Udpated at 4 pm PST:
Charlie Sheen’s lawyer told TheWrap on Monday that he intended to sue the actor’s former employers for breach of contract, hours after Warner Brothers Television fired Sheen off the hit show, “Two and a Half Men.”
“We intend to file a suit against Chuck Lorre and Warner Brothers,” Sheen’s lawyer Marty Singer told TheWrap.
Singer said Lorre, the show's creator, interfered in Sheen’s multi-million-dollar contract when he ceased writing episodes after the actor went into rehab in January. And Warner Brothers breached Sheen’s contract, he said, by terminating the season – and then the actor – despite the fact that Sheen took two drug tests a week to prove he was sober.
“In January Charlie did three shows, two of them with a live audience,” said Singer. “There were no problems with him on the set., he worked flawlessly. If there were any problems, it would have been reported in the media.”
Meanwhile, Sheen let loose against his former bosses in an Access Hollywood interview, fuming: “These guys are such yellow cockroaches that they didn’t even have the decency to call me. I put 5 bill[ion] in their cheap suit pockets and another half a bil’ in what’s-his-cheese’s pockets and this is the… respect I get?” Sheen told Billy Bush. “It’s just deplorable and they should be ashamed of themselves!”
Charlie Sheen's firing from "Two and a Half Men" sets up what is likely to be an epic legal fight between's Sheen's lawyers and his ex-bosses, with Sheen's recent erratic statements certain to come up as evidence of his inability to do his job.
In a letter to his lawyer sent on Monday, Sheen's former employers accused him of illegal conduct -- including giving others cocaine -- and said he "has been engaged in dangerously self destructive conduct and appears to be very ill." Warner Bros. listed numerous statements he has made about his work on the show, including one in which he shared his tricks for remaining upright on the set after long nights.
"After careful consideration, Warner Bros. Television has terminated Charlie Sheen’s services on 'Two and a Half Men' effective immediately," Warner Bros. TV, which produces the show, said in a statement.
Also read: Charlie Sheen on 'Two and a Half Men' Return: 'I Think We're Getting Close'
But Singer said that the letter's accusation that Sheen could not deliver lines or work with the executive producer in January and February was "absolutely false."
Singer said the actor has been sober since leaving rehab in recent weeks, and that the network and production company showed far less anxiety when Sheen was arrested last year for felony and misdemeanor charges of assault against his wife, Brooke Mueller.
"It's specious, made-up, to try to justify this," said Singer. "Last year Warner Brothers stated they had no objection to his doing jail time as long as he did't miss the show."
