AEROSMITH - Lawsuit Over Steven Tyler's American Idol Deal Now Involves MÖTLEY CRÜE
January 7, 2013, 11 years ago
Eriq Gardner of The Hollywood Reporter reports:
In October 2012, Kovac Media Group alleged in a lawsuit that attorney Dina LaPolt had cost AEROSMITH vocalist Steven Tyler a $6 million - $8 million deal after she supposedly poisoned the negotiations for Tyler to return as judge on American Idol.
After filing the lawsuit, Kovac Media Group, run by Allen Kovac, added new claims, asserting that in retaliation for the lawsuit, LaPolt has been “conspiring” to “set up a competing management company” to steal away a “world-famous rock band” that Kovac has repped for 15 years.
That band is MÖTLEY CRÜE, and on Monday (January 7th), its band members made its objections to Kovac's claims very loud and clear. Declarations by Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars and drummer Tommy Lee were filed along with new court papers by LaPolt that urge a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to reject the lawsuit in accordance with California's anti-SLAPP statute.
In a declaration in December, Tyler said about his former manager, “It is an understatement to say that I was very unhappy with the services and conduct of Allen Kovac. Among other things, he was disrespectful and rude to my business associates, insulted and verbally abused my fiancé, my lawyer, my family, my assistants, and my accountants.”
Now on Monday, Mars and Lee followed Tyler in voicing displeasure with Kovac and others who have been taking the manager's side.
According to Mars' declaration, he first learned of what had happened on October 15th, when he got an e-mail from LaPolt describing the dispute and stating that he should get an independent attorney if he was concerned. Mars says he was "completely shocked and mad that Mötley Crüe's manager had sued our lawyer. I trust Dina implicitly, to the point that she is my trustee if I die or become disabled."
A few hours after getting the e-mail, he says he was informed that Pam Malek, the band's business manager, had told one of Kovac's attorneys to draw up documents giving Kovac $200,000 of Mötley Crüe money. According to Mars, the money was supposed to repay a personal loan that Kovac had given to the band's singer Vince Neil (no longer a shareholder in the band), but Mars said that he never voted for that to happen.
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