So Sue Me…

Yet another weird media story out of San Diego. Matt Weaver, the editor of the controversial Cal State San Marcos student newspaper The Koala, has been arrested for identity theft and election fraud after campus police detected “unusual activity” on the school computer he was logged into. Weaver was in the midst of a run for student body president.

10News.com has the story:

Weaver, a junior at the school, is charged with unlawful access to a computer or database, identity theft and election fraud, according to Lutz.Lutz said the school told students that election results set to be released Friday would not be revealed. School officials determined that “the election has been compromised.”

Weaver’s candidacy has been met with opposition due to his work as editor of “The Koala,” a controversial publication distributed on the CSUSM campus.

It gets even weirder. What makes The Koala so controversial? That would be, according to students, its penchant for “homophobic, racist and sexist jokes,” including publishing pictures of female students with male genitalia photoshopped to their faces.

Classy.

A television adaptation of Jacqueline Susann‘s best-selling novel is currently in the works. Fox and Chernin Entertainment are currently producing the series, with Oscar-nominated Lee Daniels on board as writer and directer. The show was purchased by the NBC network late last year.

There’s only one little problem. According to Jacqueline Susann’s estate, managed by Tiger LLC, Fox doesn’t have the rights to make a Valley of the Dolls series, and they’re suing for copyright infringement

For an industry that’s been screaming bloody murder about copyright infringement as of late, that seems like a colossal oversight. But it’s complicated, of course. There was a time when the studio did have the rights to a Dolls TV series. Which, according to the lawsuit, Fox lost in 1994. But in 1998 the studio optioned the rights to a TV movie of the book. But not a TV series. At least not according to Tiger LLC.

Bottom line, no television show can stand up to the 1967 film version. All parties involved would be best served simply pouring themselves a whiskey sour, pulling up Valley of the Dolls on Netflix, and letting Sharon Tate blow their minds.

Meteorologist Kyle Hunter has over two decades of weather broadcasting experience in Southern California, but when job openings popped up at local stations KCBS and KCAL, he couldn’t land an interview. Instead, those jobs went to younger, hotter, and decidedly more female weathercasters.

Hunter is now suing CBS for age and gender discrimination.

According to the lawsuit, Hunter, “contacted a manager at KCAL to ask why he had not been considered for that position. In response, a member of KCAL management said that the stations aired a lot of sports broadcasts and catered to its many male viewers, and he said ‘You wouldn’t be the type men would want to look at.’”

The weatherbabes hired by the CBS affiliate stations are Jackie Johnson at KCBS and Evelyn Taft at KCAL. Both are easy on the eyes, and according to Hunter, less qualified than himself.

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If only the annual Oscar telecast was this entertaining.

Per a Hollywood, Esq. dispatch from THR senior writer Daniel Miller, some 2011 correspondence between the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Edwardsville, IL special events firm TheEventLine.com has escalated into a 2012 lawsuit filed last week. At issue are the eight-foot-tall golden statue props provided by Event Line for special functions.

In response to last year’s AMPAS letters, Event Line changed the name of the prop from “Oscar statue” to “Telly statue” and made alterations to the statue’s appearance. But after some February subterfuge, this now looks to be headed to the courtroom:

According to TheEventLine.com president Robert Hollingsworth, the person sent by the Academy to the [Atlanta] warehouse used a “false name, false address and false purpose” to gain access to the facility and took unauthorized photographs of the Telly Award statuettes and other TheEventLine.com products.

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Sam Zell has been relatively quiet in the past year or so; his years of bravado helming the Tribune Company almost seem like a distant memory. Errr…almost.

You knew that couldn’t last.

Bloomberg reports that Zell officially wants a piece of all monies won by unsecured creditors in the Tribune bankruptcy case–including those of former employees.

The demand, made through the Zell-controlled company EGI TRB LLC, came in one of the disputes being heard in bankruptcy court over how to split any money creditors win in dozens of lawsuits over claims the buyout was a fraud on creditors. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey began a two-day hearing today about the disputes.

“In the ultimate display of chutzpah, Zell and EGI are asserting that their tainted claims should now be treated on par with innocent creditors who had nothing to do with the LBO,” a group of about 185 retired managers and other highly paid former employees said in court papers.

We’d like to commend the group of former employees for their “ultimate display” of restraint in forgoing the use of any four-letter words in describing Zell.

A year-old Q&A with adult filmmaker Ira Isaacs earned San Francisco-based journalist Tracy Clark-Flory an order from the prosecution to testify in a Los Angeles federal court.

Clark-Flory was a bit baffled by the subpoena, since she’s a reporter, not some kind of expert, and “all I can say is that Isaacs said what I said he said.”

Clark-Flory penned an article on Salon earlier today about the subpoena, in which she openly questioned the federal government’s wisdom in ordering her on a taxpayer-funded trip to Los Angeles. Soon after posting, she received word that “the government has reversed its decision to compel me to testify.”

We’re glad to hear Clark-Flory gets to stay home, but the federal government is still wasting plenty of taxpayer dollars on prosecuting a man for making and distributing “poo-porn.” Sure it’s gross, but criminal? Doesn’t the Department of Justice have anything better to do?

Just because the Oscar telecast was boring last night doesn’t mean the actual show was dull. Ten people were arrested last night at the Oscars, including Blade Runner actress Sean Young.

From the LA Times:

Young… was placed under citizen’s arrest and taken to the Hollywood division of the Los Angeles Police Department, according to Officer Wendy Reyes.

Young was involved in “some type of physical altercation” and taken into custody by the person she was fighting with, police said.

Police sources said it was a security guard at the ball who arrested Young. Young was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery and released on $20,000 bail about 3 a.m., according to jail records. She is to appear in court March 19.

Young, meanwhile, told X17 the incident was the fault of an overzealous Academy security guard. She blames the Academy and its lawyers and demanded an apology.

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Los Angeles artist Shepard Fairey — best known for his 2008 Barack Obama “Hope” poster — faces up to six months in prison after pleading guilty Friday to criminal contempt in New York City.

Fairey was convicted of destroying documents, manufacturing evidence and other misconduct in association with his civil litigation against the Associated Press over a unlicensed image of Obama.

While the AP and Fairey settled their copyright case in 2011, the 42-year-old created fake documents and tried to delete several electronic documents, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara noted in a statement.

“The AP hopes that some good may come of this, by alerting judges and parties to the possibility that spoliation may exist,” said AP president and CEO Tom Curley.

Stealing is bad. Lying is worse.

Even though Variety originally had a case and proper settlement with regards to Los Angeles punk band The Vandals borrowing a little too closely in terms of font color and style for the cover of their 2004 album “Hollywood Potato Chip,” the trade chose to renew this legal battle in 2010. That strange sequel has now come to an end.

THR Esq columnist Matthew Belloni spoke with the band’s lead singer, Joe Escalante, who represented himself and the band in court. This time around, there is an agreement for each side to walk away and pay their own legal fees. It all adds up to a few more legal scars for Escalante:

“This was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, and to the band, and the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” says Escalante. “However, as my wife says, the crash course in federal court litigation made me a better lawyer.”

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The Los Angeles Dodgers are trying to wash their hands clean of the Bryan Stow assault.

The baseball organization asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross to dismiss a claim filed by Stow and his family shortly after owner Frank McCourt filed for bankruptcy.

Despite the reported 442 security personnel on hand for opening day last March, Stow still managed to get brutally attacked in the parking lot of Chavez Ravine, leaving him in a coma for months.

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