Steven Tyler Lawsuit: Attorney Cost Former ‘American Idol’ Judge $8M Payday
Steven Tyler’s former management company is suing his current lawyer over a “botched” deal involving the Aerosmith singer’s former role as an American Idol judge.
Reports Yahoo, the Kovac Media Group claims that attorney Dina LaPolt cost Tyler a $6 million to $8 million deal to return to American Idol for a second season as judge after she botched contract negotiations. The lawsuit never mentions Tyler by name (merely referring to him as “The Artist”) but clearly speaks to his involvement as an Idol judge for two seasons.
From the lawsuit itself, via Deadline:
“In 2011, the Artist’s contract on the popular television show American Idol was up for renegotiation. TSE and LaPolt were responsible for renegotiating the contract. At the time, the Artist’s popularity and media appeal were at their peak. As a result of the Artist’s stature, the show’s ratings were soaring and the producers of the show wanted to do everything possible to make sure the Artists stayed on as a ‘judge.’ Knowing that the Artist was a hot commodity to the show, TSE wanted to employ an aggressive strategy in the renegotiations and leverage Artist’s popularity to get a more lucrative contract for him. TSE wanted the new contract to be in line with what other personalities were earning on the show. TSE sought to obtain a contract that would have earned $6-$8 million more annually than the Artist’s contract at the time.”
According to The Wrap, the lawsuit alleges a breach of fiduciary duty, breach of the duty of confidence, intentional interference with contract, and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage on the part of LaPolt. Kovac Media is seeking compensatory and consequential damages “believed to be more than $8 million,” plus interest, punitive and exemplary damages, attorney’s fees, suit costs, litigation costs.
Steven Tyler, for his part, has seemed fairly sour about his experience on American Idol recently. This lawsuit seems like our first decent reason as to why that might be.
