COMING IN 2018: WE'RE ENTERTAINING NOURISHMENT FOR THE MIND, BODY & SOUL
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In the second of three parts, Greg Lott opens up exclusively to Retroality.TV about his secret love affair with the late Farrah Fawcett, whom he first romanced in the mid-1960s during their tenure at the University of Texas.
On a lighter note ... host Chris Mann discusses the multi-generational allure of the 1978-91 TV hit "Dallas" (revived this month on TNT) and -- thanks to a Jenilee Harrison segue -- marvels at the ongoing youth appeal of the 1977-84 classic series "Three's Company." As he prepares a special anniversary edition of his 1998 tell-all book "Come and Knock on Our Door" (due in late 2012 or, if 36th anniversaries count, 2013), Chris salutes the "next generation" of Company fans, including 14-year-old aspiring documentary filmmakerIsaiah Reaves, 23-year-old funnygal-slash-Chrissy Snow-spoofmeisterAshlee Anno and 30something radio producer/"Three's Company Throwdown" trivia king Andy Hermann. (In previous "Reimagine That!" episode(s)/Retroality.TV stories, we've mentioned Sitcoms Online news director and Jack's Bistro webmaster Pavan Patel, who broke news of Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt's recent YouTube reconciliation.)
Finally, our dream weaver Yvonne Ryba recounts her Texas-sized dreams of coming to America in the "Dallas"-rich early 1980s.
Greg Lott, Pt. 1 ... Farrah Fawcett's secret longtime lover, Greg Lott, opens up in this Retroality.TV exclusive about Ryan O'Neal's contentious new tell-all book, "Both of Us." Here, in the first segment of his explosive three-part interview, Lott -- who famously confronted O'Neal in public on camera after the "Love Story" star reportedly barred Lott from contacting Farrah in her final months in spring 2009 -- strongly refutes O'Neal's less-than-flattering written portrayal of Fawcett, the celebrated Tinseltown couple's tumultuous relationship and her role in raising their troubled son, Redmond, now 27.
Also ... on a much lighter note, Chris spotlights two new Tinseltown tomes, Suzanne Sumner-Ferry's "The Day the Stars Stood Still: A Memoir about Logan Fleming, the Former Top Wax Artist of Movieland Wax Museum" and Patty Farmer's "The Persian Room Presents: An Oral History of New York's Most Magical Night Spot."
Finally ... resident "Reimagine That!" dream interpreter Yvonne Ryba analyzes host Chris Mann's recurring, "Groundhog Day"-esque dream harking back to his own college days as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper at The University of Tulsa in the early 1990s.
As the ever-beloved Farrah Fawcett is yet again immortalized in likeness—this time as a wholesomely sexy Barbie doll commemorating her iconic 1976 swimsuit poster and benefiting an Alana Stewart-helmed cancer foundation in her name—the late TV angel’s embattled lover, Ryan O’Neal, keeps fighting to hold onto her multimillion dollar image while trying to salvage his own.
Last month, the University of Texas System sued O’Neal for possessing an estimated $30M Andy Warhol portrait of Fawcett—one of two in existence—that they say she bequeathed to them. In turn, the actor sued his longtime foe Craig Nevius, alleging the “delusional” Farrah’s Story producer—who helped Fawcett secure the rights to her record-selling poster—stole from and sold out Farrah and defamed and distressed O’Neal with “lies” that led to UT suing. O’Neal, claiming the “second Warhol” is legally his, is seeking more than $1 million in damages.
Nevius assisted UT in part by pointing out that O’Neal’s daughter (and OWN “soaprah” co-star), Tatum, divulged in her recent memoir, found, that Dad had the Warhol—which media reports have since called “missing” and “stolen.” “That was a ‘thank-God-we’ve-caught-you moment,’” Nevius told ABC News in June.
Not exactly the kind of “a-ha moment” Oprah likely bargained for when signing father and daughter to their (forced?) reconciliation series, The O’Neals. But with Tatum claiming Ryan “brutalized” her, abandoned her for Farrah and exposed her to "lots of drugs" growing up—charges pretty much echoed by her brother Griffin (who instead said his dad gave him cocaine at age 11)—should unseemly O’Neal allegations at this point leave anyone with an O face?
(O’Neal previously called Tatum’s drug and abuse claims, outlined in her 2004 memoir A Paper Life, “malicious lies.” And when asked about Griffin’s charges that, upon Fawcett’s terminal cancer diagnosis, “vulture” Ryan’s “only goal was to make sure he would be in (Fawcett’s) will,” the O’Neal patriarch snapped to Vanity Fair in 2009, “I hate him! He knows I have money. I made a tremendous amount of money on real estate; more than I deserve.”)
Ryan’s attorney requested a 10-day extension to file his response to UT’s suit, originally due by Aug. 1. Nevius’ legal answer to O’Neal’s suit may hit next week as well. Expect serious fireworks—especially now that a UT System rep says the university has “photographic and videographic evidence” of Fawcett referencing her ownership of both Warhols shortly before she passed.
“(A)t no time have I ever claimed that Ryan O’Neal stole the portrait of Farrah Fawcett,” Nevius wrote in a statement published last month on The Morton Report web site. “(I)n terms of me being the one to cause Ryan’s public humiliation, well, has he watched his own reality show? … (I)t’s hard for me to believe that I am the cause of this man’s ‘mental anguish and emotional distress’ when, according to his reality show, he has recently been in therapy for personal and relationship issues dating back before I ever met him.”
O’Neal’s ever-growing legal, personal and public-relations battles became even more entangled this week with the heroin- and gun-related felony arrest Tuesday of his troubled son with Fawcett, Redmond, 26, and the possible future arrest of the long-estranged Griffin, 46. Hours after Redmond was busted, Griffin reportedly caused a head-on car crash that sent him to the hospital with moderate injuries. Police later discovered drugs and a loaded weapon in Griffin’s car and are seeking a warrant to arrest him.
