely happening in the Tony Parker vs. X17 case right now, but I thought you might be curious what happens in civil litigation.  There are basically three different stages to a case:

(1) Pleadings: The complaint is filed and served. The defendant generally has at least 30 days to respond either by denying the allegations or moving to dismiss the case.

(2) Discovery: This is where all parties exchange documents, take depositions, and learn as much information as they can about the other’s position. The discovery phase often represents at least 80% of any litigation.

(3) Trial: If the case is not settled or dismissed during the discovery stage, it goes to trial.

Believe it or not, a typical entertainment litigation from pleadings through trial can cost a party more than $300,000 in legal fees.  Does that make you want to be a lawyer?!

Technorati Tags: adultery, cheating, court, defamation, entertainment litigation, eva longoria, law, lawsuit, popsquire, russell wetanson, tony parker, x17

In this year of celebrity headlines involving jail time, unplanned pregnancies, drunk diving, drug use, adultery, and racial slurs, you might be surprised to learn that Hollywood contracts for television, advertising, and endorsement deals often include morality clauses, like the following:

“The artist agrees to conduct himself with due regard to public conventions and morals, and agrees that he will not do or commit any act or thing that will tend to degrade him in society or bring him into public hatred, contempt, scorn or ridicule, or that will tend to shock, insult or offend the community or ridicule public morals or decency, or prejudice the producer or the motion picture, theatrical or radio industry in general.”

Are there any celebrities who can comply with this provision?  And, more importantly, do we like them?  Gimme some names, please!

Technorati Tags: adultery, contract, decency, hatred, hollywood, Jamie Lynn Spears, kate moss, lindsay lohan, michael richards, morals, morals clause, nicole richie, paris hilton, pop culture, popsquire, russell wetanson, scorn, spears

I predicted this one yesterday!  Tony Parker filed a whopping $20 million defamation lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court today against X17 for running a story alleging that he had an affair with French model Alexandra Paressant. 

Sadly for celebs, defamation cases can be hard to prove.  Unlike regular folks who have to prove only that a reasonable person would not have published the false statement, Parker has to prove both that the allegations were false and that X17 published the statement with either knowledge of the falsity or in reckless disregard of the truth.

Parker has said that he has never even met Paressant, much less had an affair with her.  It’s challenging to prove that an affair — an event that typically lacks witnesses — never happened when the other person says it did. 

It’s even more difficult to prove that the website knew it was false or was reckless in publishing the allegations, especially if the website has a source it believes is reliable.  Here, X17 told E! Online that its journalists “conducted extensive research for the reporting of this story.”  This is the ongoing dilemma for celebrities and public figures when it comes to defamation cases.