August 1, 2021

Will ScarJo's Disney Case Be Heard in Court or in a Concrete Arbitration Bunker Miles Below the Earth's Surface ?

 So here's what I've learned: ScarJo has a direct deal with Marvel but not with Disney. Marvel is a subsidiary of Disney. Since nobody has leaked her contract with Marvel, we dont know if there is an arbitration clause in it, but it seems likely. 

ScarJo sued Disney not Marvel, and while the complaint says that Marvel breached her contract, it doesn't assert a breach of contract claim against Marvel​.​

Instead, ​the complaint ​(link below) accuses big meanie Disney, the parent company, of interfering with Marvel’s contract with SJ​o​ and forcing Marvel to dump "Black Widow" on Disney's​ low-rent​ side-hustle (Disney +) the same day the movie opened in theaters​,​ basically sending SJ to the poorhouse.

So to keep this thing out of arbitration, SJ's lawyers are saying that Disney and Marvel are separate entities capable of interfering with each other’s contracts. Will this work? 

I have no idea but a sycophantic article in the Hollywood Reporter said it probably wouldnt.​

​It's pretty obvious any secret behind-the-scenes negotiations broke down and ScarJo was offered chump change to compensate her for ​her​ reduced box-office bonus. ​T​here's an email in the complaint from Marvel chief counsel guaranteeing her a "renegotiation" if they changed ​their​ release strategy...so if that even happened, it clearly went south.

So her lawyers figured they'd go public and threaten Disney with a court case and the risk of having all their juicy financial info made public. 

 And also force them into a ​juicy​ PR battle which Disney is already losing--ha ha​ ha​--as it's now accused of being anti-woman. 
Disney supposedly thought that leaking ScarJo's monster $20M upfront salary during Covid was a genius PR move.
 
 Naturally it immediately backfired and caused her talent agency (for the first time in entertainment history) to actually stick up for ​a​ client in public and and accuse Disney of  “weapon[izing] her success as an artist and businesswoman.”  ​A bunch of "Women in Film" group​s​ also started yelling at Disney.

Disney said that it did too live up to the agreement. That is, “Black Widow” did get a wide theatrical release, and nowhere in the contract does it say that the release would be (THIS IS KEY WORD​--->​)exclusive  to theaters. It would just be "in" theaters. And maybe some other places too!

​Here's the complaint: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21029535-johansson​

 

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