The O’Neals are “falling apart,” Ryan told TMZ after Redmond entered a not guilty plea in court Thursday. “But we’ll come back.”
The former Peyton Place and Love Story star’s comeback—or, more precisely, rebranding—in recent years as a reality docudrama fixture has been fraught with controversy and challenge. Ironically, though, his most persistent conflict during his made-for-TV reinvention hasn’t been with his tragic offspring but rather with the man whose association with Fawcett put O’Neal back in homes in the era of celebreality.
But O’Neal won’t be referring to Craig Nevius as the executive producer who directed him in TV Land’s 2005 reality show Chasing Farrah. Nor will he acknowledge him as the filmmaker who won the showbiz-leery Fawcett’s trust so much that she named him her “loyal friend and protector,” spokesperson, agent, manager and, ultimately, the business partner who would help execute her vision for her groundbreaking cancer documentary. (That project— filmed in part by Farrah friend Alana Stewart and originally titled A Wing & A Prayer—was Fawcett’s would-be work of art. Nevius says she didn’t want the innovative docufilm in any way featuring “talking heads” and focusing on her “love story” with on-again, off-again flame O’Neal.)
Instead, O’Neal—who, in Fawcett’s final months and with Stewart’s involvement on-camera and off as the project’s newly-promoted producer, overtook and repackaged the “video diary” as NBC’s “news special” Farrah’s Story—now brands Nevius in a legal filing as “a delusional fan” who is “obsessed” with Fawcett and “jealous” of O’Neal and Stewart. So “deeply jealous” of O’Neal, he alleges, that Nevius made “false, malicious and defamatory accusations to the media and (UT) … in an attempt to ruin O’Neal’s reputation and strip him of the Warhol portrait while drawing attention to himself.”
Exactly how a jury would assess O’Neal’s reputation—pre and post-Nevius-claims—is, in this scandal-loving new-media age, anybody’s guess. Ryan has twice been arrested himself—in 2007 for firing a gun in a dispute with Griffin (these charges were later dismissed) and in 2008 with Redmond for felony drug possession when authorities found meth in his Malibu home during his younger son’s probation check. Ryan pleaded guilty and was ordered to partake in a drug awareness program. His attorney, Mark Werksman, told People magazine at the time that the actor "found it extremely frustrating and upsetting" to be charged. “He's not a drug user and he doesn't want to be thought of as a drug user.”
Around the time of Ryan’s second arrest, he attempted to force Nevius to turn over A Wing & A Prayer to him and another executive producer. When Nevius refused (he says according to Fawcett’s strict instructions “never (to) give anyone—including Ryan—the footage or the contract”), O’Neal reportedly called him and threatened, “I’ll kill you with Farrah, and then I’ll kill you in real life.” O’Neal told The New York Times recently, “I may have said ‘I’ll kill ya,’ but I said that as a joke.”
Nevius offered up a most unflattering essay on O’Neal days after The O’Neals premiered on (oh, the irony) Father’s Day. “Now, as the two year anniversary of Farrah's passing approaches—she died on June 25, 2009—I realize that the woman I remember is the one that Ryan O'Neal has forgotten,” Nevius wrote on The Morton Report, referencing the O’Neal’s recent interview with Piers Morgan, in which the actor blamed his family for Fawcett’s cancer.
“At least that's how it appears to me as he boldly and recklessly steers the promotional tour for his new reality series, The O'Neals, into the very dark but familiar territory of exploiting Farrah's tragic death just as he did two years ago,” Nevius wrote. “But this time through, he's not treading lightly but plowing forward in what appears to be a shocking attempt to bury his own children under a heap of undeserved guilt. All the while he positions himself as the put-upon father who, as hard as he claims to have tried, simply could not keep his kids happy as they went to war with Farrah to win his attention, affection and approval.”
Among Nevius’ bold claims in this piece: “(Not) that Ryan didn't profoundly contribute to Farrah's pain and suffering during her illness. Because he did … A few months after Farrah began chemotherapy, Ryan became increasingly jealous and, at times, even angry at the outpouring of love and sympathy that she received from all over the world—not to mention his own children.”
Interestingly, O’Neal doesn’t mention the Morton Report piece in his complaint. Instead, he offers a few character assassinations, er, characterizations of his own. He claims that when Nevius met Fawcett in 2005, he “claim(ed) to have production experience (and) surreptitiously ingratiated himself into Fawcett’s life, contacting her multiple times per day and taking it upon himself to act as her personal assistant without pay.”
Ouch again.
O’Neal continues, “Unfortunately, when Nevius showed Ms. Fawcett and NBC his work on the documentary, it was clear that he was unskilled and that his work was amateurish and sensationalized—his cut of the documentary looked like tabloid journalism, contrary to the wishes of Ms. Fawcett, and could not be broadcast on national television. As a result, Ms. Fawcett requested that O'Neal take creative control of Farrah's Story, thereby ending Nevius' creative involvement with the documentary. In part because of Nevius' emotional instability, the last time Ms. Fawcett saw or spoke with Nevius was in the early spring of 2009, shortly after he had delivered his cut of the documentary.”
(Two years later, The New York Times would characterize O’Neal’s takeover of the project thusly: “After Mr. O’Neal and NBC gained full control of the documentary, the film took on the feel of network celebrity fodder—at once more glossy and more morbid.”)
O’Neal told the New York Post in May 2009 that Fawcett wanted Nevius off the project in mid- to late-April because he persistently pushed for a storyline indicting paparazzi and tabloids for her deteriorating health. "He was obsessed with this angle, that the media was haranguing Farrah to the point where she couldn't recover,” O’Neal said. "Harangued? Who isn't harangued? We all get harangued. At most, that's a sidebar. This is a story about Farrah struggling for her life."
