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Liza Minnelli: Former chauffer sues for rape, assault and battery

June 27th, 2008 by Scott Marks

The Addams Family in happier times

What good is sitting all alone in your limo? Judy Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli fought and won the battle to personally defend herself against claims she sexually forced herself on her former driver.

M’hammed Soumayah is suing the 62-year-old superstar for $50 - $100 million. Soumayah claims that in 2004, Minnelli wanted him to drive more than just her limo. According to Soumayah, the Rent-A-Cop star forced him to have sexual relations “without his consent.” In reality, he probably found it impossible to follow Martin Scorsese. (It has always been my contention that the only reason Scorsese went with her was because he wanted to f–k old Hollywood.)

Soumayah is also alleging that he suffered assault and battery and that his pay was withheld until he performed…err…uhh… certain services for the star. It’s enough to make a cuckoo sterile!

As reported on WENN, “Soumayah’s lawyer suggested the star give testimony by video, as Minnelli ‘has been known to have professional commitments to meet.’ But Minnelli’s rep has insisted the request is’ just a way to embarrass’ the singer and would suggest she isn’t sound enough to appear for the deposition in person.”

If Soumayah really wants to embarrass her, all he has to do is bring a copy of Stepping Out to court.

Minnelli is scheduled to make a pre-trial statement in Manhattan Supreme court on August 15. Minnelli’s lawyers have previously called the Liza Driver’s lawsuit “a quicksand of untruths and misstatements” and accused him of an attempt to “shakedown” Sid Luft’s step-daughter for financial gain.

This is not Minnelli’s first experience dealing with a sexual harassment lawsuit. Liza’s suit against her former husband David Gest was thrown out of court by a New York federal judge in 2006 before the couple’s divorce was finalized the following year. Gest later accused his ex-wife of physical brutality.

Can’t wait to see what Liza wears on the stand. The judge had better allow cameras in the courtroom.

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Judy Davis sues Daily Telegraph for depicting her as a child-hater

May 6th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Judy Davis, Woody Allen & Mia Farrow in Husbands and Wives

Actress Judy Davis is suing Nationwide News, publisher of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, for a 2006 article she claims painted her as a child-hater because she suggested that a soccer park be moved for fear that residents could be hit by stray balls. Stray balls in the face? This sounds like the park of George Michaels’ dreams!

The double Oscar nominee and Emmy and Golden Globe winner claims the articles defamed her by “twisting” her words to imply she was a selfish, hypocritical child-hater. Ms. Davis has told a court she was “frightened” of Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper and would not have gone to a local council meeting had she known one of its reporters would be there.

Davis, best known for roles in Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives and David Lean’s A Passage to India, told the NSW Supreme Court today she attended the meeting, about the proposed installation of floodlights at Birchgrove Oval in Sydney’s inner west, to support the local community.

“I was dumbfounded really that The Daily Telegraph would do that to me. I couldn’t understand why they had done it,” the 53-year-old actress told the New South Wales Supreme Court, according to the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

“It seemed to me that they were running a bit of a campaign against me, some kind of vendetta.”

Davis said she had asked the meeting to consider the danger that misfired soccer balls could pose to residents and suggested that a nearby park could be used an alternative venue.

The actor said she was very upset by The Daily Telegraph’s report of the meeting and had decided not to attend her then eight-year-old daughter’s soccer games after the reports appeared.

She also did not take her to school for fear other children would pick on the girl, she said.

“The parents of the girls in her class might not want her to play with them because her mother (according to the newspaper) doesn’t like children,” Davis told the court.

Davis said the meeting was orderly to begin with, but the mood changed when someone from the soccer association stood and launched an “extremely angry and emotional attack”.

The Hollywood star said the comments prompted her to interject, saying: “That’s enough”.

“I said `not only do I have nothing against soccer, I like soccer, my eight-year old daughter has just joined one of your teams’.”

“And maybe the soccer team that she’s just joined… might not want her in the team. They’re very big things in a young girl’s life.”

The Oscar-nominated Davis, who has two children, also said it was wrong to compare her to Hollywood stars such as Greta Garbo.

“I live a very quiet life. I have never encouraged that celebrity cult at all and, really, I’m not that well known,” she said.

“I just do my work and then go home to my family… and I think the Telegraph knows that.”

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Sammy Davis, Jr.’s widow sues partners over rights to Candy Man’s estate, man!

January 21st, 2008 by Scott Marks

sammy-says-f-k-you.jpg


Altovise Davis, the widow of the late, great Sammy Davis Jr. is suing Barrett LaRoda and Anthony Francis, a couple of former business partners, over the rights to Sameleh’s life story and management of his well-tarnished legacy.

Associated Press reports that Davis’ widow filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that the two men misrepresented their show-business credentials and tricked her into signing away some rights to her husband’s estate.

Looks like Alto is still using the same accounting firm that Sam did. When he died in 1990, Sammy left to meet the Man upstairs owing more than $5 million to the Internal Revenue Service, man.

Altovise Davis says she gave her intellectual (and I use the term loosely) rights to Sammy Davis Jr. Enterprises Inc., formed in 2004 by LaRoda and Francis, in exchange for a one-third share in the business.

The two men, who Altovise alleges hid the company’s financial records from her, got as far as negotiating with a studio over a biopic based on two books (Yes I Can and Why Me?) co-authored by friends Judy and Burt Boyar. Together with Ms. Davis, they hold copyright interest in the books. The Boyars Company joined Alto in suing the two men who killed any chance of a big screen Samography by demanding a “substantial” fee and credit as executive producers.

In a court filing, LaRoda and Francis claim Altovise Davis’ royalties more than quadrupled after she signed up with them and that they are responsible in helping to rebuild her husband’s image. They accused Mrs. Davis of having an alcohol problem that was getting in the way.

Everyone know that Sammy loved his gadgets, but how much could he have blown on toys, drugs and a good time to check out leaving a tab like this? And what’s with Alto thinking just because she married into showbiz that it entitles her to become a businesswoman? Or is this another case of the greedy leading the gullible?

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