The Walt Disney Co. may be on the hook for $269 million in “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” creators Celador International's lawsuit, but the William Morris Agency emerged as an equal villain. With all the sweetheart deals, shell-game accounting and missing profit-participation millions dragged into the open, it was hard to believe the agency wasn't on trial.
Still, less than a week after its victory over Disney, Celador is in no hurry to turn its legal firepower on the agency. They don’t have to be, says Celador lead lawyer Roman Silberfeld.
“We're focused on the perfecting of our verdict,” Silberfeld told TheWrap Monday.
And Celador can spend a lot of time on that, because the company has a tolling agreement in place with William Morris, which waives any chance that any future claim would be dismissed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The U.K. production company has, as Silberfeld noted, “several years” before it needs to make a move against William Morris.
The agency, now known as William Morris Endeavor Entertainment after the 2009 merger with Endeavor Talent Agency, isn't talking.
“The agency has no comment on the matter," WME spokeswoman Marie Sheehy told TheWrap on Monday. Celador CEO Paul Smith said to the Hollywood Reporter he believed the company has a case against William Morris "and [we] are considering all aspects of the situation."
However, a WME source familiar with the legal situation didn’t seem to be breaking a sweat about any future lawsuit.
“The individuals involved in putting that deal together no longer work here,” the industry source said to TheWrap, “so that could slow down any future court action.”
Maybe — or just drag more of them into court … if there ever is a trial.
If there is, William Morris has experience on its side from the monthlong trial in Riverside, Calif. Both Celador and Disney called numerous former William Morris employees, including current ICM VP Greg Lipstone and former NBC/Universal co-chair Ben Silverman, to the stand to explain the agency’s role in bringing “Millionaire” to the U.S. from the U.K. in 1999 and the package deal it negotiated for itself and Celador with ABC.
Disney defense lawyer Marty Katz even blamed William Morris as he wrapped up his closing argument to the nine-person jury. “If Celador Productions is unhappy with the deal they got,” Katz said on June 29, “they have the wrong defendant here.”
