Celador International rested its case against Disney in the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” trial Tuesday — and now that it’s the defense's turn to start calling witnesses, you’d think some fresh perspectives were coming soon to the federal courtroom in Riverside.
Tell that to Greg Lipstone (left) and the rest of the WMA boys.
Lipstone, one of several William Morris Agency alums who had a hand in the deal to bring “Millionaire” to the U.S., is cooling his heels in Riverside as of Tuesday morning, waiting to be called to testify – again.
He’s scheduled to take the stand for a second time Wednesday, this time for the defense.
There’s no telling whether Lipstone will be as foggy and circumspect as he was as a witness for the plaintiff in early June.
Lipstone, who currently is a VP at ICM, follows the Tuesday testimony of John Ferriter, another WMA alum with a hand in the "Millionaire" deal. Ferriter, who left the company in Oct. 2009, spent less than 20 not altogether relevant minutes on the stand, presumably to give the jury a peek at the interpersonal politics at WMA in 1998.
In reality, it only served to display the fraternity house mentality of men working both with and against each other.
After being sworn in, Ferriter, who started as a temp at the agency in 1991, began to outline the relationships he and his associates at WMA had with specific networks around the time they were representing “Millionaire” in the U.S. Ferriter talked of the “sibling rivalry” with Lipstone, with whom he worked closely.
At the same time, he did not accept defense lawyer Marty Katz’s characterization that his own relationship with Lipstone was a difficult one and that the two men did not like each other personally. In fact, Ferriter made a point of noting, somewhat to Katz’s clear annoyance, that he and Lipstone are quite close today.
Under questioning from Celador lawyer Roman Silberfeld, Ferriter recalled that Ben Silverman, then back from WMA’s UK office in late 1998, told him that there was no point pitching “Millionaire” to networks other than ABC.
“Dude,” Silverman was said to say to Ferriter, "it's going to ABC, we’re all going to get rich.”
Katz, conscious of the impact that statement could have on the jury, leapt up to have Ferriter clarify that this sort of statement was common from Silverman … a point that Ferriter conceded.
Ferriter was off the witness stand by 3:25PM and out of the courtroom. The testimony of former ABC executive Lee Rierson, which had been interrupted, continued for the rest of the day.
Celador alleges that Disney, ABC, Buena Vista Television and Valleycrest Production conducted a series of sweetheart deals and secret arrangements that saw the “Millionaire” creators deprived of millions in expected revenues and profits from the immensely successful prime time game show. Part of the shell game seems to have been the handsome multi-million dollar commissions that WMA orchestrated while representing both sides.
Located in WMA’s Beverly Hills office, Lipstone took over shepherding the “Millionaire” arrangement for Silverman, who got the ball rolling from London. Lipstone’s previous testimony, which sometimes got tense with Silberfeld, revealed, in what would seem like a conflict of interest in any other industry, that WMA was acting as “ABC’s sole and exclusive agent” while representing Celador in negotiations with ABC.
The jury trial, now in its fourth week, has seen some pretty heavy hitters from late 1990s Hollywood take the stand — and it has seen some avoid it. They probably won’t likely be seeing Michael Eisner, who ran Disney from 1984 to 2005; the former CEO, who has been on the witness list for weeks, split town on June 11 for Italy and isn’t expected back until July 11. Besides former NBC/Universal co-chair Silverman and Lipstone, the trial has also heard testimony from Celador boss Paul Smith, BVT President Mort Marcus, and, in a very confident performance, current Disney boss Bob Iger among others.
The evidence portion of the case is expected to be over by June 29, with the jury then going in to deliberations.
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