Time Warner Accused of ‘Gilmore Girls’ Fraud

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Time Warner and Warner Bros. used Hollywood accounting to cheat the creators of "The Gilmore Girls" TV show of "tens of millions of dollars," the writing/production team of Hofflund/Pollone claims in Superior Court. Producer Gavin Pollone and writer Amy Palladino claim a congeries of Time Warner entities "colluded to defraud" them "with a scheme that rivals the greed and bravado of any storyline defendants could script."

Hofflund/Pollone claims that "through improper accounting gimmicks and the anticompetitive practice of 'vertical integration' - the use of subsidiaries or other affiliates to self-deal at all levels of the media cascade, from the studios that produce the television shows to the networks that broadcast them - defendants inflated their own reported profits by diverting to themselves plaintiff's rightful compensation. When plaintiff challenged defendants' improper practices, defendants resorted to delay, avoidance and misdirection in an effort to conceal their misconduct. Only the intervention of this Court at this time can safeguard plaintiff's rights to the profits due to it."

Plaintiffs are represented by Eric George with Dreier Stein Kahan.

Here are the defendants: Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P.; Warner Bros. Television Production, Inc.; WB Studio Enterprises, Inc.; The WB Television Network Partners, L.P.; WB Communications, Inc.; The CW Network, LLC; Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.; and Time Warner, Inc.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit