Paul Newman Sues Over Cut of Video Profits

Actor Paul Newman and film director George Roy Hill, in a suit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court, accused Universal Pictures of cheating them out of more than $600,000 in revenues from the videocassette sales of the movies “Slap Shot” and “The Sting.”

The suit seeks $2 million in punitive damages from Universal and its parent company, MCA Inc., in addition to payment of revenues from the two major movies. A complete accounting of income from video sales of the films also is requested.

In filing the complaint on behalf of Newman and Hill, attorneys Maxwell Blecher and Robert Lundquist submitted a demand to the court that the dispute be resolved by a jury trial.

The suit also alleges that it has become an industrywide practice for movie studios to use accounting practices “in a manner so as to minimize or eliminate” payments to those who are supposed to share with the studios in the profits from videocassettes.

Conspiracy Alleged

Although MCA and Universal were named as the only defendants, the suit alleges that they have “engaged in a conspiracy with other unnamed co-conspirators, including but not limited to Columbia Pictures Industries Inc., Paramount Pictures Inc., 20th Century Fox Corp. and Warner Brothers Inc.” to shortchange profit participants on videocassette sales.

The accusation brought a pointed denial from Sidney Jay Sheinberg, president of MCA and also the chief executive of Universal Pictures.

“I can’t fully comment until I’ve at least had a chance to read the suit, but the one thing I am sure of is that we have not cheated or shortchanged anyone, and I think it is preposterous to say we are engaged in any conspiracy,” Sheinberg said.

Neither Newman nor Hill could be reached for comment Tuesday. Their suit alleges that they are victims of improper accounting practices that the studios began in 1981, wrongly allocating videocassette sales of both films to distribution profits, instead of to production revenues.

According to the suit, this alleged shifting of the revenues deprived Newman of $333,162 and Hill of $117,738 from “The Sting,” the top-grossing film of 1974. Hill and Newman claim they are each owed $111,738 from “Slap Shot.”