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The case of who created White Collar has ended in a private settlement. “The litigation has been resolved and is in the process of being dismissed,” is all plaintiff Travis Romero’s lawyer Rhett Francisco would tell Deadline today. The case was scheduled for a March 2013 trial that could have seen the Executive Producer of the USA Network series plus some Fox TV Studio executives and CAA agents asked some potentially embarrassing questions about their conduct and practices. Romero sued Jeff Eastin, White Collar’s credited creator, last year. Fox TV Studios president David Madden and executive VP Matt Loze and CAA’s Rob Kenneally and Tom Young were also named as defendants. The studio and agency men allegedly encouraged Eastin to cut Romero out of the profits from the show and his co-creator credit. CAA represents Eastin. Fox TV produces the high class crime drama, now in its third season. Romero claimed that that he and his long time creative partner Eastin came up with the idea for White Collar in the latter’s backyard hot tub years back. Romero also claims the duo worked with Fox in pitching it to USA. While the scope of Romero’s initial case had recently been scaled back by Judge Rolf Treu, Eastin, Fox TV and CAA weren’t off the hook. In his May 15 ruling (Read it here), the judge granted Romero the ability to amend his suit to address issues of specificity in regards to his claims against Fox TV and CAA. Also the judge allowed Romero to go forward with his accounting violation claims as well as fraud and misrepresentation claims against Eastin. Obviously somebody decided that it was better to settle now with Romero than let this thing see the light of day in a trial.
Among the evidence that Romero cited in the case was a quote Eastin gave to the New York Times that the idea for White Collar “had really came from a friend of mine, Travis Romero.” Other evidence included emails from Madden to Eastin suggesting pushing Romero out of the spotlight with USA Network. Romero did serve as a writer and story editor on White Collar in its first season. It was recently announced that Romero would be directing the thriller Treachery, a feature film he wrote for BlancBiehn Productions.
CAA had no comment on the case. Neither Fox nor Eastin’s lawyer Max Sprecher responded to requests for comment.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
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CAA…where You can be sure to get great representation…for the bigger fish…
Similar to what Jonathan Prince and NBC did on American Dreams to Josh Goldstein. Prince and Goldstein had been writing partners for years and split up. American Dreams was an idea and treatment they developed. Prince sold it solo with no mention of Goldstein. Goldstein had to sue for his share. The upper court set a date. The suit was settled out of court.
Theft of idea is a crime that is quite easy to carry out and very hard to prove in a court of law. Courts don’t understand creative property theft. This case had to be excellent to get as far as it did. Usually those involved with idea theft are repeat offenders. Judges are aware of this.
JP was well known for it and was finally caught.
As for Dave Madden and the CAA crew this isn’t the first time. It never is. Courts are starting to allow that as evidence.
welcome to hollywood!
It happensss all the time. Wga is usually goodat stepping in
Eastin sounds like a great guy… Screwing over a friend. This won’t be forgotten.
The problem is that White Collar is *obviously* patterned in style and substance after the life of Frank Abagnale, as more or less a modernized follow-up to his memoir-turned-movie, “Catch Me If You Can,” down even to his becoming a consultant for the FBI after he was captured, that I think that he has grounds to sue *all* of them.
Dave Madden, such a classy guy. A man among men. Not.
Slime doesn’t even want to touch him.
So IOW yes, they did it.
Please. The program is a clear rip-off of “It Take A Thief” starring Robert Wagner in the late ’60′s.
I hate it when people shrug this stuff off as “that’s just hollywood.” It’s such a cop out for slimy behavior. Individual human beings made a choice to behave like pigs. “Hollywood” didn’t make them do anything.
In grammar school I was told that “character is what you are when you’re not being watched.” CAA, the guy who screwed his friend, and Fox /USA execs did not want their true character to be seen in the light of day… so they settled.
This is your life, guys. This is who you are…lying and betraying in a slimy money-grab. How much would it have cost you to simply do the honorable thing and not lie, cheat, steal, and encourage someone to chuck their friend to the curb? Aren’t you all rich enough? Just because you think you CAN get away with being slimy doesn’t mean you should be. What went wrong with you?
Blaming “hollywood” is a total cop out. Wake up. Get some fucking character. Maybe sit down for a minute and think about when/where/how you slowly lost your basic ability to conduct yourselves with honor. Mr. Madden, Mr. Loze, Mr. Young, Mr. Kenneally, Mr. Eastin….money was paid to make this all go away….but we’ve all seen your true character…or well…true lack of character.
I’ve been watching White Collar – really like it. My initial thought – even after seeing Catch Me If You Can, which I also really liked – is that White Collar is a modern remake of It Takes A Thief. ITAT aired when I was young and, yeah, I REALLY liked it back then.
I guess USA is right… CHARACTERS WELCOME.
Too bad some of them are pieces of shit.
Suddenly I don’t like the show quite so much.
There are a lot of scummy people in this town and the creator of American dreams and white collar are permanent members of the club…. No matter what they pay to the injured party it isn’t enough…. And btw, the wga doest help in cases like these…. Once a credit is awarded…. Even one that was stolen from a partner, they won’t reverse their de vision unless you sue them to change it….
This all seems a bit strange to me as it is the WGA who determines the “created by” credit, not the company, the writing participants nor their agents. That is a basic tenet the the WGA’s MBA. So how is it that the court holds jurisdiction over an agreement all parties have previously agreed to, via membership in the WGA?
The WGA may determine credits but they don’t have ultimate authority regarding business partnerships.
There’s almost two people who know the truth.
Two people know everything that happened but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the gist of what went down. Executives in Hollywood think laws and ethics don’t apply to them. They do terrible things and expect to intimidate and, worse case, buy their way out of trouble.