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J.Lo Set for South Beach Showdown
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Forget the block. Jenny's on the hot seat.
A federal judge in Manhattan has ordered Jennifer Lopez to sit for a deposition next month to answer questions about whether she swiped the idea for a TV show.
Lopez is the A-list defendant in the lawsuit brought by a disgruntled TV writer who accuses the multihyphenate entertainer, along with her Nuyorican Productions, CBS Corporation and Viacom, of ripping off his work and using it as the basis for the defunct UPN drama South Beach.
The 37-year-old Lopez served as an executive producer on the prime-time soap opera about two Brooklyn boys who move to Miami to partake in the hot-bodied nightclub scene.
Starring Vanessa Williams and Giancarlo Esposito, South Beach premiered in January 2006 and lasted just eight low-rated episodes before being scrapped by UPN, which has since merged with the WB to form the CW network.
However, two months after the show was deep-sixed, on Apr. 11, 2006, Jack Bunick filed a federal lawsuit in New York contending that producers had swiped a "fish out of water" script he dreamed up in 1999 that was called South Beach Miami. Bunick says he pitched the concept to a UPN executive in 2000, but never heard back from her.
Bunick cites several similarities between the two projects—including the titles and the fact that each boasts a main character from Brooklyn. His complaint seeks unspecified damages and an injunction prohibiting future broadcasts of the soap.
Lopez's attorney, Orin Snyder, filed a petition in February arguing that Lopez shouldn't have to provide testimony because she was barely involved in the series' development, coming aboard at late in the process "to lend celebrity to the show."
Snyder claimed Bunick's team wanted to depose Lopez purely "for tactical reasons, in an apparent attempt to obtain some perceived leverage by targeting and harassing a celebrity in a case where she has no meaningful testimony to give and no legitimate reason for being named as a defendant in the first place."
Bunick's lawyer, Sheldon Farber, countered in court documents that Lopez was fair game simply because she was a credited producer.
"Her celebrity is not a shield for her to use to avoid direct testimony in a case in which she has not been named frivolously," Farber wrote. "I am unaware that one of the perks of fame is protection from legal process. She may be inconvenienced by an appearance at a deposition. I can assure the court that I will not ask for her autograph."
U.S. District Judge Henry Pitman sided with Farber, and ruled that Lopez must submit to a deposition by June 11.
While Lopez wasn't in the courtroom for the ruling, she was in New York, pitching her latest TV production in the network upfront presentations to advertisers.
She touted the five-hour miniseries Como Ama una Mujer (How a Woman Loves), based on her same-named CD, that's set to air on Spanish-language Univision next season.
The musical drama is a passion project for the actress, which she's said she dreamed up while talking a long bath, then got cracking on a 12-page synopsis. Como will also feature music from Como, which hit stores in March.
Lopez also has several movies in the pipeline, including two films due this August: El Cantante, the biopic about singer Hector Lavoe costarring hubby Marc Anthony, and the crime thriller Bordertown with Antonio Banderas. She's also slated to start shooting the comedy-drama Love and Other Pursuits this summer.- E! ArtsyStuff Magazine
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