We may never see Nevius’ edit of the film or know what the terminally ill and at times heavily medicated Fawcett thought of it—or wanted after seeing it. But given the unprecedented access she gave Nevius to her private life—and her apparent permission and approval for him to make many of her intensely personal struggles public—it’s hard to imagine he would deliver a take on her vision that opposed the wishes she had voiced.
Was Nevius’ edit sensationalistic “tabloid journalism” or hard-hitting docu-journalism about tabloids whose cover headlines screamed—much to the fighting-for-life Fawcett’s pain and disdain—“Farrah Begs: Let Me Die!”
O’Neal now alleges that Nevius retaliated after Farrah cut him off. “Sadly, Nevius’ malicious behavior is nothing new, and it is consistent with his prior despicable conduct. In 2009, Nevius intentionally sold private, personal medical information about Ms. Fawcett’s battle with cancer to tabloid journalists, distributed film footage of her battle with cancer and other materials proprietary to Ms. Fawcett and third parties, and embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company that Ms. Fawcett established.”
These charges are more or less duplicated from a complaint filed last year by O’Neal’s business manager and Fawcett’s estate trustee, Richard “Bernie” Francis, who sued Nevius on behalf of Farrah’s estate. That suit was settled this spring, The New York Times reported, without Francis’ allegations being proven:
“For the next 18 months, Mr. Nevius pursued his lawsuit against Mr. O’Neal, Ms. Stewart and Mr. Francis full-time, hoping to regain control of the company he and Ms. Fawcett formed and produce the film he says she wanted. Mr. Francis countersued, accusing Mr. Nevius of being a hanger-on who ingratiated himself with Ms. Fawcett and embezzled money from their company. (He and Mr. O’Neal never offered proof, and Mr. Nevius denies the allegations.)”
The charge that Nevius sold Fawcett’s private medical information to the tabloids is most ironic. In June 2008, Nevius wrote a Los Angeles Times editorial exposing UCLA Medical Center for breaching Fawcett’s privacy and calling out the National Enquirer for inducing the breach by paying a UCLA employee (who was later indicted) for Farrah’s private medical info . In “Chasing Farrah Too Far,” Nevius even details a run-in with an Enquirer reporter who tried to persuade him to discuss Fawcett’s health. Clearly, the late actress authorized her producing partner’s revelations—including her specific exchanges with U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O’Brien’s office—in that essay.
Nevius also worked with Los Angeles Times reporter Charles Ornstein to document Fawcett’s sting of UCLA in the only media interview she gave following her cancer diagnosis. Nevius’ company, Windmill Entertainment LLC., released film footage of Ornstein’s August 2008 interview to various media outlets around May 11, 2009—the date the Times published Ornstein’s piece. About two weeks earlier, per Fawcett’s 2008 agreement with the newspaper, Nevius gave written permission to the Times to publish the interview within five days of Farrah’s Story broadcast premiere on May 15.
The producer says that O’Neal’s recent legal action against him is “a desperate attempt … to further harass me into silence. I believe this is less about the portrait of Farrah Fawcett by Andy Warhol than it is about certain actions and events that occurred during the last few years of Farrah's life which I have knowledge of and that he (and others) would prefer me to never speak about.”
Nevius is likely referring in part to The Farrah Fawcett Foundation, the charitable organization receiving an undisclosed royalty from the sale of the new Farrah Barbie. Last year, he released a statement to X17 Online “publicly calling on the Attorney General to investigate the ‘Farrah Fawcett Foundation’ and interview a handful of Farrah’s trusted friends and associates with respect to Farrah’s knowledge and intent regarding this so-called ‘charity.’”
This spring, a Facebook group called “Farrah Fawcett: We Want the Truth” encouraged fans to write the attorney general to investigate the foundation and the final months of Fawcett’s life. So far, no active investigation has been reported.
Last year, Nevius questioned the foundation’s origins—and its officers’ roles—in a legal response to Francis’ suit against him. He claimed Fawcett “was not aware of the Foundation’s existence during her lifetime or of Mr. Francis’ attempts to usurp her estate.”
“On information and belief, (Alana) Stewart … appointed herself ‘president’ of the Farrah Fawcett Foundation, a charitable foundation funded by Ms. Fawcett’s assets, and Mr. Francis named himself ‘chairman of the board/treasurer,’” Nevius claimed. “On information and belief, Kim Swartz, an attorney for Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, who has been fired by Ms. Fawcett, also installed himself as ‘director.’ On information and belief, Mr. Francis and Ms. Stewart are using the Foundation to divert Ms. Fawcett’s assets away from other rightful beneficiaries. On information and belief, although Mr. O’Neal has no official title with the Foundation, he recently announced that he would be ‘working with the Foundation.’”
According to a business entity record published on the California Secretary of State’s web site, “The Farrah Fawcett Foundation” was first filed with the state on Nov. 20, 2006. The foundation is also referenced in Fawcett’s amended Living Trust, dated and signed Aug. 7, 2007. Charitable trust registration records on the California attorney general’s web site show the foundation was registered with their office on Jan. 25, 2007.
Oddly, however, registration records on the attorney general’s web site indicate the foundation’s 2007 and 2008 IRS returns and the registry’s annual renewal report for 2007 were filed by Francis on May 15, 2009—the night Farrah’s Story premiered. Six weeks later, Fawcett died. The first public mention of The Farrah Fawcett Foundation appears to be on the date of her death, when O’Neal released a statement requesting donations be sent to the foundation “to support cancer research.”
Also curious: A 2010 report quoting Lee Majors’ manager, Denny Bond, as saying the decades-estranged Majors and Fawcett, who reunited via phone just months before her death, planned to reunite on a Vegas stage in Love Letters and were planning “a Los Angeles charity performance for her soon-to-be-established cancer foundation.”
