Harry Shearer files ‘Spinal Tap’ lawsuit
The comedian accused Vivendi SA of withholding profits from the movie’s creators and cast members
Comedian Harry Shearer has a message for the company that owns the rights to This is Spinal Tap. “Gimme some money. Gimme some money.” Shearer, a U.S. comedian and co-creator of Spinal Tap, accused Vivendi SA of improperly withholding millions in profits from the spoof movie from its creators and cast members.
The 72-year-old Shearer, whose career has included providing voices for more than 20 characters on the hit TV show The Simpsons, contends Vivendi executives should pay $125 million (U.S.) in damages tied to profits generated by the Spinal Tap movie, a mock- umentary about a fictitious heavy metal band.
Vivendi “failed to account honestly for the income actually received from” the movie, which has become a cult classic, Shearer said in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles.
“The film is on view almost constantly,” Shearer said in a video.
“It was theatrically released twice, and it has had lives on VHS, Beta, DVD, Blu-ray, Laser Disc and cable TV, and yet for most of that time, according to Vivendi, it has not been profitable.
“Filing a claim like this is neither fun nor easy going up against a major multinational. It is not nearly as enjoyable as playing too loud in Carnegie Hall.”
The Spinal Tap characters played songs from the movie at the famous New York venue in 2001.
AVivendi spokesperson in Paris declined to comment on the suit Tuesday.
Vivendi SA is the parent company of Universal Music and Studio Canal, a French company listed as the legal owner of all rights to the 1984 comedy.
This Is Spinal Tap grossed $4.5 million in North American theatres, according to Box Office Mojo.
The film, also starring Rob Reiner, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest, was directed by Reiner in socalled mockumentary style, follow- ing the fictional band through its concert tour.
Shearer, the movie’s co-author, portrayed the band’s bassist Derek Smalls, who bears satirical resemblance to Lemmy Kilmister, the mutton-chopped guitarist for the real metal band Motorhead, who died last year.
Despite its meagre take at the box office, the film grew in popularity, generating three decades of residual fees.
Shearer contends Vivendi has shortchanged the movie’s writers, cast and crew on profits generated from the film itself, along with merchandising and other movie spinoffs.
In 2013, he commissioned a study of the accounting statements and revenue streams associated with the movie and found that Vivendi and its agents had “willfully concealed and manipulated years of accountings to retain monies due and owing to plaintiff,” according to the complaint.