Osbournes face second lawsuit
2002-08-08 11:27
Los Angeles - Whose life is it anyway? And who really came up with the warts-and-all concept of Ozzy Osbourne's life-in-the-raw reality hit show on MTV?
Nearly two weeks after a film producer sued the tattooed British rocker and his wife, claiming they stole his idea for a TV show about them, a web-based entertainment company has brought a similar court action against the couple.
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, his wife and longtime manager, and two of their teenage children, became instant pop culture stars this year thanks to MTV's reality hit, which chronicled the rambunctious clan's daily lives in Beverly Hills.
The latest lawsuit, filed this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, says the Osbournes' deal with MTV breaches an intellectual property rights agreement the couple signed in December 2000 with Threshold.TV Inc, formerly Threshold.com.
Representatives for the Osbournes and MTV declined comment on the suit.
The suit says that under its contract Threshold acquired exclusive rights to Ozzy Osbournes's "name, likeness, image, identity, persona, trademarks and right of publicity" for online works and non-internet programming.
The agreement, signed for a term of three years and 90 days, expressly covered "live-action and animated programmes ... or other offline works, as well as the right to make sequels, remakes, spin-offs and derivative works," the suit said.
Revenue from such projects was to be equally divided between Threshold and the Osbournes, and all creative and business decisions pertaining to them "shall be subject to mutual agreement", the suit says.
Instant stars
The suit seeks unspecified damages and a court declaration that Threshold is owner of MTV's The Osbournes series, which recently was renewed for a second season.
Sharon Osbourne recently began chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer, throwing the future of the MTV series into doubt.
Threshold claims it originated the concept for such a show but that Sharon Osbourne rejected the idea of TV cameras in their house, the suit said.
"Following that conversation, the Osbourne interests negotiated with MTV exactly the TV show" that Threshold had first suggested, the suit said.
MTV and its parent company, Viacom Inc, which the plaintiff claims were aware of Threshold's exclusive deal, also are named as defendants.
In a separate suit filed late last month, Los Angeles-based film producer Gary Binkow claimed he developed the idea for a "real-life docu-sitcom" about the Osbournes that they ripped off after he had registered a treatment for the proposed series with the Writers Guild of America.