Testimony Begins in ‘Coming to America’ Suit

Testimony in a showcase trial over the authorship of the hit 1988 movie “Coming to America” is scheduled to begin today in Los Angeles Superior Court, beginning with Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg as the first scheduled witness. He will be followed by Paramount Pictures chairman and chief executive officer Frank Mancuso.

Humorist Art Buchwald, who joined producer Alain Bernheim in suing Paramount a year ago, is scheduled to follow “Coming to America” co-star Arsenio Hall to the stand on Monday. Attorneys for Buchwald and Paramount on Thursday waived a jury trial, which could cut the estimated two-week-long trial in half.

Buchwald accused Paramount of breaching its contract to pay a percentage of the profits for a movie that developed out of an eight-page unpublished story Buchwald wrote in the early 1980s entitled “King For a Day.”