Lawyers representing the actor Charlie Sheen escalated the war between the actor and Chuck Lorre, the creator of his hit comedy “Two and a Half Men” and Warner Brothers, the studio that produces it, by filing a suit Thursday demanding more than $100 million in damages for first stopping production on episodes planned for this season and then removing him unjustly from the show.
The suit, which was obtained and posted by the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ, is in response to the decision earlier this week to fire Mr. Sheen from the comedy citing both his behavior, which has included drug use and accusations of violent incidents with women, and his comments about Mr. Lorre and Warner executives.
Mr. Sheen’s chief lawyer, Martin D. Singer, filed the suit Thursday in Superior Court in Los Angeles. In it, he goes on the attack especially against Mr. Lorre, saying the producer first stopped production on the series and then forced Warner Brothers to terminate Mr. Sheen’s employment “to serve his own ego and self-interest.”
Despite the fact that Mr. Lorre himself stood to make many more millions of dollars if the show had completed the eight episodes of the show eliminated when production was halted, the suit claims that the producer refused to write and supervise production on those episodes out of an “egotistical desire to punish Mr. Sheen” and because he had better financial arrangements on two other comedies he produces for Warner Brothers.
The suit labels Mr. Lorre “the proverbial 800-pound gorilla” who could make the studio do anything he wished. Warner Brothers declined comment Thursday afternoon, as did Mr. Lorre.
The action by Mr. Sheen’s legal team ratchets up one of the most fierce legal battles of recent vintage in Hollywood, and comes at the same time Warner Brothers and CBS, the network that broadcasts “Two and a Half Men,” are known to be seriously planning to continue the comedy – the most popular in television – with a new actor replacing Mr. Sheen.
The suit filed Thursday also includes a novel claim of damages on behalf of the entire cast and crew of the series for lost income due to the decision to shut down production this season, even though Mr. Sheen’s lawyers do not represent – at least at the moment – anyone else on the cast or crew.
To counter the claims Warner made earlier this week that Mr. Sheen had breached the terms of his contract with his behavior and comments, the suit cites Warner’s eagerness to sign Mr. Sheen to a new contract in May of 2010 to a deal for two more years on the series even though at the time he was facing both felony and misdemeanor charges.
The suit alleges that it was only after Mr. Sheen began making disparaging remarks about Mr. Lorre (which included an apparently gratuitous reference to Mr. Lorre as “Chaim Levine,” a Hebrew variant of his real name Charles Levine) that any action was taken. Mr. Sheen was “provoked into criticizing Lorre in response to his harassment and disparagement campaign, which had been going on for years” the suit charges.
As evidence of that campaign, the suit included several comments Mr. Lorre included on what he calls “vanity cards” that appear at the end of each episode. Among these were suggestions directed at himself like “Go to an Al-Anon meeting;” one directed at viewers urging them to “avoid degrading yourself by having meaningless sex with strangers in a futile attempt to fill the emptiness of your soul;” and another asking for the audience to pray for people working on the series: “Feel free to pick whomever you think is most in need.”
The suit, which was obtained and posted by the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ, is in response to the decision earlier this week to fire Mr. Sheen from the comedy citing both his behavior, which has included drug use and accusations of violent incidents with women, and his comments about Mr. Lorre and Warner executives.
Mr. Sheen’s chief lawyer, Martin D. Singer, filed the suit Thursday in Superior Court in Los Angeles. In it, he goes on the attack especially against Mr. Lorre, saying the producer first stopped production on the series and then forced Warner Brothers to terminate Mr. Sheen’s employment “to serve his own ego and self-interest.”
Despite the fact that Mr. Lorre himself stood to make many more millions of dollars if the show had completed the eight episodes of the show eliminated when production was halted, the suit claims that the producer refused to write and supervise production on those episodes out of an “egotistical desire to punish Mr. Sheen” and because he had better financial arrangements on two other comedies he produces for Warner Brothers.
The suit labels Mr. Lorre “the proverbial 800-pound gorilla” who could make the studio do anything he wished. Warner Brothers declined comment Thursday afternoon, as did Mr. Lorre.
The action by Mr. Sheen’s legal team ratchets up one of the most fierce legal battles of recent vintage in Hollywood, and comes at the same time Warner Brothers and CBS, the network that broadcasts “Two and a Half Men,” are known to be seriously planning to continue the comedy – the most popular in television – with a new actor replacing Mr. Sheen.
The suit filed Thursday also includes a novel claim of damages on behalf of the entire cast and crew of the series for lost income due to the decision to shut down production this season, even though Mr. Sheen’s lawyers do not represent – at least at the moment – anyone else on the cast or crew.
To counter the claims Warner made earlier this week that Mr. Sheen had breached the terms of his contract with his behavior and comments, the suit cites Warner’s eagerness to sign Mr. Sheen to a new contract in May of 2010 to a deal for two more years on the series even though at the time he was facing both felony and misdemeanor charges.
The suit alleges that it was only after Mr. Sheen began making disparaging remarks about Mr. Lorre (which included an apparently gratuitous reference to Mr. Lorre as “Chaim Levine,” a Hebrew variant of his real name Charles Levine) that any action was taken. Mr. Sheen was “provoked into criticizing Lorre in response to his harassment and disparagement campaign, which had been going on for years” the suit charges.
As evidence of that campaign, the suit included several comments Mr. Lorre included on what he calls “vanity cards” that appear at the end of each episode. Among these were suggestions directed at himself like “Go to an Al-Anon meeting;” one directed at viewers urging them to “avoid degrading yourself by having meaningless sex with strangers in a futile attempt to fill the emptiness of your soul;” and another asking for the audience to pray for people working on the series: “Feel free to pick whomever you think is most in need.”
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