The foundation is again in the news thanks to Barbie and Stewart. “Farrah created the foundation two years before she died and her aim was really to help in cutting edge research and to help people that are actually struggling with cancer now,” Stewart told Fox News this week, “so that’s really the mission of the foundation. It’s really wonderful for her memory and for her legacy and for her fans.”
In June, the foundation joined forces with Brand Sense Partners, LLC and Robert A. Finkelstein. Ltd. “to identify and execute new business ventures to perpetuate the star’s legacy and to support her non-profit foundation’s mission of raising funding for alternative methods in cancer research, prevention and awareness,” a news release states.
Stewart told the Los Angeles Timesthat more projects are in the works to keep Fawcett’s legacy going, adding she often asks herself, “What would Farrah do?”
If Farrah’s story behind the poster behind the commemorative doll is any indication, Fawcett would fight to control her image—and its copyright—and take legal action to keep others from exploiting either at her expense.
“The poster” that launched her star and solidified her image as the wholesome TV angel with a celestial body and a twinkling smile was entirely Fawcett’s creation. So says photographer Bruce McBroom. And so asserted Fawcett in a suit she filed in February 2009 alleging the poster’s publisher and related business entities invaded her privacy and unjustly enriched themselves by misappropriating her name, image and likeness.
“Plaintiff solely chose the photographer, Plaintiff solely created overall styling, Plaintiff solely determined the wardrobe (i.e. specific swimsuit used), Plaintiff solely created the hair styling, Plaintiff solely did the makeup used, Plaintiff solely directed photographic content (including, but not limited to, the angle of the photograph as well as the pose and posturing of the model), Plaintiff solely determined the location where the photograph was taken, and Plaintiff solely approved the background used in the photograph.”
Plaintiff also retained exclusive copyright ownership of the entire shoot—at least according to her suit—and received 10 percent of merchandising royalties totaling $400,000. Refusing to be “owned” apparently led Fawcett to bolt from Charlie’s Angels after one season in 1977 when its executives refused to give her a 10-percent cut of the show’s massive merchandising.
Strangely, though, according to U.S. Copyright Office public records, the poster’s publisher, Pro Arts, had registered “Farrah” under its name in 1976—and for more than 30 years, it claimed the copyright, even though Fawcett apparently owned it. Her suit was dropped in May 2009, two months after the registration suddenly changed to her name, according to U.S. Copyright Office records. Her long ownership fight—which intensified in 2008 and piqued in early 2009 while Nevius was her business point person—finally resulted in resounding victory.
According to the U.S. Copyright Office records, the “Farrah / by Farrah Fawcett” copyright changed one more time—on the day Fawcett died. The same estate that sued Nevius now controls the iconic image whose legal ownership he helped her secure.
One wonders not only what Farrah would do but what she would say about the ongoing battles over her image, her intentions and her legacy that have placed many of those closest to her in perennially defensive postures.
Perhaps she would find inspiration in the ongoing fight by Happy Days cast members to get their due for 35-plus years of the CBS Corp. and others exploiting their names, images and likenesses for profit. A quote from the Seventies sitcom TV icons’ recent court filing seems to say it all:
“Although defendants routinely rebrand their corporate images, they should not be permitted to rebrand the truth.”
Today TV's Wonder Woman, actress-singer Lynda Carter, blows out 60 candles. That's right, she's 60! (Take that, Sally O'Malley!) This year Princess Diana would've turned 50. But the TV people's first princess, Diana Prince, was taking the world by storm a good ten years earlier. In fact, this Arizona-born beauty won the Miss World USA pageant in 1972. Three years later, a certain superheroine in star-spangled satin tights beckoned. And Lynda has been kicking ass ever since--most recently, as the star of her own critically acclaimed cabaret show. This spring, the sultry songstress's second CD, Crazy Little Things, hit stores.
NBC recently passed on David E. Kelley's reimagined Wonder Woman, which could have seen Carter in a cameo or guest role had the series been picked up. After three decades of rumored film and TV reboots, Lynda Carter remains the one-and-only live action Wonder Woman.
Lynda remains in fine company, though. Also turning 60 this month: actress-singer Cheryl Ladd. Hard to believe it's been 34 years since she hit the scene as Farrah Fawcett's little sister, Kris Munroe, on Charlie's Angels. Like co-star and fellow ageless beauty Jaclyn Smith (who is 63 or 65 [!], depending on the source), Ladd is still kicking ass and taking names as a made-for-TV movie star. Ladd's next movie: Hallmark's Love's Resounding Courage, set to premiere in October.
Jaclyn--seen above striking a pose with her longtime grrrfriend at last year's TV Land Awards--is doing just fine herself. A self-made lifestyle brand, she continues her long-running apparel line at K-Mart and has launched numerous other hit enterprises. Last year, she also turned heads in a darkly dramatic role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Charlie's other original Angel, actress Kate Jackson, has kept an unusually low profile in the two years following the death of her longtime friend and co-star Farrah Fawcett. She was a no-show at the TV Land Awards and has in the last two years otherwise stayed away from the medium that made her a star. But expect Kate to fly back into action with the October release of her long-anticipated memoir, The Smart One. I have a strong feeling that Kate--who has, according to a tabloid report, claimed ownership of her iconic 1976-81 ABC series--will drop at least a couple of bombshells in her book, which will hit bookstores shortly after ABC premieres its reimagined Angels update.
