Actress/comedian Melissa McCarthy, her husband and director Ben Falcone, producer Brett Ratner and his RatPac banner, Warner Bros. Pictures, the Gersh Agency are all being sued for more than $10 million in a breach of contract lawsuit just filed late this week.
The dispute is over the 2018 McCarthy-led comedy “Life of the Party”. Produced by New Line, the film was released in May 2018 and pulled in just $66 million at the box office. Plaintiff Eva Kowalski is claiming in her suit that the collection of Hollywood heavyweights had a “secret agreement” to rip off the whole thing from her WGA-registered treatment and script “College Mom”.
The jury-seeking suit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court reportedly indicates Kowalski pitched the concepts to Gersh Defendants in 2014 and was informed that the concepts had significant commercial likelihood of success. The documents allegedly claim: “At this meeting, the script, ideas, story and treatment referred to herein were discussed and presented to the Gersh Defendants, and details were further discussed at length.”
Along with the payout, she is also reportedly seeking an injunction against the movie penned by McCarthy and Falcone. Why Ratner and RatPac have been included is unclear as neither were involved whatsoever with the film.
Source: Deadline
