“Angels” Creator Sues For Profits

If ya wanted the angels pants off, I guess suing works
Source: CNN.com

Robert Wagner sues over ‘Angels’

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — Actor Robert Wagner has sued Sony Pictures Entertainment claiming he is entitled to half the profits from the two “Charlie’s Angeles” movies for his role in developing the 1970s television series on which the films were based.

Wagner and his late wife, actress Natalie Wood, became financially linked to ABC’s original “Charlie’s Angels” series when they agreed to star in a 1974 TV movie called “Love Song” for producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, the lawsuit, filed Tuesday, said.

Their contract for “Love Song,” later retitled “The Affair,” gave the actors part interest in proposals for five TV shows that Spelling-Goldberg Productions pitched to ABC for the 1974-1975 season, the suit said.

One of those ideas became the series, “Charlie’s Angels,” about a mysterious millionaire who ran a private detective agency staffed by three beautiful former police officers. The show originally starred Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith and ran from 1976 to 1981.

In his lawsuit, Wagner said Sony, which has since assumed all rights to the series from Spelling’s production company, has refused to pay him his share of the profits from the 2000 film “Charlie’s Angels” and its 2003 sequel “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.” Both films starred Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz.

The first film generated more than $125 million at U.S. box office, and the sequel, which opened in late June, has grossed more than $67 million in the United States.

The lawsuit asks the court to require Sony to include profits from the films in calculating Wagner’s share of net profits for the TV series, and to turn over all information and financial records regarding the making of the movies.

“This has to do with whether or not his entitlement to a share in the television series extends to the movie,” Wagner’s attorney, Samuel Pryor, told Reuters.

Officials from Columbia Pictures, the Sony studio that distributed the “Charlie’s Angels” films, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Pryor said Wagner and Spelling previously settled a $20 million suit the actor brought against the producer in June 2000 alleging Wagner was cheated out of profits on the Fox television show “Beverly Hills 90210.” Terms of their agreement were kept confidential.

In that suit, Wagner claimed he was entitled to profits as part of a 10-year-old settlement between Spelling and Fox, under which Spelling got the right to produce “Beverly Hills 90210″ in exchange for “Angels 88,” a never-produced series in which Wagner had a participation.