TV audiences last saw Jackson in the NBC news special Farrah's Story, which aired six weeks prior to Fawcett's death from anal cancer on June 25, 2009. The outspoken Jackson (who, like Jaclyn Smith, is a breast cancer survivor) also gave a head-turning interview in May 2009 to the Today Show hours after Farrah's Story producer Craig Nevius sued Fawcett's longtime lover Ryan O'Neal, friend Alana Stewart and Fawcett estate trustee Bernie Francis for interfering in his contract to oversee the NBC May sweeps documentary about Farrah's battle with cancer. Jackson repeatedly referred to Nevius as "Craig Devious." But she did an about face in early 2010, saying she was "embarrassed" about her remarks. "I was told before I did the Today Show that Craig Nevius was a crook and all this other stuff. I thought he was attempting to do all these awful things," she told Radar Online.
The Emmy-winning actress says she was cut off from Fawcett soon after her Today interview. She told Radar that Hamilton and O'Neal refused her access to her dying friend because Farrah didn't want to see her. "I wasn't allowed to ask Farrah if that was indeed the case that she didn't want to see me or others," Jackson said. "I wasn't allowed to talk to her on the phone, at all. Even if a person is in such pain that they sleep most of the time, if the phone was answered, or the messages weren't so full that you can't leave one, I could have had someone put the phone to her ear so I could tell her that I love her." (Hamilton and Stewart denied her claims.)
Last December, Jackson settled a lawsuit against longtime O'Neal associate Bernie Francis, who also served as Jackson's business manager. Jackson had claimed Francis had left her in "financial ruin" to the tune of $3 million. According to TMZ, both parties were "satisfied" with the confidential settlement agreement.
Finally, TV's original Bionic Woman, Lindsay Wagner, continues to kick butt metaphorically--at least in a meditative sense. The Emmy-winning actress hosts holistic healing retreats in the U.S. and abroad, and she also gives keynote speeches about the body-mind-spirit connection at various events. (See our 2010 interview with her here.) And she's returning to the small screen again Monday night (July 25) in a return appearance in the SyFy network hit Warehouse 13. She also recently guest starred in the cable net's superhuman crimesolving drama Alphas. Not bad for a 62-year-old gal who once battled Fembots and Bigfoot for a living! (Bionic Woman remake? Does anybody even remember that? Uh-huh, that's what we thought.)
TV angel Farrah Fawcett sadly left us in June 2009, and Happy Days went to rerun heaven more than a quarter-century ago. But that's not stopping costly and increasingly nasty legal wars over the use—or alleged misuse—of the multimillion-dollar likenesses these cultural icons left behind.
Fawcett's posthumous drama involves an estimated $30M Warhol portrait of the late actress, the Texas alma mater she named in her will, the embattled longtime lover she did not and the outspoken TV producer who for years has fought him and his business manager’s handling of her reportedly $50M estate.
The Happy Days dispute centers on circa-2008 Vegas casino slot machines and displays plastered with cast member likenesses, a media conglomerate hitting a decades-in-the-making merchandising jackpot and a beloved family of retro sitcom actors claiming they're owed a $10 million-plus cut of the "winnings."
The sitcom actors claim they had not been paid in over a decade—or, in most cases, ever—for CBS Studios Inc. licensing their likenesses on everything from Vegas slots, DVDs, dolls, bed sheets, drinking glasses, trading cards and lunch boxes.
Today, their lawyer, Jon Pfeiffer, told the AP that CBS recently issued his clients checks for $6,000-$6,500 each, claiming “that is the full payment for all that is owed.” In other words, CBS just told Mrs. Cunningham, Joanie, Potsie and Ralph Malph to sit on it.
As the Fonz would say in a thoroughly disapproving tone, Aaaaaaaay.
(Fonz’s portrayer, actor-producer-director Henry Winkler, is not a part of the suit, nor is co-star-turned-producer-director Ron Howard. Winkler said he’s received his royalty checks, sums undisclosed, as part of a separate contract but supports his castmates in their fight.)
Both the Fawcett and friends-of-Fonzie fiascoes pit powerful and wealthy institutions—academic and showbiz—against individuals with comparatively limited resources, all battling over the value, real or perceived, of celebrity images designed for and dependent on public consumption.
In the case(s) of Warholgate, acclaimed film actor-turned-controversial “docu-reality” TV star Ryan O'Neal has come out swinging on both sides of the coin. But more on that shortly.
In the Happy Days money war, co-stars and co-plaintiffs Marion Ross, Erin Moran, Anson Williams and Don Most remain the very picture of wholesomeness personified in their hit 1974-84 series set in 1950s and ’60s Milwaukee. Their images have been used since the mid-Seventies to market a relentless array of products that in turn have continuously sold the series to new audiences, making the show’s corporate owners a very pretty penny.
Now, especially in the case of the cash-strapped Moran—who last year lost her home to foreclosure—these not-so-Happy folks are clearly the collective David taking on the corporate Goliath of CBS Television Studios, Inc. (which now owns co-defendant Paramount Television, which produced the series for ABC).
“Happy Days epitomizes what is best in America, with the Cunningham family exemplifying the best of what a family can be,” states the complaint filed in April against CBS on behalf of the four actors and the widow of co-star Tom Bosley. “As will be proven at trial, defendants’ actions epitomize what is worst in Corporate America, exemplifying its worst business practices.”
The Cunningham family versus big, bad business exploiting their likenesses in the name of Sin City jackpots? Can CBS really afford this narrative influencing a jury—or, worse yet, the court of pubic opinion?
Which brings us back to the thorny O’Neal saga.
Earlier this month, the University of Texas System's Board of Regents sued O'Neal in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for possessing a mixed-media portrait of Fawcett that pop artist Andy Warhol created in the early 1980s. The UT System, a richly endowed group of 15 academic and health institutions in the Lone Star state, claims the highly valuable portrait was bequeathed to the University of Texas at Austin—Fawcett's alma mater—in her living trust.
One of two nearly identical Warhols of the actress known to exist is on display through Sept. 4 at the UT Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art. (In fact, the famous image is the face of the museum’s “About Face” exhibit, gracing promotional material and signage hanging near the Blanton’s front entrance.) The other was seen hanging above O’Neal’s bed in recent episodes of his OWN reality series.
