TAPPED OUT
Satirist sues for $170m
UNITED STATES: In the celebrated 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, members of a fictional rock band toured the world under the tutelage of a hapless manager who took them all for fools and would surely run off with all the money. According to Harry Shearer, the actor who played bassist Derek Smalls, the same thing happened with the profits from the film in the decades after it was released.
Shearer, a co-creator of Spinal Tap, has launched a US$125 million (NZ$173m) lawsuit against Vivendi, the French conglomerate, and its affiliated distribution company Studio Canal, alleging that revenues from the film’s theatrical and video releases and income from its music and merchandising were misreported and withheld from the men who created it.
‘‘Between 1984 and 2006, Studio Canal ... reports that .... our merchandise income worldwide from This Is Spinal Tap was US$81,’’ Shearer said.
Total income from music sales was reported as US$98, he added, before making a bitter reference to a scene from the film in which, due to a mixup, the band play a concert beside an unimpressively small recreation of Stonehenge. ’’Well, US$98 is about enough to buy one miniature Stonehenge.’’
Shearer said the film was on view ‘‘almost constantly’’. It was released in cinemas twice and had been translated on to every medium from video cassette to DVD to Blu-Ray. ‘‘Yet for most of that time, according to Vivendi, it hasn’t been profitable.’’
Many would lack the resources to bring such a lawsuit. But Shearer enjoyed great success after This Is Spinal Tap, voicing 23 characters on The Simpsons and producing a popular radio show. ‘‘I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to fight back,’’ he said.
Shearer said he discovered the alleged fraud after commissioning a study of the film’s accounting statements and revenue streams before the 30th anniversary of its release. - The Times