Features
Tyler Case Back In Court
An attorney for Steven Tyler will once again face claims surrounding a legal battle over the Aerosmith frontman’s contract negotiations as a judge on “American Idol” following an appeals court decision.
Photo: Scott Legato / RockStarProPhotography.com
DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, Mich.
Former Tyler management company Kovac Media Group / Tenth Street Entertainment sued attorney Dina LaPolt in 2012 claiming she was playing both sides in negotiations with “American Idol” and “sold out her own client” in the middle of talks aimed at scoring Tyler a raise of $6 million to $8 million.
LaPolt filed an anti-SLAPP motion in Feb. 2013, and a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge granted it, dismissing three claims and much of Kovac’s suit. “SLAPP,” or a “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” means the claim is intended to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with court costs.
The appeals court opinion focuses on a number of emails regarding Tyler’s negotiations that LaPolt contended were protected speech “in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest.”
However, the court found that one of the emails in question did “not mention Tyler or American Idol, and it would not have been obvious to anyone other than a small number of people intimately involved with Tyler’s American Idol negotiations that the email had anything to do with him or those negotiations.
“There is absolutely no evidence of a public interest in either Tyler’s negotiating strategy or the methods Tyler’s representatives intended to use to persuade him to adopt one strategy and reject another,” the court added. “Accordingly, the email does not concern statements on issues of public interest.” The suit heads back to Superior Court, where a judge will decide if it involves First Amendment-protected activity before hearing the case.