O’Neal’s name was notably excluded in his on-again, off-again girlfriend’s living trust, which stipulates that “all of (her) artwork and any objects of art” be given to the university when she died. The UT System claims O’Neal has “wrongfully converted” the portrait—and possibly other artwork from his late lover’s estate. Essentially, the university alleges he stole what a UT rep calls a “big-ticket” Warhol and wants a jury to force him to hand it over.
O’Neal’s publicist, Arnold Robinson, offered two conflicting responses to this dilemma. “The portrait that Mr. O’Neal has is the Warhol that was given to him by Farrah,” Robinson told The New York Post in an e-mail prior to UT’s suit.
After the university sued, Robinson told Star magazine, “This is a completely ridiculous lawsuit. Ryan’s friendship with Andy Warhol began 10 years prior to his meeting Farrah Fawcett. When Ryan introduced Farrah to Andy Warhol, he chose to complete two portraits of her, one for Miss Fawcett and one for Mr. O’Neal. Mr. O’Neal looks forward to being completely vindicated in the courts.”
Then, last week, the 70-year-old actor retaliated—but not at the university. Instead, O’Neal filed suit against Craig Nevius, Fawcett’s producing partner whom she called her “loyal friend and protector” in her final years. O’Neal claims Nevius, who assisted UT in what media reports called an investigation of the “missing” Warhol, is “a delusional fan” who’s maliciously defamed him in part by making allegedly false statements prompting UT’s suit against him.
The actor is seeking at least $1 million in punitive damages on his claims of defamation and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
According to O’Neal’s blistering complaint, “Nevius is obsessed with Ms. Fawcett, and his is deeply jealous of her relationship with her longtime romantic partner, the Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated actor Ryan O’Neal. Two years after Ms. Fawcett tragically succumbed to cancer, Nevius continues to harass O’Neal by making false, malicious and defamatory accusations and characterizations about O’Neal and his purported theft, possession and concealment” of the Warhol portrait to UT and the media.
In a detailed response posted on The Morton Report, Nevius—who last month was quoted in Good Morning, America and Star magazine reports breaking news of the Warhol drama—denied he ever claimed O’Neal stole the portrait.
“I have simply recounted the request by Farrah’s alma mater to help them identify and locate numerous pieces of artwork that appeared to be mysteriously missing from the original inventory provided by her estate, which, by the way, is overseen by Richard B. Francis, Ryan O’Neal’s loyal friend and business manager of over 40 years,” said Nevius, who executive produced Fawcett's hit 2005 TV Land series, Chasing Farrah.
Nevius sued both men and Fawcett’s friend Alana Stewart in May 2009 on the eve of NBC’s premiere of its Emmy-nominated “news special” Farrah’s Story. That two-hour “video diary” chronicled Fawcett’s three-year fight against the anal cancer that would take her life on June 25, 2009. It premiered to more than nine million viewers and mixed reviews, many calling it exploitative. "After Mr. O'Neal and NBC gained full control of the documentary," wrote New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg, "the film took on the feel of network celebrity fodder--at once more glossy and more morbid."
Nevius served as the project’s executive producer but claimed O’Neal, Francis and Stewart conspired to cut him out of the project (and Fawcett’s life)—while allegedly violating Fawcett’s business partnership with him and her expressed wishes for the documentary—during its final weeks of production. An article last May in The New York Times detailed O’Neal’s contentious takeover of the documentary originally titled A Wing & A Prayer.
Filing on behalf of Fawcett’s estate, Francis—the estate’s trustee and O’Neal’s longtime associate—sued Nevius in January 2010. Francis’s allegations are more or less repeated in O’Neal’s new action against Nevius.
“Sadly, Nevius’ malicious behavior is nothing new,” O’Neal’s new suit alleges, “and it is consistent with his prior despicable conduct. In 2009, Nevius intentionally sold private, personal medical information about Ms. Fawcett’s battle with cancer to tabloid journalists, distributed film footage of her battle with cancer and other materials proprietary to Ms. Fawcett and third parties, and embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company that Ms. Fawcett established” with Nevius to produce A Wing & A Prayer.
Both Nevius’ suit against O’Neal, Francis and Stewart and the Francis-filed estate suit against Nevius were dropped last spring. Nevius told The New York Times that he entered into settlement talks when his attorney advised him last December that the legal fight could continue for two more years to the price of at least another quarter of a million dollars.
“In spite of their best efforts,” Nevius told The Morton Report last week, “Ryan’s former attorneys were unable to obtain a confidentiality agreement from me when they dropped the last equally frivolous action against me (which was purported to be in the name of Farrah Fawcett). So this new charge of ‘defamation’ would seem to be nothing more than another intimidation tactic: a second bite at the legal apple. I understand the truth can be a very frightening thing for some people. By the way, it is also my understanding that truth is a complete defense to defamation.”
“I’m fighting at least two multi-millionaires,” Nevius told The New York Times last spring. “And at this point I don’t know that it’s honoring Farrah. I just don’t think she’d want us all destroying each other, which is pretty much how it’s going.”
And, much like the Happy Days merchandising melee, it sadly doesn’t show any signs of stopping.
Next week: Dueling accusations, the Farrah poster and media branding.
The University of Texas has sued Ryan O'Neal over his possession of a pricey Warhol portrait of Farrah Fawcett that they claim is theirs per Fawcett's living trust. The only two of these portraits in existence hung in Farrah's Westwood home in her final years. O'Neal was omitted from her "last will and testament".
A lawsuit filed by the UT System Board of Regents on behalf of the university in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles contends that Fawcett bequeathed both portraits to the university but that actor Ryan O'Neal "has wrongfully converted" one of them — legal language for the civil equivalent of stealing.
