A lawsuit against media mogul Sumner Redstone could stop airing his dirty laundry.
Redstone’s camp is in settlement talks with that of his former companion, Manuela Herzer, who has claimed that the 92-year-old former chairman of Viacom and CBS is mentally incompetent, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Representatives for Redstone and Herzer separately declined TheWrap’s requests for comment.
The case was triggered when Herzer sued to be reinstated as the steward of Redstone’s care should he become incapacitated. The suit and her claims that Redstone is unable to follow conversations and sign his own name have been rejected by Redstone’s lawyers, who characterize them as attempts to insinuate herself in his estate after she was removed in October.
The case has also exposed embarrassing claims about personal matters, like Redstone’s sexual appetite.
Redstone controls about 80 percent of the voting stock of media giants CBS and Viacom through his conglomerate, National Amusements. When he dies or becomes incapacitated, a seven-member trust will take on that voting power. His health has declined in recent years, and Redstone stepped down as chairman of both CBS and Viacom in February.
Viacom CEO and newly elected chairman Philippe Dauman was supposed to be deposed in the case Tuesday, but the litigation and the deposition were both suspended pending the talks, WSJ reported. Dauman took the reins as Redstone’s “health-care agent” in October when Herzer was removed.