Queen Latifah and execs of 'Bringing down the house' is being sued

 

The scenario is that four years ago, a New York lawyer wrote a screenplay called 'Amoral Dilemma' which told the story about an attorney who meets a female prisoner online and has his life turned upside down by their forthcoming relationship. You might say that's the same plot line to the Queen Latifah and Steve Martin blockbuster hit Bringing Down the House? Could it be true, that some one stole the idea?

Well the writer of 'Amoral Dilemma,' Marie Flaherty, seems to think so, and on Friday (Apr 4th) she filed a $15 million lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against executive producer Queen Latifah (given name: Dana Owens) and other creators of the movie.

Flaherty claims she hired Boston attorney George N. Tobia Jr. in 1999 to help pitch her script, but it attracted very little interest. Several months later, Tobia contacted her to tell her that he and co-writer Jason Filardi had sold a script called 'Jailbabe.com', which was eventually picked up and turned into 'Bringing Down the House.'

According to the suit, Filardi claims the similarities between the two stories are superficial since his screenplay was a comedy and hers a drama. In addition to Latifah, Flaherty is suing Tobia, Filardi, Hyde Park Entertainment, (who produced the film), and the movie's distributor, Walt Disney Co.

Bringing Down the House" was the #1 film for three weeks in a row and has brought in over $83.3 million at the box office.

 

 

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Queen Latifah to host latest edition of 'VH1's Duets'

Speaking of Queen Latifah, she's certainly keeping herself busy these days. After her stint with the Soul Train Awards in February, it has been announced that she will host the sixth annual VH1 Divas concert, dubbed as the "Divas Duets," come May 22.

 

The show will feature a series of collaborations, including performances by Mary J. Blige, Jewel and true 'Diva' Chaka Khan, according to organizers.

'Divas Duets' will air live on VH1 from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and will benefit the nonprofit VH1 Save the Music Foundation. More participating artists are expected to be announced in the near future.

More than $25 million worth of musical instruments have been donated to 1,000 public schools since the founding of Save the Music in 1997. Last year's "Divas Las Vegas" show featured performances from Celine Dion, Anastacia, the Dixie Chicks, Stevie Nicks, Cher and Shakira

Source: vh1.com.

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Beyonce's debut set now due in June

It's been rumored for some time now that her solo project would be forthcoming. First it was going to a March release and now it's set for a June. I'm referring to 'Baby got back' Beyonce Knowles (of Destiny's Child fame) who will finally release her debut solo project come June.

 

The set called 'Dangerously in Love' will feature an all star cast of today's elite in the R&B/Rap/Reggae game with guest appearances by Sean Paul, Missy Elliott and Jay-Z. In fact, her supposely rumored better half, Jay-Z stepped a little outside the hip-hop reign to write two of the songs for the album one of which will definitely be included on the LP.

 

R. Kelly also contributed as well, according to a spokesperson for the R&B singer but Knowles would not say for sure only confirming those listed above.The lead single will not be 'In da Club' (as most might of thought) which was released a couple of weeks ago, that song won't make it to the album but the yet to be named track will drop the middle of May

Source: vh1.com.

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RIAA sues 4 colledge students

This is serious ladies and gents. It was reported over the weekend that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) taken legal action against 4 individuals college students involved in illegal file sharing over the internet. All students were slapped with lawsuits.

The complaints, filed in federal courts in New York, New Jersey and Michigan this past week, claims that students Daniel Peng, Joseph Nievelt, Jesse Jordan and Aaron Sherman ran file-sharing systems that offered up more than 1 million song files in violation of the copyright law. The RIAA is the organization that represents the copyright-holding record labels, and is asking that the services be disabled and for monetary damages up to $150,000 per song, (yep you read right $150,000 per song) this according to an RIAA spokesperson.

The file-sharing systems were based at Princeton University, Michigan Technological University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where Jordan and Sherman attends. Because the server was housed on an internal local area network, the songs were only available to fellow students and school staff.

"These systems are best described as 'local area Napster networks,' " RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement, referring to the file-sharing pioneer that the RIAA helped shutter two years ago. The court ruled that Napster was illegal and shut it down. These systems are just as illegal and operate in the same manner. And just like Napster, they hurt artists, musicians, songwriters, those who invest in their work and the thousands of others who work to bring music to the public."

The student networks used software called Flatlan, Phynd and Direct Connect. The schools were not named in the suit.

Source: MTV.com