The university wants a jury to order him to turn it over.
O'Neal's publicist has said that the portrait was given to O'Neal by Fawcett and that he owes nothing to the university. O'Neal and Fawcett were longtime companions; they had a child together, and O'Neal was at Fawcett's side when she died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 62.
UT's suit says Fawcett's trust specified that "all of (her) artwork and any objects of art" would go to the university upon her death. O'Neal may have "converted" other works of art from her collection, according to the suit.
Ryan O'Neal is ready to defend himself in the case of the missing $30M Warhol, according to a new report on Radar Online. A rep for the star of the OWN cable network's The O'Neals -- which airs Sundays after the Duchess of York's docu-reality series Finding Sarah -- tells the website: “Ryan will clear his name. The University Of Texas is fully aware of the whereabouts of the painting. If he had stolen it do you really think it would be openly displayed in public like that?"
Astute viewers found Farrah on Ryan's bedroom wall during the premiere of The O'Neals. ABC News reported that an investigation was underway to determine why the actor appeared to possess the original artwork when Fawcett willed all of her art to her alma mater, the University of Texas. Helping with the investigation: Farrah's Story executive producer Craig Nevius, who in May 2009 sued O'Neal for seizing control of the NBC documentary he was spearheading with the ailing actress.
"I told the university, 'Be patient and wait, because this man is so arrogant, he's going to show'" his possession of the artwork, Nevius told ABC last week.
Fawcett friend Alana Stewart -- who was promoted to producer of the NBC special while O'Neal wrestled control away from Nevius -- told The Insider last week that O'Neal has been paying insurance on the Warhol and thus owned it.
An unnamed insider tells Radar Online, “Some people are trying to make mischief on the second anniversary of Farah’s death, which is really sad."
Last week we reported a united front of impassioned Fawcett devotees began a hard-hitting Facebook group called Farrah Fawcett: We Want the Truth. Supporters of O'Neal, Stewart and other Farrah's Story and/or Fawcett estate insiders singled out in suspicion by the FB group have lashed back at the fervent fans in anonymous postings on this blog.
Outgoing daytime doyenne Oprah Winfrey's unwillingness to save Agnes Nixon's ABC soap institutions All My Children and One Life to Live took on multiple levels of irony this month with the arrival of her cable network's heavily-touted serialized docu-drama The O'Neals.
This eight-episode "soaprah" pairs the ever-tumultuous Ryan and Tatum -- the former again reviving his love-never-means-having-to-say-you're-sorry persona(lity?), as last portrayed in May 2009 in NBC's controversial "news special" Farrah's Story -- in their ever-continuing starring roles as warring father and daughter all-too-willing to rescue their off-screen relationship by rekindling their on-camera chemistry. (Tatum's Oscar-winning turn at age 9 as Dad's co-star in 1973's Paper Moon, anyone?)
But could Winfrey's OWN brand of retrocentric melo-reality TV unwittingly be creating more of a soap operatic existence for its turmoil-plagued male lead than even he bargained for?
(And after accusing his children of causing the cancer that tragically took his late, longtime love Farrah Fawcett's life two years ago this week, is such a scenario even possible?)
Two years after Farrah's tragic death on June 25, 2009, Ryan O'Neal's family drama continues.
According to new reports on Good Morning, America and Radar Online, police are probing the Love Story star for apparently possessing a famous Andy Warhol portrait of Fawcett that the iconic TV angel bequeathed -- along with all of her other valuable artwork -- to her alma mater, the University of Texas, where she majored in art. The painting's estimated worth: $30M. (You heard it right -- five times the value of a circa-'74 Lee Majors, folks.) The missing portrait appeared hanging in O'Neal's Malibu bedroom in footage -- apparently shot in recent months -- airing on the June 19 premiere episode of The O'Neals.
Oops.
Farrah's missing $30M Warhol portrait, in her Westwood
condo in her final years (top image) and in Ryan O'Neal's
Malibu home as seen on the June 19 episode of The O'Neals.
O'Neal's apparent possession of the original artwork is especially circumspect given the fact that Fawcett excluded her on-again, off-again love from her living trust signed in 2007. In that document -- referred to in press reports as her last will and testament -- the Charlie's Angels star left $4.5 in trust to their troubled son, Redmond, $500,000 in trust to her father, James, $500,000 to her nephew and $100,000 to Greg Lott, Fawcett's boyfriend during college and, according to Lott, her secret lover off and on until Farrah's final years. Ryan O'Neal, on the other hand, received nada. Zippo. Zilch.
Ouch.
But the latest troublesome chapter in O'Neal's 70-year-old life may have only just begun. According to an exclusive report in the July 4 issue of Star magazine, the University of Texas has reached out to Lott and Farrah's Story executive producer Craig Nevius in their investigation. Which isn't good news for their biggest foe. Both men have said O'Neal cut them out of Fawcett's life during her last three months. (Incidentally, Charlie's Angels co-star Kate Jackson also has claimed O'Neal denied her access to her beloved friend of nearly 35 years -- and even the chance to say goodbye -- during Fawcett's final, bedridden weeks. Jackson will likely tell all in her memoir The Smart One, due out in October.)
And in an explosive commentary posted this week on TheMortonReport.com, Nevius spills on O'Neal's less-than-Love Story-worthy relationship with Fawcett. The writer-producer -- who recently settled dueling lawsuits in which he claimed O'Neal unscrupulously seized control of Farrah's Story from him while O'Neal's manager/Fawcett's estate trustee, Richard Francis, "usurp(ed) her estate" during her final months -- accuses the actor of self-serving, controlling behavior throughout the Burning Bed star's three-year battle with anal cancer. Referencing O'Neal's newsmaking interview this week with CNN's Piers Morgan, in which the reality star claimed he and his adult children contributed to Fawcett's deadly cancer, Nevius writes:
I'm not buying these well-rehearsed and over-dramatic soundbites. Because I know this man well enough to know that he very rarely says what he really means. That's why if the media listened carefully to Ryan's interview what they would really hear is that Ryan is not actually blaming himself or his children for causing Farrah's cancer. In fact, he's doing the opposite. In some sick and narcissistic way, he's attempting to take the credit for it. Not only does his ego demand that the public recognize him as the love of Farrah's life, he also needs everyone to know that it was this same intense love that ultimately killed her.
Craig Nevius executive produced Fawcett's 2005 reality series Chasing Farrah for TV Land, and formed a business partnership and close friendship with the actress in the years following. Photo credit: Lisa Boyle.
Nevius states that O'Neal initially rushed to Fawcett's side following her cancer diagnosis, but could not sustain his role as selfless hero for the long run. "A few months after Farrah began chemotherapy," Nevius writes, "Ryan became increasingly jealous and, at times, even angry at the outpouring of love and sympathy that she received from all over the world -- not to mention his own children." O'Neal became "furious" when learning of Tatum's "secret reconciliation" with Fawcett following her diagnosis. "And so, ever the gentleman, he wished Farrah good luck with her cancer and made his exit: 'bowing out' as he described it in the note that he left with her assistant."
Of course, this reality was not depicted in the NBC "video diary" that Fawcett and Nevius originally titled A Wing & A Prayer and that Fawcett, The New York Times reported, "had intended ... to address shortcomings she saw in American cancer treatment and to present it in art-house style." O'Neal orchestrated a takeover of the project during its final weeks of production in spring 2009 and, along with Fawcett's friend Alana Stewart, appeared in interviews throughout the special and during a publicity tour, including a red-carpet screening promoting its network premiere six weeks prior to Fawcett's death.
O'Neal has retained control of Farrah's Story and reportedly plans to release it on DVD. (He also reportedly formed Unforgotten Love Productions, LL in an effort to produce a sequel.) And though Nevius dropped his suit -- he says because he could no longer afford the costly legal fees -- he has, no doubt to O'Neal's deep disdain, retained his right to voice his grievances and, he has said, seek justice for Fawcett.
"After two years, I can no longer afford to fight Ryan O'Neal, Alana Stewart and Richard Francis over creative control of Farrah's Story and whether or not they had the right to take over the company that Farrah Fawcett and I formed to produce the documentary about her cancer fight and efforts to protect her privacy," Nevius said in a statement in March. ""I will always believe that Ryan and Alana acted as squatters: isolating Farrah from me and others in order to obtain signatures that would ultimately allow them to turn the innovative and informative film we worked on for two years into a network deathwatch."
And according to Nevius, A Wing & A Prayer may not be the only "last will and testament" of Fawcett that O'Neal and/or company, um, reimagined. He told ABC News this week that he first discovered O'Neal apparently wrongfully possessed a valuable item Fawcett willed to her alma mater while reading Tatum's new memoir, found. In it, she discloses that the Warhol painting now hangs in her father's bedroom, ""That was a 'Thank God, we've caught you' moment," Nevius said. "I told the university, 'Be patient and wait, because this man is so arrogant, he's going to show it.'"
In March 2010 Nevius alleged in court papers that Fawcett "was not aware" of the existence of The Farrah Fawcett Foundation, "a charitable foundation funded by Ms. Fawcett's assets" and an organization with which O'Neal "recently announced that he would be 'working.'" Also that month, Nevius released a statement, "in the name of Farrah Fawcett," in which he called on the attorney general "to investigate the 'Farrah Fawcett Foundation' and interview a handful of Farrah’s trusted friends and associates with respect to Farrah’s knowledge and intent regarding this so-called 'charity.'
"And I would suggest that the attorney general start with interviewing Farrah's father and Kate Jackson," Nevius stated. "I will be happy to give him a longer list in private."
Fawcett's father, James, died last August, months after Nevius alleged in court papers that Francis had "systematically sought to divert and delay distribution" monies due to James per his daughter's living trust. "Mr. Francis and his lawyers have helped themselves to the Trust's assets by paying themselves to line their own pockets," Nevius alleged.
Now, an impassioned group of Farrah's devotees, led by fan Cathy Swango, have taken up the cudgels for Nevius in a Facebook page called "Farrah Fawcett: We Want the Truth." "I have started this group to discuss the controversy that surrounds Farrah Fawcett's death, her last wishes, the documentary A Wing and A Prayer, and anything else WE AS FANS have on our minds!" Swango states in the page's description. The group has begun a letter-writing campaign requesting that California's attorney general open an investigation into the Farrah Fawcett Foundation and her estate.
As for the Warhol investigation, ABC news reports, "O'Neal's representative said he has not betrayed her final wishes and that 'all of Farrah's wishes expressed in her will have been fulfilled.'"
O'Neal expressed disappointment last week that Oprah had essentially abandoned him and Tatum during production of The O'Neals. “I thought that was the thing – that Oprah would be there and use her magic on us,” he told Comcast. “I thought she’d bless us and that would help. We spent New Year’s Even with her, and she was very encouraging. Then we never saw her again. And haven’t heard from her."
With the so-not-"living-your-best-life" publicity now surrounding the show and its subjects, one wonders if Oprah can use her magic to save this father-daughter relationship. If her network gets pulled into a police investigation of a stolen Warhol, the media queen may need to save her transformative powers for damage control (Thirty Million Little Pieces, perhaps?) and stage an intervention, er, interview with Ryan and Tatum during their show's season (series?) finale.
Or it may just be time for the queen of daytime to reimagine the "soaprah." In comparison, saving Erica Cane and the rest of Agnes Nixon's "children" may not be such a tall order after all.
